At Christchurch, Clarendon Park, this
evening for the fifth session in the Christians Aware course on the Psalms
(offered as part of their Faith Awareness programme).
This course really has had the highest
numbers of any which I've attended here. There are 50 attendees this evening,
and once again we're in the larger Vaughan Powell Room.
Our speaker this evening is Rabbi Mark
Solomon and his topic is "Jewish Psalm Singing". The central and
distinctive feature of this session is the Rabbi's singing and chanting, which
he does frequently.
Rabbi Solomon is Interfaith Consultant
for Liberal Judaism. He
is Rabbi to the Liberal and Reform congregations in Edinburgh and
Manchester, each of which he visits once a month. He is also Cantor at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia (where he was born
and grew up - though I couldn't detect any trace of that in his
accent). This is his third visit to Christians Aware in Leicester.
He distributes two handouts: one
entitled "Psalms in Jewish Worship", the other, "Transliteration
of Selected Hebrew Psalms". Here's some of the content of the former (keen
as I am to provide records as full as possible in these blog entries, even I draw
the line at transcribing two sides of transliterated Hebrew!)
- Psalms are known in Hebrew as Tehillim,
"praises".
- Jewish liturgy does not include the practice of public reading of
the whole book of Psalms in a liturgical cycle. Instead, set groups of
Psalms, and individual Psalms, are used at fixed times in the liturgy.
- The Masoretic accents for the Psalms in printed Hebrew Bibles may
originally have indicated a method of chanting (as does the different
system of accents used for other books of the Bible), possibly going back
to the Levites in the Temple, but if so, this method of chanting Psalms
was lost long ago.
- Reading of the whole book of Psalms, either in one sitting, or over
the cycle of the week or month, is a popular devotional practice among
pious Jews. In certain periods, societies for the recitation of Psalms
existed in Jewish communities.
- The recitation of Psalms was believed to protect from sickness and
harm, and Psalms were traditionally recited by a sickbed and beside a body
awaiting burial.
- Particularly popular is Psalm 119 with its eightfold alphabetical
structure, and often the verse sets spelling out out the letters of a
person's name are read, followed by verses spelling the words kera
saten, "tear the adversary", as a prayer
for recovery from illness.
- One of the oldest Psalm groupings is the list of Psalms for the
days of the week., chanted by the Levites in the Temple: Sunday, Psalm 24;
Monday, Psalm 48; Tuesdaay Psalm 82; Wednesday, Psalm 94; Thursday,
Psalm 81; Friday, Psalm 93; Shabbat, Psalm 92. Nowadays these are recited
traditionally at the end of the morning service.
- Another ancient grouping is Hallel ("Praise"),
consisting of Psalms 113-118. chanted before the reading of the Torah in
the Morning Service on the Three Pilgrim Festivals (Passover, Pentecost
and Tabernacles), the New Moon snd Hannukah and at the Passover seder (festive meal, when the "Great Hallel", Psalm 135, is also read). The general theme is thanksgiving
for God's acts of salvation. Different chants are used for each festival,
and Tabernacles the palm branch is waved in time with the words of certain
verses of Psalm 118.
- On New Moon and the latter days of Passover a slightly abridged
version of Hallel is read, the reason given (regarding
Passover) that our rejoicing is diminished by the suffering of the
Egyptians in the Red Sea.
- Rabbis in the Talmud assert that one who recites Psalm 145 three
times every day is assured of a place in the World to Come, because it
combines alphabetical structure with the verse, "You open Your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living creature." (Berakhol 4b).
Since ancient times, this Psalm has been framed by Psalms 84:5 and 144:15
a the beginning and 115:18 at the end, and this composition, known from
the first word as Ashrey ("Happy") is said twice in the
morning service and at the opening of the Afternoon Service.
Rabbi Solomon explains that chanting is
repetitive, each verse of the Psalm chanted exactly the same way as every
other. This is not the case with composed melodies. He
demonstrates different styles of chanting (taking Psalm 95 as his
example). First he performs it as a traditional Ashkenazi chant in "Friday night"
mode, which would be sung to welcome Shabbat; then as a chant written by Louis Lewandowski (1821-94),
one which would be used by pre-war German congregations and in Liberal and
Reform communities. The same chant is used for Psalm 113, one of the Hallel Psalms. He also sings Psalm 114
(another Hallel Psalm) sung to a folk melody, probably Central European. By
this point, some of the Jewish friends in the audience are joining in, starting
shyly, then becoming bolder and louder.
In a synagogue with a strong musical
tradition, the Hallel Psalms are each chanted to a different melody at the
different festivals. This way they stay fresh throughout the year, unique to
each of the festival days on which they are sung.
Psalm 91, known as the Psalm of
Protection, is chanted at funerals, while walking the coffin to the grave.
At weddings, Psalms are not chanted,
but sung to composed melodies. The Rabbi demonstrates three different ways of
singing Psalm 150, each varying in formality, which the couple can choose
between. Psalm 100 is another that is often sung at weddings, as the bride
walks down the aisle.
The Rabbi ends his presentation with
two different settings of Psalm 23: one ancient, mone modern (which would be
sung by the family, seated together at table for the Sabbath meal).
Then, for a big finish, he leads
(virtually) the whole audience in singing Psalm 133, verse 1 as a round. This
is often sung by pilgrims to Jerusalem - though, hopefully, better than we do
it here tonight!
Rabbi Solomon was kind enough to give
me his card at the end of the evening and asked that I send him the link to
this blog entry. Gladly!
In the photo above: Rabbi Mark Solomon
(right) speaks with Gerry Gardiner, a regular attendee at the Christians Aware
sessions. In the background, Beate Dehnen stacks chairs.
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