Early in the prayers, before L'cha Dodi, the rabbi's wife came over to me and told me that I was requested to join the rabbi (who always leads the prayers) up front. He has had me join him a few times before, mostly when his voice felt a little shaky and he wanted some extra support, so I wasn't too surprised.
Throughout L'cha Dodi, I noticed that he didn't sing as much as usual, leaving much of it to me. At the end of L'cha Dodi, he suddenly took off his tallit, handed the microphone to me, said תמשיך! tamshikh! ("Continue!"), and quickly walked to the back and out the door. I knew he must really not be feeling well to do something like that, and I also knew that I had better pull it together and concentrate in leading the prayers to the very best of my ability. I did notice that several people followed him out the door to help him.
The singing part is not too difficult for me, although I hadn't really prepared mentally for it, of course. The parts where the leader simply reads the Hebrew are more difficult except for a few parts of the Amidah that I know well. After I stumbled through the middle part of the first Psalm ("Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat") after L'cha Dodi, Odelia and Ayelet, two of the teenagers in the congregation came up and asked if I wanted their help! Boy, did I! These two girls are both native Hebrew (and English!) speakers, so the reading is pretty easy for them. When I try to read these things, I sound like a 2nd grader -- with a horrible accent, to boot!
Various other people helped out with other aspects of the evening, and, all in all, I think it was a success. This morning, I found out that the rabbi was having a high-blood-pressure attack but that he's OK now.
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