The camera is a wonderful invention – and one which becomes ever more portable, with higher resolution, and greater ease of use. We are inherently creatures who live in part for the future, and
photography is valuable precisely because it enables us to revisit events and experiences that had great meaning and importance to us at the time. The desire to take photographs at weddings, baby namings, Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, Chanukah celebrations, and other religious gatherings is understandable and bespeaks their importance to us and our families. Hill Havurah seeks to provide families the opportunity to capture these special occasions in photographs within the guidelines we explain below.
For a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, we encourage families to take advantage of the time just before and after the actual service to arrange photographs of the celebrant and family members with the Torah or on the Bimah. Rabbi Hannah will make herself available to participate in those photographs if you arrange that with her in advance. For a baby naming at a Shabbat service, we will provide similar opportunities to parents and family members to commemorate the simchah. In addition, we have no objection to the placement, in an unobtrusive location, of a stationery video camera that can be turned on at the start of services, left unattended, and used to capture the special occasion without the use of a flash or supplementary lighting.
The limitations we ask members of our congregation and their guests to observe are intended to preserve the fundamental purpose and sanctity of some of these gatherings – in particular those, like Shabbat and major holidays, that involve prayer or worship. This includes a Bar or Bat Mitzvah and a baby naming that takes place as part of Shabbat services. The aim of the prayer services on these occasions is to enable us to be present and to give our undivided attention to our thoughts and prayers, to the music and personal meaning of the liturgy, and to our being part of a community of worshipers. This atmosphere of individual and communal prayer or meditation and the focus on being present are easily disrupted by the taking of photographs. Photography can intrude upon the meditative moment for some worshipers, and by its very nature is a symbol of futurity and not of the present-ness that it is the specific function of the religious services to promote. And, so, we ask that no photographs be taken and that no cellular phones be used during prayer services on these occasions.
Some minor holiday and other religious events at Hill Havurah are completely or largely celebratory and involve little or no worship. These include our Chanukah, Purim, and Simchat Torah gatherings, our Passover Seder, baby namings unconnected to religious services, and B’rit Milah ceremonies. We place no restrictions on photography at these events so long as the photography is not overly invasive and does not interfere with carrying out the rituals appropriate to these occasions. Weddings are wholly private events, not sponsored by Hill Havurah, and we leave photography issues completely up to the families involved and the wedding officiant.
If you have any questions about these policies on photography at Hill Havurah religious celebrations, we encourage you to contact Rabbi Hannah or the head of the Ritual Committee, Michael Allen.