was: Debbie Friendman

[Matthew H. Fields <fields...>]

Hmm, yes, I heard the Der Besht story when I was a kid, too.
On Yom Kippur, in connection with the Kol Nidre---in connection with an
interpretation of Kol Nidre that said "all vows to yy and excuses to yy
are pointless unless backed by pleas of forgiveness and acts restoring
justice to victims here on earth."

And along with that I got treated to some probably-political stuff to
the effect that if the essoteric mizvot ever became more important than
being good to one's fellow people, that would be idolatry...

My mode of "observation" has been through scholarship and musical
composition...and garlicky cooking.

And Jewish traditional material, especially the tropes, turns out to work
well as a musical motif...