Ma Hadash Blog from CSH

In January of this year, Rabbi Nico, Cantor Felder-Levy, Trista Bernstein, and I headed south to Los Angeles to participate in a Shabbaton focused on worship innovation and music. The event, called Kol Tefillah, was held at Congregation Beth Am in Los Angeles. This is the same congregation that my wife Linda’s grandparents and aunts and uncles attended 50 years ago. It was fun to be back in the neighborhood.

The weekend included two Shabbat services, several workshops, and a concert by Chana Raskin with a band that included Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz. I’m looking forward to singing with Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz when she is with us this weekend on February 9 and 10.

While much of the Shabbat music was new to us, it did include music by Yoel Sykes (Nava Tahila) and the Hadar Ensemble that we have been using lately at Shir Hadash. Many of the tunes used started as niggunim (wordless melodies), but morphed into the Kabbalat Shabbat psalms.

If I close my eyes, I can hear the tunes, eventually picked up by the entire congregation, swaying with the music. It brings new meaning to Surround Sound! We will bring some of these melodies to Shir Hadash soon. The concert took the niggunim to even greater heights. By the end of the evening, we were all up on our feet, dancing in place. What a rush!