Services

On Thursday, I led morning services at HUC. Not only was it my first time leading services at HUC, but it was my first time leading services ever! For several weeks, Amanda, the cantorial student who I led services with, and I had been planning a bit of a different service than our usual Thursday Shacharit services. We decided, in the spirit of Purim, that it would be fun to change things up a bit. The first half of the service was more self-guided in that we chose to reduce the centrality of the Bimah. We allowed for silent, private meditation and prayer, but still within the setting of our HUC community. After the Amidah, we decided to spice things up a bit and add in some fun purim tunes and began to pray communally.
I was fairly nervous and anxious about leading services. When I came home from school on Wednesday after a last minute rehearsal (and sushi date with some friends), my roommates had decorated my room with candy and sign of encouragement.
Not only did that help to relieve some of my worries, but, also, once the service began, everything seemed to just flow naturally and my worries went away. After our closing song, I turned to Amanda and said, "did we do everything?" It's amazing that you can prepare so much for something and in an hour and 15 minutes, it's all over.
I had a lot of fun working with Amanda on this service. We have a pretty unique connection in that we shared the same cantor. Growing up Cantor Cohn was a big influence in my Jewish life at North Shore Congregation Israel. Cantor Cohn moved to Texas, where Amanda is from, where he became an influence on Amanda's Jewish life as well.

Here are a few photos from services: