A friend of mine had a father who was a pulpit rabbi. Inconveniently, their synagogue was situated next to a fire station. Each and every Saturday morning, the fire station would test their alarms at 12 pm on the dot. For those not in the know, most American shuls try to end their services and transition to kiddush/lunch around noon. Go too far past that artificial time barrier, and community members will often start to get restless. With the fire station bells, this community had an alarm clock that would jolt the community out of their prayers if they didn’t finish by the time those bells went off.
While spiritual experiences are most meaningful when time seems expansive (and maybe is), few of us have the luxury to daven until mincha, the afternoon service, rolls around (for a notable exception, see the Leader Minyan in Jerusalem). As prayer leaders, we make all sorts of decisions about where, when, and how long to sing or talk as a part of a service, in part to arrive at our destination on time. We have a set length of service and a standard but flexible liturgy, and it’s our job to figure out how to get the community from one stop to the next by noon.
It is not uncommon that we arrive towards the end of the service, through no fault of our own, to discover that we have 15 or 20 minutes of liturgy to fit into 10 minutes of time. How do we still hold our spiritual container while we sprint towards the end?
The solution to the time crunch, if we’re set on getting there close to on time, is obvious: we need to speed daven to the end of the service. The challenge, however, is that rushing through the words of prayer does not feel very spiritual - it just makes everyone feel anxious. You might as well end the service then and there.
If we wish to hold a spiritual container while speeding up, we must learn to stretch and pull at words and vary our pitch, providing some flow and movement so that the prayers still feel like they’re alive. Additionally, we should try to move quickly only for the pieces that the prayer leader leads - when it’s time for the community to join in, slow down as you arrive at those moments, and then maintain a regular speed to let the community sing when it’s their turn to participate. You might also have to make some hard decisions to arrive faster, such as cutting a piece you were planning to sing or daven something with mumble instead of aloud.
While I’ve tried to convey this concept in words, I find that it’s best understood by watching and experiencing, so I’ve included a video demonstrating what I mean here. See if you can notice how the tempo speeds and slows and the pitch is not monotone, but has some flow to it, and let me know what you think!
I’d love to hear from you - what are the ways that you maintain a spiritual container while moving the service along? Leave a comment below, and subscribe to join our pray-er community!
