Unsung Heroes
Sold-out conference honors those who make the Torah service run smoothly

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

What do you do when you have three bar mitzvas, two yahrtzeits, and a wedding in the congregation in the same week, and you’re the gabbai — the person responsible for giving out the Torah honors on Shabbat?

The sometimes touchy choreography of the synagogue service was just one of the subjects of a day-long conference held Feb. 5 at the headquarters of the Orthodox Union in lower Manhattan. Some 130 gabbaim (plural of gabbai) gathered to discuss the occupational hazards — and rewards — of ensuring that services run smoothly on a daily or weekly basis.

Gabbaim are lay leaders who volunteer to help with the Torah reading, usually bestowing aliyot — honoring a congregant or visiting worshiper with the opening and closing prayers that accompany the reading of sections of the Torah portion — or other honors and ensuring the accuracy of the Torah reading. They are often considered the unsung heroes of congregational life.

“They are the true oskei tzibur [community workers] who work for the benefit of the congregation. These are volunteers who are vital to the shul’s operation and are often underappreciated,” said Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler of Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob and David in West Orange, which sent the largest contingent of gabbaim to the conference of any Orthodox synagogue.

“They are the nitty-gritty of the shul, the everyday generals,” said OU president Stephen Savitsky.

Mitch Cohen of West Orange, a gabbai at AABJ&D, was delighted when he first heard about the conference. “I never saw anything like it before. I’m a gabbai, and it seemed like an interesting opportunity to see what other people are doing.”

According to OU officials, the conference was intended to shine a light on the practitioners. “We take certain services the community has to offer for granted,” said Rabbi Moshe Krupka, OU national executive director. “At this organization, we take nothing for granted. We must give everyone the resources and training to enable them to be all they can be.” The goals of the conference were to provide practical tips, to offer a sense of camaraderie, and to create a relationship between individuals at the synagogues and the OU, according to Savitsky.

The day included study of Jewish law, tips for recognizing a Torah scroll that is ritually unfit, even technological solutions to problems confronted by gabbaim.

The OU has been holding conferences to spotlight different segments of the synagogue population, from presidents to mikva attendants. This one was wildly popular. In the days leading up to the gabbai conference, close to 140 people were turned away, according to Krupka.

The conference was also available via webcast to participants who subscribed from Australia, England, and Israel, as well as communities throughout North America.

Many of the presenters peppered their talks with stories from the trenches; often, humor emerged in the interactive sessions. During a talk on handling decorum in shul, Gary Buchwald of Congregation Darchei Noam in Oceanside, NY, discussed options for managing talkers. He raised the idea of asking offenders to leave the sanctuary.

“On one occasion, the rabbi asked the president to leave,” Buchwald recounted.

A participant raised his hand and asked, “Did the president ever ask the rabbi to leave?” Solutions to the talking issue ranged from the preachy — having the rabbi give a brief class on the meaning of prayer — to the radical — changing the model to a strict two-hour service and having the rabbi deliver the sermon after Adon Olam, the closing hymn.

Involving women

The question, however, that left presenters at a loss for solutions and tips came at the very end of the day, in a panel discussion on the Role of the Gabbai in the Shul and in the Community, moderated by OU executive vice president Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb. The question focused on how to involve women in the service, where in Orthodox synagogues, the central ritual roles are reserved for men.

“I see some women involved in the shul and they daven with more kavana [spiritual concentration] than their male counterparts,” said a participant in a question to the panelists. “How do we get women more actively involved in the shul?”

The question seemed to electrify the room. “This is one of the important issues of our time,” Weinreb replied. “Women are better and better educated, and they function in the outside world as equals. But we are part of the Orthodox world, and we have certain parameters.” He suggested focusing on the comfort of the separate women’s section. “Certainly one step we can take without controversy is to make sure the women’s section is clean and comfortable and accessible and that women do not have to go through all sorts of contortions to get in and that they can hear and see according to Halacha,” or rabbinic law.

Other panelists struggled to respond to the question. “It’s a very difficult question to answer,” said Jay Lunzer, gabbai at Congregation Kehillath Jeshurun in New York City, who had already offered insightful responses to sticky questions involving managing the relationship among rabbi, gabbai, and president and understanding whether a convert ought to have an aliya on the anniversary of a parent’s death. He acknowledged feeling at a loss. “One way to handle it is to give women a d’var Torah on Shabbos or Shabbos afternoon or at shalosh seudas,” the closing meal of Shabbat, he said. “Outside of that, nothing comes to mind.”

Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum of Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, NY, offered a more inward, spiritual response focusing on a sense of inclusion. He said that prayers in the congregation must include all members of that congregation. “The strength of shamayim [heaven] will be stronger because of everyone there…. The tzibur [community] is all of us and not just 10 men or 1,000 men or one side of the mehitza,” the barrier separating men and women in a sanctuary.

The conference opened with a keynote address, Who Gets the Aliya? Who Gets the Amud? Understanding the Halachot of Chiyuvim” delivered by Rabbi Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshiva of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University. Different aspects of the role of the gabbai were covered in other sessions and workshops. Rabbi Jeremy Weider, a rosh yeshiva at the seminary, for example, spoke on when to correct a Torah reader who makes a mistake.

Cohen thought the sessions, though promising much, weren’t long enough to really cover the subjects. “You could spend a day on every topic here,” he said. For instance, he attended the session on recognizing an “unkosher” Torah scroll but he wasn’t sure he could actually look at a scroll and determine its status. “In 20 minutes, you can’t really say, ‘Oh, I understand that.’” Still, he said, he enjoyed hearing about the issues others had confronted and would come again. He said he hoped, however, that “maybe next time there will be fewer topics” and time to cover them more thoroughly.

But Gary Eisenberg, a fellow gabbai at AABJ&D who attended the conference, left inspired, buoyed by the support of his peers. “We have a tendency to get overwhelmed by some issues we face, like managing personality conflicts and keeping peace in the shul. The most valuable part of the conference was drawing a sense of togetherness from other gabbaim who face the same issues.

“I left with a dose of inspiration from Rav Schachter,” said Eisenberg, “who said the gabbai has license to exercise the responsibility to uphold the basics of Jewish law.”

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