CANTORIAL COMMENTS

BY

CANTOR ELIHU FELDMAN

 

 

There is a Temple in Heaven That is Only Opened Through Song.

 

Jewish choral music is currently enjoying a grand renaissance; Jewish vocal ensembles, synagogue and school choirs, and campus a cappella groups are springing up across North America. This coming summer, the North American Jewish Choral Festival will once again bring together hundreds of singers in the Catskill Mountains. Festivals sponsoring Jewish choir participation occur throughout the year in Israel and in Europe during the summer.

 

But when did the first Jewish choir start? In the Torah, the famous Shirat Hayam, or the song sung by Moses and the children of Israel after they crossed the Red Sea, was the first instance of choral singing in the Bible. But that might not be true. Some Jewish musicologists point to the invention of musical instruments by Yuval, an early descendent of Adam, and suggest that choral music was in place even in those early days. While choral singing was employed in Temple worship in later Jewish history, the destruction of the Temple led to a rabbinical ban on instrumental and vocal music as a sign of national mourning. Later Choral singing is mentioned in the context of a communal ceremony in which the head of the Babylonian Jewish community the Rosh Hagolah or Raysh Galuta was appointed.

 

Jewish Choral singing remained a peripheral phenomenon until the Italian Renaissance, when the first artistic choir in synagouge history, founded by Rabbi Leone da Modena in the early 17th century, performed the liturgical work of Salamone Rossi Hebreo.  We know there were Jewish choirs in the Shteytles of Europe till World War II and even in concentration camps during the war.

 

 In modern times the choir has become an integral part of many synagogues. Whether at services or as part of the religious school or an adult choir, whether in the main sanctuary or parallel service or at a special festival a choir can only enhance the opportunities for communal participation in the Synagogue.

 

Non-liturgical choral music became a serious factor in Jewish cultural life with the founding in Eastern Europe of the ha-Zomir movement in 1899. This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of this movement. The very famous contemporary Zamir Chorale found its early beginnings in this movement. But were there other times in Jewish history that a Jewish chorus was predominant.

Before examining the history of Jewish choirs or choral singing let us examine the word zemer. Zemer, may be interpreted as singing, music or a choir or chorus. In the Song of Songs we find the word zemer used in the following context. "When a man is young he sings songs." It is interesting that in Modern Hebrew a "zamir" is a nightingale, a wonderful songbird. The  Zamir Chorale is a modern Jewish chorus. In Genesis 43:11 we find the word zimrah meaning singing or music.

 

The word zamar and zameret is used to describe a male and female singer in Ezra 7:24, and in the  Mishna Kelim 19:7. Klei-zemer is used to describe the musical instruments in the holy temple.  The Hebrew phrase "Klei-zemer" is the origin of the

yiddish word "klezmer" -- instrumental music played at weddings and other festive occasions. In conversational Hebrew the word Z'miriyah is used to describe a festival of choral music. King David was called naim z'mirot yisrael literally "sweet singer of Israel." We all know that king david composed many of the psalms in Tehillim which were sung to the harp.

 

But again when did the first Jewish choir appear? The first instance of a choral performance recorded in the Bible took place in the spring of 1312 BCE as part of the drama of the exodus from Egypt. Pursued by Pharaoh's army, the Israelites were able to pass through the Sinai Peninsula as the Sea of Reeds dried up; the waters then receded, drowning the Egyptian army. At this point the jubilant Israelites burst into song.

 

According to Zamir Chorale conductor Joshua Jacobson's reading of the verses in Exodus, the ancient Israelite choir had two conductors, both of whom were Levites. The first was Moses, who conducted the basses and tenors: "Then Moses and the men of Israel sang this song to the Lord: I sing to the Lord for He has greatly triumphed. The second conductor was his sister Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, who led the sopranos and altos; when she took   the drum in her hand, all the women followed her with drums and dances, and the men and women sang antiphonal: "I sing to the Lord for he has greatly triumphed, casting chariots and horses into the sea.”

                  

Professor James Kugel offers a different approach. Exodus 15:20-21 reports that Aaron's sister Miriam sang a song along with all the women at the Red Sea. Much speculation surrounded this song. The only words cited from it, "Sing to the Lord, for He has acted gloriously, horse and rider he has cast into the sea," match almost perfectly the first line of the men's song.

 

 Did Miriam thus simply form a women's chorus to sing along with the men, yet separately? Such modest behavior seemed altogether praiseworthy, and a number of authors specifically mentioned it: Philo of Alexandria (c 20 BCE - 40 or 50 CE) wrote: They set up two choirs, one of men and one of women, on the beach, and sang hymns of thanksgiving to God. Over these two choirs Moses and his sister presided and led the hymns. Ephraem Syrus who lived in the fourth century wrote: The people were divided into two groups on that day, so that they might sing the wondrous hymn to Him who split the sea and drowned their oppressors on that day. Moses led the men in singing and Miriam, the women.

 

Perhaps it may have been one choir? Philo wrote, "This wonderful sight and experience, an act transcending word and thought and hope, so filled with ecstasy both men and women that, forming a single choir, they sang hymns of thanksgiving to God their Savior, the men led by the prophet Moses and the women by the prophetess Miriam.

 

At the same time ancient interpreters supposed that the Israelite women must have sung their own song, with different words, at the Red Sea. One such text found among the Dead Sea Scrolls apparently contained the words of such a song attributed to Miriam. Unfortunately, only a fragment of it has survived:

 

            You have put to shame.

            For You are clothed in majesty;

            Great are You, savior are You,

            The enemy's hope has perished, and he is forgotten;

            They have been lost in the mighty water, the enemy;

            Praise to the heights; You gave and took;

            Who does gloriously.

 

In forthcoming articles we will explore the development of Jewish choral music from post Levitic times through the Talmudic period. We will also see the rise of Jewish choral music in Italy and trace its evolvement into modern times.

 

Cantor Elihu Feldman