[HANASHIR:9218] Re: Online Ruach

[Andy Curry <acurry...>]

At 10:14 PM 5/31/01 -0500, you wrote:
>OK, chaverim:
>So share some stories about how Judiasm and your involvement with Jewish
>music has affected your life!

Friends,

I might say that my religion and its music have saved my life.

In 1988, I was newly married and newly clean.  At that time, I had not set
foot in a synagogue for almost 20 years, preferring a life of playing in
bands, cooking jobs to supplement the meager income from music, casual
relationships, and spending almost all of my money on drugs.

One day, my wife, a lapsed Roman Catholic, suggested that we find a
synagogue and attend services.  I wasn't too wild about the idea, but I
said okay.

After calling around, we attended Friday night services at the large Reform
temple here.  It happened that that night was a special "all-music"
service, held in the chapel.

It's been said that love is a matter of rediscovery.  That night I
rediscovered something I had enjoyed as a child.  And, speaking of
rediscovery, one of the leaders that night was fellow HNer Devra Lerner,
with whom I went to grade school in 1960.

Well, I joined the congregation.  I joined the choir.  I joined the
religious-school faculty.  I reacquainted myself with Hebrew.

The winter of 1994/95 brought me a collection of personal crises, including
divorce, death of my father, and loss of my job.  What I did with the void
was fill it with Jewishness.  I attended services daily to say kaddish, and
often led them.  I studied Torah.  I studied liturgy.  I did my first gig
as HHD shaliach tzibur, which I've done every year since.  I acquired
tallit and tefillin and tallit katan and relearned their use.  I began to
keep kosher.  I learned to chant Torah.

Life does not wait for us.  What a person does with his time reflects what
he worships.  When I speak of Judaism having saved my life, what I mean is
that I have been saved from emptiness, from those malformed angels which
are created from (worshipful) acts of negative or void intention.  I
believe that my life is more satisfying now than ever before, baruch Hashem.

Shabbat shalom.

Andy

Andy Curry, Kansas City
acurry (at) san-carlos(dot)rms(dot)slb(dot)com

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