Humility

I heard the following story:

A well-groomed man, dressed in Chassidic garb, walks into a shul that's he's never attended before. He goes to the gabbai and asks to daven for the amud.

The gabbai, sizes him up and assumes that he knows how to daven because he looks like he knows how to daven.

The visitor goes to the bimah and starts. It immediately becomes apparent that the man does not know Ivrah and does not know nusach. His davening is a disaster.

The other men in the minyan get very upset and ask the gabbai to replace the visitor. The gabbai, in turn, asks the visitor to step down but the visitor ignores him and continues. Finally, with the kehilah getting increasingly distressed, the gabbai calls on two burly men to physically remove the visitor from the amud.

One man grabs the vistor by the right arm, the other by the left. They try to remove him but he doesn't budge. The gabbai notices that the visitor has tied himself to the bimah with his gartel.

The gabbai, all upset, asks the visitor, "what's going on?".

The visitor responds: "You think this is the first time I've davened for the amud?"

This past week, I heard of a situation in my shul that was the exception to the rule suggested by the above story. We asked a young married man to daven Shachris for the amud on Yom Kippur. This man has the most beautiful voice you can imagine and knows nusach cold. We even offered to pay him to lead the davening. Even though he could use the money, he turned us down because he felt he was too young and not 'holding' by davening for the amud on Yom Kippur.