Mr. Rachlin is quite correct in complaining that much of the audience/minyan does not put enough time into understanding the service. They certainly don’t, as he points out, “engage in reflection based on the content of the service.” They also, as he points out, don’t “fully understand the meaning behind the service.”
So what! An opera or Broadway producer is successful when he gives the audience what they want, not what he thinks they should watch or listen to. As a producer, you don’t get to pick your audience.
If there is a solution to the four issues I previously mentioned, it is certainly not opera. It is starting the service as late as halachically possible, keeping it short (no hosafos, few or no mi’shebeirachs, no extra announcements, and maybe no rabbi’s sermon except when he really has something profound to say), and a musical style that includes as much communal singing as possible.
And maybe like some opera or theatre performances, there needs to be an “intermission” (Kiddush) in the middle rather than at the end.
Next week: Shabbos services are like a baseball game – and the need to speed up both.
Harold Marks
(Via E-Mail)