[HANASHIR:1467] Liturgy, Hava Nashira, and Renewel

[Jeff Klepper <klepper...>]

Rachel, Adrian, and friends,

I am in total agreement that a good understanding of liturgy is essential
for songleaders.  Yes, Hava Nashira should do a better job of helping in
this direction.  Having said that, let's remember that the study of the
prayers is a life-long process - all we can do is get people started.  Then
you need to find some good texts, a teacher, and a prayer community to work
with.  I stress the latter, a community, because each community is self
defining according to their needs.  Styles of music, the balance of Hebrew
and English, the range of physical movement, etc., all are things which
differ from group to group. Sensitivity to this is so important for worship
 leaders and songleaders.

The Renewel movement has already had an impact on every other Jewish
movement.  Its influence is only beginning to be felt in the general
community but it will grow.  My guess is that every city has some kind of
"renewal style" chavurah, to which belong independent Jews who don't want
to be pigeon-holed into a movement and dislike the bureaucratic and
impersonal trappings of most synagogues.  They don't want a cantor to sing
TO them or a rabbi to preach to them. They want hands on Judaism.  From my
experience with such a group in Chicago I can tell you that its members
are some of the most Jewishly knowledgeable and spiritually committed
people in the city.

Finally, the new Tikkun just arrived in the mail.  I recommend Gershon
Winkler's 
article on spirituality.

Shalom,
Jeff Klepper

At 02:23 PM 10/13/98 +0000, you wrote:
>Dear Adrian,
>
>Quite ok for you to rant - especially when I agree with your rantings :-)
>
>I feel that I have 'found' the chassid liberals - they're in Jewish
>Renewal.  I guess you all in the US have a wider range of experience of
>Jewish Renewal so you may have mixed opinions.  However, I'm a member of
>the only renewal chavurah in the UK and often take responsibility for
>creating and leading our services and festival celebrations.  Now, actually
>Jewish Renewal crosses the whole religious spectrum - there are many
>'Orthodox' renewal leaders, but the divisions become increasingly
>unimportant in the central ideas.
>
>With regard to the liturgy and the music, I have found Renewal approaches
>have helped do several things for me:
>1) The joy and ruach of a chassid-style approach to prayer is central.
>2) The basic structure of a creative service and many of the techniques
>used in services help congregants to understand the structure of a service
>- ie. the list of psalms, Barechu, Shema, Amidah, etc. and everything
>inbetween suddenly becomes transformed into an amazing journey, not just
>'we've finished song a)/reading passage a) and now we are onto b).'
>3) Musically, I've been able to completely mix styles and draw from the
>deep well of different musical traditions, especially including chassidic
>melodies and niggunim, and chanting styles that some of us might associate
>more closely with Sufi tradition (but which are part of Jewish tradition
>too), which are entirely missing from most Reform communities.
>
>Last Hava Nashira, Debbie F ran a workshop about services, and a question
>was asked about what is actually/needs to be 'in' a service - this took up
>a large chunk of the session, and many songleaders, who do great
>songleading work, didn't really seem to understand the religious/spiritual
>(I'm not sure what words to use here) sequence of a service.  
>
>I'd like to suggest that a Renewal-style service or workshop-service at
>Hava Nashira would be a great way to teach about service structure, and
>simultaneously introduce some new music at HN too. - If Jeff Klepper is
>reading, I'd heard that you had some involvement with our Ruach chavurah
>lot (Jenny Goodman, Stewart Linke, etc.) when you were in the UK?  How
>about it at the next HN?  (And I'd be very excited at the possibility of
>helping to make it happen - I'll also be on a Spiritual leadership program
>at Elat Chayyim, the renewal center in NY for 9 months from the end of
>January, and would love to bring some of the work I'll be doing there over
>to HN).
>
>Regards,
>Rachel
>____________________________
>
>Rachel Gurevitz
>Department of Geography
>University College London
>26 Bedford Way, London
>W1CH 0AP.  UK
>Tel: 0171 387 7050 x5526
>
>
>