01 Sep CAN A BA’AL TESHUVAH SERVE AS CHAZZAN?
I. Undistinguished
Fathers
A chazzan
who leads the
synagogue services
represents the
community before G-d, so halachah asks
more of him than a good voice. Ideally he
should be righteous, humble, acceptable to
the congregation, well versed in Torah, in
addition to having a good voice (Shulchan
Aruch, Orach Chaim 53:4). However, his
family background is also important. If
a man is personally righteous but comes
from a non-religious home, this might
have bearing.
Rashi (Gen. 25:21) asks why Yitzchak’s
prayer for Rivkah’s infertility was
accepted more than Rivkah’s own prayers.
He quotes the Gemara (Yevamos 64a) that
the prayer of a tzadik ben tzadik, a two-
generational righteous person, is stronger
than that of a tzadik ben rasha, a first-
generational righteous person. Therefore,
Yitzchak ben Avraham’s prayer was
accepted over Rivkah bas Besuel’s. If
so, perhaps a community should prefer
a chazzan whose father is righteous over
a ba’al teshuvah, someone who was not
raised observant. Setting aside the issue of
past personal behavior, is there a concern
over the ba’al teshuvah’s father?
Rav Asher ben Yechiel (Rosh; 14th
cen., Germany-Spain) was asked about
communities in Spain that appointed
chazzanim from undistinguished families.
The Rosh dismisses this concern. What
good is distinguished lineage, he asks,
if the man himself is wicked? And if
someone comes from an undistinguished
family but is righteous, all the better,
since it is a mitzvah to draw close those
who come from afar (Responsa 4:22).
His son, Rav Ya’akov, quotes this ruling
in his important work, the Tur (Orach
Chaim 53). But it leaves open the
question whether the same logic applies
when the chazzan’s father was not only
undistinguished but unobservant? Later
authorities are divided on this point.
II. Unobservant Fathers
Rav Yoel Sirkes (Bach; 17th cen., Poland)
cites Rav Shlomo Luria (Maharshal; 16th
cen., Poland) as adding a qualification.
Someone with an undistinguished father
is acceptable but when two candidates
are otherwise equal, the one whose
father is righteous should be preferred
(Bach, Orach Chaim 53, s.v. ve-kasav
Maharshal).
Rav Avraham Gombiner (17th cen.,
Poland) follows this approach and writes
that it is proper to look for a chazzan who
is himself the son of a righteous man
(Magen Avraham, Orach Chaim 53:8).
Rav Yisrael Kagan (Chafetz Chaim; 20th
cen., Poland) rules likewise (Mishnah
Berurah 53:13).
Rav David Segal (17th cen., Poland)
makes the Rosh’s logic more explicit.
He notes that the Rosh does not
merely tolerate a candidate from an
undistinguished family; he says it is good
to draw close those who come from afar.
In other words, if there are two righteous
candidates, one the son of a righteous man
and the other the son of a wicked man, we
should prefer the son of a wicked man
(Taz, Orach Chaim 53:3).
III. Middle Ground
Between the Rav Gombiner’s preference
for the son of the righteous father and the
Rav Segal’s preference for the righteous
man who overcame a deficient family
background, Rav Shneur Zalman of
Liadi (early 19th cen., Russia) stakes
out a middle position. He first repeats
that it is good to seek a chazzan who
is the son of a righteous man. He then
immediately cites the other view as
well, that the prayer of a righteous son
of a wicked man may actually be heard
more readily. In practice, he concludes,
the matter depends on the relative
strengths of the two candidates: one
man’s humility against the other’s
ancestral righteousness (Shulchan
Aruch Ha-Rav, Orach Chaim 53:7).
This shifts the question away from a
fixed rule about pedigree and toward
a comparison of character. A religious
upbringing gives someone something
real: models, habits, inherited
merit. Growing up without it can
produce something else: humility,
independence, and the achievement of
having built a religious life rather than
inherited one. The issue is less about
who his father was than about what that
background actually produced in the
man standing before the congregation.
More recently, Rav Moshe Sternbuch
(cont., Israel) addresses this exact
question. He explicitly points out
something often implicit in previous
discussions. There are many ways to
measure the quality of a chazzan, among
them his pedigree. But which qualities
have higher priority than others? Rav
Sternbuch argues that pedigree ranks
last among them all. Only if the two
candidates are equal in every other way,
do we consider the righteousness of their
fathers. Otherwise, we prioritize other
considerations.
Additionally, someone who exhibited
self-sacrifice in leaving the non-religious
ways of his upbringing holds a quality
not found in someone who was raised
religious. Moreover, it is not clear that
a non-religious father who never had a
proper Jewish education can be considered
wicked.
Rav Sternbuch concludes that if the two
candidates are truly equal, the son of the
righteous father should be preferred. But
if the man from the non-religious home
is more righteous or brings greater merit
by spreading Torah, he should be chosen
instead (Teshuvos Ve-Hanhagos, vol. 4,
no. 9).
It is worth noting that some codes, when
discussing the qualifications of a chazzan,
do not mention this issue at all. Rav
Ephraim Margoliyos (19th cen., Ukraine)
lists the qualifications for serving as
a chazzan for Selichos and the High
Holidays, and does not mention pedigree
(Mateh Ephraim 581:26-28). Rav Shlomo
Ganzfried (19th cen., Hungary does
likewise (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 128:7).
Rav Yitzchak Fuchs (cont., Israel) quotes
the limitation of pedigree, as ruled in
Mishnah Berurah, but concludes: “In
practice, the one among the congregation
who is greatest in wisdom and good deeds
is the most appropriate one [to serve as
chazzan]” (Tefillah Ke-Hilchasah 26:3).
While acknowledging the pedigree rule,
he effectively nullifies it by lowering
its priority beneath the qualifications of
personal wisdom and righteousness.
In this way, recent authorities
acknowledge that family background and
childhood training matter. However, they
emphasize that what a person does with
his life matters even more.