Second day Shuvuot. Rabbi Steven Weil of Beth Jacob, not the shy retiring type, lost patience with Jay Braun who is a great baal koreh (leader of prayer) but a little too into his own singing.
Even at a good clip, davening takes many hours on a Jewish holiday and some less spiritual types than myself like to get it over and done with so they can go home to eat, sleep and make merry with their wives and children.
I don’t know why this type of lashon hara must spread around the community. I am only blogging about it so that we can get this issue out into the open, disinfect it with the sunshine of publicity, and then proceed as if it never happened.
Word.
Lou posts:
Your facts are off, Luke.
Weil was just trying to get the larger-than-normal Yizkor-enhanced crowd quieted down. His comments did lead to a discussion with Braun later on, but I saw the two of them laughing it up at kiddush last shabbos, so it couldn’t have been such a big deal.
If Weil’s comments implied some loss of patience, it was not with Braun, but with the men’s choir — or, more correctly, the whole package. On most occasions, Braun’s davening manages to be no-frills and high-quality at the same time. On this particular occasion, Braun was conducting Musaf with the choir, with whom he has never, to my knowledge, led services. Quite an achievement for a bunch of volunteers who had not even practiced together.
You’re about three weeks late with this “scoop”, and by now you should have, in your own words, proceeded as if it never happened. If continue to disparage a rabbi who works 24×7, or a baal koreh who leins almost flawlessly week-in, week-out for no pay, you will lose credibility when you have something truly newsworthy to report.
