About this site/blog
This site/blog stems, originally, from a number of impetuses: many years as a participant, observer and leader of davening in Ashkenazi orthodox shuls; a background as a musician; and a growing sense, at least in the shul where I’ve been a regular for 20+ years now, that many people, both as leaders of the davening and participants, aren’t aware of the many little things that make the difference between a baal tefillah – kehillah combination that’s just so-so or ehhh versus one that’s really good, i.e. between a perfunctory davening, one that’s moving, and one that’s irritating.
Consequently, the primary purpose of this site/blog is to analyze those little things that make the difference between a mediocre davening and really good one, so that people – both as baalei tefillah and as participants in the kehillah – can musically improve those parts of the davening that are done out loud. It’s also, to a lesser extent, an opportunity for me to vent on those occasions when I hear something that strikes me the wrong way, and to comment generally on the (ab)use of certain melodies and those of the late R’ Shlomo Carlebach in particular.
A further impetus for the site/blog came with the passing of my father, Lou Feigelson z”l, on 27 Kislev 5779. Dad earned the moniker “Minyan Lou” due his coaxing, cajoling, coercing, conning and inveigling several dozen University of Michigan students into minyanim in 1976-77 when he was saying kaddish for his father, and he kept that nickname in the years that followed by consistently helping to make a minyan for others seeking to say kaddish in Ann Arbor. While my father did not consider himself a baal tefillah, and I don’t recall him ever leading the davening on Shabbat, he certainly appreciated a good davening, and he encouraged me, and later, my brothers, to learn to be baalei tefillah.
This is not a site about the art of hazzanut. Although there is not an insignificant amount of overlap between being a baal tefillah and a hazzan, and much if not all of what I have to say here will be well-known to professional hazzanim, hazzanut is an art form that is generally not meant to involve the kehillah in a participatory way. That’s not always a bad thing, as will become apparent later, but hazzanut is not the focus of this site.
It is also not my intention – at least not as this time – for this site to be a site that provides recordings of the different services, although I don’t rule out the possibility in the future. There are already a number of such sites on the web. However, I expect that in order to illustrate particular points, there will be recordings of various parts of various tefillot.
The title of site comes from the changes I have seen in the singing and the use of the tunes of the late R’ Shlomo Carlebach since his death in 1994, in ways that, for me at least, lessens their impact. I will have more to say about that later. The title is not related to revelations about the behavior of R’ Shlomo, particularly since the rise of the “#metoo” movement, although I will probably share my thoughts on that at some point as well.
Structure of this site
This site contains a long introductory section, which explains the different things that a good baal tefilla is aware of and controls during davening. The introductory section also relates to things that a good member of the kehillah is hopefully aware of, but might not be. Within the introductory section, there are some examples. Afterward, there are (or will be sections) pertaining to different parts of the davening, e.g. kabbalat Shabbat, Shabbat shaharit, hallel, etc. As this is a work in progress, I don’t expect all sections to be present or completed when I take this site live, so if this stuff interests you, check back periodically.