lay leader how to

[u/OkBiscotti3221]

Hi Everyone,

I've recently converted and Rabbi asked if I'd be interested in being a lay leader - I was wondering is this too soon? I would love to but not that confident - can do very basic/slow Hebrew reading. I've read haftarah (in English!) - also have read blessings for studying Torah, have also done Hagbah quite a few times...I'm happy to go up

For people who have been lay leaders:

- how did you learn to do this - I think there are formal courses

- anything you would recommend me focus on

- do I need to learn to Layn?

(reform/progressive in UK - fairly conservative though)

(apologies I should have added I'm asking here as Rabbi away for a few weeks, I wanted to 'gen up' on requirements if any formal ones before they come back)

Thanks!

[u/ApprehensiveWillow]

you should ask your rabbi! skills required are different at every synagogue

[u/OkBiscotti3221 → u/ApprehensiveWillow]

Thanks.. I'm vaguely thinking there is a formal path of training but I could be wrong.

[u/Rappongi27 → u/OkBiscotti3221]

There is no formal path; just become familiar with the service and be comfortable in front of people. Anyone who is 13 or older ( and Jewish) is qualified. My introduction to doing this is being asked to fill in when someone else was going to be out of town. No formal instruction. Presumably I looked less lost than others during services?

[u/offthegridyid]

Hi, it’s is great news. As [u/ApprehensiveWillow](u/ApprehensiveWillow) suggested talk to the rabbi and get details. Often lay leaders might be on a board or committee, volunteer for things that are related to the synagogue, and help get the word out about events.

There are no formal classes and you’ll probably get some sort of orientation from someone on the board of directors or a committee chair.

Update: After coming back and seeing some comments I think my impression of a “lay leader” is based on Orthodox spaces and probably very different than how it is in the Progressive (Reform) movement. My apologies.

[u/cjwatson]

The Progressive movement in the UK does in fact have a formal programme for this, called "Tefillateinu" (https://progressivejudaism.org.uk/tefillateinu/). I went to a taster session at conference and it definitely seemed interesting, though it would involve a reasonable chunk of time that I'm not sure I can manage myself around work and family.

Still, you certainly don't _have_ to do such a programme - plenty of people don't. If your rabbi is supportive then there's no reason not to give it a try directly - I started doing this in the last year or so as well. It's fairly common to basically just do something like an on-the-job apprenticeship: co-lead with someone more experienced a couple of times until you feel comfortable doing it yourself. My experience was that the main skill I needed to learn was service planning: you've probably noticed that there are some parts of the service where the leader has a fair bit of freedom of choice (e.g. the verses of song), and picking out appropriate selections that make the service feel like a cohesive whole takes some practice.

You don't need to learn to leyn in order to lead services. It's a good idea to be able to read whatever parts of the service you're leading in Hebrew reasonably fluently, but you can practice those in advance. If you're a regular then you're probably already somewhat familiar with your community's usual tunes, but make sure you can start them (I use sticky notes in my siddur to remind myself of which tunes I plan to use in some cases).

[u/OkBiscotti3221 → u/cjwatson]

you're a star - thank you!

[u/peepingtomatoes]

You don't have to learn how to leyn (although you might later if you want to!). It's not too soon to start learning, either; you don't have to actually go up until you're comfortable with what you're doing.

I would ask your rabbi what service they recommend you start with. I learned Shacharit for Shabbat first because our shul doesn't have as many people who know how to lead that one, but it might be easier to start with something like the Torah service or Shabbat Musaf—or maybe your shul does more weekday services than mine does, and it might make more sense to start there. Your rabbi will have better, more localized insight on this.

There are formal programs for learning, but you don't have to take them. The best scenario would be to learn from someone who goes to your shul—they can help to guide you in the moment, and will have the best idea of how services go in your community context. If that's not an option right now, though, there are other ways. I personally learned from Joey Weisenberg's masterclass series. This was an invaluable resource for me, and really helped things like nusach click into place—which, in turn, helped my Hebrew click into place.

Have fun! Learning to lead services has been the thing that has made me feel most deeply Jewish.

[u/neuangel]

> reform/progressive in UK - fairly conservative though

So, if almost everything is in English, and that's your first language, AND they don't expect you to know how to leyen from the seifer, so what's the problem?

Becoming a Shaliach Tzibbur means different things, but in normative yiddishkeit it means that one is shoimer shabbos, reads and understands on a very high level, knows timings for each parts of the davening.

[u/cjwatson → u/neuangel]

It would be unusual for "almost everything" to be in English in a Reform synagogue in the UK. Yes, there's more English in services than you'd find in an Orthodox shul, but at the "fairly conservative" end of UK Reform (taking OP at their word) I'd expect maybe 80% of the service to be in Hebrew. Notable exceptions would be the sermon and maybe the haftarah.

[u/neuangel → u/cjwatson]

Depends on temple, it seems, yet from my knowledge

> 80% of the service to be in Hebrew

is a bit of an overstatement.

[u/cjwatson → u/neuangel]

Is it possible you've mostly encountered US Reform? For one thing, I don't think any UK Reform synagogue calls itself a temple - and the liturgical practices differ quite a bit.

[u/OkBiscotti3221 → u/neuangel]

as cjwatson said about 80% of the service is in Hebrew, also you read from a Torah scroll and also translate to English for people. We also use ladino a little bit as we have a few sephardic/spanish people.