Foreign prophets, foreign songs

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Foreign prophets, foreign songs
July 14, 2008
Religious Life | Shabbat | Torah (6 comments)

By David A.M. Wilensky
Two summers ago, here at Kutz, a girls' cabin led services one day. As we all entered the tron, they were standing at the front singing and clapping their hands. The song goes like this:

Lord, prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Pure and holy
Tried and true
With thanksgiving
I'll be a living
Sanctuary for you

It's a nice song. The message is fairly basic and unobjectionable. The tune is catchy and sounds slightly gospel. I like it. Since then, I've also heard a variation that incoporates a quote from Torah, "V'asu li Mikdash, v'shachanti b'tocham" ("Build me a sanctuary and I will dwell amongst you"). I like that version even better. When people found out that this verse of song is actually part of a larger song from the wonderful world on contemporary Christian music, they went nuts.

The rest of the song is not explicitly Jesus-centric or anything like that, though it does sound very Christian, talking about being led away from temptation. (Of course one could argue that that's our topic also, but that we've left by the wayside because Christians speak so much about it.)

All week, we were hearing about how upset people were about the use of this songs in a Jewish service. This week also happened to be the week of Parashat Balak. Balak, aside from being one of my absolute favorite Torah portions, details the story of Bilam, a foreign prophet of God hired by a Moabite king, Balak, to ride out to the Israelite encampment and curse them. When he goes to curse them, God changes the words in his mouth into a blessing and out comes a poem of blessing. The first line is familiar to us because it now appears in every morning service: "Mah tovu ohalecha, Ya'akov mishk'notecha, Yisra'el!" ("How good are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel!")

This coincidence gets even better. Not only did we have an uproar on camp about the use of a non-Jewish song in services coincide with a Torah portion including a foreign prophet's song that we now use in services, not only did I notice this wonderful coincidence, but I was scheduled to deliver the d'var Torah that week. You can imagine what I spoke about that Shabbat morning.

My point was that if we can take a poem uttered with the intent to curse us and make it into a regular part of a service, we can handle one verse of totally unobjectionable Christian song.

In retrospect, I'm not sure that I was right. I was given the chance to revisit this story this week. Friday evening services were led this week, beautifully, by the songleading major taught by Caryn Roman and Jesse Paikin. They began with "Lord prepare me." If you're paying attention, you know that this last Shabbat was Shabbat Balak once again. You can imagine what was on my mind during services that evening.

I got to thinking not just about this particular issue, but about one of the the popular tunes for Psalm 150, which is actually a Sufi melody (Alah hu, Alah hu, Alah hu, etc.) I thought about the Phish song "Wading in the Velvet Sea" and the Bob Marley song "Redemption Song." In my four summers at Kutz, I've heard both used as tunes for Mi Chamocha. I thought about a half-dozen other secular and non-Jewish melodies used in services. And I wonder if it's okay.

There's no doubt in my mind that the melody itself is not the issue. It's the text. We have the entire Tanach, two Talmuds, and about eight million other Jewish texts out there to choose from. I wonder if we need to go to other traditions to find what we want to say. I wonder if we can't find it somewhere in one of our own texts.

Originally Posted on the Reform Shuckle

Tags: Camp, Youth

Comment

Comments

Rabbi Jason Rosenberg said:

> I wonder if we need to go to other traditions
> to find what we want to say. I wonder if we
> can't find it somewhere in one of our own texts.

It's an important point, but I think that the answer might lie (as it often does) in moderation. Especially (but not exclusively) in a camp/youth setting, which is so experimental, I think it's great to try to find our liturgical themes in other, non-Jewish sources. It offers a new perspective on our prayers, and can help those who have trouble connecting with our own tradition to do so. But, balance is the key - we certainly have rich tradition, and I would argue that that tradition has to be the centerpiece of our prayers. The other material makes a lovely spice.

July 14, 2008 2:33 PM

M. B. said:

We have a long history of sharing songs and other religious practices with our Protestant and Catholic neighbors. For example, Jewish writer Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America which has been long used at temples, synagogues and churches as well as many secular events. It's the lyrics of the song that make it acceptable or not. Jews used musical instruments in the ancient temples, but then quit for awhile. When Reform Jews started using organs in temple in the 19th Century, some people (who had forgotten the ancient temple) thought it was forbidden because they thought music in services was somehow "Christian." But musical instruments are not commonplace in our services.

As a universalist religion, whose mission is to bring light to the world, shouldn't we be happy to share with others who share our belief in God?

July 14, 2008 3:18 PM

David A.M. Wilensky said:

Rabbi Roseberg, moderation indeed! I completly agree. I think that in the case of NFTY and the camps, you're right that experimentation is commonplace and encouraged and that's fine. What's not fine with me is mixing things up for the sake of mixing things up. When you do something in services that is outside of the communal norm, there should be a reason. If the point of a particular camp service is interfaight dialogue and you want to include Christian and Muslim readings, that's great! But just throwing it into the service doesn't make sense.

M.B., in the comments here and on the original post at my blog and on iWorship, a recurring theme has always been, "Well, we've always done that." Well, we've also always segregated women and men in service, but we in the Reform movment have put an end to that. "We've always done it" only works when we all agree that that it's a good thing to keep doing.

I'm not saying that it's good or bad, I'm just trying to have the conversation.

July 14, 2008 3:45 PM

Larry Kaufman said:

What comes around, goes around (or is it the other way around?.

I was a senior in high school when I was first confronted with this issue. I was teaching Hebrew in a Reform congregation, a new and unfamiliar environment for me, and my supervisor asked me to write a couple of songs for the faculty Chanukah party. I dutifully complied, only to be told that my effort had met with some consternation in the education director's office -- what would The Rabbi (caps intentional) think about my having used a Christmas melody? Well, courage prevailed, and as it happened, Rabbi Brickner loved it. Sixty years later, I still remember my lyric (music for the Christmas melody by Irving Berlin) --

I'm dreaming of a green eretz
Just like King David used to know--
Where the Negev's bloom
Dispels the gloom
That started two thousand years ago --
I'm dreaming of a green eretz
With every candle that I light....

It should be noted that the Chanukah in question was after the UN decision to partition Palestine, but prior to the actual establishment of the state, and it should also be noted that Rabbi Barnett Brickner z"l was a dedicated and prominent Zionist when that was far from a mainstream position in the Reform movement.

And having brought the theme of Zionism into the discussion, let's remember that the music for Hatikva is from a Czech folk-tune, also immortalized by Smetana in the Moldau.

When David raised this issue on the iWorship list-serv, Frank Castronova of Detroit made the important distinction between secular and Christian sources -- and I don't want us to apply Handel's music to Isaiah's "lyrics" in the haftarot of consolation, lest we suggest that we are accepting the Christological interpretation inherent in Handel's work. On the other hand, despite the erudite analysis provided by Emily Katcher of Bainbridge Island WA showing the specific lyric as inherently Christian, I can live with it. All in all, I see the controversy that arose at Kutz as a tempest in a teapot.

July 14, 2008 3:47 PM

GSM said:

I bristle at the notion of Contemporary Christian lyrics in a Jewish service (or even singing "Adon Olam" to "Deck the Halls"), but I can appreciate the exploration of whether familiar music that feels right in some way might complement or clash with some aspect of Torah or liturgy.

Listening to the new Perishers album after reading this blog post reminded me of a time we talked about whether "Let There Be Morning" might be appropriate at Yotzer Or. Seems like a valid way to examine the values in secular music. If you decide against it, then you've refined your position a bit. But if it works, then you've integrated parts of your world together, and that seems satisfying, too.

July 15, 2008 4:28 AM

David A.M. Wilensky said:

I recall that conversation, GSM. On relistening to that album though, I realize that really the only thing about the song that is Yotzer Or-ish is that it's about the morning.

July 16, 2008 6:19 PM