Hello all. I am sitting at my computer on what turned into a morning at home preparing class. 

This past Shabbos was Rosh Chodesh, Shekalim on Parshas Terumah. This hasn’t occurred for some 31 years (Shekalim is usually on Mishpatim) and won’t for another 20 or so years. Friday Purim and an Erev Pesach on Shabbos (as we have this year) will not happen again until 2045. 

I have mentioned my involvement in a local Minyan of Yekkes and Minhag Aschkenaz enthusiasts here in Brooklyn. We have been meeting on Friday nights and Motzi Shabassos. We occasionally meet for Shabbos morning as well, and we intend to hold services for the Daled Parshiyos. Although I thought I more-or-less knew the Minhagim of our Shul, it isn’t until I needed to implement them that I realized how many little things go into getting this right.  

But here is a beautiful thing that I experienced recently. We, of course, make Kiddush and Havdallah in Shul. Recently, I used the alternative tune for Kiddush, the one composed by Chazan Abraham Katz of Amsterdam and used by Chazan Frankel for many years. It is a much slower and more ornate Kiddush, with deliberate and long elaborated syllables belted out fervently. As I deliver this Kiddush, I am overcome with the moment. With the many eyes focused on my Kiddush cup. With the sanctity of receiving the Shabbos day. With the song, I am singing for Shabbos in this Kiddush. I felt like I was delivering the Star-Spangled Banner in Giants Stadium. I felt the beauty of the community accepting Shabbos together in Shul over this one small cup of wine. 

I remember how, in my youth, in the Breuers Shul, there were people who sometimes talked in Davening (as one may find anywhere). Not everyone stood for Chazoras Hashatz or Krias HaTorah. But Kiddush always commanded utter silence, and the entire shul stood.  

An interesting point of order connected to Kiddush: 

On Friday night, the Chazan makes Kiddush wearing his tallis, but on Motzi Shabbos, he does not put on a tallis to make Havdalah. I am informed that even if the Chazan was the Baal Tefilah on a Motzi Shabbos (for instance, if he is a Chiyuv), he removes it (!) for Havdalah. 

I asked Reb Yisroel Sidney for some explanation. 

He said there is no known reason why the cantor does not wear a Tallis when making havdala in shul. But that is the minhag. So much so that even if the Cantor prayed the evening prayer, he removed it for havdalah and shir Hamaalos.  

I asked why Shir Hamaalos is sung from the Almemer. 

He had two possible reasons. First, even though it already was part of the prayer, since they added a tune, they wanted to differentiate it, as is done on Friday nights, Lecha Dodi. Second, for reasons of practicality, since he is not the Baal Tefila (a member of the congregation after a Chiyuv davens Maariv on Motzi Shabbos), there would be nowhere for him to stand as he would sing it. The Baal Tefillah would have to step aside awkwardly.  
In some shuls, such as monks in Golders Green, London, the person making the mourners kaddish wears a Tallis. This is supposedly documented as the Frankfurt custom.  

Nevertheless, no one in our community whom he has spoken with who grew up in Frankfurt remembers that specifically being done there.  
He also noted that in Frankfurt, Kiddush and Havdalah were done by the Shamash and not by the Chazan at all! (This would possibly explain the reason the Chazan does not wear a Tallis for Havdalah, as this was never considered the Chazan’s responsibility, but that of the Shamash in his capacity of tending to the “guests” (I.e., wayfarers who would sleep in the Shul when passing through a town in times of yore. They were part of the reason this Minhag started.) 
 

Finally, Reb Yisroel noted that in Sharei Hatikva, where he grew up, one reciting Kadish would wear a Tallis as in Munks. Further, a mourner wore a Talis at Mincha and Maariv, even if he would not receive a  kaddish, such as in the 12th month. For this reason, in his 12th month, he avoided going for those prayers because he found it odd.