Speed warning

For background, start here.

The Gabbai/Shamash/Sexton of the synagogue where I pray on weekday mornings doesn’t discriminate—he gives the baal(at) tefillah/prayer leader honors to both laypersons and clergy. The other day, he gave the the honor of leading the Birkot HaShachar (Morning Blessings) section and the P’sukei D’Zimrah (Verses of Song) section to a layperson, and the honor of leading the prayers starting from Yishtabach to the cantor. The good news is that the cantor of my “kaddish-minyan” synagogue has a much better voice than the cantor at our local synagogue, and his enunciation is much better, too. The bad news is that he was partway through U’va L’Tzion Goel before I’d even finished the Amidah prayer. Bottom line: I’d better make it my business to get to Shacharit/Morning Service on time every day during the month of Nissan, so that I can say the Kaddish D’Rabbanan (Rabbis’ Kaddish) and the first Kaddish Yatom (Mourner’s Kaddish), because the odds are that I’ll still be davenning/praying the Amidah when the baal(at) tefillah gets to the Kaddishes at the end of the service.

I'll also have to make the same request to the Shamash that I made when I was saying Kaddish for my mother: Please don't give me any aliyot during Nissan, because I won't be "there" yet.