My First HUC Service

On Monday, I led my first service with the HUC-JIR Jerusalem community. My peers -- including future Rabbis, Cantors, and Educators -- as well as faculty -- including my service mentor, Rabbi Shelly Donnell -- were present for our weekly Monday afternoon service, called "Minchah." Sarah's parents were also in town, which was a lovely connection to home. I was also extremely lucky to work with Cantorial Student Jay O'Brian, who has a beautiful, very natural, folk-style voice. Below is a point-by-point description of the service. While I didn't think to video the service, I hope you will be able to get a sense of what the service was like.

1) We opened the service with the following song, first as a niggun (wordless melody with "yai lai lai").

Sounds of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs that voices never share

And no one dared

Disturb the sound of silence

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

In the words that it was forming

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written in the Kotel walls

In Muerstein Hall" (the sanctuary)

And whispered in the sounds of silence

2) Iyun (teaching) delivered by me

My Rabbi in San Diego has begun High Holiday services with variations of the same one-liner for the past few years: "Welcome. We invite you to call on God today, but to the best of my knowledge, God will not be calling you on your cell phone, so please take this opportunity now to silence them."

How are we called to prayer?

There is a formal call to prayer in our morning and evening services in the form of the Bar'chu; yet there are many other times in our lives when we are called to prayer in some other way. In this Mincha, we will be exploring the idea of using sound to be called to prayer.

We began with the song "The Sounds of Silence." Sometimes, it is this silence that gets us ready for prayer. Some people explore prayer through meditation, usually beginning in silence before engaging with God. Sometimes, the silence itself allows us the space to pray. For our purposes, we wanted to use a familiar, yet unimposing sound to call you to prayer.

As I mentioned, we use the Bar'chu as a functional call to prayer, but if you look at the text, all it literally says is "Praise Adonai to whom praise is due; Praised be Adonai to whom praise is due, now and forever." The text doesn't say "Alright! Let's get ready to daven!" Instead, it's the call and response sounds of the text that invite us to prayer.

Over the break, some of us visited Turkey, and I was truly inspired by the sounds of the calls to prayer from the Mosques. So today, after the Chatzi Kaddish, Jay will be calling us to prayer, using the cantilation style of the Muslim tradition and the words of "Adonai s'fatai tiftach u'fi yagid t'hilatecha." Just as the Bar'chu praises God, so too does this line address God. It is our plea that we be able to pray. It may sound weird, foreign, and or maybe just plain wrong. But I invite you to allow yourself to be called to the Amidah with a different kind of sound, and then continue on with the Amidah so that you may have your own moment to connect through the texts and the words of your own heart. Also, if you are called to do so, feel free to change your location in our sanctuary. When we start singing “Yihiyu L’ratzon,” that will be our cue to return to our prayers together.

Before then, though, the Ashrei serves as a warm-up to the Amidah so that we may be spiritually ready for our prayer offering. We join together on page 52 in joy.

3) Ashrei (52) - Jay led the responsive chant using the traditional nusach (melody)

4) Chatzi Kaddish - Jay led the chant using the traditional nusach (melody)

5) Jay then called us to prayer doing a Jewish "muazin," or Muslim call to prayer that is heard from the Mosques 5 times a day. 

6) We then continued with a silent Amidah (specific section of the service) with Jay’s guitar underneath.

7) We sang the campy style Yihiyu L’ratzon. Beautiful.

8) Aleinu - Jay led the chant using the traditional nusach (melody)

9) Iyun delivered by me

DIfferent sounds not only evoke different emotions, they can call us to pray different words. Hearing the sound of the air-raid siren throughout the city on a Friday night might inspire you to go light the Shabbat candles and say the b'rachot. Yet, hearing the same siren on Yom Hazikaron might call you to say a completely different prayer. Life-cycle events similarly bring about these differing emotions and prayers. "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" Some might say "Mazal tov!" or "Baruch Hashem!" I would say to my in-laws, "savlatnut" (my in-laws will be there for this service).

Yet, there are also difficult sounds. And the more you think about them, the more they leave an impression on you. Last year, I heard the most difficult Hebrew sentences I had ever heard. Not because they used a binyan I had never used, but because of who was saying it. Sarah's grandmother was on her deathbed, and her brother called from Israel to say goodbye. Both of them were survivors of the Shoah. The rest of the family in Israel was also with him on the phone. They passed the phone around, and while I don't remember what was said, the following three lines will forever be ingrained in my memory:

Yeish harbeh ahavah bishvileich kan, Essie. (There is so much love for you here, Esther)

Through his cracking voice, I heard "Ani oheiv otach, achoti." (I love you, sister)

"Al tivkeh," she responded. "Al tivkeh." - Don’t cry.

Days later, we were called to Kaddish with the sounds of El Malei Rachamim. "Al tivki," I told Sarah's mom. "Al tivki." (Don't cry)

We remember those whom we have lost, and offer words of comfort to those in mourning as we join together on page 598.

10) Mourner's Kaddish

11) Closing Song - Hashmini

Chorus - Ti lai l’lai lai…

Verse - Hashmi’ini et kolech / Ki kolech arev umarech nave

Translation - Let me hear your voice for your voice is sweet and your countenance pleasant.

Some Thoughts

I think the service was really well received. Jay knocked the Muazin call to prayer out of the park. It was absolutely beautiful. When I had this idea in Turkey, I was really excited to hear Jay sing this piece, and he completely fulfilled my vision. I think people were truly called to their prayers in a different way, and one that hopefully got them to think more about how we are called to prayer. I know for me, hearing these different styles (secular with "Sounds of Silence," Jewish with traditional nusach, and Muslim with the Muazin) has opened my eyes to the words and sounds we use to call out to each other, to God, and to prayer, both communally and individually.

Of course, there were things we would do differently if we were to lead this service again. For example, my beginning piece felt a little long in its deliverance. I should have probably either shortened it or relied less on the written page. Further, Rabbi Donnell brought up the idea (and when he mentioned it, it was one of those, "how did we not think of that before!" moments) of including an aloud repetition of the Amidah, which would have perfectly tied in the theme and its application to the Amidah. Also, some people asked about the changes in "Sounds of Silence." We thought it would personalize the song and make it connect more to what we were talking about. Some people interpreted it differently than our intention. Oh well. Being a Monday Morning Quarterback is much easier than a better planner.

Overall, I am very proud of this service. I felt extremely nervous going into this service. While this was not my first rodeo, it was the first time leading services in front of this group. The standards of the students who came before me were extremely high. I hope I met those with my class. But beyond that, I hope I helped give future classmates the idea and permission to really think outside the box. I can't wait to see what my classmates come up with. Each one brings so much to the table and I can't wait to learn from each of them.

Lead Minchah: check.