Rabbi Weiss mentioned sitzfleish. It’s not a new issue. Thirty years ago, potential teachers were already cautioned that you can’t expect students brought up on “Sesame Street” to sit quietly for old-fashioned lectures. Cell phones and iPads only make it worse. But the solution is to adjust the sermon. Maybe it needs to be shorter than it was 30 years ago. Maybe it needs to be more dramatic. Maybe the rabbi needs to stand in the middle of the room, by the shulchan, not in front of the aron. Maybe the rabbi has to move around into the audience during his speech rather than remaining in place behind a shtender. Maybe a sermon today needs to be interactive – questions and answers. And maybe we need fewer shuls where the rabbi feels it necessary to speak every Shabbos.
While I enjoy reading Rabbi Weiss’s columns, in this case I think his concern is misplaced.
Harold Marks
(Via E-Mail)