Along similar lines to the last post, walking back from shul this morning I just remembered this train of thought which came up last Monday at Talmud class…

We have been studying Tractate Taanit, the bits about mentions of rain in tefillah, when we talk about rain and when we don’t, and we started to discuss the evolution of the Siddur and the prayer service in general. The teacher mentioned that there is a move in some circles to begin to include petitionary prayers in the Shabbat service. Normally we refrain from petitionary prayers on Shabbat with the exception of Hashkiveinu (lay us down in peace, recited after Shema) and Misheberach L’Cholim, the prayer for the sick. The rationale is that those Jews who attend Synagogue only on Shabbat and Yom Tovim should have a chance to get in their petitionary prayers while they are there.

I didn’t say anything in class, but this quite upset me. Let’s slippery slope this one just a little… by this logic, we should accomodate those Jews who only come to shul on Yom Kippur by including all of the prayers said all throughout the year so that these once-a-year Jews could get all their Jewish in one dose.

Of course, these days we are lucky to find a Conservative Jew who attends synagogue every Shabbat. Frankly, though, I don’t think that those Jews who attend only on Shabbat will stop attending on Shabbat if petitionary prayers are not included, and I also do not think that those who do not attend even on Shabbat will be made more likely to attend on account of the fact that “Ooh! Now I can get in my petitionary prayers!” Just try to imagine a non-shul-going Jew saying that.

Yesterday when I went to morning minyan, one of the men asked me if I had a Yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death of a loved one, on which it is customary for one to say Kaddish, and in order to say Kaddish one must be in the presence of a Minyan. I told him no, and he looked suprised for a moment and said “Oh… you just came. Okay.” People seek out weekday minyanim when such a need arises for a specific reason. Even just for this reason I think that it is important to preserve the way in which we conduct our prayers on Shabbat and on weekdays. If a person really wants to get in a petitionary prayer, let them come to shul. The problem, of course, is that it is already so difficult to get a weekday minyan in a Conservative community that most shuls can’t afford to be open every weekday morning to provide the venue without the foreknowledge that the minyan will be guaranteed and that there is a need for it.

What needs to happen, I think, is that Conservative communities need to form something like a minyan-makers society: a committed group of adults who agree to hold morning services every day at some agreed-upon venue. It doesn’t have to be the shul. I believe that there are people out there who would like to pray everyday but don’t have the resources, the knowledge, education or support. I believe, again, that this is an area in which we need to not give in and give up, but rather just give an opportunity, and be patient. I believe strongly that Judaism can stand on its merits and that if we give our people the tools, they will come to it.