All you have to do is measure two quantities:
1) The total length of the Torah service (or, as my grandfather z"l would insist, seder keriat hatorah; he would argue that there is no Torah "service" in the way that there is a shacharit service and a minchah service), measured from the beginning of Ein Kamocha (or however your congregation starts things off) to the final closing of the ark when the Torah is put away. In addition to the actual Torah and haftarah readings, this includes other elements that are essential (blessings before and after each aliyah; hagbahah and gelilah), conventional (carrying the Torah around the room; Ashrei; prayers for various countries), and complete wastes of time (waiting for olim to make their way to the front of the room; rolling a sefer torah that hasn't been rolled in advance; assigning aliyot that haven't been assigned in advance; the gabbai repeating each name in mi shebeirach lacholim).
2) The length of time for actual Torah and haftarah reading, measured from the beginning to the end of each reading and added together. This will, of course, vary significantly based on the length of the parashah. However, subtracting #2 from #1 should yield a characteristic number that is relatively invariant from week to week in a given community.
My first set of data is from a visit to DC this past Shabbat, and seems like a good place to start, since it struck me as middle-of-the-road for American egalitarian services with full Torah reading: neither the most efficient nor the most inefficient. Please post your data in the same format. It would be great to get data from lots of different types of congregations. Thanks in advance!
- Name and location of service: Adas Israel Traditional Egalitarian Minyan, Washington DC
- Type of congregation: lay-led minyan within a Conservative synagogue
- Type of Torah reading: full
- Parashah: Bo
- Length of Torah service: 57 minutes
- Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 25 minutes
- Difference in time: 32 minutes
- Special circumstances: none
Does this assume no d'var torah during the "torah service"? I suppose there's valuable information to be gained by counting the d'var torah, but it also would unfairly penalize communities with a long one when the torah's out (and favor communities with a long one after putting the torah away).
ReplyDeleteI'd propose that people should also time divrei torah during the torah service, and not necessarily subtract them, but at least provide them as a separate data point. (Those tracking the data can subtract them later to provide a characteristic number that's more comparable between communities, if they want.)
Saving time is not the primary reason for many shuls using the triennial reading. My shul at home uses it because it can barely get enough Torah readers for that, and so would never be able to get enough to do a full kriah each week.
ReplyDeleteI approve of your attempt to gather actual data, but I'm not sure shortening the time of the Torah reading is the primary motivation for the change. In the C shul I attended the triennial cycle was favored because there was less preperation required on the part of whoever was reading that week (90% of the time the part-time rabbi).
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted a shorter period of time spend on the torah service I would simply eliminate the misheberachs. If you're willing to throw halacha out the window, I'd also suggest only having 3 aliyot.
If you wanted a shorter period of time spend on the torah service I would simply eliminate the misheberachs.
ReplyDeleteHear hear!
I wonder how much of the keeping the misheberachs (in O shuls) is because people really do believe they are efficacious. I always waive mine (at least the optional second one) when I get an aliyah, but this seems to surprise the gabbeim until they get used to me.
ReplyDelete"Optional second one"? Wow, there are two misheberachs per aliyah in some shuls? I had no idea! What are they?
ReplyDeleteThe "optional second" mi-sheberakh is the same as the first one, except instead of the brakhah being for the oleh it's for whomever the oleh mentions (his family, the rabbi, gabbai, the shul neighbor) - it's sort of like the shul version of "shout outs." Also the brakhah is usually "on account that the oleh donates X dollars to the shul" instead of being on account of his getting an aliyah. The practice can easily add 20 minutes to keriat ha-torah but can also raise 10-20K for the shul over the course of the year. Some shuls auction prestigious aliyot and kibbudim on holidays. That can also add a lot of time to keriat ha-torah.
ReplyDelete* Name and location of service: Kehilat Hadar, New York NY
ReplyDelete* Type of congregation: independent traditional egalitarian minyan
* Type of Torah reading: full
* Parashah: Beshalach
* Length of Torah service: 58 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 30 minutes [That's 19 minutes for Torah and 11 minutes for haftarah. Compare this with last week's result of 21 minutes for Torah and 4 minutes for haftarah. I think this is the longest haftarah outside of Jonah. Some have suggested facetiously that there should be a triennial cycle for this haftarah. And Hadar (strategically?) had a fast reader; I imagine it could have taken 20 minutes with a slower reader.]
* Difference in time: 28 minutes
* Special circumstances: none (aside from the long haftarah)
Next week I'm leading musaf (including the end of the Torah service), so I'm not going to time it; others are invited to.
You were here in DC and you never told us?
ReplyDeleteOn the "too long haftarot" thing: Some Indie minyanim should just follow the pattern of Frankfurt and read the haftarot generally attributed to Sephardic communities. They are generally much shorter.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry to post consecutively like this, but I am in wholehearted agreement about certain congregations' obsession with Mi Sheberakhs. One particularly egregious example is the DC House of Chabad. Two Mi Sheberakhs for each oleh, and the Mi Sheberakh for the qahal is drawn out in the fanciest hazzanut normally reserved for the Qedusha prayer.
ReplyDeleteSince the thread seems to be degenerating into pet peeves (at least until next Shabbat when we get more data) I have to say it drives me wild when someone doesn't know all the names they want included in the misheberachs, so they ask their wives or other relations. "What's the name of your cousin, you know, Sheila's son?" Come on, guy, haven't you ever heard of interrupting the congregation?
ReplyDelete* Name and location of service: BZBI, Philadelphia, PA
ReplyDelete* Type of congregation: Conservative synagogue
* Type of Torah reading: full
* Parashah: Yitro
* Length of Torah service: 62 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 26 minutes (17 minutes for Torah and 9 minutes for haftarah, if I counted right.)
* Difference in time: 36 minutes
* Special circumstances: Regular ba'al koreh on vacation.
Dunash writes:
ReplyDeleteSaving time is not the primary reason for many shuls using the triennial reading. My shul at home uses it because it can barely get enough Torah readers for that, and so would never be able to get enough to do a full kriah each week.
That may be the reason in some places, but not everywhere. For example, BJ uses the triennial cycle. They have thousands of members, a critical mass of whom are Jewishly literate, so they would be able to find enough Torah readers to read the full parsha each week if this were a priority. Therefore, their reason for doing triennial must be something else.
* Name and location of service: CCAR Convention, Jerusalem
ReplyDelete* Type of congregation: sui generis. Annual conference of North American Reform rabbis (held in Israel every 7 years).
* Type of Torah reading: 3 aliyot from the beginning of the parasha. (Haftarah reading was unconventional and midrashic.)
* Parashah: Terumah
* Length of Torah service: 76 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 12 minutes
* Difference in time: 64 minutes
* Special circumstances: The Torah service included the installation of the new president (mazal tov!), addresses by the outgoing and incoming presidents, recognition of the class of 1959 (celebrating 50 years in the rabbinate), and more fanfare.
* Name and location of service: Kehilat Hadar, New York NY
ReplyDelete* Type of congregation: independent traditional egalitarian minyan
* Type of Torah reading: full
* Parashah: Vayakheil-Fekudei / Shabbat Hachodesh
* Length of Torah service: 76 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 41 minutes
* Difference in time: 35 minutes
* Special circumstances: double parsha AND two sifrei torah (with a nontrivial maftir) AND birkat hachodesh
* Or Shalom, Vancouver, BC
ReplyDelete* Jewish Renewal synagogue
* Type of Torah reading: sparse (6 or 7 verses, can't remember which now)
* Parashah: Tetzaveh
* Length of Torah service: 50 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 30 minutes [just for Torah reading; there wasn't a haftorah reading].
* Difference in time: 20 minutes
* Special circumstances: three aliyos, with each one involving telling stories about why they felt the need for the honour that week, who they're honouring/remembering; last aliyah was for everyone who wanted one and each person who went up (about 25 people) said a few words about why they wanted it. Took a long time!
feygele-
ReplyDeleteWas all of this storytelling, etc., during the aliyah (i.e. they said the initial berachah, read the first pasuk, told stories, read more pesukim, and said the final berachah)? If not, then it doesn't count toward the time for Torah reading.
* Name and location of service: Havurat Shalom, Somerville MA
ReplyDelete* Type of congregation: the Ur-havurah
* Type of Torah reading: 3 aliyot, no haftarah
* Parashah: Vayikra
* Length of Torah service: 61 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 6.5 minutes
* Difference in time: 54.5 minutes
* Special circumstances: Torah discussion
It went:
ReplyDeleteGabbai (rabbi, who was also leyning) called up first aliyah (two or three people). They talked, said brakha together. A couple verses were read. Brakha. Gabbai calls up next aliyah, they talked, brakha, a couple verses were read, brakha. Gabbai calls up the entire congregation, who stand in a big huggy circle around the torah, each tell stories, brakha, read, brakha.
Ok, so let's call it 50 minutes total, 2(?) minutes of actual Torah reading, and 48 minutes difference?
ReplyDeleteSure. 2 + 48 = 50.
ReplyDelete* Name and location of service: Kehilat Hadar, New York NY
ReplyDelete* Type of congregation: independent traditional egalitarian minyan
* Type of Torah reading: full
* Parashah: Tzav / Shabbat Hagadol
* Length of Torah service: 52 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 23 minutes
* Difference in time: 29 minutes
* Special circumstances: none
* Name and location of service: B'nai Yehuda Beth Sholom, Homewood IL
* Type of congregation: Reform synagogue
* Type of Torah reading: 3 aliyot (corresponding to the first ~5 traditional aliyot) plus the festival maftir
* Parashah: Shabbat Chol Hamo'ed Pesach
* Length of Torah service: 36 minutes
* Length of time for Torah and haftarah reading: 9.5 minutes
* Difference in time: 26.5 minutes
* Special circumstances: two sifrei torah