SH’LIACH TSIBBUR – THE WORSHIP SERVICE LEADER To conduct a Jewish worship service is a great privilege and responsibility, an opportunity that is given to few. Whether for a ‘professional’, for a ‘regular congregant’with skills, or for someone asked because ‘no one else is available’, each of us faces the same challenges: a worship service belongs to a chain of tradition, yet each worship service is unique; however familiar it is, we need to review the structure and timing on each occasion; preparation includes liaising with others who play a part in this particular service; the clearer we have the flow of the service in our minds, the easier it will be for congregants to participate and follow; we should respect the minhag of those who want what is familiar – and be sensitive and prepare people when introducing something new. The challenge in a worship service is to be faithful to the liturgy itself, the structure and traditions that have come down to us over the centuries, but at the same time to respect the needs of those who are there, whether to pray or simply to be present. The service should be a ‘safe space’, one that meets the many different needs that people bring at different times. The words, music and ‘choreography’aim to build a collective experience, yet congregants can be helped to find their private space within it, to focus or simply daydream: through a few moments of stillness, perhaps wrapped in a tallit , before the service itself begins; during the prayer ribon ha–olamim which provides a kind of ‘spiritual questionnaire’; during the silences, when the second and third paragraphs of the Sh’ma are read or at the end of the Amidah . The Sh’liach Tsibbur is there for the sake of the service, and not the service for the sake of the Sh’liach Tsibbur ;
A prayer for the Sh’liach Tsibbur l ¥A ©w Accept my prayer as if it were what it ought to be, wise, eager and worthy of one who is profound and is able to express it, a person whose good nature is known to all.
o ¥w¨f z©N ¦t §z ¦M i ¦z¨N ¦t §Y l ¥A ©w mi ¦r¨p FlFw §e d ¤`¨p Fw §x ¦tE li ¦b ¨x §e :zFI ¦x §A ©d m ¦r z©r «©c §A a ¨[r §nE
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs