Nostalgia

Last year, one of the baalEi mussaf in the NF's famous South Jerusalem shul decided to focus on his own nostalgia rather than picking melodies that would engage and uplift the kahal. The NF, among others, were rather critical of this focus on nostalgia. Following an uproar from a number of members (NF not included!), the shul va'ad as well as our Internationally famous Rav decided to avoid such a repeat situation all baalei tefilla this year would have to first present game plans to a forum of the gabbaim, baalei tefilla and rabbanim for discussion and approval. Not such a terrible idea given that the shul is made up of many native Israelis as well as olim from 10+ countries (with a heavy concentration on the UK, US, France, Switzerland and Australia) --- there are many ideas of what constitutes good davening!

Both the NF (Baal Shacharit - RH 2) and Dr D (Baal Mussaf - RH 2) were simultaneously annoyed and amused by this development. But the RH meeting, which occurred 2 weeks ago, was a real hoot. The 4 RH baalei tefilla bounced ideas off one another and came up with one cohesive style for the chag. Meanwhile, the old Yekkish Don also attended --- for every major part of the RH davening he kept throwing out what he viewed as necessary/uplifting/engaging. As this included mostly Lewandowski (or similar) or Shabbat zemirot popular in the 1960s --- we politely declined. (For the record, some Lewandowski is a must such as Zacharti Lach even for our modern pallets). As almost all of us had sung with choirs (or had davened in very formal shuls), when the Naumborg Seu Shearim was recommended by the Yekkish Don, we all broke into spontaneous rendition ending with a lot of giggles.  Let's just say ---- it did not make the cut.

For the record, let me state that Nostalgia is not bad ---- It has it's time and place. Two days ago while looking for something to listen to on youtube (while working through a rather tricky private equity investment model), I hit upon a set of recordings by Shlomi Honig --- Shlomi recorded a number of old yekkish nusach pieces found in an Encyclopedia brought from pre-war Germany at his grandparent's house in Kibbutz Chafetz Chaim. I literally got goose bumps as I heard a number of melodies that I hadn't heard since my childhood:

Lecha dodi for the three weeks
Titbarach for Shabbat morning (exactly as I remembered the German baaeli tefilla doing every Shabbat morning)
Brach Dodi (Pesach)
Lmaan Amitach (Sukkot) (a variation of what I knew as a kid)

Definitely worth a listen --- although I wouldn't dare use any of these melodies in shul (other than maybe Titbarach)!