Go back to your first experience you can remember of being in a Synagogue.  It could be one of the High Holy Days, a Holiday, Religious School, even Shabbat.  What do you remember?  When asked that question, my response is always the music, how the prayers were sung.  Those melodies touch something deep inside of us.  Not only in the Synagogue do those songs, those melodies resonate, but also from Passover Seders, Chanukah, even in our secular lives.

From our early years we all remember the melody to the “A, B, Cs”; “Intsy Wintsy Spider”, and others.  Point of fact – the melody we use for Shehu Noteh Shamayim from the Aleinu is based on the melody of “Intsy Wintsy Spider”.  That melody continues to resonate with us every Shabbat and Holiday.

“Since earliest times, music has universally been a part of G-d’s creatures’ worship of their Creator.  From the very beginning of our national existence, the worship of G-d with prayer and sacrifice has been accompanied by music (noted in Exodus 15:1, 20), and music played an important part of the Temple service as well.” (source: A Guide to Jewish Prayer pg. 370)

The sounds and tones of music weave through Jewish life as a thread through a tapestry.  This tapestry is rich and vibrant, much like Joseph’s coat of many colors.  But instead of colors, we have tones and harmonies which can lift us up and raise our spiritual identity, helping to fill us with sweet sounds.  We only have to listen, and let ourselves be carried away by these sweet sounds.

Growing up going to Shul I would look forward to attending services and singing along with the Cantor and the Congregation.  There truly was and still is something very spiritual that happens when we all join together singing the prayers.  That sense of our community, not only here at DHJC, but the entire Jewish community coming together through the words of our T’fillahutilizing music.  Sometimes our melodies differ slightly from Synagogue to Synagogue.  Sometimes the melodies might be completely different.  That does not make the melody wrong, just different.  However the result is still the same, as we join together in song.

Today, many of the melodies for our prayers represent our differing cultures, blending together different musical Minhagim.  Throughout our services here at DHJC you can hear the Ashkenazic melodies which many of us grew up with.  You can also her Sefardic melodies – including the Ana, Ana we sing in the Torah Service, and the Yemenite melody we use on Friday Night for the first three stanzas of L’cha Dodi.  Etz Chaim, which we sing prior to closing the Ark at the end of the Torah Service, is sung to the melody of HaTikvah.  And as stated above some nursery rhyme music has also entered our services.

Many times we introduce new melodies into our services.  These melodies might take a little bit to grow on us, but those melodies bring a fresh perspective on the prayer.  In previous newsletters I have written about SLBC (Song Leader Boot Camp) run by Rick Recht.  During that conference, which happens during the week of President’s Day every year, new melodies are introduced to those who attend, and you can truly get a new perspective on our T’filah just by learning a new melody.

Our music is another way we represent L’dor Vador – Generation to Generation.  We pass on these melodies to our children and others, and the next generation takes those melodies to heart. As each generation grows into those songs, many come up with new melodies for the T’filah, taking their own personal perspective and becoming a new part of the tapestry of song.

May we all continue to be a part of that musical tapestry that is our tradition, new and old.