[HANASHIR:9197] A musical Shavuot

[LPKAROL <LPKAROL...>]

Dear Friends,
      Well, I will not be at Hava Nashira, while I wanted to be, but we 
aren't lacking for music here in the capital of Kansas. We just had our 
Confirmation service yesterday morning.  Our Confirmation program is a 
combined 9th-10th-grade program with a rotating 2 year curriculum, since we 
have about 130 families. We had 7 Confirmands and 6 of our 9 eighth-ninth 
graders take part in the service.  I serve as rabbi, regular soloist, guitar 
accompanist, music director, Confirmation teacher, Religious School 
principal, etc.  You name it... 
      I guess you could say that our service yesterday featured a 
"Confirmation combo."  One of the tenth graders played drums (snare, bass and 
high-hat cymbals), one ninth grader played guitar along with me, another 
played piano (my son), and several of the students sang on selected 
prayers/songs.  The mother of one of the ninth graders sang  - she is my 
usual subsitute soloist when I am gone, a soloist at High Holy Days (along 
with me and another congregant) and she joins me often for Bar and Bat 
Mitzvah services.  And the older sisters of two Confirmands who have sung in 
choirs and on stage joined us as well.
      So, here are the special songs we did:
Halleluyah (Vaanachnu N'vareich yah) - D. Friedman
This is the Day -D. Friedman
World of Your Dreams - D. Friedman
I Am All Around - Julie Silver
Mi Chamocha - D. Friedman (from "Sing Unto God")
Sim Shalom - Julie Silver
Oseh Shalom - a Bonia Shur arrangement of the familiar Nurit Hirsch melody
Hodo Al Eretz - the two older siblings sang the traditional 2 part - very 
beautifully done, too!
Yaysh Kochavim - Klepper
Lechi Lach - D. Friedman

Tonight, at our Shavuot service (to be held in our outdoor Sukkah), I will be 
singing Doug Cotler's "Sh'ma B'ni" and "Standing on The Shoulders", 
Klepper/Freelander's "Ruth and Naomi," and Debbie Friedman's Psalm 23.  
      So, while some of you are at HN and some of you are not, I plan to 
catch up on some reading, continue to shepherd my 5 current Bar/Bat Mitzvah 
students through their preparation, finalize and copy a not-for-sale CD of 
music from our Temple worship and other events, and maybe even try to do some 
composing.  
       AND, I hope that some of you are planning to go to CAJE in Colorado.  
I look forward to hearing about HN and I hope to see many of you at CAJE or 
at the Biennial in December.  Chag Samayach!
L'shalom,
Rabbi Larry Karol
Temple Beth Sholom
Topeka, Kansas

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