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"Dear friends,
I know that camp Hilulim is coming up soon, directly after Rosh Hashanah.
For those of you who might be at Kutchers before the camp, I thought you
might like to know that Dudu Fisher will be the Chazzan for services at the
resort.
Dudu is an awesome performer and knocked out audiences when he was in
Australia last year with his incredibly polished show, great onstage
presence and sense of humour."
OK, all good for the first two paragraphs- and then what happened? Since when is a chazzan (a cantor) a performer dealing with audiences in his/her role as a chazzan? Let alone a show and a stage. I was rather shocked. I mean, for a chazzn to also be a performer is far from unusual and not necessarily a bad thing. But for that to be how a cantor is described to people as positives for his ability to lead a good, meaningful service? Even if no one in the congregation says a word out-loud, I feel like the cantor in the context of worship is leading prayer and should be regarded as leading prayer. If ornate music helps that, then fine, but if it's just a performance then he/she isn't praying and the congregation isn't praying, nor is anyone even being prayerful. So what's the point?
I know that camp Hilulim is coming up soon, directly after Rosh Hashanah.
For those of you who might be at Kutchers before the camp, I thought you
might like to know that Dudu Fisher will be the Chazzan for services at the
resort.
Dudu is an awesome performer and knocked out audiences when he was in
Australia last year with his incredibly polished show, great onstage
presence and sense of humour."
OK, all good for the first two paragraphs- and then what happened? Since when is a chazzan (a cantor) a performer dealing with audiences in his/her role as a chazzan? Let alone a show and a stage. I was rather shocked. I mean, for a chazzn to also be a performer is far from unusual and not necessarily a bad thing. But for that to be how a cantor is described to people as positives for his ability to lead a good, meaningful service? Even if no one in the congregation says a word out-loud, I feel like the cantor in the context of worship is leading prayer and should be regarded as leading prayer. If ornate music helps that, then fine, but if it's just a performance then he/she isn't praying and the congregation isn't praying, nor is anyone even being prayerful. So what's the point?