Place-marking [was: Rahel Jaskow article]

[SamWeiss <SamWeiss...>]

At 08:53 AM 2/13/02, r l reid wrote:
>A nice article about Rahel Jaskow's debut album is in the Jpost today
>http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/12/Culture/Music.43301.html
>She has some comments on raising her own voice in public prayer, as well.

The Jerusalem Post article is also relevant to the recent discussion on 
this list regarding independent album production, making the case for 
CDbaby.com.

In case you make it all the way to the end of the article, there is a 
statement by Ms. Jaskow that calls for comment:

<<She makes clear, however, that as a prayer leader she is not a hazanit. 
"My job is to be a place marker, not a performer," Jaskow says. >>

This remark betrays a confusion (in the mind of the reporter and/or of Ms. 
Jaskow) about the role of a Jewish prayer leader -- which seems to be 
tangled up in another confusion about the term "hazzan" (of which 
"hazzanit" is the neologistic feminine form).  The role of a Jewish prayer 
leader is to be a facilitator of prayer.  ("Hazzan" etymologically means 
"supervisor". Another name for this person is "sh'liakh tzibbur," meaning 
"emissary of the congregation".)  The amount and character of this 
facilitating has varied through the ages, according to the needs and 
customs of the community. One form that this role has taken is the 
enhancement and intensification of the prayer experience by means of 
aesthetic embellishment of the prayers, or "Hazzanut". This role can also 
be shared by a synagogue choir, composer, conductor, instrumentalist, etc.

People who are out of the loop of such an enhanced prayer experience, 
whether by personal temperament, ideological conviction or general 
disengagement from the the prayer experience, tend to describe it with the 
word "performance" instead of words like "service, davening," etc. and to 
refer to the hazzan dismissively as a "performer."  While ego gratification 
is certainly a component of most conscious human activity, the choice to 
dwell on the performance aspect rather than the worship aspect of what a 
professional prayer leader does often says more about the worshipper than 
about the "performer".  Even in a cantorial concert setting outside of a 
synagogue, where the performing will dominate over the praying, the latter 
is rarely totally absent.

Getting back to Rahel Jaskow's statement: Some prayer leaders in Othodox 
womens' minyanim choose to sidestep the various halachic obstacles to their 
activities by recasting what they are doing into the category of 
"place-marking" rather than prayer-leading.  (I don't think they are 
thinking of what dogs do to fire-hydrants, but to the function of 
scoreboards, etc.)  In a similar vein, if they perform a Repetition of the 
Amidah it may not be a "repetition" but a delay of their personal Amidah 
recited out loud.

In sum, between "place-marking" and "performing" there is 
"prayer-leading."  Perhaps the Jerusalem Post reporter meant to say
<<She makes clear, however, that as a prayer leader she is not a prayer 
leader...>>
Or maybe place-marking is a more rewarding experience than I had thought.

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