Weekend in Worcester: services
Jul. 11th, 2005 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidIt was my dad's birthday weekend, so I was in Worcester for most of it. On Shabbat, I went to services, Friday evening (well, afternoon; they take Shabbat in early in the summer) and Shabbat morning.
It's been a while since I've been to services at Beth Israel, and it's still disconcerting at times, being in that building I spent so much time in when I was young for services or Hebrew school. This weekend, all services were in the chapel, which has been seriously upgraded since my junior congregation days. The pews are nicer, there's carpeting and decent lighting, and so on. Still, I was sitting in a pew on what had been the girls' side, looking out the same windows into the same parking lot with trees behind, the Now being intermittently interrupted by the Then in my head.
There's a new rabbi and a new cantor, and services are enough different that they didn't trigger memories as much. Friday night I realized yet again that no matter how pretty the voice, I really don't care for cantor-led services; they inevitably cross the line into musical performance rather than public prayer. Not necessarily in obvious ways, but it happens, the tune becoming more important. Plus there's a quality to the voice I find it impossible to describe, but makes me think of classical training that doesn't use the voice in ways I'm more used to (by lay people, in a cappella groups). And I found it jarring that the cantor kept giving herself percussive accompaniment by hitting the shulchan, not just a plain rhythm, but a more involved beat, even using her ring for sound contrast.
Which is not to say that I didn't like some of the tunes used. I was surprised to run into some Carlebach, and unsurprised to meet tunes used when I was growing up. My aesthetic has changed, though, to preference for tunes that don't keep repeating words, and there were a number of those in evidence, where people seemed to be more interested in the singing aspect of things.
Except for when the cantor was leading Aleinu or doing her own Amidah, she was facing the congregation. It's what's always been done there, but I don't like it, and I noticed it more this time.
I'm out of practice navigating the Sim Shalom; everything takes far more pages than I expect. And every so often there were word switches I wasn't expecting, such as in Y'did Nefesh, where everything was switched to feminine. I sang the words I'm familiar with, and noticed that the tune works better with the extra syllables.
Torah reading was done by a variety of people. Though all of them needed corrections, most of them were minor, and the corrections happened, which I remember not happening previously. And I thought about how the prayers are the same every week, so in some ways, it makes more sense to have lay people lead them, with the cantor doing the changing Torah reading.
A first: I got to see my mom lift the sefer Torah. I don't know why they don't put a chair closer, so whoever does hagbah doesn't have to walk so far.
The rabbi's talks were interesting, short and to the point, or mini-study sessions. This week was the death of Miriam, and Moses hitting the rock, and why the punishment was so severe. Many theories, of course. Rambam points to the anger (he advocates for moderation in all things, except anger, which should be minimized, so this isn't a surprise). Other ideas include how his words imply that he (and Aaron) were the ones providing the water, rather than God. Or that he shouldn't have hit the rock, instead of speaking to it. People pointed out mitigating circumstances, of it being just after his sister's death, and I wonder whether he should've recused himself from dealing with leadership when he was mourning. One of the commentators fault him for mourning his sister too much... I started thinking about it more, and wondering whether in some way, Moses couldn't be allowed to lead the people into the land. He's already done signs and wonders, brought them out of Egypt, led them through the desert for forty years, building them into a free-born nation. If he also led them into the land, completing that cycle, would it have made it impossible for leaders after him? A cult of Moses, as it were? It's telling to realize that despite all he did, his name does not appear in the traditional Haggadah at all.
It's been a while since I've been to services at Beth Israel, and it's still disconcerting at times, being in that building I spent so much time in when I was young for services or Hebrew school. This weekend, all services were in the chapel, which has been seriously upgraded since my junior congregation days. The pews are nicer, there's carpeting and decent lighting, and so on. Still, I was sitting in a pew on what had been the girls' side, looking out the same windows into the same parking lot with trees behind, the Now being intermittently interrupted by the Then in my head.
There's a new rabbi and a new cantor, and services are enough different that they didn't trigger memories as much. Friday night I realized yet again that no matter how pretty the voice, I really don't care for cantor-led services; they inevitably cross the line into musical performance rather than public prayer. Not necessarily in obvious ways, but it happens, the tune becoming more important. Plus there's a quality to the voice I find it impossible to describe, but makes me think of classical training that doesn't use the voice in ways I'm more used to (by lay people, in a cappella groups). And I found it jarring that the cantor kept giving herself percussive accompaniment by hitting the shulchan, not just a plain rhythm, but a more involved beat, even using her ring for sound contrast.
Which is not to say that I didn't like some of the tunes used. I was surprised to run into some Carlebach, and unsurprised to meet tunes used when I was growing up. My aesthetic has changed, though, to preference for tunes that don't keep repeating words, and there were a number of those in evidence, where people seemed to be more interested in the singing aspect of things.
Except for when the cantor was leading Aleinu or doing her own Amidah, she was facing the congregation. It's what's always been done there, but I don't like it, and I noticed it more this time.
I'm out of practice navigating the Sim Shalom; everything takes far more pages than I expect. And every so often there were word switches I wasn't expecting, such as in Y'did Nefesh, where everything was switched to feminine. I sang the words I'm familiar with, and noticed that the tune works better with the extra syllables.
Torah reading was done by a variety of people. Though all of them needed corrections, most of them were minor, and the corrections happened, which I remember not happening previously. And I thought about how the prayers are the same every week, so in some ways, it makes more sense to have lay people lead them, with the cantor doing the changing Torah reading.
A first: I got to see my mom lift the sefer Torah. I don't know why they don't put a chair closer, so whoever does hagbah doesn't have to walk so far.
The rabbi's talks were interesting, short and to the point, or mini-study sessions. This week was the death of Miriam, and Moses hitting the rock, and why the punishment was so severe. Many theories, of course. Rambam points to the anger (he advocates for moderation in all things, except anger, which should be minimized, so this isn't a surprise). Other ideas include how his words imply that he (and Aaron) were the ones providing the water, rather than God. Or that he shouldn't have hit the rock, instead of speaking to it. People pointed out mitigating circumstances, of it being just after his sister's death, and I wonder whether he should've recused himself from dealing with leadership when he was mourning. One of the commentators fault him for mourning his sister too much... I started thinking about it more, and wondering whether in some way, Moses couldn't be allowed to lead the people into the land. He's already done signs and wonders, brought them out of Egypt, led them through the desert for forty years, building them into a free-born nation. If he also led them into the land, completing that cycle, would it have made it impossible for leaders after him? A cult of Moses, as it were? It's telling to realize that despite all he did, his name does not appear in the traditional Haggadah at all.