Jordan Lee Wagner - The Synagogue Survival Kit: A Guide to Understanding Jewish Religious Services

Jordan Lee Wagner lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife and children. He is an officer of his synagogue and an active volunteer in outreach. His work has appeared in such publications as The Journal of Chemical Physics, Soundwaves magazine, Byte magazine, and The Celator. Mr. Wagner has served several congregations as administrator, and has taught in Jewish day schools at all levels. He sings in various Jewish choirs and spends his time developing web sites and improving old houses.

I would like to thank Professor Lisa Kaczmarczyk, my parents Carol and Bernard Wagner, and my brother Daniel Wagner for reviewing the manuscript in its early stages and suggesting improvements in content, structure, and tone; my brother Mark Wagner for his thorough, thoughtful consideration of the entire manuscript in its later stages, significantly improving its readability and friendliness; Dr. Naomi Weinshenker, whose careful editing suggested additional improvements; and finally to the editorial and production team at Jason Aronson Inc. who caught so many more errors after I thought it was all done. Any remaining faults are entirely my own.

The inspirational thoughts and historical facts presented throughout this book were found over the years in diverse sources too numerous to recall here, including other books about Jewish prayer, Jewish magazines and newspapers, pulpit sermons, and Torah classes. Like the siddur (prayerbook) itself, this manuscript grew organically. Other than my structural approach to mapping the liturgy, very little is original. My selection and arrangement of material bespeaks a debt to these many authors, rabbis, and scholars.

I also thank my dear wife Sarah, wise and kind, energetic and selfless. Her patient contributions to my well-being and to the community have kept me on course through all endeavors. Also, hugs and kisses to my delightful, sweet daughters: Dina, Malkie, and Basya. I love you all more than I can write.

Finally, due thanks over the completion of this work must be expressed to the ultimate source of everything shehe-che- ya ,-nu v ki-y ma -nu v hi-gi- a -nu la-z man ha-zeh.

T his ritual is performed while standing. If you are wearing long sleeves, roll up the sleeve of your weak hand. Move any watches or jewelry to your other arm (or just remove them). Affix the heart/arm/hand tfillin loosely, on the uppermost muscle of your inside arm, so it would point to your heart if your arm were at your side. (Lefties use their right arm, even though this lessens nearness to the heartbeat.) The edge of the base that is attached to the strap is placed closest to the shoulder.

Say the blessing and then tighten the strap. Then wrap the strap around the arm in a spiral, moving down the arm toward the wrist, with the black side out. Ashkenazic Jews wrap it so the strap comes toward you over the arm, and away from you beneath the arm. The strap may be wrapped several times above the elbow to stabilize the position of the box, but must be wrapped around the arm seven times below the elbow.

Before continuing with the hand tfillin, we must free our hands so we can don the head tfillin. Bring the strap under your wrist to the heel of the hand, and across the back of the hand to the space between thumb and forefinger, and wrap it around your palm until it is short enough to tuck in the end, so that your hands are free.

Put the head tfillin on your upper forehead, centered between your eyes, with the edge of the base that is attached to the strap closest to the top of your head, and with that side of the box positioned at the hairline. Say the blessing (and associated text afterwards), fix the knot at the back of your head, and bring the straps over your shoulders so they hang down in front of you.

Finally, you finish donning the hand tfillin. Unwrap the strap from your palm, until the strap is now wrapped between your thumb and forefinger but has not passed across your palm. Now resume wrapping, but instead of crossing your palm, bring it only as far as the space between your middle finger and ring finger, and wrap it three times around your middle finger, first near the palm, then near the tip, and finally in between (but still on the side of the knuckle toward the tip).

Recite Hosea 2:2 12 as you do this, establishing the betrothal metaphor, as though the strap were a wedding ring.

Now bring the strap across the inside of the ring finger near the palm, and then out between the ring finger and pinky. Take the strap over the back of the hand to the space between thumb and forefinger (where it makes a V with the part coming from the heel), then across the palm, and across the back of the hand (turning the V into a shin). Any excess length can be wrapped around the palm over the middle of the shin, and tucked in.

To remove the tfillin, everything is done in reverse, also while standing.

All this is a lot easier to do than to describe. Ask someone to show you how.

T his book is an orientation to Jewish synagogue services and can serve as a roadmap for you. No matter what kind of synagogue you attend, the roadmap is the same. Less traditional synagogues may read some prayers in English translation rather than the original Hebrew, may replace some traditional prayers with newer versions, and may even omit some prayers; but the service will still touch on the same topics in the same order for the same reasons. So if you know the structure of the traditional service, you can readily find your place in any other service.

The converse is not true. The translations, replacements, and deletions made by one synagogue may be different from those made by another. Knowing one procedure does not prevent confusion when encountering another, because the underlying structure common to them both might not be obvious. This book maps the complete traditional structure, observable in practice at Orthodox synagogues, and also points out the differences commonly encountered in other synagogues. This will be the most useful method for most readers to become comfortable following a service and appreciating its various components, even if they dont ordinarily attend an Orthodox synagogue.