Kansas City’s trained synagogue cantors, Hazzan Tahl Ben-Yehuda of Congregation Beth Shalom and Hazzan Aron Hayoun of Kehilath Israel Synagogue, have each worked for decades to develop the skills needed to lead a congregation in melodical prayer.
Those skills will be on full display during Yom Kippur services.
Hazzan Ben-Yehuda and Hazzan Hayoun grew up on different sides of the world — Pennsylvania and France, respectively — but their philosophies, values, and paths to the cantorate have noticeable parallels.
The path to becoming a hazzan
Both hazzanim grew up in families deeply devoted to Torah. Hazzan Ben-Yehuda’s father is a rabbi, and she considers him her mentor; she recalls her first time leading High Holiday services at age 16, singing Kol Nidre and Avinu Malkeinu.
“[My father] set the tone for everything,” Hazzan Ben-Yehuda said. “...I just adored the music.”
Hazzan Hayoun’s mother taught him and his siblings Torah from when they were young. His grandfather was a hazzan, and once, when his grandfather was sick, Hayoun was asked to read Torah when still a young child.
“I had almost a good voice; I was playing all the time like I was a hazzan,” Hazzan Hayoun said. “I have some pictures where I took the hat of a hazzan… I began very early to have this feeling that I would be one.”
Because of their experiences as de facto hazzanim in synagogues growing up, when they went to cantorial schools, both graduated in only three years.
After leading High Holiday services as a student at Cornell University and synagogue services with her father from 1997 to 2010, Hazzan Ben-Yehuda attended the Jewish Theological Seminary H. L. Miller Cantorial School in New York.
After graduating from cantorial school, Hazzan Ben-Yehuda joined Congregation Beth Shalom in the summer of 2013. In addition to her cantorial duties, she’s led the Polsky Religious School, serves as the synagogue’s director of congregational learning, and trains b’nai mitzvah students, among other responsibilities.
Hazzan Hayoun attended the Cantorial School of the Grand Synagogue of Jerusalem in the mid-1980s, learning under traditional cantors such as Moshe Stern and Naftali Hershtik.
Hazzan Hayoun has been hazzan rishon (head cantor) at multiple synagogues throughout Europe and North America, including synagogues in Paris, France; Stuttgart, Germany (where he also studied opera); Brussels, Belgium; Metz, France; and Toronto, Canada.
“I worked like meshuggah,” he said.
After decades of leading services, Hazzan Hayoun joined Kehilath Israel Synagogue as cantor in April of 2022 and teaches the congregation’s b’nai mitzvah students.
Preparation for the High Holidays
Both hazzanim prepare for the High Holidays months in advance. Hazzan Ben-Yehuda said that around the 17th of Tammuz (usually mid-July), she stops listening to music on the radio and starts studying the melodies for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers. Hazzan Hayoun has been working with a small choir at K.I. while revisiting eastern European hazzanut (cantorial singing and melodies) that he learned in Jerusalem.
Both hazzanim also physically prepare for the High Holidays, preparing their bodies like an athlete. Leading services and belting out prayers for the majority of Yom Kippur while fasting is, as both hazzanim said, “very, very difficult.”
Hazzan Ben-Yehuda’s preparations include increased water intake, eight hours of sleep a night, special care of her respiratory system (she calls Kansas “allergy central”) and a healthy diet. Hazzan Hayoun said he had to develop a technique to deal with the problem of not drinking while singing all day. However, despite the hazzanim’s taxing physical duties on Yom Kippur, both said that by the end, they feel a sense of intense spirituality.
“[Once services are over], I’m riding this incredible spiritual wave, and I’m praying everyone is on it with me,” Hazzan Ben-Yehuda said.
“[By the end of services], you’re in a special excitation if you’re a guy who loves Hashem,” Hazzan Hayoun said. “[A hazzan who loves Hashem] has the power to do it. I don’t know where this power is from, but he has the power.”
Both hazzanim openly admit to being nervous before High Holiday services; Hazzan Hayoun said that all cantors get nervous beforehand, and some work themselves up to the point of becoming ill.
“Nobody is coming in like Elvis Presley,” Hazzan Hayoun said. “The [nervousness] is also bringing you sensibility.”
Kol Nidre and tradition
Singing Kol Nidre, perhaps one of the most recognizable High Holiday prayers, is a high point in a hazzan’s work (and often one of the most well-attended services of the year). When asked about the Kol Nidre melody, both hazzanim shared the same sentiment — it is not to be messed with.
“There are some hazzanim today that try to change [Kol Nidre], and I think that is very sad,” Hazzan Hayoun said. “You have to respect the rules… Who am I to change Kol Nidre? Who am I to change Unetaneh Tokef?”
“If you want to be fired really quickly, if you want to be let go from your pulpit really fast, change the tune to Kol Nidre,” Hazzan Ben-Yehuda said.
Like the tune of Kol Nidre, both hazzanim are adamant in their belief that although some things can be changed or even updated, there are certain prayers, melodies and traditions that should not be changed.
“Cantors and service leaders need to understand that there are melodies that are so integral to the experience of the holiday that when you change them, it doesn’t feel right anymore,” Hazzan Ben-Yehuda said. She also said that she is deeply grateful that the Beth Shalom congregation embraces the traditional prayers in Hebrew.
Cantorial philosophies
The two hazzanim both mentioned the importance of including the congregation in prayer.
“If you want to be a hazzan, work well and have the people be happy to have you, give the feeling that they are with you in tefilah,” Hazzan Hayoun said. “Don’t forget that behind you, you have people who want to sing with you, who love to sing with you, and listen to the melodies they’re used to.”
“I want to be able to reach out spiritually and lovingly, and musically touch every person in the room,” Hazzan Ben-Yehuda said. “It’s an insane goal, but it’s what I long for.”
“Synagogue is not an opera,” Hazzan Hayoun said. “Tefilah is not a show.”
Yom Kippur begins at 6:38 p.m. on Oct. 4.