One of my precious Reb Marcia moments was the third week of DLTI-V after the Wednesday morning service that Kenny Joseph, Yiskah Rosenfeld and I had led. We had succeeded in having a warm, joyous and energizing shacharit service. We felt pretty good about it at least. Beautiful melodies, stirring poetry selections, segues to kvell over, eliciting heartfelt kavana. We had taken that great spiritual jet liner, with the kahal aboard, skillfully down the runway, lifting off with a great thrust of power, soaring into the heavens until it was time to gently glide back to earth--just a little bit higher than we had started the morning.
Marcia did not disagree. She provided only the most positive feedback in the ensuing lab. In fact, I wondered why she didn't find something to critique with a bit more rigor. I suppose the one thing we might have been lacking the most, was the one thing she held up for praise. It became a lesson I hold dear. In the most diplomatic way, she asked the three of us if any of us considered singing to be a strength of ours. This might have been a rhetorical question in some situations because the answer did not really need to be voiced. We looked at each other, smiled, turned to Marcia freely admitting that none of us saw ourselves as especially gifted singers. Marcia did not single out this trait to embarrass us. No, to the contrary, she used this fact to praise us as she instructed the class, "See, for those of you who feel it is necessary to be a great musician or a great singer to succeed in leading a service, let this be an example that one can lead a beautiful, inspiring service without that skill."
I don't have great pipes, but that doesn't stop me. I never have to doubt myself, having Reb Marcia's blessing with me forever.
Thank you, Reb Marcia, for your gentle wisdom. All blessings to you.
Yesh Ballon
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