[https://youtu.be/j65GblCMo74](https://youtu.be/j65GblCMo74?fbclid=IwAR0PO85tiN9VaCMsZV-XN2NDg23Q7buOcj_xhWy2gqdyvCn59LqGsvJKnwM)Forty years ago, one of my 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙨 𝙙𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙤 at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York was a singularly engaging and pious gentleman. His only apparent shortcoming was the habit he had of arriving at the synagogue well beyond a time that could be described as ‘decently late’. In point of fact, he usually showed up just as the 𝙃𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙖 was about to be concluded.One Shabbat, during the singing of 𝙈𝙞𝙯𝙢𝙤𝙧 𝙇𝙚𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙙 (Ps. 29), he asked for my assistance in piecing together, what was for him, a manifestly perplexing puzzle. “Every Shabbat,” he began, “I see how the 𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧 is returned to the 𝙃𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡, but,” he continued, “how do they get it out of there in the first place?”…. How, indeed!The simple answer is: with style. In the Spanish and Portuguese tradition, everyone involved in conducting the 𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙝 from the 𝙃𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡 to the 𝙏𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙝 has a precisely defined and demarcated assignment. Everything is scripted. Nothing is extemporised. Indeed, the standard of choreography is, without question, one that the Household Cavalry or the US Marine Corps might do well to aspire to.Consider, if you will, the punctiliousness with which 𝘼𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙤𝙧 tends to the doors of the 𝙃𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡, scrupulously synchronising their symmetrical opening. Witness the painstakingly practised divesting of the 𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧’𝙨 mantle, band and silver finials; or the rigorously calibrated pace of the procession itself. Nothing is left to chance.The chant which accompanies this lovingly executed pageantry is characterised by that blend of traits at which the Spanish and Portuguese tradition excels: understatement and majesty.The present recording is of the London variant, which is almost identical to the version sung in Amsterdam and similar to that in use in New York.Please share.