Over the past חול המועד my wife and I had the occasion to visit Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, for Minha/Arbit. In this post I will present a brief report of my observations there.
We arrived a few minutes early, with some time to get acquainted with our surroundings and settle in. We were given special חול המועד editions of their Book of Prayers (edited by R David de Sola Pool and first published by the Union of Sephardic Congregations in 1941), which had, in the inside of the front cover, an instructions page pasted, as well as a few minor additions throughout the book.
The Hazzan began the afternoon service with Psalm 84 (Tehilim are chanted before and after each service, thereby grounding the service in Biblical literature), which was chanted aloud by the Hazzan, with the congregation chiming in at specific points. (At this point the Hazzan sits on a bench facing his Reader's Desk, also called a Tebah, which is on a platform a few feet above the floor; the railing around the platform has long candlesticks that are lit at every service - originally to provide actual light but today just pro forma [1].)
The Hazzan then rose to begin Ashre, which was largely chanted aloud by the Hazzan, with the congregation chiming in at specific points.
The beginning (until האל הקדוש) and ending (from רצה until המברך את עמו ישראל בשלום) sections were chanted aloud by the Hazzan, with the congregation reading along in a whisper, except in certain places where they were expected to chime in, such as מודים, the beginning of which is chanted by the congregation with the Hazzan in unison. [2]
Alenu (of which only the first paragraph is said at all) was chanted in unison by the congregation with the Hazzan, to this tune.
The same pattern, more or less, was used for the evening service (preceded by Psalm 134 and concluding with Psalm 121) with the exception of the Hazzan chanting the Amidah aloud, which is not done at the evening service.
Following the evening service we had dinner in the Elias Room (a side room used as a Bet Midrash) sucah. This room is used all year for classes and the like. Before Sucot the roof is raised by a hydraulic system and the opening is covered with sekhakh [3].
On our way out we took a few pictures which we are happy to share with you:
I must add that, in general, the congregants were very kind and welcoming. We are looking forward to our next opportunity to visit.
[1] The congregation's current building was built in 1897, before electric power was commonplace. The entire building relied on candlelight until the 1920s, where electric power was installed.
Interestingly, the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam (also called the Esnoga - considered the mother synagogue of the Spanish-Portuguese congregations worldwide) as well as Bevis Marks (considered the mother synagogue of the Spanish-Portuguese congregations in England) still use candlelight to this day. (Some have commented to me that this phenomenon is in consonance with the concept of צורת הישיבה, in that an institution has a distinct character which needs to be preserved even in the appurtenances of its physical structure.)
[2] This is also done for מוסף on Shabbat and Festivals, the only difference being that מוסף is chanted aloud in its entirety.
The reason for this practice seems to be that, in the case of מנחה, people tend to be in a rush to get back to work and, in the case of מוסף, to finish the already-long service, so the early Western Sephardic rabbis established a Minhag that, for these services, the Hazzan should chant the entire Amidah aloud, with the congregation following along quietly.
[3] This was originally built with a mechanical system that needed to be cranked up, which is still done at the Esnoga.
No comments:
Post a Comment