PREPENT5771 Day 37 9.15 SING IT
High Holy Days Journey with Amichai Lau-Lavie: 40 ways in 40 days to find your focus
Yesterday I played Y. a song from the Song of Songs, a haunting rendition, on my itunes, from a faraway land and time, a perfect expression of a moment that could not yet be spoken.
This morning, rehearsing for Yom Kippur with the beautiful circle of musicians, we practiced singing the prayers and songs, and a few times the rehearsal became the ritual itself – the intensity of prayer, of presence, of full on singing. The songs – the music – of this season of return contain so much of the mystery, the elegance of the essence of this intention to focus, find focus, go within.
The songs we listen to and sing are the containers of so much vital information to our souls, and to our soul’s journey.
There’s something so intimate about singing, especially when we sing together – in small or bigger groups, any song in the world. Sing-along’s and campfires, Sabbath tables, rock concerts, car rides with the kids, rallies, piano bars, late night parties, Glee, Yom Kippur, happy birthday.
Sing more this year.
Tonight at the first monthly storahcircle salon series this season, friends gather in M’s beautiful home in Greenwich Village, to delve into saga and story, learning Talmudic tales of King David’s struggle with the Deep. The power of singing, we discovered, is what helps the king to battle the flood and the drought of his existence: he sings, as life crumbles, one by one, 15 Songs of Ascent, and with each song he, and we, climb a step up, towards survival –revival, a restoration of presence, balance, being.
Sounds esoteric, I know. It’s a gorgeous complex myth but one of the gists there is the power of singing to restore balance in one’s world.
So yes to singing more. Silly or solemn, or both and more: The commitment to sing out loud the words and tunes that carry us beyond drought and flood and overwhelming sensations, even if we are off key and can’t carry a tune, and touch and move us in ways very few other human actions can. This coming Yom Kippur and all year round: here’s to more singing.
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas as we move forward and, as always, you may find more information about our High Holy Day services by visiting,www.higholidays.com.
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Reminds me of a lyric from the Grateful Dead:
ReplyDelete"Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own"
Thank you. This blog has enhanced my HH preparation immensely and I say a big YES to singing. I am in the choir of my synagogue and singing is the most prayerful thing I do. Breathing and singing and chanting lifts me up.
ReplyDeleteYes! And thank you for the singing at the Rosh Chodesh Elul service at the Storahtelling conference in Denver. I was the stranger that you welcomed into your midst, a wanderer who had not found a spiritual home for my summer in Denver. I needed that singing. The harmonies, the chant, the warmth. It refilled my spiritual gas tank, which had been running near empty.
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