Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on September 19, 2014

Rosh Hashanah synagogue services: meaningful or just a marathon?

By Maayan Jaffe/JNS.org

There are four sounds that the shofar makes on Rosh Hashanah. The tekiah is a basic note of moderate length. Shevarim breaks the tekiah into three short notes. Teruah breaks the tekiah into nine smaller notes. Tekiah gedola takes the standard tekiah and makes it three times as long.

Synagogue services, too, have varying lengths. There are short services, such as the evening service on Rosh Hashanah, and even shorter ones like the weekday afternoon service (mincha). In fact, mincha can be so short that Rabbi Randall J. Konigsburg of Temple Beth El in Birmingham, Ala., has seen Israeli bus drivers jump off the bus, daven (pray), and jump back on the bus without losing much time on their route.

The same cant be said for shacharit (morning service) and mussaf (additional service) on Rosh Hashanah far from it.

The Rosh Hashanah morning service is designed like the tekiah gedola, Konigsburg tells JNS.org. The theme of the day is the coronation of God as ruler of the universe. A coronation is filled with pomp and ceremony, and that is what the Rosh Hashanah service is all about.

It sounds nice in theory, but realistically, how many Rosh Hashanah services have you spent in the hallway chatting with your friends, bemoaning the length of the rabbis speech or the operatic performance of the cantor?

I understand having kavanah (proper intention) on Rosh Hashanah, but to elongate something that normally goes 25-30 minutes to an hour seems pointless, laments Gabriel Lewin of Pikesville, Md. And while I appreciate the need for shuls to raise money and to sell off honors, like getting an aliyah [to the Torah], the problem is it turns into 35 minutes of grandstanding and it also wastes a lot of time that could have been spent doing something more kadosh (holy).

Hannah Heller, also of Pikesville, says she remembers being frustrated as a child in shul when davening seemed endless and the people talking was such a distraction that I wondered why I had to be there all those hours. Today, Heller said she still finds Rosh Hashanah services to be long, but they are also very meaningful for her. It was a matter of finding the right synagogue in Netivot Shalom, a modern Orthodox establishment where, according to its website, everyone has a voice.

Those who lead the davening do a lot of catchy, popular tunes and people are encouraged to sing along, says Heller, noting that the tunes make her a part of the service. Heller says the speeches at Netivot Shalom are kept to a minimum and given not only by the rabbi, but also by members of the congregation. And while a lot of traditional singing takes place, the person who leads davening avoids making it a

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Rosh Hashanah 5775

Category: Synagogue
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