Did Jew Know That - We Won't Take This Sitting Down

by Rabbi Peg Kershenbaum, Temple Judea Scholar-in-Residence

When I was a little girl, I wondered about the ups and downs of the Shabbat service that I would attend. The rabbi’s “Please rise” was key. He would usually add “for the Bar’chu” or “for the Sh’ma” or “for the K’dushah.” “Be seated” was clearly a welcome command for some congregants as they plopped back down on the theater-style seats. After a while, I knew the routine.

I was shocked when I attended my friend’s Conservative synagogue. No one stood for the Sh’ma! Everyone stood for the whole Amidah, not just the K’dushah. That service was also much longer! And there were several times that the congregation mysteriously rose as one without a cue from the clergy.

And then there were the bows and bends and bouncing moves! The turning one way or another; the walking forward or backwards! I was a ballet school dropout, so the choreography was beyond my understanding.

In Judaism, there are laws (halachot) and customs (minhagim). In some branches of Judaism, halachah is considered binding and even sacred. In other branches, the ancient rules formulated by rabbis and sages are still being debated as they were before they made it into the rule book.

When the question first arose about how to recite the Sh’ma, the followers of Hillel said that it should be recited at the proper time in whatever position one found oneself in then that was comfortable and safe. The students of his halachic sparring partner, Shammai, argued that in the evening one had to say it lying down, but in the morning, standing up, because that’s what the next paragraph of the reading tells us. In some synagogues, they rise for the Bar’chu and then sit and stay in that position for the Sh’ma when they get to it.

Reform practice is to recite the Sh’ma while standing because we consider that reading to be “the Watchword of our faith.” There are two approaches to this. One was used by my rabbi long ago: we stood up for Sh’ma after having sat down at the end of Bar’chu for the rest of its blessings. The other is used in Temple Judea: we stand from the beginning of Bar’chu until we finish the six words of Sh’ma. Then we sit for the rest of the Sh’ma (V’ahavta, you shall love).

Did this get a rise out of you? Stay tuned for next week’s “action steps!”

Chazak! Chazak! V’nitchazeik! Be strong! Be strong! And let us strengthen one another!