THE PLACE WHERE I BELONG

A seasoned baal korei can take the helm at any shul, any week, any season. But most have a spot they can call their own, a shul that’s absorbed the familiar sounds of their leining over the years.

Which kehillah is your steady home base?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

I’ve been the regular Megillas Esther baal korei for several decades in Rav Avigdor Miller’s shul, both in East Flatbush and after they moved. I’ve also been leining for the Yamim Noraim at Rav Hillel David’s shul for the last 30 years. For the last 12 years, I’ve also leined every week at the Yavneh Minyan, where Rabbi Dr. Moshe Sokol is the rav.

Rabbi Mordechai Genuth

Since the winter of 1980, I’ve leined every Shabbos at the Beit Avot Vizhnitz senior home here in Bnei Brak, missing only a week here or there. Once I leined in the main Vizhnitz beis medrash when the Rebbe was away. It’s a very big shul, and they had to tell me to raise my voice, but by now, I’ve taken voice lessons and my voice is stronger, baruch Hashem.

I’ve leined at the Kosel, as well as in Meron over Shabbos. My usual pronunciation is chassidish, but I can lein in a litvish havarah as well. I even lein in Ivrit, or Sephardic style, once in a while, when there is a Sephardic simchah and they ask me to lein. I give a daily daf yomi and Mishnah Berurah shiur in the Aristocrat hotel (formerly Malon Viznitz), followed by Minchah on Shabbos, and I lein there, too.

Rabbi Yitzchak Mohadeb

I lein in my shul, Yam Hatorah. I travel quite a bit, to Mexico and to Europe, and wherever I am, I lein, which offers self-confidence. Not long ago, I spent a Shabbat in Manhattan because someone was ill. I went to daven in a large shul there, and the regular baal korei didn’t arrive. The rabbi called out “Does anybody know how to lein?” and there were no offers besides mine, so I felt good that I had the zechut.

Rabbi Dr. Avraham Isenberg

I used to lein in HaPoel HaMizrachi and Young Israel of Chicago. I now lein regularly in Agudas Yisroel of Peterson Park, where Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst is the rav and dayan.

Rabbi Feivish Kaye

I’ve been the regular baal korei in Manchester Yeshiva for 62 years, with an occasional Shabbos off during bein hazmanim if they don’t have a minyan. On the 50th and 60th anniversary of the Shabbos I began, the yeshivah made a kiddush in appreciation.

Some years ago, after we finished in yeshivah, I would go lein at a later  minyan in the Jewish Cultural Centre. On Mondays and Thursdays, I lein in a local shul. During the year we lived in London, I leined at Beis Medrash Sinai, Rav Berel Knopfler’s shul in Golders Green.

Occasionally I’ve been asked to spend Shabbos in Southport, a seaside town, or Harrogate, a rural spa town, when the United Synagogue shuls there needed someone to daven and lein. And while on holiday in Bournemouth, I leined in the Normandie, the kosher hotel.

Mr. Moshe Metzger

I lein in Shomrei Shabbos in Boro Park. We have eight minyanim on Shabbos morning, and I lein at five or six of them. The minyanim at Shomrei Shabbos are scheduled and organized: We try to finish a complete Shabbos davening in one and a half hours, including leining. During the week, we function on a 24-hour clock, with Shacharis minyanim running until Minchah, Minchah until Maariv, and Maariv until Shacharis. Of course I can’t be here all the time, I’m not a magician. I work here from five a.m. to nine p.m.

When I go away for Shabbos, I try to find a local shul where the baal korei gets paid, and I tell him, “You take the money and I’ll lein.” Usually, he’s happy to take a paid vacation, and I’m happy because I like to lein.

I’ve leined at the Kosel. I also do group bike trips in Eretz Yisrael, Greece, and Morocco, and we always have our own minyan, so I bring along a small sefer Torah in a knapsack. Sometimes we daven in an airport somewhere, and other Jews see us gathering around and come join. When airport security asks what I’m carrying, I explain it to them. It’s never a problem, because there’s nothing illegal about traveling with a sefer Torah.

MAKING IT MINE

The text never changes, the cantillation is set in stone, and every dagesh is accorded attention, no matter who the baal korei. But somehow, these masters have managed to imbue the leining with a personal flavor and feel.

As you lein the timeless words every week, what are your signature notes?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

I lein slowly. If a word has four letters, people want to hear each letter. One week when I leined in Vyelipol,  Rav Yosef Frankel, the mara d’asra, commented, “Now they can hear it.”

I know that besides for Krias Megillah, there is no mitzvah to hear every letter and I’m not critical of those who don’t lein so carefully, but I still personally go slowly.

Rabbi Mordechai Genuth

When I lein, I add in exclamation marks to my inflection to mark phrases like the wonder of “HaYad Hashem tiktzor?” in parshas B’haalosecha, and question marks where indicated. I even raise my voice and lift my hands and clap when I want to emphasize the pesukim. And I add in the derashos of Chazal sometimes; for example, when I lein the words “Hayom la’asosam,” in Ki Savo, I add “umachar l’kabel secharam,” and when I lein about Miriam’s tzoraas, I add the Mishnah in Sotah about Miriam waiting for Moshe. I know there are some who aren’t too happy about this and voice their objections, but the Gemara allows the one who is reading the Torah to add explanations, so I do. It’s obvious that these aren’t the words of the pesukim since I say them without the niggun of the trop.

Rabbi Yitzchak Mohadeb

We don’t stop at sheini, shlishi, and the other pauses that Ashkenazim make, because we do not have the tradition that those were the original stopping places. We have other places to stop for aliyot, according to Sephardic custom. And we never pause in the middle of a curse, or anything negative. I have all these customs written down in my shul.

Rabbi Feivish Kaye

The Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Segal, used to lein parshas Zachor himself, because he was medakdek. Then, after a while, he trusted me to lein it.

As time went on, I realized what a privilege it is to lein. In the Shulchan Aruch, Krias HaTorah is compared to Matan Torah, and being the shaliach to relate the Torah is a privilege. If gazing at the Torah when it’s lifted is a zechus for the neshamah, what about someone who has the zechus to read the whole thing? I am overwhelmed by Hashem’s chesed that I can do this.

As a youngster, I could have gone back to the Rosh Yeshivah and told him I didn’t want to arrange the leining, but then I wouldn’t have the great zechus I have today.

MOTIVATION FACTOR

Being chosen and trusted to lein is a privilege and responsibility, and there’s justified pride along with the considerable dedication and preparation.

What motivates you to keep preparing, keep reviewing, keep getting up there week after week?

Mr. Moshe Metzger

The Ribbono shel Olam. I tell Him every day that I don’t need sechar for what I do. All I want is koach to keep on going. Not that I’m old, I’m only 72. I think the biking keeps me young.

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

I enjoy it — and I’m told that I’m a good baal korei, so I definitely enjoy hearing that. Before I would lein the Megillah, Rav Avigdor Miller would announce, “It is worth paying for an admission ticket to hear this leining. You will hear every word.”

Rabbi Dr. Avraham Isenberg

My goal is to lein correctly without a single mistake of trop, grammar, or pronunciation. I’m an experienced dikduk teacher and I have my own opinions about pronunciation too. When I lein, I differentiate between the pronunciation of alef and ayin, chaf and ches, kaf and kuf. When I achieve zero mistakes, I may stop.

Rabbi Feivish Kaye

The zechus. For 30 years, I leined for the Rosh Yeshivah ztz”l, who stood next to the bimah listening, and now that the yeshivah has become a kollel, I lein for distinguished talmidei chachamim.

I STAND CORRECTED

No human can ever be perfect, but the master baal korei tries his best to avoid errors — and if he slips up, he’s guaranteed to be set straight by someone in shul.

How do you deal with suggestions, corrections, and criticism?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

I was once leining the Megillah in Rav Asher Zimmerman’s shul, Young Israel of Remsen in East Flatbush, and Rav Avrohom Pam was a mispallel. I read the pasuk, “Ki ein lah av va’eim,” and Rav Pam stopped me. I read over the words, and he stopped me again. I read it a third time, slowly and clearly, and then he let it go. To this day, I say those words extra slowly to make sure I’m enunciating them, but I still don’t know what the problem was — what Rav Pam thought I read. I wish I had asked.

When a baal korei is corrected, it’s important that he not insist he said it correctly. The point is that people didn’t hear you, so you need to say it over. I once davened in a minyan where the baal korei made a mistake. When he was corrected, he protested “Ich hob es shoin gezogt,” (I said that already), and refused to correct himself.

Rav Avigdor Miller used to thank the baal korei for “the excellent leining, and don’t forget that Mr. X lets you correct his mistakes, and don’t think it’s a small thing.” It’s against human nature, but a baal korei has to allow himself to be corrected.

I once leined Eichah from a klaf with only last-minute notice. Someone corrected a mistake, and afterward I went over to thank him.

Remembering words which are similar but different, like “osef” and “osif,” can be challenging. What I find most helpful is the gabbai following along carefully next to me. If you miss the trop, singing merchah-tipchah instead of mapach-pashtah, it’s not so bad, but if you miss the sof pasuk trop, that is bad. The pesukim were written and punctuated by Moshe Rabbeinu.

Rabbi Yitzchak Mohadeb

Sefardim are very makpid on Kriat HaTorah generally, and of course, you get corrected, especially if you are inexperienced. I remember that after the second or third time I leined as a boy, I told my father I’d had enough. Corrections came flying at me from here and there around the shul. My father told me that it was all part of it, and I would learn from my mistakes. He also told me that when I was an adult and a young baal korei made a mistake, I’d know not to call out corrections in public, but to correct him in between aliyos or afterward. That is very important, not to embarrass anyone in public, and today I am careful about it.

Rabbi Dr. Avraham Isenberg

One Shabbos Shirah I had to be out of town, so I couldn’t lein, but I was given an aliyah. The baal korei leined “bigdol zero’acha, yidmu ka’aven.”

“Yidemu,” I corrected him, but he just looked at me and continued to lein. His mistake, silencing a sheva na, had changed the meaning from “They will be silent as a stone,” to, “They will compare to a stone.”

After leining was over, the baal korei came running over to where I was sitting, right in the back row of a big shul, and said, “You’re right! There is a dagesh in the daled!” That is one of the places that the sheva changes the meaning of a word in the Torah.

Rabbi Mordechai Genuth

People wonder why I need a Chumash next to me after all these years, but there are many similar pesukim that have different trop. I keep my left hand moving down the page of the Chumash as I lein, so I can glance for a quarter of a second. Don’t worry, I’m not reading from the Chumash; I’m just reminding myself.

(This is why I think all Chumashim should be printed in the same simple layout as those used to teach young children in cheder. In this way, if you do shnayim mikra every week, the Torah becomes familiar to you. You know where sheini and shlishi are on the page, and you know which pesukim come where — one quick glance, and you’re reminded of everything you know.)

My most challenging Megillah leining was the Purim of 2011, which I spent in the hospital suffering from a slipped disc. When it was time to lein the Megillah, I had a glezel bronfen (glass of schnapps) which is very good for the voice, and I began. But during Perek Vav, I lost consciousness and fainted.

Baruch Hashem they caught me on a chair. My son wet my face and, when I came around, he wanted me to make a brachah. I couldn’t speak, because I knew I was in the middle of leining Megillah, but fortunately I had made the brachah on the schnapps earlier, so I could drink without speaking, and once they showed me where I was up to, I finished the Megillah.

STRONG CONNECTION

Every letter and word of the Torah is precious, especially to a baal korei who’s worked hard over the years to master the right pronunciation and cantillation. But sometimes there’s a passage that manages to pull on the heartstrings.

Which leining stirs your emotions?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

The kriah on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, with Sarah Imeinu and Chana, is a very emotional leining. Also the Shiras Hayam that we get to sing twice a year, on Shabbos Shirah and on Shvii Shel Pesach.

Rabbi Feivish Kaye

Some sedras are nice and musical: Ki Seitzei, for example, has a lot of enjoyable trop. Terumah, Tetzaveh, Tazria, and Metzora, though, are very challenging, because there is a lot of “hu” and “hee.” The chassidim have an easier time, because they pronounce both as “hee,” but I have to remember when it’s “tamei hu” and when “tamei hee” or “tzaraas hu” and “tzaraas hee,” because “hee” is sometimes spelled with a vav.

Mattos-Masei is long and difficult, because the gevulos (border delineations) have a lot of similar words with different trop. And it’s not like people aren’t listening! The gabbai who stands next to me really knows his dikduk, so I don’t get away with anything. He even pulls me up for a mistake on mil-eil (stress on the second to last syllable) and mil-ra (stress on the last syllable).

Mr. Moshe Metzger

The Aseres Hadibros and Chazak parshiyos are nice. But really, I enjoy them all equally — and all of them are nice, as long as people don’t talk. If people are talking during leining, no sedra is nice. I try to make sure the leining is timely so people don’t have time to start schmoozing. I do the Mi Shebeirachs, and I make only one per aliyah, so we can keep the ball rolling. I try to finish leining in 25 minutes flat.

Rabbi Mordechai Genuth

Leining the Aseres Hadibros on Shavuos feels very momentous, and I get emotional. The Shiras Hayam, too. But every pasuk, whether it’s about korbanos or generations or absolutely any subject, is just as choshuv and precious.

Rabbi Yitzchak Mohadeb

I am very connected to parshat Re’eh, because I prepared it so much for my bar mitzvah. We read part of Re’eh on the chagim as well, so I can do it more than once a year.

Rabbi Dr. Avraham Isenberg

Parshas Beshalach — I try not to miss leining it. There are three consecutive pesukim there, each with 72 letters (Shemos 11:19, 11:20, 11:21). Rashi on Maseches Succah (45a) says there are 72 three letter names of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, each of which distinctly indicates the Might of Hashem. These pesukim relate to those names, so that’s a big one for me, and I emphasize them while leining.

TIPS AND TRICKS

There are no shortcuts to excellence in any craft, certainly not in this one. But over the years, you can develop tips and memory devices to smooth the way.

What’s your top leining tip?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

A lot of the parshiyos have “es” and “eis.” People ask me how I get it right, and the answer is that “es” never has trop and “eis” does, so if you know the trop, you’ll know the different words — it goes together.

The Tikkun now uses different print for sheva na and sheva nach and clear marks for mil-el and mil-ra, where the word’s accent belongs. Follow it carefully, and people will think you’re a dikduk expert.

Another point: Rav Miller told me in his later years not to be so makpid to say the ten sons of Haman in one breath, but rather to enunciate their names so people can hear them clearly.

Rabbi Mordechai Genuth

Rav Yisroel Silbershlag, the gabbai of the previous Viznitzer Rebbe, the Yeshuos Moshe, once asked me about the word “Uvasa” (“and you will come”), which appears once in Va’eschanan and once in Shoftim, but is read once mil-eil and once mil-ra. I told him that it’s lefi mesorah, that is how it is traditionally read. But I have made myself my own siman, that the first time it is mil-eil, and the second is mil-ra.

There is a beautiful siman in the mesorah to remember the trop differences in parshas Re’eh. The words “lifnei Hashem Elokeichem” appear twice, before and after sheini. The first trop is first pashta-munach-zakeif katan, and the second is zarkoh-munach segol. The siman is that the first time, the words before are “va’achaltem sham,” and eating should be done calm, and seated, straight — pashta. The second time, the word before is “usemachtem” — you should rejoice, so the trop is “zarkoh” — throwing, throwing oneself in happiness.

Reb Yiddele himself once told me to remember to pronounce the dagesh in the nun in the last ‘anos’ in parshas Ki Sisa: “Ein kol anos gevurah, ve’ein kol anos chalushah, kol anos anochi shomei’a.” The first two words “anos” mean answering/saying, so the nuns are weak, with no dagesh, while the last one comes from the word “inui,” afflicting pain, and therefore the dagesh is there, and pronounced.

PASSING THE BATON

For many bar mitzvah boys, the greatest thrill of their special day is the chance to lein. But leining properly is demanding, even draining.

Do you think every bar mitzvah boy can — or should — lein his parshah? And if they’re planning to do so, what’s your best advice?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

My advice to parents is: “People make mistakes.” When the mothers ask me, “Is the bar mitzvah boy going to be perfect?” I say, “No! He is a human being.”

My advice to boys: “Lein slowly. Give your mother and grandmothers some nachas. People will just wait another few minutes for the kiddush.” I know in some shuls, finishing fast is encouraged, but in Chaim Berlin, Rav Aharon Shechter ztz”l asked the baalei kriah to lein slower.

I don’t think that parents should push boys to lein, because the boys have limited time to practice. I recommend just the haftarah, maybe a bit more. Leining is not an ikar, and if the boy is learning well in yeshivah, it may not be worth his time — he should rather make a siyum on Mishnayos.

If he has an interest in leining, then of course he should learn. It’s much easier to learn and remember a skill at that age than in adulthood — at my age, it’s difficult to learn new things. Some of the boys end up leining ten years later in Lakewood.

Rabbi Dr. Avraham Isenberg

Some say that having bar mitzvah boys learn to lein their parshah is a waste of time. I say that if every bar mitzvah boy learns to lein properly, and perhaps only ten percent of them become baalei kriah, we will still have enough proper baalei kriah for the next generation. But if only ten percent of them learn to begin with, how will we have enough baalei kriah?

I also think that the method of learning the parshah serves the boys well for other limudim: They can acquire a derech in learning by repetition.

Rabbi Yitzchak Mohadeb

When I was a bochur in Eretz Yisrael, I used my skill to earn some money on the side by teaching bar mitzvah boys to lein. My advice to the boys is not to give up: learn and learn. Then, after your bar mitzvah, lein every week, even a small part of the parshah, like Shabbat Minchah. All your life you will be happy with the knowledge of the Torah that you gain. In our shul, I regularly get a few boys to lein a little at Minchah.

I am a little older now, and I can advise parents based on my experience that being involved in Kriat HaTorah is a good thing for a boy. Whenever he reads from the Torah, people compliment him, recognize him, and thank him. He feels choshuv, because he is the baal korei and the minyan needs him. If he is tempted to do something unacceptable during the week, he’ll think twice, because how will he go up to lein next week if he has done that, or changed himself in a negative way? Leining will keep him involved and keep him from straying while those teen years pass by, until he settles down, b’ezrat Hashem.

Rabbi Feivish Kaye

I teach only my grandchildren, and I have also enjoyed the privilege of teaching the Rosh Yeshivah’s grandsons their maftir and haftarah. My tip to the young baalei kriah is to persevere; it doesn’t come easy to anyone. Also, learn from a teacher who understands dikduk, because you will learn it right. Shouldn’t Krias HaTorah be mehudar?

Mr. Moshe Metzger

I used to teach leining, but I don’t have time anymore. My tip to boys: lein loud and clear. The Simanim tikkun has everything in it, so you can get it right. That is how I picked up the sheva na and sheva nachs myself, by using a tikkun.

MEMORABLE LISTENERS

Every Jew is a cherished and important listener, and the baal korei will make sure everyone can hear and follow the leining. But some listeners are more memorable than others.

Which special listeners were you privileged to lein for?

Rabbi Zvi Moshe Lasker

Rav Pam, Rav Avigdor Miller, Rav Hillel David shlita, Rav Yosef Frankel the Vyelipol Rav shlita. And Stephen Hill as a repeat guest in Rav Miller’s shul.

Rabbi Feivish Kaye

Around 14 years ago, Rav Aharon Leib Steinman visited Manchester, and I was asked if I’d like to lein at a neitz minyan held for Rav Aharon Leib in the yeshivah at around four a.m. on a Thursday. I jumped at the opportunity, and I have a glorious photo of Rav Steinman having an aliyah while I was leining.

Rabbi Dr. Avraham Isenberg

Dayan Asher Weiss from Eretz Yisrael, came to Chicago to speak at the last Siyum HaShas. He davened Shabbos Minchah in the Agudah, where I leined. The next time I was in Eretz Yisrael, I went into the Dayan, and he remembered me from there.

Rabbi Mordechai Genuth

For eight years, after finishing at my regular minyan, I leined for the Tolna Rebbe from Bayit Vegan who had moved to Bnei Brak. When the previous Vizhnitz Rebbe, the Yeshuos Moshe, would go to Arad after Succos and Pesach to rest, I would go for Shabbos to lein and be part of the Rebbe’s minyan.

One Purim, when I was already married and living in Bnei Brak, I leined the Megillah for Reb Yiddele Dzhikover, who lived in Yerushalayim. Halachically, in order to do this, I had to be in Yerushalayim overnight on the 14th, then I went back to Bnei Brak to be with my family who were keeping Purim on the 14th, then I went back in Yerushalayim in time for shkiah, to lein. Reb Yiddele Dzhikover was very medakdek in the Megillah and in Krias HaTorah in general, and it was a privilege to lein for him. —

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 980)