Worship

Musical Settings: Adon Olam

Cantor Sarah Sager
When I was a student at the Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago, Illinois, I had a Hebrew teacher who suggested that every night before we went to sleep, it would be meaningful to recite the last verse of Adon Olam. As an impressionable and obedient fourth grader, I took to heart her suggestion and incorporated what became a comforting and soothing personal prayer with my nightly recitation of the Sh’ma:

Musical Settings: Yigdal

Cantor Richard Cohn
In his essay on closing hymns, Rabbi Richard Sarason enumerates the Maimonidean Thirteen Principles of Faith as rendered in Yigdal Elohim Chai (“May the living God be exalted”), the poem attributed to Daniel b. Judah. Has so much theology ever been compressed into so few words? This is a didactic text, filled with cognitive language. How then are we to feel about this eternal, incorporeal, singular, omniscient and just God who has created all things, and who has invested the people of Israel with a prophetic vision, transmitted by Moses through the Torah as an immutable revelation, and in whom we find hope for ultimate redemption and eternal life? With what qualities of expression do we interpret these words through music?

Musical Settings: Havdalah

Robbie Solomon
As Thomas Cahill teaches in his book “The Gift of the Jews” the great contribution that Judaism gave the world was to see time as linear, with beginnings and endings and stations along the way.

Musical Settings: V'ahavta

Cantor Barbara R. Finn, R.J.E.
The sacred text of Sh’ma- V’ahavta, repeated daily in our liturgy, inspires and guides us to teach and share – diligently – these words of Torah. Music is the perfect means of expression for joyously fulfilling this obligation. Through musical interpretation of the text, we are easily able to put these words in our mouths “when we are at home and when we are on our way.”

Musical Settings: Sh'ma

Cantor Ellen Sussman
The first core element of the Jewish worship service is the Sh’ma and its blessings. The Sh’maproclaims the unity of God – the basic tenet of Judaism.