The director wouldn't let it rest. "But why is someone obligated? I don't understand. Let the rabbi say whatever he says and the questioner do whatever he wants." Rabbi Eliyahu just smiled. "Wait. You'll soon understand."
In my small, Ashkenazi Shacharit minyan (without a rav), we now have two aveilim. They have been switching being chazan at Ashrei, but recently some people (mainly Sephardim) raised objections. I thought it was a standard practice. Is there a problem with it?
Although the importance of the tefillah of Tachanun is underappreciated by many,
it should not be; it is actually based on Moshe Rabbeinu’s successful entreating of
Hashem on Har Sinai to spare Klal Yisrael from punishment after their grievous
sins: “Va’esnapel lifnai Hashem (Devarim 9:18, 25) - And I threw myself down in
prayer before G-d,” (Tur, Orach Chayim 131).
The word "yoreh" means to teach. According to the Talmud, the "yoreh" (first rain) teaches us to prepare for the winter, to plaster our roofs, to seal up any holes through which rain might possibly leak. This is our first warning of winter's arrival.
The road from Babylon to the Land of Israel passes through Syria, and many of the returning exiles got stuck there, beyond the Sambatyon River. Though largely unobservant, they were protected from assimilation by the observance of the Sabbath.
The process of establishing sanctity in Israel was riddled with vicissitudes, from the Shilo sanctuary in Joseph's hereditary portion, to Gibeon and Nov in the portion of Benjamin, and finally to Jerusalem. The same is true of Israel's leadership.