Shabbat evening
Apr. 12th, 2009 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioFriday night I led services. My rabbi and our cantorial soloist were also on the bimah. It went really well; the three of us work well together. In his greeting (and explanation of why I was doing this) my rabbi said some really complimentary things about me, which was sure nice to hear.
Attendance was lower than usual; presumably some were away for the holiday and others were tired out from one or two seders. Many of the regulars were not there, but there were also people I didn't recognize. Most did not seem to be in a singing mood, though that improved as time went on.
Leading out of Mishkan T'filah poses some challenges, but it just means you have to plan a little more (at least if your congregation has strong opinions, and whose doesn't?). In previous siddurim your choices were the Hebrew text and the English adaptation, and readings they intended to be responsive were typeset accordingly. MT has Hebrew, the English translation (mostly accurate now), and (usually) two other English readings for each part (some intended for one reader and some that can work responsively); you're supposed to choose one thing from all this and then turn the page. So I had to meet expectations on the balance of Hebrew and English (left to my own devices there'd be a lot more Hebrew), but then within the English there were choices to make. Again, left to my own devices I'd stick to the translations, but people expect some "creative" readings, so I had to balance that too. I think I did a good job of balancing all this; I'll check that assumption when next I meet with my rabbi.
MT, unlike prior Reform siddurim, includes all the psalms that make up the kabbalat shabbat service, so I injected (in English) one we don't usually do. We're gradually increasing what we do in this part of the service, so I made a small contribution. I think we need to learn easy, singable melodies for more of them; that will help.
I rushed ya'aleh v'yavo, a seasonal insertion, and as a result stumbled a bit. Oops. (Done in by a kametz katan.) I knew I would have to be aggressive in starting it, else people would go on auto-pilot right past it, but then I needed to slow down and I didn't.
My rabbi announced from the bimah that I'll be leading again in June. I must find out when. :-) (We had originally talked about two date options for leading, this Shabbat and one at the end of May. I thought it was either-or. Maybe he didn't and is misremembering the latter, or maybe he has something else in mind. I have been asking him for more opportunities to do this, as it's been averaging once every nine months or so. I guess he agrees that it should be more. That'd be nice.)
Attendance was lower than usual; presumably some were away for the holiday and others were tired out from one or two seders. Many of the regulars were not there, but there were also people I didn't recognize. Most did not seem to be in a singing mood, though that improved as time went on.
Leading out of Mishkan T'filah poses some challenges, but it just means you have to plan a little more (at least if your congregation has strong opinions, and whose doesn't?). In previous siddurim your choices were the Hebrew text and the English adaptation, and readings they intended to be responsive were typeset accordingly. MT has Hebrew, the English translation (mostly accurate now), and (usually) two other English readings for each part (some intended for one reader and some that can work responsively); you're supposed to choose one thing from all this and then turn the page. So I had to meet expectations on the balance of Hebrew and English (left to my own devices there'd be a lot more Hebrew), but then within the English there were choices to make. Again, left to my own devices I'd stick to the translations, but people expect some "creative" readings, so I had to balance that too. I think I did a good job of balancing all this; I'll check that assumption when next I meet with my rabbi.
MT, unlike prior Reform siddurim, includes all the psalms that make up the kabbalat shabbat service, so I injected (in English) one we don't usually do. We're gradually increasing what we do in this part of the service, so I made a small contribution. I think we need to learn easy, singable melodies for more of them; that will help.
I rushed ya'aleh v'yavo, a seasonal insertion, and as a result stumbled a bit. Oops. (Done in by a kametz katan.) I knew I would have to be aggressive in starting it, else people would go on auto-pilot right past it, but then I needed to slow down and I didn't.
My rabbi announced from the bimah that I'll be leading again in June. I must find out when. :-) (We had originally talked about two date options for leading, this Shabbat and one at the end of May. I thought it was either-or. Maybe he didn't and is misremembering the latter, or maybe he has something else in mind. I have been asking him for more opportunities to do this, as it's been averaging once every nine months or so. I guess he agrees that it should be more. That'd be nice.)