Singing Through the Prayers

I had just finished leading a Friday night service at one of my retirement communities. As usual, the congregants were about half Jewish and half non-Jewish people who know and support my work there. One of the latter came up to me afterwards and asked, “Is there usually that much music in Jewish services?” And I had to stop and think.

It was not an unusual service. If anything, there was more reading than might be typical, and more in English, in acknowledgement of the mixed congregation of various backgrounds. Many of them might not know the same tunes or even know how to read Hebrew. I thought back to the Episcopal services at which I had assisted. They seemed to consist mostly of readings in English – in unison, responsive readings, readings of various sacred texts – punctuated by two or three formal songs accompanied by piano. The liturgy itself was read, not sung; the songs were distinct, separate and discrete segments of the service. I began to realize that other religious groups might not run their services the same way Jewish communities do.

Much of a Jewish service is sung to a tune or at least chanted. You can even hear an occasional wordless song, a “niggun”, that might go on for a very long time. The most traditional communities pretty much chant the entire service in Hebrew; in fact, the effect is that of a ‘blab school’ with indecipherable words as everybody prays out loud at his or her own rhythmic pace. The more liberal communities string together songs with readings in between, often in English, and it is all far more orderly. But still mostly musical!

To be meaningful, a religious service or ceremony has to engage one emotionally, not just intellectually. If anything, the edge should be given to the heart over the head. This is how people feel connected to one another in community, a central purpose of Judaism. This is how people can experience the presence of God. We would want ideally to live these experiences, not just cogitate about them. Music can achieve this. Music has the power to bypass the rational mind and aim straight at the heart. Skillfully composed, music can create a mood more quickly and far deeper than even the most expressive poem can.

The use of music goes all the way back in Judaism. Think of King David, his lyre and his Psalms. Think of the Levites singing the services in the Holy Temple. In fact, the Levites might explain the pervasiveness of music in Jewish services today. They sang at the front of the Temple, accompanied by a number of different musical instruments. After the Second Temple was destroyed, the musical instruments were mostly banned (in mourning for the Temple), but the singing continued, in some sense even more than before. Services during the days the Temple was standing consisted of sacrificial rites. Now that people were in synagogues and no more sacrifices could be made, our Sages came up with prayers as a substitute. But the people mostly did not know these new prayers. So somebody was tasked with singing all of the prayers out loud – praying on behalf of the whole community, including those who did not yet know the prayers, with the melody intended to convey the meaning of each prayer.

Consider nusach. This is melody that distinguishes one Jewish service from another. An experienced congregant can tell the time of day and whether it is Shabbat or a holiday or festival, as well as whether the congregation is Ashkenazic (Eastern European) or Sephardic (Western European), just by the tunes that are used for the liturgy. Nusach can help people feel part of the service even if they cannot read Hebrew. The melody itself might be familiar and they can let it and the familiar lyrics carry them along.

When we read from the Torah, it is sung according to certain cantillations (there are a number of “trops”, or tunes given to each note in the cantillation), and then the Haftarah, the portion from Prophets that accompanies the Torah portion each Shabbat and holiday, is sung according to a different cantillation.

Music is found in other elements of Judaism as well. Sit around a dinner table on Shabbat or holidays and you will hear all sorts of songs. Children at camp or religious school spend a lot of their waking time singing. My morning and evening prayers, done all by myself at home, are mostly sung. Even when you go into a yeshiva, a Jewish day school that concentrates on the study of Torah and Talmud, you’ll hear the cacophony as the children study. They study together in pairs and it’s all out loud and, again, it’s chanted rather than simply being read. There is something in the Jewish soul that seems to require this.

So yes, music is an integral part of the Jewish experience. Keep your ears open the next time you are in a synagogue!