[HANASHIR:14089] Re: Pre-Pesach thoughts

[rachel gurevitz <gurevitzr...>]

Interesting thoughts and questions, Joel.

I wanted to respond on the question of melodies that just work with one line of 
a prayer.  You gave the example of 'Elohai n'shama', with melody written by 
Shefa Gold.  I think it has been wonderful that Shefa's work has started to 
make it into 'mainstream' Reform Judaism but, in my experience, it has largely 
done so entirely stripped of its' context.  It is interesting that the ones 
that have crossed over generally have the most 'catchy' tunes (Ma Gadlu is 
another), but there are many, many others that are less known.

Shefa does write some melodies to whole prayers.  But when she is just using 
one line, it is a chant, not a tune.  The difference is quite important.  A 
chant is about going inside, not singing outwardly.  When Shefa, or anyone 
working with chanting, leads these chants, time is taken to establish a 
kavannah for the chant.  The chant is sung for quite a period of time, and is 
followed with a period of silence.  The silence is a time for each individual 
to make their own journey that connects with the words and the kavannah set up 
at the start of the chant.  This offers a deep, and alternative way of entering 
the prayer that does not necessarily require the rest of the words.  This is 
not something one might choose to do every prayer service, but from time to 
time, to give people a chance to make some new associations with the liturgy 
that they can keep with them on other occasions when they are reciting or 
singing the entire prayer.

When I lead a chant within the context of liturgy, unless I am leading an 
interpretative prayer service where there is the space and the expectation that 
I will be teaching alongside the prayers, I will usually offer an alternative 
to people with no experience in chanting where they can use the silence to 
complete the rest of the traditional prayer if they wish.

Shefa Gold teaches all over the USA (she just finished doing a weekend with my 
community in the UK), and you can get more info at www.rabbishefagold.com  
Other teachers who lead chanting prayer services regularly are Rabbi David and 
Shoshana Cooper.  They lead Jewish meditation retreats regularly at Elat 
Chayyim.  www.elatchayyim.org  I thoroughly recommend anyone who wishes to 
learn how to use these chants effectively in prayer to undertake some kind of 
training with experienced teachers.

Chag Sameach,
Rachel Gurevitz


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