Synagogue score
- First day of Pesach
We barely had enough men to do a Torah reading, and only because there are just five aliyot on the Shalosh Regalim (Pilgrimage Festivals), as opposed to seven on Shabbat (Sabbath).
Since some of our members are indifferent to, and others ignorant of, the need for them to stay in the sanctuary during the Musaf (Additional Service) Amidah, we had only 10 people, exactly, by the time we were halfway through Tefillat Tal (the Prayer for Dew). I was literally afraid to leave the room until Ein Kelokeinu. Methinks that, on the first day of Pesach (Passover), I'm going to have to resign myself to staying in the sanctuary through the repetition of the sacrifice readings--I usually leave after the Kedushah section--until we move. Sigh.
- Second day
I don't think we ever had more than 15 people at any time on either day.
posted by Shira Salamone at 4:57 PM
4 Comments:
I spent a year recently in a city where I went to shtiebels, and I kind of like being at a place where I knew I could make the minyan! But then again if I had to lead services etc I might not feel that way.
This is just a more extreme version of what my husband goes through every Shabbat (Sabbath) morning, when he counts heads not only to see whether we can do the Chazarat HaShaTz (repetition of the Amidah prayer by the shaliach tzibur/ShaTz [prayer leader], not done unless there's a minyan), but also to see whether we have enough men for a Torah reading. (Ah, the joys of belonging to a synagogue that counts women in a minyan but won't give us aliyot. Don't look for halachic logic--there isn't any.)
I know of some C synagogues that don't even bother trying to hold services on the 7 day of Pesach but they do on the 8th for Yizkor.
I used to go to C shul North of Boston that had davening Shabbos, Sunday, Monday and Thursday, and they only had yontif davening if it fell on one of those days, but they kept the Monday/Thursday at 645am even if it was yontif. They had several regulars show up with no idea that it was yontif and they got upset with the length of the service because they stuff to do. So the shul dumped musaf during chol hamoed.
That's pretty radical. I've never heard of any of those ways of doing (non) business, and I've been a Conservative Jew for all of my 62 years. This is shocking news to me.
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