The pandemic rages on. In order to survive, we have had to become flexible and open to change. Changes for work, school and shul. We have embraced the essentials and discarded the dispensables. And we all look forward to returning to shul and conducting davening the way we used to. Well, not all of us. I, for one, would like to see a change made to the way davening is conducted. I believe our davening can be improved. The proposal I present below explains how to accomplish that.

All the years I have attended shul, I have never been able to daven in a way that is satisfactory to me. I have always wanted to daven with kavana and in some way connect to the words of our tefillot. For my davening to be meaningful to me I must be able to enunciate the words, not zip through them. To get an idea of the pace that enables me to daven with just a bare semblance of kavana, you can search Youtube for “Ashray Demo by Ira Buckman.” I think you will agree that my pace is by no means long and drawn out. But I have never been able to daven at that pace. I have spent decades of my life slurring and skimming the words because I have tried to keep up with the chazan.

But this inability to enunciate the words does not apply only to me. Over the years, I have actually heard men mumble and skim the holy words. Or rapidly move their lips without having any apparent connection to their content. But I don’t blame them, since they have to keep up with the chazan. And I don’t blame him either. He is obligated to follow the tightly regulated minyan schedule. Simply put, the pace set by the chazan is just too fast. This is mainly true for weekday davening, especially Shacharit, but for Shabbat as well.

Problems With Having to Mumble and Skim

One of the main paragraphs of the Pesukei d’Zimra section of Shacharit is Ashrei, which contains perek 145 of Tehillim. Berachot 4b states that whoever recites that perek with great concentration three times a day is guaranteed a place in Olam Haba. Is it an exaggeration to say that rushing through Ashrei causes us to ruin our concentration and thereby jeopardize this opportunity to secure our place in Olam Haba? One might say that is just hashkafa. But Ashrei contains the pasuk “Poteach et yadecha umasbia l’chol chai ratzon.” The Shulchan Aruch instructs us to recite this pasuk with great concentration and the Mishnah Berurah rules that if one didn’t do so, he must repeat it. That’s not hashkafa; that’s halacha. The rapid pace set by the chazan virtually guarantees that nobody can satisfy the kavana requirement. And shouldn’t that be troubling to anyone who takes the Mishnah Berurah’s ruling seriously?

Why Is the Chazan Going So Fast?

Shul minyanim are scheduled for specific start and end times which must be adhered to. If the chazan were to slow down to actually daven with kavana, the minyan would end late, resulting in tircha d’tzibur. Men would miss their bus, get to work late, be late to drive carpool, etc. So the chazan is pressured to maintain the rapid pace to guarantee that the minyan ends on time. And as a result, I’m sorry to say, I wonder what the chazan is actually doing when davening from the amud. I say this because, as shown in the video, it takes me, at a very normal, even brisk pace, one minute and three seconds from the start of Ashrei to the beginning of the Tehilat pasuk. That is the pasuk the chazan calls out to indicate the end of the Ashrei paragraph.

I recently timed different chazanim at different shuls to determine how long it takes them from the beginning of Ashrei until they call out the Tehilat pasuk. The times ranged from 28 seconds to 40 seconds, with an average of 33 seconds. That’s just about twice as fast as my time. In fact, after 33 seconds in the video I just about finished the K’vod pasuk, which is only about halfway through! I can’t imagine that someone can daven twice as fast as me and still enunciate the words. But again, I don’t blame the chazan; he is at the mercy of the minyan schedule.

At Shacharit he recites the last one or two pesukim of each paragraph out loud to tell the tzibbur that he is now completing this paragraph, and they should now start the next paragraph. But why should they? Just to keep up with a pace that makes it virtually impossible to daven with any semblance of kavana?

My Proposal

I propose that when the chazan concludes Baruch She’amar we all answer “amein” as we currently do. But he would not call out the last lines of any of the following 15 paragraphs. Instead he would continue davening at his usual pace without interruption. During this time everyone would daven Pesukei d’Zimra at their own pace. Then, when concluding the 16th paragraph, Vayosha, the chazan would recite the last line out loud “Va-yiru ha’am et Adonoy va’yaminu b’Adonoy u’veMoshe avdo.” That would serve as a signal to everyone to complete the paragraph they are currently on and rejoin the chazan for Yishtabach. And then davening would resume as usual. So this proposal would only change the way we daven Pesukei d’Zimra.

People who have no problem davening at the chazan’s pace would be unaffected; they would simply continue to daven at that pace. But those who can’t keep up with the chazan would now be able to daven the paragraphs between Baruch She’amar and Yishtabach freed from the pressure of having to daven so rapidly. They would set their own pace. They could then enunciate the holy words and feel connected. Connected to the words and connected to Hashem.

But obviously, if one slows down the pace, he would not be able to complete all 16 paragraphs. But if he were to mumble and skim through them when davening at the chazan’s pace, he wouldn’t be completing any of them! I know what many people are thinking right now—that Chazal designed the structure of these tefillot with great wisdom, creating an ascending path of spirituality leading up to Shema and beyond. That every paragraph is an essential block in that path and that eliminating any one of them causes the entire structure to crumble. To that I say: when mumbling, skimming and slurring the words of each paragraph, the structure has already crumbled.

Can the Proposal be Applied on Shabbat?

Nobody has to catch a bus after davening on Shabbat morning. But the proposed change can also improve the quality of Pesukei d’Zimra on Shabbat. Even though the chazan goes at a somewhat slower pace, that pace still does not permit clear enunciation of the words and focusing on their translation and meaning. The only difference would be that when the chazan calls out the last line of the Vayosha paragraph people would rejoin him at Nishmat, instead of at Yishtabach.

It Will Be Up to the Rabbis

Of course this is just a proposal, made by one person. Whether it is instituted will depend on the rabbi of each shul who will, first and foremost, determine whether it is Halachically permissible and whether his congregants would benefit from the proposed change. Over the past year, we have all been flexible and open to change. I believe this might be the right time to apply those same principles to improve the quality of our davening.

Ira Buckman lives in Teaneck.