Who is to blame
I go to shul in the morning in spurts. I will go almost every morning for a few months, and then something changes in our family schedule, and I end up davening at home for a few months, before going back again.
I have been going for the past two or three months, and it always strikes me that if we had to rely on people under 45 for a minyan, we would be hard pressed to do so.
I realize that some people work too early to attend our 6:55 minyan, and other people need to help get their kids off to school. Some people don't bother davening every day, while others go to other shuls.
Still, even with all that, it seems pathetic that the largest orthodox shul in Michigan has the most pathetic daily minyan attendance.
While everyone is to blame, who is to blame the most?
A) The Rabbi who has never, in his four or five years here, has never made a push to get people to come to minyan
B) The Yeshiva Education System, which emphasizes dressing for davening but doesn't care at all about davening so long as you come on time and are dressed "correctly."
C) The Members, who have turned T'filla into a low priority in our shul. We will show up for kiddush club and social events, but when it comes to Minyan, the primary reason for a shul's existance, we don't make it a priority
I have been going for the past two or three months, and it always strikes me that if we had to rely on people under 45 for a minyan, we would be hard pressed to do so.
I realize that some people work too early to attend our 6:55 minyan, and other people need to help get their kids off to school. Some people don't bother davening every day, while others go to other shuls.
Still, even with all that, it seems pathetic that the largest orthodox shul in Michigan has the most pathetic daily minyan attendance.
While everyone is to blame, who is to blame the most?
A) The Rabbi who has never, in his four or five years here, has never made a push to get people to come to minyan
B) The Yeshiva Education System, which emphasizes dressing for davening but doesn't care at all about davening so long as you come on time and are dressed "correctly."
C) The Members, who have turned T'filla into a low priority in our shul. We will show up for kiddush club and social events, but when it comes to Minyan, the primary reason for a shul's existance, we don't make it a priority
posted by Air Time at 9:43 AM
6 Comments:
yep -- noticed that for a long time. if it werent for the aks, there would be nothing happening in shul during the week.
and if it werent for the aks, there would not be any money for anything to happen in the shul.
so mad props to the aks, who keep the shul viable.
the situation certainly explains ak anger and frustration when certain youths want on the board, or want certain other changes to take place.
and dark clouds of anger and contempt upon the youths who _never_ or almost never show up to either morning or evening davening, winter or summer, sunday or weekday.
yep, the youths just dont care. the only way to get youths seems to be, god forbid, is if they have to say kaddish.
blame:
1) it is always the fault of the individual, who chooses not to come. this is a free country.
they are all into various functions, and doing all kinds of things for the shul, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of what makes a shul, they are not there. even on shabbos they show up late if at all. if this is how moderns act, how can anyone take them seriously, and why should they? they dont learn, they dont daven. but youre 'orthodox.' hypocrisy. what do they have? moderns suck.
2) the person you voted into rabbinic office has come through yet again. aside from his personal disregard for davening -- coming late, talking/palm-piloting during davening, while at the same time making his shma/shmona esrei last long enough so that _everyone_ must wait for him, while if he comes late he will daven remarkably quickly -- the person you voted into rabbinic office should do more.
in his yom kippur speech he said he was going to push the minyan thing, and of course hasnt. another case of rabbinic hypocrisy, and of saying i want another job. this does nothing to enhance the importance of minyan or rabbis.
3. i have no idea where you get B from. are we perhaps biting a bitter bone?
When there is an opportunity, I always blame the educational institutions that were supposed to provide people with the knowledge/skills/abilities to leave yeshiva and make a go of it.
Yehiva education fails it students in a number of ways, but looking at the adults those schools produce is a strong indictment against the system.
It is because they are so focused on trying to make sure students never leave the yeshiva world they don't prepare students for life outside the Beis Medrash.
i am glad to see that you are so punctilious about blaming educational systems, air.
but to be fair, if we define their goals as i think they do, which is to keep the grads orthodox, they do a bang up job of it. the rate of orthodox for life from the yeshiva system must be over 90%, for which they deserve a good deal of credit.
o, when will the bitterness pass?
Punctilious? I'm not sure what you mean, but I am quite certain you are using the word incorrectly.
Being that punctilious refers being attentive to the finer points of ettiquite, or, alternatively, means scrupulous or exact, I can tell that your english education rivals mine, probably at a Yeshiva soemwhere that put little emphasis on general studies.
As for your 90% stat, I am not sure where you get that from. Assuming it is true, I would put at least as much credit in the families that raise these children and the children's desire not to change (and possibly be cut off from their family) as I would for what the Yeshiva has done for the child.
I am not against all Yeshivas. I am disappointed with the Yeshiva world's inability to adjust to the modern-day student.
Most Yeshivish Yeshivas that I came across, either through attending the school or by talking tofriends who had, do not put any effort into developing the next geenration of Ballaei Batim.
Rather, they put down the Baal Habus, his lifestyle, his torah learning, and everything associated with those who left the yeshiva world to pursue a career outside the world of Torah.
Dear, take reponsibilty for yourself. I thought you didn't like the "high-school principal" thing anyway.
Where did you find it? Interesting read » »
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