Davening resources

• The Minyan has tapes and other aids available for helping you learn how to lead services -- just ask the Davening Coordinator.
• The Davening Coordinator can also help familiarize you with the davening customs of the Minyan.
• We have a guide to the "short davening" that we do on Learning Shabbatot. It is in Microsoft Word format.
• Jonathan Zimet has written up a rationale ("Minhag Yerushalmi") for further shortening of P'sukei D'zimra.
• On the Web, check out Virtual Cantor, which has complete davening for Shabbat, Festivals, High Holidays, and virtually everything else.
• Amy Little recommends the AudioSiddur website. To find Birchot haShachar and P'sukei D'zimrah, look under "Weekday Minyan." (Page numbers are according to the new Siddur Sim Shalom, not the edition we use.)
• Amy says about the sound files at the Congregation Agudas Achim website, "the cantor has a pleasing voice and his pace is slow enough for learning without being painfully plodding. Good clarity too." When asked to compare CAA to the Virtual Cantor, Judith Weiss, former davening coordinator of Minyan Rimonim, said, "The CAA hazzan enunciates more clearly, you can hear the melody better. He doesn't sing it like a cantor, but simply so you can follow the melody line and learn it. But the Virtual Cantor has much more stuff; this is just the Shabbat services."
         
• Here is a WAV file of a beautiful Stephen Foster tune that Trudy Balch will be using on Yom Kippur.

Divrei Torah

• Lessons Learned From Standing On the Precipice Between Life and Death
  In memory of our late member, David Wachstock, Psy.D., we've posted the Dvar Torah he gave at the West Side Minyan on Yom Kippur 5759, September 20, 1999.

• Entering New Territory
  Susie Tanenbaum's Dvar Torah on Parshat Lech Lecha, given November 12, 2005

• Shabbat Parah
  Rabbi Marion Shulevitz prepared this derash for March 10, 2007, but was unable to deliver it herself because she was with her husband, Bill, who was having surgery. In her place, other WSM members read Marion's derash and led the discussion.

• An Orange on the Seder Plate
  Notes from Deb Kayman's presentation at the WSM March 24, 2007.

Gabbai resources

• Gabbai chart for Shabbat — one sefer, combined seventh aliyah and Maftir aliyah
• Gabbai chart for Shabbat — one sefer, seven aliyot. Useful if you're skipping Haftarah.
• Gabbai chart for Shabbat — two sifrei torah
• Gabbai chart for Shabbat — three sifrei torah
• Gabbai chart for Rosh Hashanah — five aliyot. When Rosh Hashanh is not on Shabbat.
• Gabbai chart for Yom Kippur Morning
• Gabbai chart for Yom Kippur afternoon
  

Glossary

Aliyah

Being invited to say the blessings before and after a passage is read from the Torah. If you need help with the Hebrew, just tell the gabbai. The person called up (e.g., you) is the oleh.

Bentsch

To say the Grace After Meals (Heb.: Birkat HaMazon).

Chumash

A printed book containing the weekly Torah and Haftarah readings.

Davener

In WSM usage, one who leads the prayer service. Elsewhere, the same role might be called a Baal t'filah or Sh'liach tzibur.

DT

D'var torah -- a brief talk about the week's Torah or Haftarah reading, followed by a Torah Discussion. The person giving the talk and leading the discussion is also called the DT. Outside the WSM, a Torah Discussion is rare, the DT might be called a D'rash, and the person who gives it could be the Darshan.

Gabbai

One or two people who officiate during the part of the service when the Torah is read.

G'lilah

The honor of rolling and dressing the Torah scroll after the reading. It's a great honor but requires no Hebrew.

Gomeil

One who has returned from a long trip, recovered from an illness or faced recent danger might choose to say the gomeil prayer ("bentsch gomeil"). If you'd like to, speak to the gabbai.

Haftarah

A reading from the Prophetic books of the Bible, done after the chanting from the Torah scroll.

Hagbah

The honor of lifting the Torah scroll after the reading. Requires upper body strength.

Hospitality Desk

The Hospitality Desk is the welcome table right inside the 100th Street entrance, where people can ask questions, get Shabbat handouts, etc. The various minyanim at Ansche Chesed rotate the staffing of the Hospitality Desk. It involves arriving at 10 a.m. and sitting at the desk until 11 a.m. You greet people as they come in and answer questions, such as where a particular service is located. Sometimes people ask general questions about the shul. There's a handout there for volunteers with all the basic info, so it all runs pretty smoothly. To volunteer, contact Ruth Kaufman. You can check the Hospitality Desk Perpetual Calendar here.

Kiddush

After services, a social gathering with snacks; also the blessing over wine. Thus, one says kiddush (the blessing) at the beginning of the kiddush (the gathering).

Leining

Chanting from the Torah scroll. Can also refer to the portion chanted ("What's this week's leining?"). The person who chants is the leiner.

Maftir

The last portion of the weekly Torah chanting or the person who recites the blessings for it.

Siddur

Prayerbook

Yad

Wood or metal pointer used in reading from the Torah scroll. Sometimes an oleh is asked to use the yad to follow the reading in the Torah scroll. If you can follow the Hebrew prayers in the prayerbook, you should be fine. Othrwise, just ask the gabbai to find someone else.

The Reform Movement has a handy online Jewish glossary. And here's a Conservative glossary.

Leining resources

• Hebcal luach with breakdown of aliyot
  
  
• Conservative triennial chart -- with responsum and notes. Revised by Rabbi Richard Rosenberg.

Learning how to chant from the Torah

• ORT's online Torah with sound files
  
  
• Virtual Cantor has the High Holiday leining, plus Ruth, Esther, Lamentations and Song of Songs
    
  
• TropeTrainer Barbara Sontz, our Leining Coordinator, has found this program to be a helpful aid in learning to chant Torah.
    
  
• TropeColors A computer program to help beginners learn; it color-codes the Torah trop (cantillation marks).
  

Ritual resources

• Seventh Day Pesach reenactment of the Crossing of the Reed Sea
  A ritual for the Seventh Day Pesach reenactment of the Crossing of the Reed Sea can be found in Joe Rosenstein's Siddur Eit Ratzon, page 133.
       Thanks to Jonathan Zimet for pointing this out. Jeff Marker wrote to say that he created the "Yom Layabashah" ritual at the WSM, "based on pieces I found in Mea Sha'arim and from Rob Agus at Fabrengen. I led it at WSM for many years and now lead it in Park Slope. I am of course pleased that it continues at WSM."
       Jeff Marker wrote further: "When I was in Israel in 1978-79, Pam Hoffman (now rabbi) urged me to go to Mea Sha'arim to the shul of Reb Areleh's chasidim on the 7th Day of Pesach. There the chassidim form the sea and they part and the rebbe passes through. I was impressed but remembered that it was the whole people who passes through, not just the leader. Meanwhile some year at Fabrengen, Rob Agus sang Yom Layabashah to the tune 'Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Set on Freedom.' So I took those two elements and created the ritural for the 7th Day, probably in 1980 or 81."

Resources for coordinators

• Hospitality desk The minyans of Ansche Chesed rotate the responsibility of staffing the 100th street Hospitality Desk. This Perpetual Calendar will help you figure out whose responsibility it is this month. To volunteer, contact Ruth Kaufman.
  
  
  
• Fourth floor setup
  Notes for the House Committee on how the 4th floor space should be set up.
  
  
  
• Duties of High Holy Day Coordinators

Minyan history

• "Return to a New Place" — Sheyna Mueller's 1984 thesis about the West Side Minyan (BIG download)