Can a Ba’al Teshuvah Serve as Chazzan?
by R. Gil Student
I. Undistinguished Fathers
A chazzan who leads the synagogue services represents the community before God, so halakhah asks more of him than a good voice. Ideally he should be righteous, humble, acceptable to the congregation, well versed in Torah, in addition to having a good voice (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 53:4). However, his family background is also important. If a man is personally righteous but comes from a non-religious home, this might have bearing.
Rashi (Gen. 25:21) asks why Yitzchak’s prayer for Rivkah’s infertility was accepted more than Rivkah’s own prayers. He quotes the Gemara (Yevamos 64a) that the prayer of a tzadik ben tzadik, a two-generational righteous person, is stronger than that of a tzadik ben rasha, a first-generational righteous person. Therefore, Yitzchak ben Avraham’s prayer was accepted over Rivkah bas Besuel’s. If so, perhaps a community should prefer a chazzan whose father is righteous over a ba’al teshuvah, someone who was not raised observant. Setting aside the issue of past personal behavior, is there a concern over the ba’al teshuvah’s father?
Rav Asher ben Yechiel (Rosh; 14th cen., Germany-Spain) was asked about communities in Spain that appointed chazzanim from undistinguished families. The Rosh dismisses this concern. What good is distinguished lineage, he asks, if the man himself is wicked? And if someone comes from an undistinguished family but is righteous, all the better, since it is a mitzvah to draw close those who come from afar (Responsa 4:22). His son, Rav Ya’akov, quotes this ruling in his important work, the Tur (Orach Chaim 53). But it leaves open the question whether the same logic applies when the chazzan‘s father was not only undistinguished but unobservant? Later authorities are divided on this point.
II. Unobservant Fathers
Rav Yoel Sirkes (Bach; 17th cen., Poland) cites Rav Shlomo Luria (Maharshal; 16th cen., Poland) as adding a qualification. Someone with an undistinguished father is acceptable but when two candidates are otherwise equal, the one whose father is righteous should be preferred (Bach, Orach Chaim 53, s.v. ve-kasav Maharshal).
Rav Avraham Gombiner (17th cen., Poland) follows this approach and writes that it is proper to look for a chazzan who is himself the son of a righteous man (Magen Avraham, Orach Chaim 53:8). Rav Yisrael Kagan (Chafetz Chaim; 20th cen., Poland) rules likewise (Mishnah Berurah 53:13).
Rav David Segal (17th cen., Poland) makes the Rosh’s logic more explicit. He notes that the Rosh does not merely tolerate a candidate from an undistinguished family; he says it is good to draw close those who come from afar. In other words, if there are two righteous candidates, one the son of a righteous man and the other the son of a wicked man, we should prefer the son of a wicked man (Taz, Orach Chaim 53:3).
III. Middle Ground
Between the Rav Gombiner’s preference for the son of the righteous father and the Rav Segal’s preference for the righteous man who overcame a deficient family background, Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi (early 19th cen., Russia) stakes out a middle position. He first repeats that it is good to seek a chazzan who is the son of a righteous man. He then immediately cites the other view as well, that the prayer of a righteous son of a wicked man may actually be heard more readily. In practice, he concludes, the matter depends on the relative strengths of the two candidates: one man’s humility against the other’s ancestral righteousness (Shulchan Arukh Ha-Rav, Orach Chaim 53:7).
This shifts the question away from a fixed rule about pedigree and toward a comparison of character. A religious upbringing gives someone something real: models, habits, inherited merit. Growing up without it can produce something else: humility, independence, and the achievement of having built a religious life rather than inherited one. The issue is less about who his father was than about what that background actually produced in the man standing before the congregation.
More recently, Rav Moshe Sternbuch (cont., Israel) addresses this exact question. He explicitly points out something often implicit in previous discussions. There are many ways to measure the quality of a chazzan, among them his pedigree. But which qualities have higher priority than others? Rav Sternbuch argues that pedigree ranks last among them all. Only if the two candidates are equal in every other way, do we consider the righteousness of their fathers. Otherwise, we prioritize other considerations.
Additionally, someone who exhibited self-sacrifice in leaving the non-religious ways of his upbringing holds a quality not found in someone who was raised religious. Moreover, it is not clear that a non-religious father who never had a proper Jewish education can be considered wicked.
Rav Sternbuch concludes that if the two candidates are truly equal, the son of the righteous father should be preferred. But if the man from the non-religious home is more righteous or brings greater merit by spreading Torah, he should be chosen instead (Teshuvos Ve-Hanhagos, vol. 4, no. 9).
It is worth noting that some codes, when discussing the qualifications of a chazzan, do not mention this issue at all. Rav Ephraim Margoliyos (19th cen., Ukraine) lists the qualifications for serving as a chazzan for Selichos and the High Holidays, and does not mention pedigree (Mateh Ephraim 581:26-28). Rav Shlomo Ganzfried (19th cen., Hungary does likewise (Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 128:7). Rav Yitzchak Fuchs (cont., Israel) quotes the limitation of pedigree, as ruled in Mishnah Berurah, but concludes: “In practice, the one among the congregation who is greatest in wisdom and good deeds is the most appropriate one [to serve as chazzan]” (Tefillah Ke-Hilkhasah 26:3). While acknowledging the pedigree rule, he effectively nullifies it by lowering its priority beneath the qualifications of personal wisdom and righteousness.
In this way, recent authorities acknowledge that family background and childhood training matter. However, they emphasize that what a person does with his life matters even more.