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I know that davening should not be rushed. However, inevitably, it seems that it is, in many shuls. Weekday morning shacharit, in particular, seems to be the most rushed as people have to commute to work and are bound to transit schedules and such.

I have seen some shuls publish "internal rules" regarding how long each part of Shacharit should take. In one shul, I have heard that they want Psukei D'Zimra to take 20 minutes, and they have actually asked a Shat'z to leav the bima if the Gabbai felt he was "shacharacing" (that's my made-up term ... like it?)

A few people in my shul have asked that such a schedule be published so that both the Shat"z and daveners get a sense of what is considered an "ideal" amount of time for various sections of weekday Shacahrit as well as, perhaps, Shabbat services (excluding drashot time, as they already have a fixed time for this, and it can be better controlled.)

I am unaware of any published work in this area, and I have no concept, myself, on how I could compile something like this. What's considered "too fast" or "too shleppy"? Any ideas on how I could figure this out, or should I just leave my shul and find another place without such meshuga'at? I really like my shul, otherwise.

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    I can't help but feel that this is primarily opinion based. Isn't "too fast" or "too shleppy" just someone's opinion? ....what I consider normal, others consider slow, and potentially vice versa. – MTL Feb 13 '15 at 17:47
  • @Shokhet - yes that term is opinionated. However, despite this, I am asking if anyone has published anything with recommended timing. If so, we can compare the slow and fast. – DanF Feb 13 '15 at 17:49
  • Okay...so you're looking for one of those "charts" that you mentioned in your question? – MTL Feb 13 '15 at 17:50
  • I've been asked to slow down when I daven pesukei dezimrah on a shabbos due to my speed, I also know someone who doesn't like davening with Ashkenazi minyanim, because he finds them to be too fast. I've also been in shuls where the sha"tz was inexperienced and davened very slowly. From this, I derive that there are likely ideal times – Noach MiFrankfurt Feb 13 '15 at 17:52
  • @Shokhet, I think he is. – Noach MiFrankfurt Feb 13 '15 at 17:52
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It is very hard to set exact times for each specific part of davening. Generally minyanim will either be fixed based on a starting time (such as yeshiva minyanim) or an ending time (such as most shul minyanim where people need to be out at a certain time). I have however seen charts for vasikin minyanim where everything until the beginning of shmonah esrei was carefully calculated.

It can be hard enough to daven for the Amud and keeping to such a rigorous schedule can make it harder to concentrate.

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  • Vasikin is calculated because you can't daven before a certain time, and they'd like to daven exactly at the earliest time. – MTL Feb 13 '15 at 19:35

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