A tale of two synagogues
Actually, this is about two *types* of synagogues.
One type is what I'll describe as a "performance" synagogue. This type of shul is almost always led by at least one rabbi and/or cantor, and may involve additional musicians (vocal and/or instrumental). Congregants sit back, relax, and watch the "show."
The other type is what I'll describe as a "participatory" synagogue. This type of shul is one in which congregants are encouraged and taught to lead services, read the Torah reading from a Torah scroll ("lein"), and chant haftarot (roughly, readings from the Prophets) in the original Hebrew.
In my opinion, "performance" synagogues carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. When demographics change and there are no longer sufficient funds to pay for at least one professional leader, "performance" shuls are doomed to fail because there are few, or no, congregants capable of leading services and/or leining Torah and/or chanting haftarot, and few, if any, congregants are willing to learn.
My husband and I have been members of both types of synagogues. Our current shul is a "performance" shul--the handful of congregants who can lead services and/or lein Torah all learned these skills elsewhere, and most are either unable or unwilling to do so on a regular basis. We have no particular confidence that our current shul will survive beyond a few more years. Our plans for the future, once our current shul closes, are to join another "performance" shul and also maintain our ties to a minyan that we've been praying with on and off for decades. It's as close to "the best of both worlds" as we're likely to get.
posted by Shira Salamone at 11:44 PM
4 Comments:
Copied from Facebook:
Judith Naimark
Okay, Shira Salamone, you asked for it. What you define with the term "Performance Synagogue," which you mean to be pejorative, is actually a synagogue led by trained professionals who actually know what they're doing, and are dedicated to keeping the traditions and standards of Jewish worship as high as they possibly can. I don't see how can call your current congregation a "performance" synagogue, when you have no ordained rabbi, and a cantor who had only a smidgen of training and is a cantor only through the affirmation of the congregation. Remember that those in the congregation who have synagogue skills, learned them from PROFESSIONALS. Once you cease to create continuing generations of professionals, and opportunities for them to lead communities, service quality deteriorates, because amateurs teaching amateurs incrementally lose the treasure trove of knowledge with each generation. the standards go down. In my current position, for which you were so kind as to recommend my candidacy, I was hired to chant a triennial Torah reading. After about 2 weeks, I was informed by the Cantor that there was a congregant who had committed to leyning the first 3 aliyot each week. She was trained by a previous Cantor who is a graduate of The School of Sacred Music (prior to its being renamed for Debbie Friedman), so she basically knows what she is doing. However, she doesn't know as much as I do. She doesn't really know Biblical Hebrew grammar. She was also confusing the tunes for Tlisha G'dolah and Pazer, until I pointed it out to her. Most weeks, she chants the first 3 aliyot, and that's fine, except that it is very hard to hear her. Amateurs don't know that one has to project, even into a microphone. With most of the congregation being older than I, I can't imagine that they can hear her any better than I. The cantor who hired me (who has just left to take a position in Florida), had a lovely and engaging voice, but didn't really know or care about nusach hatfila. Every week, he chanted the wrong chatzi kaddish for musaf. On chagim, the final phrase of the chatimah for festivals was correct, but he led into it with High Holy Day nosach instead of festival nosach. Having ordained rabbis and cantors does NOT prevent a congregation from having participatory prayer. I first learned nosach by hearing it from a proper hazzan. Congregants davened aloud (something that I was castigated for doing a few years ago, when visiting a congregation that had effectively chased out everyone who was knowledgable) and sang along with the congregational tunes. When all the congregants think they know it all already and cease to have a dugma, they wind up with the situation that prevails in Orthodox synagogues, where nothing is correct nosach and the cantorate is relegated to the concert stage. Hidur mitzvah is an important element of worship, and a pleasant voice was one of the requirements defined by the rabbis as one of the essentials of a Shliach Tzibbur. I don't want the clergy to be restricted to the role of teacher, so that I have to listen to those with less talent do all the leading. But that's me. Your friend, HaHazzan Shulamit bat Shaul v'Chemdah
Copied from Facebook:
Shira Salamone
Judith Naimark , you have given me a well-deserved tochacha/rebuke. It's true that amateurs teaching amateurs has the downside that amateurs don't know as much those who have not only the aptitude, but also the training and education. We were just talking at kiddush last Shabbat about teaching some of the younger Jews in our neighborhood how to participate in our services, but I kept thinking, "Who's going to do the teaching: us? Two folks who were trained by the cantor of our previous shul and sometimes have to check online to see whether we're singing the nusach correctly, and one person who learned what they know in yeshiva but can't carry a tune in a bucket--*we're* supposed to be the experts? 😮 Our cantor, who, as far as I know, learned nusach in yeshiva but studied only chazanut (for which he's never had a good enough voice) with an actual cantor? 😢 I was thinking more about some synagogues that I've seen online that have so many singers and musicians and such gorgeous music that their services resemble Broadway shows. How can anyone participate in such an extravaganza? You said, "I don't see how can call your current congregation a "performance" synagogue, when you have no ordained rabbi, and a cantor who had only a smidgen of training and is a cantor only through the affirmation of the congregation." True, but given how few members of our congregation have "ritual skills," I don't know how else to describe us. How does one retain expertise and still encourage the learning and use of ritual skills by people who may not even know how to read Hebrew yet? Sorry I put my foot in my mouth, but I'm really at a loss.
Copied from Facebook:
Ginger Ignatoff
Aaah, I define "performance" synagogues in an an entirely different way, gong back to our years looking for a synagogue that worked for us. To me a "performance" synagogue is one that the professionals show off their skill level, their vocal superiority, and their "classy" abilities -- they add in the occasional operatic phrasing, thus confusing all the congregational members who enjoy joining in, singing along. (If we were talking in person, I'd give you a demonstration, but the closest I can come in words is "gorgeous flourishes" often at the end of a phrase (musically) -- I believe these flourishes are guaranteed to drop most members who want to participate musically. I've seen cantors who I thought added flourish after flourish until he was the only one chanting in order to be sure we could all marvel at his voice and technique.
Copied from Facebook:
Shira Salamone
Ginger Ignatoff , I certainly didn't choose the proper description for a "performance" synagogue--yours is pretty much what I had in mind. Even our own cantor, who never had much of a voice, consistently races ahead of the congregation so that he always gets the first note as well as the last one--often, we don't even have time to say Amen at the end of a b'rachah/blessing. When we try to sing harmony with him, he always starts too soon, and when we try to add songs that he doesn't know yet, he adds flourishes at the end. (Yes, I've sent him videos of probably every new song we've tried to add, but I don't think he's ever listened to any of them.) It's "competitive singing" at its worst. 🙁 "these flourishes are guaranteed to drop most members who want to participate musically." That happens in our shul all the time, and some tunes he now sings so quickly that some of our slower Hebrew readers can't keep up and have simply stopped singing. It might help if he actually *had* a voice and a technique that we could marvel at. 🙁 I also have in mind those synagogues whose services more closely resemble theatrical performances than worship. For the record, these "theatrical synagogues" come in all denominational flavors. The question is, how can we put the skills of professional clergy to good use in helping our congregants to participate *more,* rather than less?
Post a Comment
<< Home