by Laurie Wagner | Dec 14, 2014 | Blog
“I’m nervous,” my Cousin Tom said as I greeted him in front of the synagogue in Boulder, Colorado last week. We were walking into my nephew Jonah’s Bar Mitzvah, and Tom, a rabbi who was visiting from Tucson – a man who can, incidentally do a headstand at the snap of a finger – even in full suit and tie – and who did do a headstand on the grass after the service – was going to be chanting a Hebrew Torah portion in the ceremony that morning. “Why are you nervous?” I asked. “This is what you do, this is your gig.” Tom’s been a beloved rabbi in Tucson for the last 20 years. Even though he was here as family, he’d been invited to chant the Torah because not everybody has a rabbi for blood, and we love this guy – anytime we can get a blessing from him we do. Well it turns out that chanting a Torah portion isn’t his gig at all. His gig is being a rabbi – which means interpreting the Torah so we mortals can understand what God is saying to us. The singing gig belongs to the cantor of the temple. Asking Tom to chant Hebrew in the service is like asking an electrician to fix your plumbing. They both work on the house, but they do completely different jobs. But I didn’t know that then. “You’ll do fine,” I said, giving him a squeeze. I thought he was just being modest. Tom is awesome. I wasn’t worried at all. Until about a minute into...
