In American democracy there is a rule: You shall not lord your piety over your opponent. To understand how this American taboo used to work, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

In 1990 Rudy Boschwitz lost his Senate seat in Minnesota when his supporters violated an American taboo. They stepped across a boundary when they sent out a letter to Minnesota’s Jewish community saying that Boschwitz was a better Jew than his opponent, Paul Wellstone. Boschwitz, they said, helped young Jewish singles in Washington meet and marry other Jewish singles. Wellstone, on the other hand, they said, was married to a non-Jew. Vote, they said, for Rudy, the better Jew.

Praying and the synagogue were central to my life since my early childhood. My father was the rabbi of several distinguished New York City synagogues on the West Side and then the East Side of Manhattan. I recall many times accompanying him to his work. His study in the synagogue, off to the side of the main sanctuary, was lined with books, filled with a musty smell, and had the creakiest wood floor I ever walked on. The synagogue in Manhattan at that time was a stately place with formal services, led by a professional chazzan. My dad wore a robe and high hat — black during the year and white on the High Holy Days.

The Two Wives Club; Job Requirements for Israelite Kings; David’s Delivery Service; Dressed to Kill; Private Affair; Nepotism and Regret; Up on the Roof; Woolly Parable — are these the titles of this year’s fiction best-sellers or Oscar-nominated films?

Imagine a dictionary of Yiddish that contained only the most colorful and culturally rich words and phrases in a language. Now imagine that the definitions were arranged topically and written up by a lexicographically learned person who was also part cultural critic and an accomplished uninhibited professional comedian.

Yitzchak Meir Helfgot is not the first cantor to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House — the opera singers Richard Tucker and Jan Peerce, who were also cantors, got there first. But the internationally renowned Helfgot will be the first to perform cantorial music at the Met, the grandest stage for grand opera in the United States.

As of Tuesday, his concert, "Helfgot Sings Cantorial Classics," scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, had nearly sold out — and the Met seats 4,400.

Mordechai Sobol arranged the music for the orchestra and choir. Members of the New York Philharmonic will be conducted by Matthew Lazar with Cantor Daniel Gildar on the piano. The choir will be coordinated by Cantor Azi Schwartz. The invocation before the concert will be offered by the chief rabbi of Israel, Yisrael Meir Lau.

I was happy to read about the new film "A Cantor’s Tale," which your reviewer called "a love song to the art of chazzanut."

Perhaps this film will help us bring back that lost art of cantorial singing.

Alas, today, in many of our Orthodox synagogues, instead, we have DIY (do-it-yourself) davening.

That’s what I call it when a non-professional leads the services at the synagogue.

In this area, that’s about all you can ever expect in an Orthodox shul. It’s a rare occasion when a professional chazzan, a cantor, leads the prayers.

Jewish Standard: The Rev. Hagee has assured people that there will be no proselytizing or missionizing associated with his organization, Christians United for Israel. Do you believe he is sincere?

JS: What do you think about the Christians who follow the dispensationalist theology and their support of Zionism?

Jewish Standard: The Rev. John Hagee wrote the foreword to your book. He assured people last week that there would be no proselytizing or missionizing associated with his organization, Christians United for Israel. Do you believe he is sincere?

David Brog: I do believe that he is sincere. He has believed as a core principle for over 25 years that his work should not lead to any efforts at converting Jews. When he first tried to organize Christians for support of Israel 25 years ago, he met with uniform resistance from Christian pastors on this issue. When he spoke recently to several hundred Christian pastors in San Antonio Texas in an effort to enlist their support for Israel, all of them agreed to refrain from using these activities as a means of converting Jews.

Assessing Christian Zionists’ support of Israel

They are growing more solid each year in their support of Israel, a friendship that is based on their conservative religious faith. In one night to honor Israel in 2004, these people turned over $2.5 million to Jewish organizations supporting Israeli immigration and orphans. So just who are these folks?

Ironically, this is not the Jewish community we are talking about. These folks are the members of fundamentalist Christian groups who fervently embrace the Zionist mission and the modern State of Israel.

"Standing With Israel" is a new book by David Brog that analyzes Christian Zionism, a trend that has been growing within Christianity for more than a century. Brog’s book is clearly written and well researched, and documented. The case he makes at the core of the book is compelling. He convinces this reader that Christians in the United States who support Zionism and Israel are sincere and bear no hidden agenda.

Jewish Standard: For those of us who are not bloggers, just what is blogging?

Tzvee Zahavy: Ideally, blogging is the act of publishing your thoughts, knowledge, and observations on the Internet in short dated entries and, most often, inviting others to leave comments on those entries.

J.S.: Who reads these blogs?

T.Z.: Successful bloggers operate in a virtual community of readers who seek new information. The content can be topical, geographical, political, technical, humorous — the list is endless. Most observers assume that blog-readers are young and hip movers and shakers. But actually blogs more and more attract a cross-section of readers.