Hadar's High Holiday Prayer Leadership Training 2023
It's time to prepare for the High Holidays! Join Joey Weisenberg and the Hadar Institute to learn how to lead Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur davening.
Master Classes
Joey's comprehensive High Holiday course contains 100+ videos from the opening prayers of Rosh HaShanah to the final notes of Neilah on Yom Kippur.
Live Webinars
Gather on Zoom to explore the material in virtual community and get guidance from Joey Weisenberg, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz, and guest faculty from Hadar.
Study Guide
Follow an extensive syllabus of suggested videos, guiding questions and supplementary resources with our High Holiday Highlights study guide.
How to Join
1. Subscribe for an ongoing all-access pass to Joey Weisenberg's Master Classes in Jewish Song.
($18/month)
2. Study at your own pace the 100+ High Holidays nusach videos.
3. Attend live sessions with Joey, Deborah, and the virtual community throughout the summer and early fall!
Questions? Contact: [email protected]
Become a High Holiday prayer leader!
"Like providing a glimpse into the private marginalia on a composer’s score, Weisenberg opens up his own machzor to reveal to the student his personal musical markings. There are scribbles, sections bracketed off to denote where to start and stop, and 'notes to self' squeezed into the narrow white space between two lines of black text. It’s all in the service of offering hints to the arc and emotion of a melody. There are times when he loses himself in demonstrating a nigun—head raised up, eyes closed, ancient Jewish chanting pulled along into the present day. "
Robert Goldblum, Jewish News Syndicate
"Lifting voices for the High Holidays"
Learn to Lead High Holiday Prayers!
2023 Prayer Leadership Training Series with Joey Weisenberg and Hadar's Rising Song Institute
Whether you are an aspiring prayer leader or just want to get acquainted with the special liturgy of the High Holidays, now is the time to start preparing for the new year.
Join Hadar’s High Holiday Prayer Leadership Training for 2023 to immerse in this sacred soundscape and learn how to lead Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur davening. This series includes nusach workshops, leadership processing sessions, in-depth explorations of seasonal liturgy.
Combining live communal study with on-demand instructional videos, this course is designed for all levels of experience with prayer leadership and can benefit anyone who knows how to read the text in the siddur.
Students get access to Joey Weisenberg’s master class library, containing a comprehensive High Holiday nusach course with more than 100 videos covering everything from the opening lines of Rosh HaShanah to the final notes of Neilah on Yom Kippur, as well as several opportunities to gather on Zoom with a virtual community of practitioners to ask questions and learn from Joey Weisenberg, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz, and Hadar’s incredible faculty!
Yes! Whether you are a davening expert or a newbie to prayer leadership, this program is for anyone who is interested in becoming (more) familiar with the High Holidays liturgy and leading Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur services in any setting. Included are videos for advanced practitioners (“Davening Artistry”) as well as for relative beginners (“Ba’al Tfila Basics”). In order to get the most out of these trainings, folks should at least feel comfortable reading the text of the siddur.
In our experience, we've found that our resources are helpful for people from all levels.
If you're a beginner at prayer leading and need to quickly learn the essentials, we've developed a High Holiday Highlights course just for you!
If you're already an experienced prayer leader and you're looking for new ideas to round out your repertoire, then you're ready to jump into the master classes where you'll find detailed studies of every piece of liturgy accompanied by explanations and some additional resources.
- June 27 (Mon) with Joey Weisenberg - Rosh HaShanah Musaf 1
- July 19 (Tue) with R. Deborah Sacks Mintz - Processing Prayer Leadership
- August 2 (Tue) with Joey - Rosh HaShanah Musaf 2
- August 9 (Tue) - R. Aviva Richman - Between Triumph and Intimacy: Reimagining Malkhut (Divine Sovereignty)
- August 23 (Tue) with Deborah - Processing Prayer Leadership
- September 6 (Tue) with Joey - Kol Nidre 1
- September 12 (Mon) with Deborah - Processing Prayer Leadership
- September 21 (Wed) with R. Elie Kaunfer - The Deeper Literary Meaning of U'NeTaneh Tokef
- October 2 (Sun) with Joey - Kol Nidre 2
- Nusach Roadmap (6 videos)
- Understand the arc of prayer from an aesthetic, spiritual and energetic point of view. Consider how to bring everyone into the prayer experience.
- Pesukei D'Zimrah for Rosh HaShanah (3 videos)
- Warming up the atmosphere for a big day of davening. Learn to move swiftly through a lot of material.
- Shacharit for Rosh HaShanah (17 videos)
- While it begins with a lot of familiar material, Rosh HaShanah Shacharit includes many special piyyutim and the iconic shofar calling.
- Musaf for Rosh HaShanah (32 videos)
- Divided into four subsections, learn the choreography and liturgy of the epic Rosh HaShanah Musaf service, which includes shofar blasts.
- Yizkor (2 videos)
- A memorial service where the leader's role is to stay out of the way, allowing those who have lost loved ones to deeply remember.
- Kol Nidre (29 videos)
- Slichot, Avinu Malkeinu, Vidui and other elements that reappear throughout the day are included here, the opening service of Yom Kippur.
- Yom Kippur Morning (3 videos)
- Review the Pesukei D'Zimrah and Shacharit services for Yom Kippur, which is very similar to Rosh HaShanah but includes additional piyyutim.
- Musaf for Yom Kippur (12 videos)
- Master the Musaf service for Yom Kippur, which is very similar to Rosh HaShanah but includes the unique and extensive Avodah service.
- Mincha for Yom Kippur (1 video)
- If you have led the other High Holiday services, this one is easy. The trick is moving through it quickly. Learn how to get it done.
- Neilah! (11 videos)
- The closing of the gates, the final service of Yom Kippur is urgent and powerful. Clock is ticking. Maintain the ruach of this epic day.
- Modes & Scales of Nusach Asheknaz in America (6 videos)
- Learning the scales and modes associated with the predominant nusach in America. Fundamentals of music theory as it relates to Jewish prayer.
Through learning the nusach in these videos—and, crucially, by trying them in real life!—you can become a High Holiday prayer leader in your community or in the privacy of your home.
You will learn all of the major liturgy for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and be able to lead any of these services at a synagogue or prayer gathering of any size. Through Joey's teachings in this series, you will develop the aesthetic and spiritual sensitivity to both lead and step out of the way, empowering diverse groups of people to lift and transform their prayers into powerful, collective song.
Of course! As subscribers you are already eligible for everything. Just let us know and we’ll add you to the list: [email protected]
It costs $18 per month to subscribe to Joey Weisenberg's Master Classes in Jewish Song, which includes access to Hadar's High Holiday Prayer Leadership Training. Your monthly subscription will continue automatically after the High Holiday series concludes — many people are excited to stay in our learning community on an ongoing basis — but you are welcome to cancel at any time.
"I agreed to be shaliach tsibbur for Erev Yom Kippur this year for a small, lay-led minyan that wanted to observe the High Holidays outdoors and in-person. I have some experience leading Shabbat and weekday services, but High Holiday services were not in my wheelhouse and I was initially overwhelmed by what I had agreed to do. It was an enormous relief when I found your site. It's beautifully organized, the nusach is lovely, and it helped me learn a ton of new stuff. Leading that service was a very meaningful experience for me. I'm truly grateful."
—2020 Training Participant
Why should we learn nusach?
"When we hear nusach, if our ear is sensitized to it, we're able to really feel where we are in time. And then the nigun comes along and transcends time."
—Joey Weisenberg
Check out a sample from the videos for Yom Kippur...
