If the congregation ran a poll, he would rank fifth among the four regular chazzanim.
Leonia, New Jersey, January 28 – Premature departures of a large number of synagogue attendees long before the conclusion of the evening liturgy on Friday nights have driven the man who led those services to a conclusion that those who know him will fund unsurprising: the shul needs to extend the proceedings by another few minutes of his singing.
Gershon Arad, 55, who serves as head gabbai and often appoints himself to lead services, has decided to address on his own the phenomenon of people skipping out early, by singing portions of the prayers that no one ever sings, and by chanting certain melodies all the way through at least once and only then singing them again with the actual words, in the hopes that this will convince people to stay.
Arad has yet to explain the mechanics of his choice.
His solution was in evidence this past Friday evening. Despite the unexpected presence of a capable substitute whose voice the community only occasionally gets to hear, Arad insisted on taking the reins because he wanted to impress a guest. Whether the guest was impressed after the disjointed, amateurish display that followed remains undetermined.
The Carlebach-style congregation Beit Sasson, where Arad has served for more than a decade, suffers a shortage of capable manpower; its core constituency features only a handful of members with the experience, knowledge, confidence, and voice to lead services heavy on singing, but also dependent on an assertive chazzan to maintain order and pacing. Thus, Arad has ample opportunity to play the role of chazzan, of which he fancies himself a fine specimen, when, if the congregation were to conduct a poll, he would rank fifth among the four regular and semi-regular candidates.
Thus, following a Kabbalat Shabbat in which Arad decided L’cha Dodi needed three different melodies instead of the standard number of two, and during which he repeatedly chose a key too high for him to hit all the notes – a habit he has long exhibited – the sanctuary began emptying out, but about half the places remained occupied when Ma’ariv, the nighttime service, began. However, after the core element of the service, the Amidah, concluded, Arad decided spend fifteen minutes on three pages of liturgy, despite the constant flow of attendees out the door.
Next time, Arad disclosed, he plans to sing all of the Kaddish Shalem, and not just the last three paragraphs, and to look around, pleased with himself, as if everyone came specially to hear him perform.
Interviews with those who left early proved hard to come by, as they vowed never to come back after such a fiasco.
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