[Judaism] what do we mean by "egalitarian"?

[cellio]

One of my ongoing frustrations with many Reform services (and prayer books) is what I think of as dumbing down the service to be accessible to all, in the process alienating some of the dedicated people who were already there. (There's a vicious cycle in there that leads to needing to do so because everyone else has fled.) I wondered a little whether I was being hyper-sensitive or something, because when I've brought it up in conversation I've mostly gotten surprised looks.

I recently came across rethinking egalitarianism and found myself emphatically saying "yes yes yes!" while reading. Excerpt:

Let's rethink what we mean by "egalitarianism." What if it meant "open to all who bother to make the effort"? What if synagogues distributed fliers that said: "Welcome! We are very glad you are here. Our service is somewhat traditional, because that traditional form works for us. You may be a little lost at first. So we warmly invite you to join our weekly Siddur 101 class, where you can learn the ropes." People who choose to accept the invitation obtain the rewards. Those who don't, don't. Not only would such an approach allow longtime participants to get more out of the prayer experience, but it would also suggest to newcomers that there's something worth working toward. Things that come cheap usually feel that way.

As I understand it, this is part of Rabbi Elie Kaunfer's argument in his recent book, "Empowered Judaism" (Jewish Lights Publishing). What the Jewish world needs, Kaunfer writes, is not more dumbing-down but more empowerment of individuals to opt in if they so desire. Before Kaunfer, this argument was Maimonides's: The best Judaism is really only for philosophers, but the opportunity to become a philosopher ought to be open to everybody.

American Jews have long prized education and knowledge. So why do we suddenly throw those values out the window when it comes to synagogue life? Is it really more inclusive to be patronized by a service aimed at the lowest common denominator?

Thoughts?

Comments

[subdivisions.livejournal.com]

This phenomenon happens in the SCA, and it's worth thinking about in that context also.

[siderea]

Ayup.

I have about ten thousand words in me on this topic, which will not fit in the margin of this post. So I will simply relate a little story of one little case where it went right:

Over however many years it was, my Barony's singing group slowly was working its way around to sight-singing. Thing is, not everybody can sight-sing; heck, not everybody could read. But we'd gone from having every line played on a recorder (we never rehearsed with a piano) before ever singing it, to being asked, "Do you need it played first?" -- sometimes because it was an old familiar piece that older members might be expected to remember, but sometimes because the people who showed up that day could read.

So finally it came to a head. I remember the day. Some number of times previously, nobody had needed (or wanted) to hear a line played. We had just had a brand new piece of music handed out. The director paused, and asked if we were just going to read it. And one of the sopranos said, in res, "Waitaminute. Not everybody here can read. Are we excluding people who can't sight-sing?"

And I jumped in and said, "No, I don't think we are. It's just that for those of who can sight-sing -- or those who are learning how -- sight-singing is just like doing a crossword puzzle. All we want is a chance to try to figure it out without anybody telling us what the answer is. If we don't get it right, then we can look up the answer -- people can have lines played as they need. By doing it this way, it's fair to everybody. People who want to get better at sight-singing get to practice, and people who want not to have it sung and played for them. It's just that by it's nature, the sight-sing has to happen first."

And all the non-sight-singers, blinked in surprise, and allowed has how they hadn't thought of it that way, and actually that made a lot of sense.

We never had to have that conversation again. And that group went on to start treating sight-singing as a regular part of learning singing, and graduated more sight-singers than any other singing group I've been a part of, despite continuing to admit people who couldn't even read music.

Further, because it then became convention that you had to request lines to be played, and because people did request lines, frequently, there was a fascinating change in the culture. Instead of passively waiting for the director to tell you what you needed to do to improve, you had to ask for what you needed. Which means you had to figure it out. You had to take responsibility for your development and training as a singer. And that, I think, paid enormous dividends in singing skill. Member of the group, even ones who were inexpert, started comporting themselves with the attitude and self-responsibility of very serious advanced singers. One visiting observer of the group said to me, that we weren't the best singers he'd heard by a long shot, but we were some of the most professional about it.

All because, in the critical moment, I came up with that crossword puzzle analogy,

cellio, I have no idea what that crossword puzzle analogy might be for your congregation. But I suspect that's roughly what you're looking for: a way of advocating for what you want that transcends resistance.

[cellio]

What an enlightening story. Thank you. I'm not sure what my crossword-puzzle analogy is going to be, but this is a good approach.

[unique_name_123]

My thoughts also turned immediately to the SCA. We are so welcoming of new people (oh, where whatever you want, it will be fine. Oh, you don't need feast gear - we will just grab something from the kitchen. Oh, just put up a lawn chair over there.) that our long time members just slide along with them.

There is balance between "wishing it to be so perfect that many ordinary people just can't make the commitment and quit" and "having no real requirements or commitment to join such that people don't feel they have really joined anything and quit".

Finding the right balance is hard.

[cellio]

It's hard, yes, and it's probably important to distinguish between "requirements" (what you must do) and "expectations" (what you really ought to do, but we won't kick you out over it). Both the SCA and the synagogue tend to have very few requirements of attendees, but both probably have more expectations than are usually called out.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the shul I attended in Dallas had 3 services on Shabbos morning: the regular one, a beginners' service, and something in between for people who had absorbed all they could from the beginners' format but still needed a little support WRT following the siddur. The third was (and still is), as it happens, called the empowerment service.

FWIW: This was an Orthodox shul, affiliated with Agudath Israel, founded by a combination of BTs and kiruv-oriented FFBs.

[cjsherwood.livejournal.com]

WIW: This was an Orthodox shul, affiliated with Agudath Israel, founded by a combination of BTs and kiruv-oriented FFBs.

For those of us non-experienced Jews, could you please explain the abbreviations?

And what "kiruv-oriented" is?

Many thanks!

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

FWIW: for what it's worth
BTs: baalei tshuvah (i.e., Jews who become more religiously observant, in the Orthodox sense, after not growing up that way)
FFBs: frum from birth (i.e., Jews have been religiously observant, in the Orthodox sense, all their lives)
Kiruv: "bringing close", in Hebrew (i.e., outreach by the Orthodox community to Jews who do not affiliate as Orthodox)

Hope this helps!

[cellio]

What was this empowerment service like? Did it come in the form of going more slowly, explaining the theology behind the prayers, breaking down the Hebrew text, teaching melodies, something else?

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

I don't know first-hand what it was like, not having attended myself. But based on second-hand reports, the beginner's service was a bit more talk-oriented -- this is the broad outline of the davening, this is a bit about the parshah of the week, this is where the rabbi opens up the floor to questions. The empowerment service, by contrast, delved more deeply into the nitty-gritty of the davening. It essentially helped people who weren't yet fully comfortable with Hebrew learn the structure of the services so they could know what was going on and work towards following along, even if they had to rely heavily on the English translations and the page-number sign at the front of the room.

[fauxklore]

It strikes me that the intermediate group is the toughest one to find the right approach for. A lot of shuls have a "learner's service" - geared to beginners, who may not know much Hebrew. But the transition from that to a full-up rapid-fire service would stil be difficult.

Maybe the best approach is to have chavurot that start periodically and progress together.

[cellio]

Yeah, the middle group is hard. This comes up in adult-ed, too; most classes are pitched at the beginner level to be accessible, but I sometimes worry that we're leaving out the people who've moved beyond that and aren't going to come to another beginner-level class on a topic they know well. Currently I and the other people I know in this situation scratch that itch through one-on-one chevruta study (I even have two rabbinic study partners), but I wonder what else we could do.

[wrenb.livejournal.com]

This is why I wish my congregation had more adult education opportunities beyond the truly introductory. I'd love to learn more about the whys and hows of the Shabbat morning service, but I have yet to do so. We had a great guest speaker come to do just that the other week but my son was sick so I missed it.

[cellio]

Yeah, adult-ed is another area where this problem can come up. It occurs to me that our ongoing torah study on Shabbat mornings, which has been going for more than 20 years, works on multiple levels. We have people who've been coming for years and who learn torah in other contexts too, and we have new people who have only just started studying torah at all, and people in between, and we manage to have good, meaty discussions. This depends a lot of the skill of the rabbi, I think; the few times I have been asked to lead that group (when he's away) I have not done nearly as well at stimulating those rich discussions.

Do you have anything ongoing at your congregation? Having adult ed limited to the occasional guest speaker would be a real bummer.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Fascinating article.

[alaricmacconnal.livejournal.com]

This sounds like another comparison of equal opportunity vs. equal outcome.

The first provides the chance to excel and learn more with the possibility of some being left behind and the second provides the basics, without an incentive to excel, learn more, with some being bored or disinterested.

The balance has to be somewhere in between.

[cellio]

I hadn't thought about equal opportunity versus equal outcome before. What an interesting characterization. I think when we say the first we often mean the second, and I'm not just talking about congregations here.

[alaricmacconnal.livejournal.com]

Yeah ... I was trying to generalize beyond a specific setting. An example from education:

Standardized tests, to me, seem to be an effort to provide an equal outcome, rather than providing the opportunity to excel.