[HANASHIR:5587] Re: wrestling

[Shirona <b.s.kaufman...>]

Thank you Rich for taking the risk and saying something from the heart. I
agree with everything you said...

Go back a few hundred years and check out the first Hassiddim.   Same thing.
They could have used your words.  Hence the intense singing, dancing, the
(almost) physical relationship with the Rebe...

It's as if you're saying - "we need more Hassiddut"  in how we practice and
teach our religion, here in North America.  Of all the songs I taught the
kids at Temple Israel Center, White Plains NY,  their all time favorites are
the Hassiddic tunes, the ones I had them wave their hands in the air along
with   "ya ba ba ba bai bai" -  the way Hassidim do.  What can I tell you.
Listen to Bresslav music - is there ANY music that reaches deeper into your
(Jewish) soul?  These guys are ON to something!  I can see how many
Americans would be totally turned off, for obvious reasons.  But if we look
beyond the ancient customs and "cult-like" appearance - I believe we can
learn allot from them and get inspired.

You are on the right track with the kind of work that you do.  It's all
about passion.  If you have it - the kids  (and even grownups)  will get it
too.   Everything else is just technique.

Shirona


-----Original Message-----
From: Rglauber (at) aol(dot)com <Rglauber (at) aol(dot)com>
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org <hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Monday, March 27, 2000 6:32 PM
Subject: [HANASHIR:5582] Re: wrestling


>Rich Glauber here, having disappeared from the list for a number of months.
>In fact, I've started a bunch of emails to the list, but haven't yet
managed
>to make it to the SEND key.  Because what I've been feeling will probably
>come across negatively, I always second guess myself and figure that
everyone
>else is right, and I must be wrong..... or negative..... or whatever.
>However, I notice that when I don't actually contribute to the mix, I find
>myself getting further and further away.....  hmmmm
>
>So in the interest of not disappearing completely, I'd like to offer the
>following.....  and please forgive the generalities herein.....
>
>The tone of this list is very positive, usually quite supportive, and to my
>thinking, somewhat smug and self satisfied.   It's as if we have agreed
that
>we are wonderful, our work is without peer.....  that music class is great,
>that all the songs work, aren't we terrific?  To my way of thinking, it's
>great to be positive, but there is a place for questioning, for
re-inventing,
>for re-imagining, and I just don't get that vibe from this list.
>
>Am I alone in hoping for more from  Hanashir?    A couple of years ago we
had
>a very passionate discussion about how to reach the fifth and sixth graders
>who were turning off to music class.   For me, that was the highlight of
the
>cyber experience, because it called into question our core assumptions
about
>what we were trying to accomplish.   Nowadays, it seems like we don't
>question anymore, only tinker around.
>
>I question all the time, and the one that keeps coming up for me is how to
>enliven the experience of being Jewish.   Who was it who said, "If I can't
>dance, I don't want to be in your revolution"?   That's how I'm feeling
about
>Judaism in North America.   We are so focused on passing down a heritage, a
>language, a set of beliefs, a vocabulary, that we inundate the students
with
>years and years and years of intellectual content.   We crush them with
>words..... we bore the hell out of them out of some supposed ideal of
>teaching the traditions which our grandparents knew.
>
>I see it as based on fear, fear of losing numbers, fear of intermarriage,
>fear of not being "religious" enough.  Yet ironically, the way in which we
>educate our young does exactly what we were afraid of.   They turn off, and
>why shouldn't they?
>
>Now granted, there are many young people who come up through the ranks and
>love being Jewish.   God bless them.   But for the vast majority, and you
can
>correct me if I'm wrong, they can't wait til their bar/bat mitzvah and then
>they're out of there.  Is that a coincidence, or are we missing something
>fundamental?  (not to mention the millions and millions of us who are
adults
>and want nothing to do with organized Judaism)
>
>If you were to ask me what is the fundamental problem with Judaism today, I
>would say it is the absence of physicality.   It is the fact that we are
>trying to teach ruach without taking any deep breaths.   OK, everybody
stand
>up and make a circle.....
>
>
>
>

------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org -----------------------+