On Shabbat at Kol Shalom, there are eight aliyot, or sections of Torah to chant, plus the weekly haftarah portion. “Some readers take multiple aliyot (typically two), some only one,” says congregant Amy Sheldon, who volunteers to make sure every slot is filled every week. “And then we have the champions who take three or more at a time. Some people only read Torah, some people only read haftarot.”
How does the 69-year-old Rockville resident do it? Read on.
How did you start volunteering to organize people to chant Torah and haftarah?
I took over in November 2021. Most of my working career has been coordinating and organizing. I do it without thinking.
What does the job entail?
Everything starts with two things: a Hebrew calendar and the Torah reading breakouts for every parshah. I have three mailing lists ― one for “Readers” (Torah/Haftarah), one for “Leaders” (for the service leaders) and one for the gabbaim. I send out the data call via email six to eight weeks in advance. This allows people enough time to learn their selections. Our expert Torah readers may only need a few days, but most of us need weeks to practice.
Ten days before a given Shabbat, I send out a reminder to all the participants on that date, asking them to confirm their parts. On Mondays, I send an email to the synagogue office with the Shabbat info. Rinse and repeat! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Is it hard to get people to do this?
It varies. Certain times of year are harder than others — e.g. yom tov time, July/August, the end of December. I would say about 85% of the time the slots fill up relatively quickly. Then there’s the 15% that I’m looking to see who I can ping to fill a hole here and there.
What are the pitfalls of this job?
The relentless deadlines. I still take care of the deadlines even when I’m traveling, which can be a real challenge when I’m in a different time zone. I did ask for help when I was in New Zealand — the time difference was too great — but normally I just deal with it.
Sometimes I’m dealing with unhappy people. Just about anything and everything that can go wrong has gone wrong or will go wrong. Although I have a strong professional skill set for dealing with unhappy people and I do it well, it’s still not fun, especially when the unhappy people are your friends.
Do you have a favorite Torah or haftarah portion?
Yes. The Rosh Chodesh haftarah. My bat mitzvah fell on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan — the special maftir talks about the specific sacrifices for Shabbat Rosh Chodesh. The haftarah talks a lot about the glory of God, Jews glorifying God and the vision of all the nations of the world coming together to glorify God. There’s lots of feminine imagery that led to the tradition of linking Rosh Chodesh to women.
Do you know every Torah and Haftorah portion?
Depends on the definition of “know.” I certainly do not have the entire Torah learned by heart. Basically, I do know what book a given parshah is located in and what time of year it tends to fall. For many of the parshiot I have a mental tagline — e.g. Kedoshim: love your neighbor as yourself and kashrut; Vayera: the Akedah; B’shalach: Shir HaYam and Deborah; Yitro: 10 commandments; Balak: talking donkey. I am familiar with most of the haftarot, since I was a b’nai mitzvah tutor for many, many years.
What advice would you give to someone starting in the job that you do?
Get to know our Torah readers, because everybody has their habits and traditions. Give advice as to who our master Torah readers are and who are the people who like to take little snippets — they’re comfortable with three verses or six verses, and that’s their max. People appreciate that I’m paying attention to their participation.
And then, also, you have to be super organized. I got spreadsheets, I got Word documents, I have a Google Drive.
And even with that, every once in a while I catch something I messed up on and I have to fix it. But that can happen where there are so many moving parts. But really to get to know everybody and get to know what it is they like to do and don’t want to do and just be supportive of everybody. ■
