[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.