Reply To: Abandonment of Nussach

feivel you miss my point entirely. The exacting detail involved in the Shira and the Maharil’s punctilious work in establishing nusach were because Halacha recognizes that music is a very powerful artistic source. It speaks to our souls. Great chazzanut is not about entertainment. Great chazzanut is about interpretting the text of the davening and rendering it meanigful to the worshipper. Great chazzanim give shiurim in the music of tefilla and in the peirush hamillot when they daven for the amud. It is the music of the davening that provides intellectual stimulation as a backdrop to davening that might otherwise be rendered rote and meaningless by virtue of its constant repetition in our lives. Great chazzanut also enrobes our noble liturgy in grandeur befitting praise of G-d and supplications before Him. It’s very sad that yeshiva educated people, who are the most familiar with davening, to whom it should mean the most, completely ignore this crucial facet of Avodat haBoreh.