It’s premature to point fingers why, but let us also acknowledge the fall of Awe, Respect for Something Grander, Fear of Authority, and Kindness Towards All.
We are trying to shore up the walls, when the people sharing the space are the ones eroding.
This is such a rich discussion, I want to read the book. It also made me think of Hazzan Richard Kaplan, z"l.
How little we know about the intersection between music, continuity, drawing people in, keeping them engaged, prayer, and God. How people choose which shul to go to or which to never set foot in again can be impacted by their musical experience there, even if they can't put their finger on it.
Or it can have nothing to do with the music. When I was very small, maybe 3 or not quite, in the chapel of Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh, Cantor Moshe Taube was singing Hoshana Rabba. I stood on the chair with my fingers in my ears, saying "stop that singing" loud enough that my mother had to grab me and rush out in embarrassment. She was new in town and it was her mother's yahrzeit. Needless to say she never went back to that shul in the seven years we lived there.
I have an ongoing conversation with a woman in my community about why she doesn't come to shul. She says she wants to be able to ask me questions during the service. Why are the prayers in this order? Why does she remember things differently from her childhood? Why are we willing to exchange one prayer for a modern poem one time but not another? She has three small kids and manages a busy ecotourism center, she tells me she doesn't have much time to talk or study about these questions otherwise. I have tried to tell her that ritual is like theater, it's not the time to ask the questions.
Thank you for this informative article and review. A question: How can we tell Jewish time without Nusach? How will we know the time of day or season of the year? How will sacred times be observed without the proper kaddish? How will we know it is Shabbat? If one can hear but cannot see then nusach is our torch to remind us of Mi She'osoh Nissim La'avoteinu...
It’s premature to point fingers why, but let us also acknowledge the fall of Awe, Respect for Something Grander, Fear of Authority, and Kindness Towards All.
We are trying to shore up the walls, when the people sharing the space are the ones eroding.
This is such a rich discussion, I want to read the book. It also made me think of Hazzan Richard Kaplan, z"l.
How little we know about the intersection between music, continuity, drawing people in, keeping them engaged, prayer, and God. How people choose which shul to go to or which to never set foot in again can be impacted by their musical experience there, even if they can't put their finger on it.
Or it can have nothing to do with the music. When I was very small, maybe 3 or not quite, in the chapel of Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh, Cantor Moshe Taube was singing Hoshana Rabba. I stood on the chair with my fingers in my ears, saying "stop that singing" loud enough that my mother had to grab me and rush out in embarrassment. She was new in town and it was her mother's yahrzeit. Needless to say she never went back to that shul in the seven years we lived there.
I have an ongoing conversation with a woman in my community about why she doesn't come to shul. She says she wants to be able to ask me questions during the service. Why are the prayers in this order? Why does she remember things differently from her childhood? Why are we willing to exchange one prayer for a modern poem one time but not another? She has three small kids and manages a busy ecotourism center, she tells me she doesn't have much time to talk or study about these questions otherwise. I have tried to tell her that ritual is like theater, it's not the time to ask the questions.
Thank you for this informative article and review. A question: How can we tell Jewish time without Nusach? How will we know the time of day or season of the year? How will sacred times be observed without the proper kaddish? How will we know it is Shabbat? If one can hear but cannot see then nusach is our torch to remind us of Mi She'osoh Nissim La'avoteinu...