I wonder if this is a good idea

[cellio]

It's summer, the time when people at my synagogue traditionally think about plans for adult education for the coming year. I've realized that there is something I could teach, that I am atypically qualified to teach -- but I have no idea if it would reach the right people (or be seen as interesting).

Over the course of a year we see a fair number of people on the bimah, leading parts of the service, who haven't done this a lot and have never been taught how. The senior rabbi (who is excellent at this) is the right person to teach such a class, but he's busy. But at the risk of sounding immodest, I am probably one of the best lay people in the congregation in this area. At the knowing and the doing, I mean; I don't have much experience with teaching. That would be a "growth opportunity".

There is so much more to leading worship than just reading the words in the book. (It starts with awareness of that fact, by the way -- da lifnei mi atah omeid, know before whom you stand, is a guiding principle IMO.) I learned what I know mostly by observation (I'm good at noticing details in this context; people have commented on this), a fair bit by doing, and a fair bit from the Sh'liach K'hilah program. So I'm trying to figure out if I should offer.

The main reason I hesitate is that such a class could fail to attract the people who will be in a position to apply it while giving people who won't be in such a position false hope (double whammy). I've lived that false hope; it sucks. Possibly the right way to structure such a thing is not as a broad class but as something that members of sisterhood, brotherhood, committees, etc -- the groups that get services during the year -- are expected to go through. Pitch it to them rather than more broadly. (But would they buy in if the rabbi isn't the teacher?) Now that I think about it, we've had targetted training sessions on how to lead a shiva minyan (targetted to the committees that do that), so maybe that's the right model. (I'm focusing on adults here because I think the b'nei mitzvah have their heads, and schedules, full already. They and their families could surely benefit, but I don't think it would happen.)

My rabbi is away for the next several weeks (and then I'll be away for a bit just as he's coming back), so I'll either wait or mention the idea casually to our new rabbi who will be focusing on education.

Comments

[gingicat]

You could also ask the clergy and board if the culmination of the class could be the members leading the service. The Reform shul I belonged to years ago did that for the Torah study class, IIRC.

[cellio]

Interesting idea. We have an "adult b'nei mitzvah" (sic) class every two years, for people who didn't do it as kids, which culiminates in them doing a service. But they're doing everything, including chanting torah and giving divrei torah, at the end of a six-month class, so that's rather different.

What I would like to see ultimately -- and I don't know how to get there -- is that no one leads part of a Shabbat service without completing a class like this first, or demonstrating equivalent capability (to the rabbi), and that people who do complete such training are given opportunities to lead. (It doesn't have to be the whole thing; I've long held that instead of having "big-deal" services where, e.g. ten different members of brotherhood lead a tiny bit of one service, we should work qualified people into "regular" services one at a time.)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

You are a better person to lead the class than the rabbi is -- because you're teaching "how to lead services well as a lay leader." Leading services well as a rabbi is MOST of the same skills, or rather, INCLUDES those skills (and you have also been learning THOSE skills, too), but you're in a better position to teach the specific part that you have learned.

[cellio]

That's a good point. I'm also in a better position than the rabbi to teach "interacting with the rabbi on the bimah". :-)

Seriously, one of the things I seem to be good at is rolling with changes without explicit communication. An example from the last time I led on a Friday night: I'm reading along in ahavat olam and I see, out of the corner of my eye, the rabbi pick up his guitar. We don't normally use guitar for Sh'ma and hadn't talked about it here, but there is a sort of kavanah (sung) that we sometimes use. Aha, says I to myself, he's decided to insert that. I turn slightly and give the faintest hint of a nod, which tells him I know what he's up to. The congregation never knows we didn't plan it. It vaguely reminded me of the talmudist on the train to Moscow. :-)