Great post. Really interesting and I couldn't agree more: The standard shabbat melody for the Gevurot -- like the one for the Aleinu -- is an awful accompaniment to its text. Could you please find a way to fix that for us? :-)
Interesting post. But one thing confuses me: you describe the phrase 'lisheinei afar' as originally going down at the end, but now sung rising at the end. But it looks like your included 'original' score goes up at the end, whereas at Mosaic Law Congregation, we sing it descending over '-shei-nei-a-far'......
Thanks, Dwight! The original dips below the octave, hence the word painting, whereas the contemporary version ascends much higher in the scale at the beginning of “lisheinei” and again after “afar.” Perhaps Cantor Wald was attentive to the words and developed MLC’s text-sensitive custom!
In your discussion of the Amidah, I am surprised you did not mention the Reconstructionist tradition which changes m'hayeh ha metim to m'hayeh ha kol. This transforms the prayer from being one about resurrection to one about Hashem being the giver of life. I am not an adherent of Reconstructionism for theological reasons, but I am familiar with it because some of my family members are.
Thanks, Raphael. It was not my place here to get into the myriad theological difficulties and changes presented by the resurrection. Neil Gillman deals with many of these in his book, The Death of Death (1997). I'm not bothered by the language or the theology like the Reconstructionists. Ironically, even the Reform (who pioneered this) have largely gone back to the traditional "mchaye hameitim" -- though as likely from a metaphorical understanding of the blessing as the influx of ex-Conservative Jews into their ranks.
This is a beautiful essay, and thanks for discussing the inappropriateness of the common tune for gevurot.
BTW, Reform uses m'hayeh ha kol. Recon uses m'chayeh kol chai, which is at the very least more accurate. Many who have "returned" to m'chayeh hameitim understand it less literally.
Great post. Really interesting and I couldn't agree more: The standard shabbat melody for the Gevurot -- like the one for the Aleinu -- is an awful accompaniment to its text. Could you please find a way to fix that for us? :-)
Interesting post. But one thing confuses me: you describe the phrase 'lisheinei afar' as originally going down at the end, but now sung rising at the end. But it looks like your included 'original' score goes up at the end, whereas at Mosaic Law Congregation, we sing it descending over '-shei-nei-a-far'......
Thanks, Dwight! The original dips below the octave, hence the word painting, whereas the contemporary version ascends much higher in the scale at the beginning of “lisheinei” and again after “afar.” Perhaps Cantor Wald was attentive to the words and developed MLC’s text-sensitive custom!
Kol hakavod for the excellent essay
Thanks!
In your discussion of the Amidah, I am surprised you did not mention the Reconstructionist tradition which changes m'hayeh ha metim to m'hayeh ha kol. This transforms the prayer from being one about resurrection to one about Hashem being the giver of life. I am not an adherent of Reconstructionism for theological reasons, but I am familiar with it because some of my family members are.
Thanks, Raphael. It was not my place here to get into the myriad theological difficulties and changes presented by the resurrection. Neil Gillman deals with many of these in his book, The Death of Death (1997). I'm not bothered by the language or the theology like the Reconstructionists. Ironically, even the Reform (who pioneered this) have largely gone back to the traditional "mchaye hameitim" -- though as likely from a metaphorical understanding of the blessing as the influx of ex-Conservative Jews into their ranks.
This is a beautiful essay, and thanks for discussing the inappropriateness of the common tune for gevurot.
BTW, Reform uses m'hayeh ha kol. Recon uses m'chayeh kol chai, which is at the very least more accurate. Many who have "returned" to m'chayeh hameitim understand it less literally.