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Shabbat with the new rabbi
He did a very good job with the Friday-night service. He seemed at ease on the bimah, and he spoke well during the sermon. (Not reading and mostly not from notes either; I want to learn how to do that!) I know that he feels a little uncertain about his English (not his first language), but really, he did fine. Nothing to worry about there. (Hebrew aside: he pronounces the ayin. I can't quite figure out how; more observation is needed.)
He had never been to the informal morning service, so he asked the chair of the worship committee to have someone in the group lead it and the chair asked me. (I told him to give others the chance first and he did ask a couple people, who declined. Only later did it occur to me that maybe some people are nervous about leading in front of a rabbi, as opposed to when we're on our own. I, on the other hand, am not bothered by that in the least, any more. :-) )
The service went very well, I think. (Got lots of compliments.) My rabbi plays guitar, which provides structural support for all the singing (we do a lot of singing). But I don't, so that's more challenging, but it wasn't a problem. I'm probably the strongest a-capella leader in the group; I'm not afraid to sing out (and can do so competently), and I seem to have a handle on using tools like pace and dynamics, and I can confidentaly sing a first note for everyone to lock onto. (Some people waver or tweak key as they go. I might not always choose the best key, at least in the opinion of the sopranos, but I will unambiguously choose one and go, and sometimes that's more important.)
I was glad to notice that the new rabbi sat most of the way around the circle from me, because I suspect he did not know about our minhag of "the question". Between birkat hashachar and p'sukei d'zimra, my rabbi will have us go around the circle to say our names (the important part) and answer some question that he poses. Questions range from light to heavy, answers from a word or two to longer. (He adjusts based on the size of the group, I'm pretty sure.) As the leader I had to come up with the question, so I tied it to the parsha. This week we began reading the book of D'varim, Moshe's farewell speech loaded with advice. My rabbi often compares this to the parent's farewell to the college-bound kid at the airport -- "and remember just one more thing before you go...". So I asked people to share some piece of good advice they'd received as they were setting out in the world, or earlier when they were growing up. Everyone agreed that it was a good question, but also that it was a bit of a stumper. Oops. (I said "we can go back to 'what's your favorite ice-cream flavor?'", but they said no, this was fine. :-) )
(My answer made many in the group laugh. My grandfather taught me to question what I'm told -- not the obnoxious "question authority" approach, but rather, when someone tells you something, assess it against what you already know, decide if it seems reasonable for that to be true, and just generally think about things rather than taking everything at face value. At the time I thought this was what everyone did; it was only later, during and after college, that I realized how under-represented that habit is in the general population.)
I had signed up to read torah. I was pushing myself, having conducted (and read torah for) a bar mitzvah two weeks earlier, but I wanted to see what I can do when I don't have oodles of time to prepare, and I was confident that I could do something reasonable. (An actual rabbi often has to do this every week, after all, so I wanted to get closer to seeing what that's like.) Because the last couple weeks were busy, I ended up reading instead of chanting -- which was fine, because there are some nice expressive bits that I could convey in the reading, so it wasn't flat and boring. I'm not signed up again until September; next time I'll chant.
(Oh! The new rabbi chanted Friday night, beautifully. My rabbi reads with interspersed translation, which is a great aid to understanding the reading IMO, and the previous associate rabbi read the entire passage in Hebrew and then translated, which wasn't so helpful. It's nice to have chanting available on Friday nights. My rabbi can chant, and does so on special occasions, but usually he goes for the comprehension aid instead of the chanting, which I can't fault.)
I asked the new rabbi to be my checker during the reading; he was a little more aggressive than I'm used to, but it was fine and it's not like he knew our norms. I wanted to involve him in the service somehow, and this seemed an obvious choice. During the service I realized that I could have asked him to teach us a new melody or two, but I didn't ask in advance and didn't want to put him on the spot, so I didn't. Some other time, then. (I would be particularly happy to have an alternative for Tzaddik Katamar. We sing what I understand to be the common Ashkenazi melody, but it doesn't scan very well, it puts the emphasis on the wrong syllables too many times, and it comes out like a dirge when it should be happier. But it's what we do, except this would have been an opportunity to try something new.)
My d'var torah went over very well. One person who describes himself as a pantheist asked me to tell him more about the Rambam because he sounds like his kind of rabbi, so I gave him some starting points. (Search terms, most likely. :-) )
The new rabbi was quite profuse in his praise for me, both the leading and the d'var torah. I had made some comment like "so you're ready to lead now, yes?" and he said he saw no reason that members of the group, and I in particular, shouldn't keep doing it. It sounds like he favors using qualified lay people; he's not one of those "this is the rabbi's job" folks. Good to know. (He also asked me how long I've been learning and where; there were others waiting to talk to him so I was brief. I don't think he knows I'm a convert, but he and his family are coming for dinner tonight so the bookshelves might spark some conversations.)
So all in all, I'm very impressed by our new associate rabbi. I heard a lot of positive comments Friday night and Saturday morning, so I know I'm not alone in thinking that.
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If you can't make it happen, don't worry. In modern Hebrew, ayin isn't pronounced by the majority of speakers; it's just used as a placeholder for a vowel, like alef.
pronunciation of ayin
"Tzaddik Katamar" melodies
You probably mean the one by Louis Lewandowsky (sol, mi fa sol ^mi ^do la sol, fa, mi) which is beautiful when sung as he wrote it, but alas most congregations demolish it. (It's actually a trio at the end of a great choral setting of the whole Psalm.)
I can think of one other off the top of my head which is upbeat and peppy (and which I learned in Israeli dancing) -- (_sol do, do re mi, do _ti do re, _sol do, do re mi, do, sol).
I'd recommend getting all three volumes of "Zamru Lo" by Moshe Nathanson from the Cantors Assembly. He spent decades assembling lots of melodies for all different parts of the service. You can probably find them on the USCJ website. (I bought them at the North American Jewish Choral Festival about ten years ago.) Although now that I look at it, he only has the Lewandowsky for Tzaddik Katamar. He has 17 pages for Lecha Dodi, though. :-)
While I'm touting books: Chazzan Pinchas Spiro (again via the USCJ Cantors Assembly) has a complete set of "musical siddurim" in which every service is completely notated. Mostly it's nusach, sometimes he interpolates composed melodies, but it's comprehensive and intended for the educated lay leader.
Finally (in the book recommenation department), UAHC puts out a reprint of Baer's "The Practical Ba'al Tefillah" which has thousands of melodies, fragments, and choral arrangements. I mention it last only because the others -- Nathanson and Spiro -- I can look at right before a service and sight-read from. Baer is a research volume to be looked at, transcribed, played with, and maybe used.
And of course I'm partial to my own setting of Psalm 92, but the "Tzadik Katamar" wouldn't work too well out of context. On the other hand, I'm looking for new compositional challenges and opportunities, so maybe if you're interested I could try writing a new setting for you....
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I'm not used to this being a problem in synagogue settings, but that may be because I'm used to fairly large groups and mostly familiar melodies. With 30+ people (often 50-100 regulars), chances are that the group as a whole will sing the way they always do (especially if some of them will always sing the same regardless of the leader's key choice) so the leading is more for timing and tune-choosing than for pitch-choosing.
The times when I remember this being a problem are generally when the leader decides to use a melody that isn't familiar to most/all of the congregation and they're not a strong leader.
Where I'm used to this being more of a problem is at benching/zmirot, where the group is generally much smaller, more informal, and less used to singing as that particular group.
another thing
(An actual rabbi often has to do this every week, after all, so I wanted to get closer to seeing what that's like.)
Is it standard in your synagogue (or Reform in general) for the rabbi to be the torah-reader most weeks? This doesn't match with what I'm familiar with, either in the small synagogues I go to now or the big one in Manhattan that I went to for years. The part that the rabbi is/was expected to prepare here/there is the speech/drash, while various people (other than the rabbi & cantor) do the torah-reading (with someone(s) in charge of coordinating them so that each week there is one reader (or more if they're splitting the reading that week)).
(Sorry if I've asked this one before - it caught my eye again as a "huh? hmm.")
Re: "Tzaddik Katamar" melodies
I've heard the beginning (only) of that Israeli one; it sounds like it would be a good choice.
On the other hand, I'm looking for new compositional challenges and opportunities, so maybe if you're interested I could try writing a new setting for you....
On the one hand, I'd love that. On the other, I can't predict what my congregation will do; sometimes when we introduce new melodies they catch on, and sometimes they don't. I'd feel awful if you put the work in and then they didn't run with it. So if you are minded to do a setting anyway I'd happily share it, but please don't do so on my account.
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We have familiar melodies but a smaller group (usually about 30 people). When my rabbi is there it's not a problem; he has the guitar and whatever he plays, we sing. While it's probably not intentional, the group as a whole is not as willing to let a lay person be authoritative sometimes -- the leader will start and some loud malcontent will try to force a different key. When people think the key is that negotiable, things can get tricky. This also causes me to start quickly (lest someone else "take over"), which means I usually follow my instincts. I'm a "second alto", if there's such a thing.
The times when I remember this being a problem are generally when the leader decides to use a melody that isn't familiar to most/all of the congregation and they're not a strong leader.
Yeah, that's rough.
Re: another thing
It seems to be more common than not in Reform, and until a few years ago it was the norm in my synagogue. (I started the group of lay torah readers that covers Shabbat morning most weeks; there are about eight of us now. But the rabbi almost always reads Friday night.)
I think it is less common in Reform than in Conservative and Orthodox to have qualified lay people. I think this is part attitude/inclination and part education. (I started a long ramble here, and then remembered that I've written something similar before, so I'll link instead.)
Re: another thing
(Anonymous) 2006-08-07 01:49 am (UTC)(link)Re: another thing
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I'm definitely an alto rather than a soprano, and I've found that I'm used to taking cues from altos/basses and have more trouble with sopranos/tenors, even if they're good singers. Somehow they tend to pick keys that just feel half-way between 2 comfortable keys for me.
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Approximately. (I often sing tenor in choirs, but male tenors and females singing in that range sound different, so I'm not really a tenor.) The most comfortable part of my range is from D below middle C to about A above; I can sing a few notes below that (don't really want to rely on anything below C but can produce more, down to A on a good day) and a few above (don't really count on much above the D or E but, again, can get to the G if I really really have to and it's a good day).
Most alto lines I've met park themselves in my break range, that space of a few notes where chest voice and head voice are fighting it out for control. (Maybe that's not a problem for professionals, but I'm not a professional.) So I'd rather sing most tenor lines than most alto lines, even aside from the fact that in many arrangements (certainly not all), the alto line is the afterthought or the one that got the leftovers. I've sung entire alto lines that used only four notes...