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Friday night
Sep. 29th, 2001 10:40 pmI went to Tree of Life last night. There was a bar mitzvah this Shabbat, so the boy did some of the stuff that I would normally have done. He actually did more than I thought he would; at Temple Sinai the bar mitzvah makes kiddush Friday night but that's it until Saturday morning, when he does almost everything.
There's always a little "program" at services that lists service times for the coming week, who's leading which services, page numbers for the Torah reading, and so on. So my name was in this, as it was last time. (And yes, I collect the souvenirs at this point.) As I was sitting on the bimah waiting to start, I heard a familiar voice say "Monica??". I wasn't in a position to see who it was, but later I recognized one of the morning regulars and I think it was him. He came up to me afterwards and gushed. He can stroke my ego any time he likes. :-) (Several other people had nice things to say to me, which I found gratifying.)
The bar mitzvah was somewhat, err, melodically challenged, which I suppose is a common case for 13-year-olds. Since there was a microphone in front of me, I wasn't sure what to do on songs he was leading. I decided to turn my head away from the mike (I could still face some of the congregation while doing this) and sing; I'm pretty sure the mike didn't pick me up and overwhelm him. I tried to watch the front rows for feedback. (Yes, the relatives sat in the front rows. Regulars tend not to.)
This time I found the secret hidden glass of water before services started. These things are important. :-)
Rabbi Berkun introduced me this time as the "cantorial soloist". Whee. Yeah, that's what I am when I do this, but it still felt all warm and fuzzy to hear someone actually use the words. (Clarification: I am not a "Cantor"; that is a precise term for which I lack the credentials. Since you can't always hear whether the C is upper- or lower-case in conversation, I tend not to use the word by itself. I gather that "cantorial soloist" is ok, though, and "chazan" certainly is.)
I really enjoy doing this, and I perceive that I'm quite good at it. I don't think I'll end up doing it more than about every 6 weeks on average, and this strikes me as a reasonable balance between here and my own congregation.
I do wonder whether I should tell my rabbi about this. It's not a secret or anything, but I've seen no reason to bring it up, and it can be very hard to get "casual" private time with him. On the one hand, he shouldn't have a problem with it (if I thought he might, I would have discussed it with him first), but on the other hand, he might be hurt if he hears it through the rumor mill that I'm "moonlighting" on him. On the third hand, I don't want him to think that I'm unhappy at my synagogue (which I'm not), and he might never hear about it if I don't tell him.
There's always a little "program" at services that lists service times for the coming week, who's leading which services, page numbers for the Torah reading, and so on. So my name was in this, as it was last time. (And yes, I collect the souvenirs at this point.) As I was sitting on the bimah waiting to start, I heard a familiar voice say "Monica??". I wasn't in a position to see who it was, but later I recognized one of the morning regulars and I think it was him. He came up to me afterwards and gushed. He can stroke my ego any time he likes. :-) (Several other people had nice things to say to me, which I found gratifying.)
The bar mitzvah was somewhat, err, melodically challenged, which I suppose is a common case for 13-year-olds. Since there was a microphone in front of me, I wasn't sure what to do on songs he was leading. I decided to turn my head away from the mike (I could still face some of the congregation while doing this) and sing; I'm pretty sure the mike didn't pick me up and overwhelm him. I tried to watch the front rows for feedback. (Yes, the relatives sat in the front rows. Regulars tend not to.)
This time I found the secret hidden glass of water before services started. These things are important. :-)
Rabbi Berkun introduced me this time as the "cantorial soloist". Whee. Yeah, that's what I am when I do this, but it still felt all warm and fuzzy to hear someone actually use the words. (Clarification: I am not a "Cantor"; that is a precise term for which I lack the credentials. Since you can't always hear whether the C is upper- or lower-case in conversation, I tend not to use the word by itself. I gather that "cantorial soloist" is ok, though, and "chazan" certainly is.)
I really enjoy doing this, and I perceive that I'm quite good at it. I don't think I'll end up doing it more than about every 6 weeks on average, and this strikes me as a reasonable balance between here and my own congregation.
I do wonder whether I should tell my rabbi about this. It's not a secret or anything, but I've seen no reason to bring it up, and it can be very hard to get "casual" private time with him. On the one hand, he shouldn't have a problem with it (if I thought he might, I would have discussed it with him first), but on the other hand, he might be hurt if he hears it through the rumor mill that I'm "moonlighting" on him. On the third hand, I don't want him to think that I'm unhappy at my synagogue (which I'm not), and he might never hear about it if I don't tell him.