Davening and Niggunim

[jerrywm <jerrywm...>]

Hi,Everyone,

Inspired by recent commentaries on davening and niggunim I come up with 
the following:


>From my childhood, I recall the rather euphoneous sounds of the davening. 
 Each supplicant did not follow the metronome like beat of a drummer or 
conductor: the prayers did not seem to be offered in unison. The 
congregants seemed to be reflecting the scale of the chazen's tune, so 
that some variation of what is usually a minor scale emerged from those 
who chose to pray out loud.   Perhaps the chorus of their combined 
vocalisations   arose and fell merely as the individual sound of  each of 
those praying randomly merged. But I like to believe,  that as each 
participant listened to the sound of himself, herself, his or her 
neighbor, and the davening chorus,  some sort of  communication 
occured--a communal bonding by way of  sound. Thus a prayer of mostly 
untranslated sounds not only arose from  individuals but also from an 
interacting congregation. 

 For the most part,I recall,I only learned enough  to sound the  Hebrew 
or Aramaic. Occasionally I looked at the translation which I feared would 
detract from the holiness of the original. Perhaps this was a childhood 
rationalisation, since much of the English  was beyond my understanding. 
The communal bonding by way of an untranslated sound gave me a sense of 
security and a sonorous gestalt seemed to flow to the Aron Hakodesh and 
from thence to heaven itself.

This is the childhood memory I bring  to shul today, that underpins and 
overwhelms my adult agnosticism.  To be sure, today I more than sneak a 
look at the English I can now for the most part fathom. Today in shul the 
childhood memory of a synagogue sound's heavenly journey and the current 
chorus of davening become coupled with the translation--transforming 
readings, I may at some other moment question, into acts of faith.

Perhaps, due to my memory of the untranslated  Hebrew and Aramaic, this 
is why a wordless niggun, spun out of a natural or harmonic minor scale, 
may transport me to the gates of heaven--especially when shared with a 
number of people.


Jerry Lapides

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