Smachot Guideline

Mazal Tov! We are delighted that you have decided to celebrate your simcha at Minyan Shachar. We hope it will be a wonderful and meaningful celebration for you and your family and look forward to sharing it with you. As smachot come with varying norms and expectations we thought it would be helpful to outline the minyan guidelines. As soon as you clear the date, you will be assigned a representative of the Shachar board with whom you can work, ask questions etc., but in the meantime having these guidelines in writing may be helpful.

Physical Logistics

• Please make sure the date is cleared with both Sally Mendelsohn and the Temple.
• If you are a member of the minyan, we ask that you cover half the expense of the room rental that day (currently $850- your share would be $425) as well as any overage charge that will need to be paid to the custodial help (currently approximately $100). If you are not a member, you will need to cover the entire charge. (Trust us, it pays to be a member!)
• It is customary for the families making smachot in the minyan to provide a Kiddush for everyone attending the minyan that morning. As some people walk long distances we try to provide a fairly substantial Kiddush. A regular Shabbat Kiddush includes crudités, humus, lox, crackers as well as cake and cookies. Feel free to make supplements or exchanges, but please do provide some protein. Please be aware that you will be responsible to arrange for delivery, set up and clean up of the Kiddush.
• If there will be more than 10 children under the age of 10, you must arrange for onsite childcare as well as a security guard. Your coordinator will be able to provide the name and contact information of the security guard used by the temple (currently $35/hour).

Kibbudim

• We will be delighted to have your family members take on the roles of leigning and haftorah, however, please be cognizant of the fact that the leigning has to include both women and men reading with a minimum of 2 aliyot read by any one gender. (i.e. the most aliyot that can be read by either a man or a woman is 5). The exception to this rule is in the case of a bar or bat mitzvah. The bar or bat mitzvah can do all the leigning, the entire haftorah and more power to them!
• Gabbaim will be assigned by the minyan. If you have a special request regarding which of the regular gabayim you would like to have participate, feel free to put in that request.
• In the case of a bar or bat mitzvah, the teacher is welcome to stand at the shulchan in addition to the gabbaim.
• Baruch Shaptarani will be said immediately following the conclusion of whatever it is the bar/bat mitzvah is doing (e.g. leigning, haftorah).
• You may feel free to give out as many aliyot as are available. (Please understand that in some cases we will need to hold some in abeyance in cases of chiyuv.) At least 3 aliyot have to go to each gender.
• If you would like to assign guests or family members to serve as ba’ale tefillah they have to be approved in advance by the gabbaim and the gabbaim will need to speak to them to clarify Shachar minhagim.
• The family may honor guests with an opportunity to speak. We ask that you keep the speakers to a maximum of two and the speech lengths to a total of 20 minutes. All speeches will be held immediately following the tefillah. (If you invite a community rabbi to speak and would like him to speak after the tefillah, rather than at kiddush, please include that in your allotted calculation of time and speakers.)

Miscellaneous

• Some families have the minhag to throw candy. That’s fine, but please use only soft candy and no chocolate.
• If you’d like to a gift for the minyan, that’s great! It’s really appreciated, but please talk to the coordinator to clear what is needed.

Once again, Mazal Tov and we look forward to sharing in your simcha.