It's time to talk tachlis ("brass tacks") about creating joyful Judaism. What are the specific things that Jewish communities can do to create services that inspire meaning, joy and fulfillment?
My experience as a leader of Jewish worship is that prayer is most meaningful—and joyful—when it is connected to people's lives outside of the synagogue. If worship is just a ritual people go through, without any reflection or relevance to their daily lives, then it will wash away from their awareness the moment it is done and it will never really have the power to engage or move them. The challenge for the worship leader always is to connect the worshippers—to each other, to God, and to their own lives.
1) Make each aliyah in the Torah service an invitation to self‐reflection. I first saw this technique in the Renewal Movement and it seems to be spreading. Each aliyah is a group aliyah in which the gabbai (the person leading the Torah service) announces a theme connected to the reading. For example, on this coming Shabbat, there will be an aliyah in which we will hear a description of the Urim and Thummim, the ritual objects used by the ancient High Priests to discover the hidden will of God. This aliyah might become an opportunity to invite to the bimah "those who are struggling to find out what God wants from them right now." In this way, the experience of the aliyah becomes more personally meaningful and it becomes an opportunity for the worshipper to connect his or her worship experience to the events happening in his or her life.
2) Use the blessing for the month as an opportunity to reflect on the last month and on the coming month. There is a traditional prayer recited during Shabbat morning service when the new moon will occur during the following week. The words of the blessing wish the community a month of happiness, prosperity, reverence and well‐being. I take a moment before the blessing to ask people to silently reflect on their experiences during the past month before we bless the new month. Those thirty seconds of silence give people the chance to think about what is happening in their lives in the context of holiness. It also makes the blessing that follows more meaningful, because it lifts it out of the realm of abstraction and drives home the idea that the blessing actually refers to the real‐life experiences they anticipate in the coming four weeks.
3) Take a moment after group study to use Kaddish DeRabbanan as a meditation on the coming week. I conduct a text study immediately following services every Shabbat morning. I always end the study with the recitation of Kaddish DeRabbanan—the traditional prayer for the conclusion of study. Before we recite the prayer, however, I ask the congregation to think about our learning together as if it were an offering that we have placed upon the altar to send upwards. In return, I say, we are blessed to receive from above a touch of divine energy (shefa) that will sustain us through the coming week. Our challenge is to take that energy away from the study table and to use it in our daily lives. I ask the members of the congregation, each in his or her own heart, to decide on one thing they will do in the coming week—something that they had not already planned on doing—that will make the meaning of the words we have studied come to life. We stand in silence for a moment before reciting the prayer together.
The idea of keeping worship connected to life is reflected in this week's Torah reading. Parashat T'tzaveh begins with a commandment about the ner tamid (eternal light) that was lit in the Mishkan (the portable tabernacle that the Israelites carried through the desert). Moses instructs the priests to keep the light burning continually. To the masters of the hasidic tradition, the eternal light of the Mishkan was connected to the light of our own souls. We are commanded to keep the fire burning within ourselves, not just when we are praying, but throughout all of our busy days.
a great fire can again be kindled.
But without that spark there can be no fire.
when you feel unable to ascend to God.
lest the fire of your soul be extinguished.
As prayer leaders, we have an obligation to tend to the fire of people's souls, just as the priests tended to the ner tamid. Our obligation extends beyond the time that they are sitting in the synagogue, and, to do this, we must make sure that the worship experience is something they will carry into the stretches of time between their visits to the synagogue.
I love the idea of your blog. Yasher Koach. I wanted to comment on a small detail - not at all the core of what you say. Most liberal Jews do not know Kaddish D'rabbanan because we do not do it much. Why not recite it in Hebrew so people can learn it? That's how we all learn. I think as Reform rabbis we often set the bar too low. I look forward to more posts.
When I reflect on the time when you were my rabbi, what you talked about all the time was that services should be "meaningful". Indeed, you use that word here and I think it is a more accurate description of the techniques you describe here, to provide meaning and relevance to worship. Sometimes that may be joy but it doesn't have to be so. In fact, it seems to me that there are not a lot of Torah portions that are particularly joyous.
For pure joy at your services, it's Hallelujah!
Lovely blog, Jeff, and some wonderful ideas! Something I've been doing on Shabbat morning that seems to work well is occasionally during the yotzer blessing (usually right after we sing "El Adon," I give a brief intro on the theme of Yotzer, the celebration of the natural world and Creation. I ask folks to share briefly some experience in/of nature from the past week or so, usually in connection to whatever season it is - last Shabbat, it was about sharing something positive about snow (given all the tsurris it's been causing us here in New England!). But at another time it might be about spring, or the end of summer, or fall, or rain. It's quite lovely, folks share something brief - an encounter with a bird, a flower, a certain smell or how the light hits the trees. Then we close the Yotzer with "Or Chadash". A nice way to invite people's real experiences into the service.
Jeff, great blog. Love the ideas in this posting especially.
We have added a D'var Refuah to our service, just before the Mi Shebeirach. During it, we talk about situations of brokenness and healing within the community. Sometimes, with the permission of our congregants, I will talk about the struggles people are going through. Sometimes, we reflect back on events weeks or months ago, which parallel the illness or struggle in our lives.
The Mi Shebeirach should be more than a spoken or sung prayer. Shouldn't it be a moment also to speak truths about our struggles - with physical illness, mental illness, emotional turmoil or spiritual struggle?
Thank you for all the comments, especially the ideas for more joyful and meaningful worship practices. I know that there are a lot more ideas out there. Please take the time to leave a comment about the practices that have meant the most to you.