Here is a note from Hazzan Harold, who works with the Beit Midrash students every Thursday. Hazzan Harold creates an engaging Jewish musical experience:
Over the course of this year, my main tefilah/music/singing goals are as follows:
1) Developing a comfort and familiarity with the core prayers of Shacharit. I’m consciously choosing prayers that the kids are likely to encounter when they come into the Sanctuary at any point in the morning, this includes prayers from the early part of the service (Birkot HaShachar), the preliminary Psalms (Pesukie D’zimrah) and the main Shacharit service (Shema +V’ahavta, Amidah). In the second part of the year we will move to the Torah service, always bringing back melodies and prayers from previous weeks to reinforce concepts and practice reading, decoding and saying and singing the words.
2) Engage not only with the rote ‘speaking’ of the words, but with their meaning and allowing kids to make personal connections between the prayers and their own lives. One of the advantages to having more time with each group I see is the flexibility to engage the kids in conversation about a given prayer, and use that conversation to highlight the importance of knowing what you are saying and finding a way to bring your own meaning to it. This aspect of leading tefilah and music has been a real highlight and the students have a lot to say about the prayers!
3) Expanding the notions of what a prayer is. That is can be a melody, something silent, something not from the siddur or other ‘official Jewish book or text’, that it can live with or without music. When I go from a standard ‘fixed’ prayer in the morning service, and segue into a Beatles song, or meander off into some improvisation, that is both deliberate and conscious. I find it particularly important for students to know that it is not just okay, but vital to keep this experience fresh, spontaneous, fun, (funny- it’s okay to laugh during tefilah) and also not just about the prayers in the book. I encourage kids to clap, bang (with reverence) on their siddur, to move around if they feel like it. I insist that it not get out of control, but also that they realize that there are many ways to pray-with our feet, hands, breath, mouth, and on and on.
All of this is woven together into a really fun and meaningful experience that ideally will give the kids a natural connection to the prayers we sing together on Shabbat, but also that this experience should live on it’s own as a prayer and study experience unto itself.
Hazzan Harold
