I keep seeing folks respond to these questions, especially ones from conversion students, with "Ask a rabbi or cantor." This always seems weird to me--unless the question has to do with hazzanut, why ask a cantor? I've certainly known hazzanim who are very knowledgeable about Jewish practice, but the same is true of many a volunteer shliach tzibur, and neither of them have the communal authority of a rabbi or the halachic authority of a posek.
(about "ask hazzanim" responses, cont'd) I wonder if this is a custom in a branch of Judaism with which I'm not familiar, or perhaps hazzanim have a special status in some of them? For the record, my background is Sephardi, though in cities without a big Sephardi population I've also belonged to a couple Masorti synagogues. In none of them can I imagine having being told "ask the hazzan" in response to a question of halachah or minhag.
