I want a community of peers, not just
congregants. There is a great difference
between the two. In the first instance
we stand shoulder-to-shoulder bearing Beth Shalom. In the second instance, there is an imbalance
when one person sings boisterously in a largely silent community or a cantor
cants alone. I want you to know that one
of the primary reasons I wanted to join you is because I perceived this to be
community of involved, interested people.
I liked what I saw heard when we first met.
I do not like “singing” alone. My first comment to the leadership of this
community many months ago was that I liked to strongly encourage congregational
participation. For me, the ‘kiss of
death’ of my professional life is when a congregational service is a
performance. It must never become that.
I read with interest a recent
article in "Conservative Judaism," which told of a worshipper who was chastised
for “singing to loudly,” (check it out on the Spring issue 2008). Reading the story made me cringe. How awful!
In an opera house it is impolite
(to say the least) to cough, chat or make any kind of disturbance. In some houses of worship, it is much the
same. Members are supposed to sit with their hands clasped front of them,
resting in their lap, silent and attentive.
That is not the Jewish ideal; it is not even Jewish.
The Jewish way is leading with the
voice. It is singing, full-throated and
filled with zeal. The aim of prayer is
to touch the Almighty. One does this by
entering into a dialogue; singing praises, crying tears of hope and despair,
reaching out of oneself to find a connection with the Holy One. Go to any uplifting service and ask yourself
why it was so meaningful. The only
consistent answer is participation.
Where the members sing out loud and put their soul into their prayers it
becomes a spiritual and meaningful event.
I am no different from you: I seek the same experience.
I sometimes wonder if I became a
rabbi not because of what I saw as a youngster but despite it. Services were dull. The only good part was sitting next to dad
and playing with his tzitzit…and
later on with mine. I wondered then if
there was a way to change that.
Nowadays when somebody sings too
loudly I bless them. When someone shouts
out an “Amen!” I am buoyed. When members
yell, “yasher koach!” after someone
receives an aliyah, I grin. That is the way it is supposed to be.
God doesn’t like quiet. Does that sound absurd? The Talmud actually says that in different
words. The Talmud instructs us that when
we pray, “Our ears must hear what our mouth is saying.” In other words, there is no ‘silent
prayer.’ Ever.
We pray with our mouths and bodies
(traditionally, called ‘shuckling’). We
talk to God in much the same way that we speak with one another. We express ourselves in voice that sometimes
rises and falls, with our hands as we gesticulate and with expressiveness that
marks our sincerity.
It is time to leave behind the
traditional Protestant modality that we have absorbed a bit too well. Jews don’t sit still. We never did.
I hope you find your voice at your
shul.
