Jewish Life Digital Edition September 2015 | Page 15

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It is little wonder that many of us often find the shul experience so frustrating and lacking meaning. And if that’s
for the “big game” on Shabbat morning,
what can we say about the weekday
prayers, which we approach as if the
two-minute clock has started and there
are no timeouts remaining?
The question is, why plan something,
set aside time and space for it, and then
do whatever we can to sabotage it? Why
commit ourselves to prayer, schedule it,
erect buildings where we engage in it, and
then show up unprepared and late, and go
on to distract ourselves and others with
chatter irrelevant to the ostensible purpose of our gathering together? Why assemble a team and act like anything but,
and certainly not do our all to achieve
success in what we have planned?
To employ another metaphor, I have often considered the difference between
jewish-life-ad-mci-2014-rosh-hashanah.pdf 1 2014/08/04 12:14:56 PM
how we attend movies and how we attend

Why commit ourselves to prayer, schedule it,
erect buildings where we engage in it, and then
show up unprepared and late, and go on to
distract ourselves and others with chatter
irrelevant to the ostensible purpose of our
gathering together?
shul. No one would pay fifteen dollars and
stroll in an hour late to a two-hour-long
movie. There’s no pausing or rewinding,
and we do not wander in and out at leisure. We do not leave early and miss the
ending, save in the rare case of a truly
atrocious movie. We generally adhere to
the rule of not engaging in conversation
during a movie, at least once the coming
attractions are done and the main feature
has begun. We glare at people who speak
loudly or at great length, and perhaps ask

them to stop, because we recognize that
they are disturbing the cinematic experience for others.
As far as shul goes, you can consider
yourself fortunate if you attend one
where there is not as much talking as
there is in most shuls. It does not matter
whether it is during the Torah reading or
the reading of the haftarah or even during the recital of Kaddish; some people
talk through all of it.
I will not address the phenomenon of

A wish for peace, good health
and good times for you on
Rosh Hashanah and always!

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photograph: Mike Morbeck

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