Chazzan Tries To Sneak One Pop Tune Too Many Into Liturgy

Even among those not familiar with the provenance of the melodies, that something had gone wrong.

Jerusalem, February 11 – Awkwardness and recriminations descended upon a local synagogue over the weekend when the man leading the services pushed his luck by setting a section of the prayers to a contemporary secular melody, having already gotten away with three other attempts over the previous several minutes.

Shai Goldman, 47, fell afoul of the congregation’s sensibilities this past Shabbat morning at Kehillat Beit HaMaayan in the Katamon neighborhood when, after using a Beatles tune in Kedusha, and singing the concluding paragraph of special Shabbat benediction to a fair emulation of a Queen number, he tried to fit Sim Shalom to Luisa Gerstein’s 2009 version of Cups (When I’m Gone).

In a post-synagogue interview, Goldman recalled that the knowing smiles and smirking headshakes in response to his first two pop-song insertions gave way to anger and a sense, even among those not familiar with the provenance of the melodies, that something had gone wrong.

“Maybe I pushed the envelope a little,” he acknowledged. “I’ve tried it before, though not to the same extent, and not on a regular Shabbat. “Simhat Torah musaf lends itself to that kind of thing, but the most I can usually get away with is [sixteenth-century English tune] Greensleeves, or [Johann] Pachelbel’s Canon [in D major]. Ah, well. I guess the next few times I’m going to stick to traditional melodies.”

If there is a next time. Gabbai Moshe Gafni believes enough congregants felt offended that Goldman might suffer permanent removal from the chazzanut roster.

“It doesn’t have to be anywhere near a majority,” he noted. “A few loud or rich members pack enough of a punch to get their way, especially when there’s been a violation of norms.” Gafni believes the brouhaha will die down within a few months, but unless the synagogue faces a manpower shortage come September, Goldman will not lead any of this year’s High Holiday services, for the first time since he joined the community nine years ago.

A small cadre of Gen Z and younger Millennial attendees argued that Goldman did not go far enough. “This is the frontier of synagogue innovation,” insisted Ron Bar-Ohr, 20. “Partnership minyanim, egalitarian services, all that ‘progressive’ nonsense is all so… so earnest, so stultifying, affirming the significance of the very paradigms it’s trying too hard to break. We need more of what Mr. Goldman brought to the table, though perhaps without the cup percussion.”

“Also, ‘Baby Shark’ will forever remain off-limits,” she warned. “On pain of death. Or worse, expulsion.”

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