My synagogue is growing by leaps and bounds, and I went to services this evening, at the start of Rosh Hashanah, with about 500 of my congregation. That pales compared to the numbers I expect tomorrow, when there will be 2 adult services, a teen service, a "family" service (aimed at children who can read, and their parents) and a children's service for the youngest members and their parents. The two adult services will both be much more crowded than this evening's service.
The sanctuary is designed to be flexible. Usually, it's a large square room, about 60 ft tall, but for major events (like the high holidays) the wall between the sanctuary and the social hall is removed, and the combined room is slightly more than twice as large. (Although the ceiling of the social hall isn't nearly as tall, so the combined room has a funny appearance.) There's an ark, the structure where the Torah scrolls are stored, in the center front of the main sanctuary. It is too heavy to move, but almost everything else is centered on the long eastern wall, and the chairs are arranged in big semi-circles around that point. (For regular services, fewer chairs are arranged roughly in concentric circles.) The whole eastern wall is windows, although you can't really tell at night, but there's a nice view, through wooden blinds, into a wooded area in the day. The one other ritual furnishing that can't be moved is the "eternal flame", which represents the burning bush through which God spoke to Moses, and also the lamp that was always kept lit at the Temple in Jerusalem. Ours is suspended from the ceiling in front of the ark, and is solar powered. (with batteries so it stays lit all night, of course.)
There is a large raised stage front and center (called the bima) where the service-leaders stand, and on it there is a large table designed to hold a torah scroll, and a smaller table for other ritual objects. Tonight, that smaller table held a cup of wine, candles, and a large antelope horn (a symbol of the holiday.) The stage also had a pair of large flower arrangements, one on either side, all white flowers. In the back were two flags, the US flag a few inches higher than the Israeli flag.
This year, we got a new piece of ritual furniture, a small, portable ark, so the torahs could be housed in the center of the bima instead of way off to the side for the holidays. It was towards the back of the bima, behinds the large table.
We also have a lot of new clergy. We now have a senior rabbi, three junior rabbis, a cantor, and an assistant cantor. There were a few times when all of them were at the table, but other times, just 2-3 would be there, and the others sat, the cantors with the choir (seated "with" the congregation, but in a group in the front, stage right) and the rabbis with their families in the front row of the seating, mixed in with other people in that row.
The temple wasn't so large when I joined it, and it feels a little odd to have so many clergy knocking about.
The service started off with a song that has nonsense words. We have a lot of those (the words are typically "lai lai lai") and the purpose is to let everyone sing without needing to know the song or read. It works, and the congregation stopped talking and swayed to the music. After another song and some administrative stuff, the senior rabbi asked us to greet one another, and then he asked his wife to light the candles, and the main service began.
Most of our prayers are sung. I was seated between two people who used to be in the choir, so maybe my impression was biased, but it felt like a large fraction of the congregation participated. We use a lot of the same prayers for the high holidays as for ordinary Sabbath services, but the tunes are different. And there are always a few new tunes that the cantor introduces for holiday. Using music from various traditions is very "in" in Reform Judaism these days. The cantors teach the new tunes, so everyone can sing.
In addition to singing, we have instrumental music. I think only Reform Jews do that, since in general more traditional Jews avoid playing instruments on the Sabbath. The cantor uses a (miked) acoustic guitar, and with the chorus we had a piano, a cello, a bongo drum, a sort of recorder-like thing, and something that I didn't see that sounded like little bells, or maybe a metaliphone.
After the candle lighting, the congregation prayed "open my lips, that my mouth may declare your glory", and several prayers about the glory and greatness of God. There are are a couple of prayers specific to this holiday. One is a list of requests to "Our Father, Our King" (said in Hebrew, to avoid the male-biased words in English. When I was a kid, we read the whole thing in English.) asking for peace and strength and joy and mercy in the new year. There's also the prayer for the new season (said for new months, new babies, the start of long holidays, and of course, new years) and a little bit of other "New Year" content, although there's much more in tomorrow's service.
We prayed for the nation (for peace, for wise leaders...), prayed to the God of our ancestors, prayed to the creator of everything, declared that there is only one God, and a bunch of other regular weekly prayers, as well.
Then one of the junior rabbis gave a sermon. He spoke well, but he chose an unusually banal topic for a major holiday -- he talked about how we ought to connect more in person and not just electronically. Given that the median age in the room was probably 70, and most of them probably don't know how to text, it seemed like a wasted sermon. (I saw people from age 13 up, maybe even younger, but the room certainly seemed to be weighted towards people a generation older than I.) My daughter points out that people her age have heard that sermon dozens of times, and don't need to hear it again. Another friend said, "it might have made sense 8 years ago, when this was fairly new, but now we have generations who communicate in different ways, and the compelling question is how we can all work together, not why you need to put down your phone."
After that, the mourners in the room (those who have lost a parent in the last year, another close relative in the last month, or are remembering the anniversary of a death) were asked to stand, and then the whole congregation stood to join them, as we recited the Kaddish together. It's an odd prayer. It is very old, and in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. It is recited by mourners, and that's how people think of it, but it is simply a declaration of the greatness of God.
http://ift.tt/1ha6d83
Then the senior rabbi reminded us of the temple's annual charity drive, and urged us to give (on line) to one of the community services the temple supports, the assistant cantor chanted the blessing over the wine and sipped from the glass, and then he led us in another prayer-with-mostly-nonsense-words, and the service ended.
In the nature of giant congregations that one doesn't attend often, I met a couple of friends that I didn't realize were members as I left, so that was nice. :-)
The sanctuary is designed to be flexible. Usually, it's a large square room, about 60 ft tall, but for major events (like the high holidays) the wall between the sanctuary and the social hall is removed, and the combined room is slightly more than twice as large. (Although the ceiling of the social hall isn't nearly as tall, so the combined room has a funny appearance.) There's an ark, the structure where the Torah scrolls are stored, in the center front of the main sanctuary. It is too heavy to move, but almost everything else is centered on the long eastern wall, and the chairs are arranged in big semi-circles around that point. (For regular services, fewer chairs are arranged roughly in concentric circles.) The whole eastern wall is windows, although you can't really tell at night, but there's a nice view, through wooden blinds, into a wooded area in the day. The one other ritual furnishing that can't be moved is the "eternal flame", which represents the burning bush through which God spoke to Moses, and also the lamp that was always kept lit at the Temple in Jerusalem. Ours is suspended from the ceiling in front of the ark, and is solar powered. (with batteries so it stays lit all night, of course.)
There is a large raised stage front and center (called the bima) where the service-leaders stand, and on it there is a large table designed to hold a torah scroll, and a smaller table for other ritual objects. Tonight, that smaller table held a cup of wine, candles, and a large antelope horn (a symbol of the holiday.) The stage also had a pair of large flower arrangements, one on either side, all white flowers. In the back were two flags, the US flag a few inches higher than the Israeli flag.
This year, we got a new piece of ritual furniture, a small, portable ark, so the torahs could be housed in the center of the bima instead of way off to the side for the holidays. It was towards the back of the bima, behinds the large table.
We also have a lot of new clergy. We now have a senior rabbi, three junior rabbis, a cantor, and an assistant cantor. There were a few times when all of them were at the table, but other times, just 2-3 would be there, and the others sat, the cantors with the choir (seated "with" the congregation, but in a group in the front, stage right) and the rabbis with their families in the front row of the seating, mixed in with other people in that row.
The temple wasn't so large when I joined it, and it feels a little odd to have so many clergy knocking about.
The service started off with a song that has nonsense words. We have a lot of those (the words are typically "lai lai lai") and the purpose is to let everyone sing without needing to know the song or read. It works, and the congregation stopped talking and swayed to the music. After another song and some administrative stuff, the senior rabbi asked us to greet one another, and then he asked his wife to light the candles, and the main service began.
Most of our prayers are sung. I was seated between two people who used to be in the choir, so maybe my impression was biased, but it felt like a large fraction of the congregation participated. We use a lot of the same prayers for the high holidays as for ordinary Sabbath services, but the tunes are different. And there are always a few new tunes that the cantor introduces for holiday. Using music from various traditions is very "in" in Reform Judaism these days. The cantors teach the new tunes, so everyone can sing.
In addition to singing, we have instrumental music. I think only Reform Jews do that, since in general more traditional Jews avoid playing instruments on the Sabbath. The cantor uses a (miked) acoustic guitar, and with the chorus we had a piano, a cello, a bongo drum, a sort of recorder-like thing, and something that I didn't see that sounded like little bells, or maybe a metaliphone.
After the candle lighting, the congregation prayed "open my lips, that my mouth may declare your glory", and several prayers about the glory and greatness of God. There are are a couple of prayers specific to this holiday. One is a list of requests to "Our Father, Our King" (said in Hebrew, to avoid the male-biased words in English. When I was a kid, we read the whole thing in English.) asking for peace and strength and joy and mercy in the new year. There's also the prayer for the new season (said for new months, new babies, the start of long holidays, and of course, new years) and a little bit of other "New Year" content, although there's much more in tomorrow's service.
We prayed for the nation (for peace, for wise leaders...), prayed to the God of our ancestors, prayed to the creator of everything, declared that there is only one God, and a bunch of other regular weekly prayers, as well.
Then one of the junior rabbis gave a sermon. He spoke well, but he chose an unusually banal topic for a major holiday -- he talked about how we ought to connect more in person and not just electronically. Given that the median age in the room was probably 70, and most of them probably don't know how to text, it seemed like a wasted sermon. (I saw people from age 13 up, maybe even younger, but the room certainly seemed to be weighted towards people a generation older than I.) My daughter points out that people her age have heard that sermon dozens of times, and don't need to hear it again. Another friend said, "it might have made sense 8 years ago, when this was fairly new, but now we have generations who communicate in different ways, and the compelling question is how we can all work together, not why you need to put down your phone."
After that, the mourners in the room (those who have lost a parent in the last year, another close relative in the last month, or are remembering the anniversary of a death) were asked to stand, and then the whole congregation stood to join them, as we recited the Kaddish together. It's an odd prayer. It is very old, and in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. It is recited by mourners, and that's how people think of it, but it is simply a declaration of the greatness of God.
http://ift.tt/1ha6d83
Then the senior rabbi reminded us of the temple's annual charity drive, and urged us to give (on line) to one of the community services the temple supports, the assistant cantor chanted the blessing over the wine and sipped from the glass, and then he led us in another prayer-with-mostly-nonsense-words, and the service ended.
In the nature of giant congregations that one doesn't attend often, I met a couple of friends that I didn't realize were members as I left, so that was nice. :-)
Peppermint Patty goes to Erev Rosh Hashanah (Reform Jewish)
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