I have never caught a mistake during laining, this may be because I have never actually followed along. It seems like it must be a thrill to catch a mistake, have everyone look at you like you’re the man and make the guy laining know he’s not in charge and he has to answer to the mistake catchers. Does your shul have a lot of mistake catchers? Maybe there is only one, every shul has different policies when it comes to catching mistakes during laining.
Official mistake catcher:
I have noticed that the frummest shuls, the really frum ones, not the faker ones where everyone looks frum, tend to have one official guy who catches mistakes. This is so the guy laining is not embarrassed publicly, I like this policy the best, but at the same time I feel that some people only read along in laining to hit the jackpot and catch a good juicy mistake. At these really frum shuls however, you will notice people silently correcting the person with hand motions and back of the palm gestures that say NU without actually saying anything at all.
Not really an official mistake catcher:
Next down the list would be those shuls that have many people correcting the mistake but they do it in low voices, they kind mumble every few minutes while there is also one official guy and of course the folks up at the bima. Instead of hand gestures these people will correct mistakes, but they aren’t trying to slaughter the guy like in some shuls, artehr its more of mumbled frustration.
If they catch mistakes someone must be listening:
You have to admit that if people are catching mistakes they must be reading along, so next down the list would be those shuls in which many people are vocal about mistakes but they aren’t out to get the guy, like in many shuls.
We are here to embarrass you:
If you ever attend a shul full of hockers you will see that they make a mockery of the guy laining if he makes a mistake. Sometimes the guy at the bimah will get into linguistic debates about the pronunciation of certain words and a whole fight ensues. It usually goes like this, lainer makes a mistake and ten guys start yelling along with nu- whatsa matter with you but these shuls made me understand why some shuls have to pay for someone to lain for them.
What only one person caught that?
I have been in shuls where it was obvious from the fact that a big mistake was caught by one person that no one was reading along. This usually happens in small modern shuls and the guy who catches the mistake is the token frummy, like the Rabbis son who frummed out in Israel or something.
No mistakes:
In high school we had this guy Kaiser who would lain every week and he was a super lainer, he was the type of guy who could lain in shul and be the only guy to catch his own mistakes. Kind of pathetic I know, but sometimes that’s how it is.
What you’re too shy?
I have been in countless shuls with these shy people that catch tons of mistakes but don’t have the ability to speak up, they mumble barely audible corrections, but just like half of my college classes no one can speak up.
Unofficial gabbi:
In some shuls there is one guy who appoints himself as the “rude know it all” – mistake catcher, he overrides the gabbi and just goes all out. Sometimes he stands in the front with all the bimah hockers and sometimes he is just some random guy in the audience.
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What happened to the “Are you Shomer – but with it?” from this morning??
The guy it was talking about asked me to remove it
Or if you’re like me, on the rare occasions when you’re blackmailed into laining, you read my quickly that no one has any chance to correct you.
Sometimes rabbi appoints me as an official mistake catcher — the dude that stands opposite from gabbi, reads along and shakes the hands of those who just “retired” from their aliyah. (I think this would be some sort of shull reject job — like glilah — if there weren’t only a few people in the shull capable of following along.)
Normally, the official baal kriyah lains, the gabbi and the “second gabbi” (aka official error catcher) are following, and the rabbi stands with his back to the kriyah, quickly reading over a sicha to give over before Musaf. During the break, however, when the official baal kriyah is absent, the rabbi lains himself, and then he stops sometimes, expecting me (or the gabbi) to affirm or correct pronunciation — which sort of puts one on the spot.
I’ve caught our lainer at times when nobody else did, luckily for us, my place is right next to the bimah. Usually the Gabbai is the one to do it, he does let certain things slide such as trop or other minor mistakes.
I did notice the 404 / Do not collect $200 on your previous post, don’t see why the guy asked you to take it down, it’s not like you mentioned his name or posted his picture.
Phil, if you really want to look at it, it’s archived.
My shul plays a game every week: Who can catch the lainer? After they catch a mistake they all high five each other. It’s quite sad, seeing as half the time it wasn’t a correctable mistake, but they are idiots who don’t speak hebrew and don’t know jack about laining.
What happened to that other post about you being single yet again?
Don’t worry folks it will be brought back I took it down for personal reasons.
I know jack about laining – in fact my bar mitzvah teacher let me do the haftorah without a trup because I was so bad at laining – stuttering issues didn’t help either.
Is there a thrill to catching someone mistake during laining?
The only way you could get a thrill from correcting is if you enjoy putting other people down for your own self-confidence.
why don’t u write about the two types of leining followers. The ones that acctually follow and the ones that turn the page when they hear everyone else turning theirs…. I have a feeling u can make that into something funny!
At the shul I went to growing up, there was always a highly knowledgeable gabbai sheni (or aliyah taker, or someone else on the bima who could follow well). That’s a good system if one can find oneself in it.
Not so in college. It was a student-run minyan, with a little rabbinic oversight. I’m far from an expert, but once I was a gabbai, and the other gabbai and I both corrected the lainer. The lainer continued, and for some reason the other gabbai re-corrected the same word. I took the opportunity to discredit his alleged expertise by telling the lainer “NO, it’s (whatever the word was). You’re RIGHT!” Maybe I was being vindictive, but I admit I got a bit of a rush.
There are also the people like myself who feel the need to catch mistakes because I have been to too many shuls where the Gabbi was completely inept and couldn’t catch a mistake if it was in his own name.
But the best type is the shul with only one official corrector, but those shuls are few and far between.
My father used to refer to them as “vultures”. They would swoop down on a mistake all at once in the loudest manner possible; one time, my father said, the Ba’al Koreh actually signaled the Rabbi to come to the bimah and take a look–lo and behold, a mistake in the print of the Torah. They had to get out a new Torah and send this one back to a Sofer to fix it.
No joke, at my Bar Mitzva my father actually paid these vultures off to keep it to themselves. Any mistake I made was corrected by my leining instructor only.
Hesh, you forgot one more person who corrects: The guy HIMSELF who gets the aliya!
This really happened to me when I was leining. This wiseass semi-Rov gets an aliya, and I read a word the way it’s supposed to be read. Suddenly, this putz pipes up and corrects me WRONG! I just kept quiet for a few seconds kinda puzzled, thinking, “Did I read that the right way or not?” Luckily my buddy was in the crowd and he also knows how to lein and he yelled out, “No, he said it right!” Whew…
ghottistyx – At my shul they only allow the rabbi and gabbais to correct at a bar-mitzvah.
I always think it’s funny how one guy always jumps the loudest about the mistakes.
I read that if a lainer is easily embarrased, it’s better not to call him out.
Since reading the Torah is D’Rabanan while the not embarrassing someone is D’Oraisa.