Storahtelling

A Maven Deflowered

By Avi-Fox Rosen

Storah On The Road

This last Friday night, I had the pleasure of performing my first maven gig with Deanna Neil at the Temple Shaari Emeth in Manalapan, NJ.

I must admit, that I had some trepidation about the part, because a Maven has to speak. I get nervous when I have to speak, because even though I'm a confident guitarist and singer, I ain't got no acting chops!! But, thankfully, with the support of an awesome, experienced, and beautiful lead Maven, I felt well at ease the whole time.

The show was for Parashat Ki Tisa, a ripe old portion (for details see my previous blog about the portion). We focused our interpretation on Exodus 33:7-23, which have mainly to do with the ritual surrounding the Tent of Meeting, where Moses receives instruction from God, and with one particular conversation that Moses has with God where he demands to see God, and God's allows Moses to see God's back.

Ripe. As I said.

My role was as a musician underscoring the dialogue and a narrator giving details of the story and quoting God's voice. Deanna explored several character's: in the first aliyah, a plain Israelite; in the second Tziporah, Moses' wife; in the third, Moses himself.

The overarching theme we explored is that of moving closer. How do we move closer in the many relationships we find ourselves in, as friends, colleagues, lovers? This last point was highlighted by the good fortune of having a recently engaged couple's aufruf as part of our service. And how do we use our experience in our human relationships to navigate a relationship with the divine?