RECITING TEFILAH WITH A CANTOR

QUESTION:

There seems to be a widespread custom, especially in Conservative congregations, for worshipers to repeat the Tefilah aloud while the cantor is reciting it. Is this based upon any established custom? Also, what would be the status of this custom in the Halachah? (Asked by Rabbi J. Zeitin, San Francisco.)

ANSWER:

THERE is a definite reference to the custom mentioned in the question, from the time of Maimonides in Egypt; but it did not become permanent in Egypt and, in fact, according to one of the successors of Maimonides in Cairo, David ben Zimri, the custom instituted by Maimonides which will be referred to below, should be abolished. The matter is of considerable interest if this type of recitation of the people accompanying the cantor aloud is now a growing custom; especially since, in Reform service, there is no preliminary silent recitation of the Tefilah at all before the cantor begins it. However, there is a growing tendency in Reform congregations to increase the amount of congregational reading. Therefore it would be well to consider the law and the custom of this matter from its beginning.

The Talmud, in Rosh Hashanah 34b, records a disagreement between Rabban Gamaliel and the Sages. He says that the recitation by the cantor of the Tefilah completely fulfills the duty of its recitation also for the congregation. In other words, the congregation does not have to recite it at all. The rabbis disagree with him and say that every person is in duty bound to recite the Tefilah silently and then, after the silent congrega-tional recitation, the cantor repeats the Tefilah aloud. If that is so (and it is our general custom) then why need the cantor recite it altogether, since everybody has already fulfilled his duty by the silent recitation? The answer is that he repeats it aloud to fulfill the duty for those who are unable to read (mi she’eno baki).

The double reading, once silently by the congregation and then aloud by the reader, depended upon the assumption that every worshiper could read the prayers, or at least recite them by heart. But there must have been people who could not recite the prayer for them-selves. Therefore there must have been localities where the first, the silent congregational recitation, could not take place at all. In such places there was only one recitation of the Tefilah, the recitation aloud by the reader.

That this was actually the case is reflected in a responsum of the Geonim. In Harkway’s Teshuvat Hageonim, #256, there is a clear reference to an established custom, at least for Rosh Hashanah, of the silent prayer being omitted and only the reader’s recitation aloud being considered sufficient. The discussion there is actually about whether a man should step the customary three steps backward at the end of the cantor’s loud Tefilah. The Gaon answers that he should if he does not recite the silent Tefilah, but relies on the cantor’s Tefilah for the fulfillment of the worshiper’s duty. See the responsum by Saadiah Gaon (in Shaare Simchah I,27 at the bottom).

This was and is the general state of the law: two recitations. However, a situation arose in the time of Maimonides which seemed to require some change. The first responsum on the subject was published with a translation from the Arabic by Abraham Geiger (in his Melo Chofnayim pp. 70 ff). The inquirer raised the question of the lack of decorum during the cantor’s repetition of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf which is lengthy. People would talk or walk out of the syna-gogue, since they had already fulfilled their duty by their silent recitation. So the questioner stated to Mai-monides that for this special Tefilah they had ordained that only the cantor should recite it. Thus the people would have to listen, since it was the only fulfillment of their duty. Maimonides in his answer approves and says that he himself has ordained this single recitation in Egypt for the Sabbath and all holiday Tefilot; thus the people listen to the cantor, who is fulfilling their duty of recitation. However, according to the Talmud, the cantor fulfills the duty only for those who cannot read (mi sh’eno baki). Then how can the literate ones (beki’im) have their duty fulfilled without a silent recitation? Maimonides says, then, that the beki’im, the literate, should silently accompany the cantor during his loud recital. Thus everybody’s duty is fulfilled. So we see that in Egypt the custom was that the literate accompanied the cantor quietly, and there is some basis for the custom which the questioner mentions.

This responsum given by Geiger is embodied as responsum #35 in the Responsa of Maimonides (edition Freimann, Jerusalem, 1934). However Freimann adds a responsum #36 which deals further with the same subject and adds material which comes even closer to the question asked here. The questioner in #36 refers to their custom of following the usual Talmudic and gen-eral minhag of having two recitations, one silent by the people and one aloud by the cantor. However, there is here an addition to the usual double recitation: In certain places the people (evidently those who were not literate) asked the cantor to recite aloud even the silent Tefilah so that they should be able to recite it by following him. Having done that, the cantor would then recite his Tefilah aloud. Thus, there were actually two Tefilot recited aloud by the cantor. Maimonides objects to this even though there is a report that in the land of Edom (in the Christian lands) there was also such a custom. Maimonides says, however, that this new custom is wrong. The cantor has no right to recite the blessings twice, and that we should follow his decision to have only one Tefilah, i.e., the cantor reciting aloud and the literate whispering with him.

The next stage in the development of the custom is to be found in the responsa of a later successor of Maimonides, David ben Zimri (1479-1589—yes, he lived for 110 years) : responsum #94 in Volume IV of the Responsa of Radbaz. By the time this responsum was written (1533) many exiles from Spain had come to Egypt. They strongly objected to the Egyptian custom instituted by Maimonides of having only the cantor’s recitation of the Tefilah. They stated that all over the Jewish world, in the Holy Land, in Damascus, etc., the Talmudic custom is followed of two Tefilot, silent and aloud, and that, therefore, Egypt should revert to the general Jewish custom of two Tefilot. David ben Zimri, in his answer, cites an Arabic book by Abraham, the son of the Rambam, who strongly confirms his father’s ruling and adds details regarding the lack of decorum that used to occur before his father’s ruling during the cantor’s repetition of the Tefilah. However, David ben Zimri himself, for all his reverence toward the Rambam, gives many reasons why the Rambam’s decision should only be taken to be temporary, and why Egypt should now revert to the general custom of two Tefilot.

To sum up, there is at least this much basis for the present custom described above of having the people recite the Tefilah with the cantor: First, Maimonides, in ordaining that there should be only the cantor’s recitation, provided that the literate should recite it silently with the cantor. The responsum #36 in Freimann tells of the custom of the people of reciting aloud with the cantor even in the “silent” (i.e., the first) recitation of the Tefilah. In addition, there is the reference in this responsum, that there was such a custom also in the lands of Edom, i.e., the Christian lands. Other than all these, the prevalent custom is that there should first be a silent recitation by the congregation, and then the reader’s recitation in which the congregation takes no part except in their responses of “Amen” at the end of each blessing, and the part which they must recite in the Kedushah.