Shabbat at HUC

[cellio]

Shabbat morning we went to Hebrew Union College. It was very crowded; there were several groups there from other Reform congregations, and (we learned there) it was the final service for the outgoing dean. I did eventually get a seat (some people had to stand in the back and if Jerusalem has fire codes, we violated them). I didn't learn until later that 30 or 40 people, including some members of our group, had been turned away. Oops.

The service was, naturally, almost entirely in Hebrew. I'm fluent in the liturgy so this was just fine with me, but the eight-year-old and his father sitting next to me seemed to be zoning out. I tried several times to show the boy where we were, but he didn't seem interested. (I didn't know him before his trip, so I don't know if this is his usual attitude toward services or just this one.) Late in the service my rabbi came by and tried to engage him, but that didn't work either. It's a pity; there were a number of familiar melodies and it was easy (at least for me) to pick up the unfamiliar majority, so it was possible to participate.

The torah reading was done by the head of the cantorial program (I think), one rabbinic student, and one cantorial student. They were all very good. The students used the trope taught by HUC, which is the system I know. The faculty member used some unfamiliar bits; my rabbi later pointed out that he was mixing in bits of Channukah melodies. Neat!

The portion was divided into three aliyot (not seven), and was shorter than usual but definitely more than one regular aliya. I wonder if they do the triennial cycle. (I wasn't following in a chumash, so I'm not sure exactly where it ended. It sounded like it ended with the fulfillment of Yosef's dream interpretation in Egypt. The portion wasn't translated, but I was following it ok.)

While the service was often participatory, it also had a fair bit of what I think of as "traditional chazanut", the more-formal cantorial singing. I thought that was dying out in liberal congregations. It might be and this was a special case, or it might be normal here.

The v'ahavta was chanted per the trope, by the way (not the melody that's undergone the folk process). This might have thrown some of the visitors. The haftarah blessings were, I think, also chanted per (haftarah) trope, and I noticed a number of differences. I guess it makes sense that those melodies, too, have been affected by the folk process as congregants learn them by listening to other people. Even if a siddur prints the trope marks for those blessings (unusual), most people don't know how to read them. Heck, I don't even know haftarah trope yet, and I'm one of the most likely candidates in my congregation. (I do want to learn. I have what is probably a very good book, even.)

A poingnant moment: they inserted prayers for soldiers and for those killed or hurt by terror. These prayers are pasted into the siddur. Living here is different.

Comments

[goljerp]

I was talking yesterday with a cow orker who went to Israel recently (probably 12/25-1/1) on a trip with his parents' Reform synagogue. He went to HUC one time, and it was really crowded. I think he said that his group was scheduled to go to Kol Haneshama in the morning, but he (and apparently a lot of the other people) skipped out on it. In his case, he isn't tremendously observant, and he had felt less than thrilled by the scheduled things the tour had done. I realized, while talking with him, that maybe I had done more touristy things than I'd realized... but spread out over almost a year, it didn't feel that way...

I still think I'd like to go back to Israel, but maybe I really shouldn't do it as part of a tour...

[cellio]

He went to HUC one time, and it was really crowded.

Probably on 12/23. There were groups from at least four Reform congregations there, and it was the farewell for the dean so lots of other people came out. It was really crowded; they ended up turning people away after they ran out of standing room. They said it's not normally like that.

Going with a group has pluses and minuses. There were times when I wanted to spend more time than was allotted on something; there were times when I wanted to move on but we weren't yet ready. A group travels at the speed of its slowest member (which sometimes manifests as its rudest member). On the other hand, going with a group can lead you to places you wouldn't have sought out on your own, either because you didn't know about them or because you didn't think you'd be interested. And a group provides a bit of a safety net, and (I think) can get you waved through security checks, customs, etc. So it's a mixed bag.

The ideal trip in my opinion would be a small group (fewer than ten) of people who already know each other reasonably well. But that's pretty hard to make happen.