No Clergy

We have an unusual circumstance this shabbat with the Rabbi away in Israel and the Cantor out ill.  So we see what our men can do.  I am ba-al shacharit, we have a ba-al musaf, a person who gives a uniformly superior D'Var Torah, leaving us to get Torah reading done.  About five guys stepped up to the plate, so we'll see how it goes.  Mincha/Maariv a little less secure. Hopefully no surrogate for those irritating Aliyah Sound Bites which I think mar our weekly experience.

I came of age Jewishly in Hillel sanctuaries where students created the weekly services they wanted.  There are problems when the shabbos reaches it peak in your 20's followed a suburban sanctuary wasteland dependent on hired professionals, often less talented than the students but more sustainable, if not more reliable.  But's that's what we have with a brief welcome interlude from time to time when we can return to what we once had.