Music and Jewish worship practices

Music and Jewish Worship

A Jewish worship service: Observation

The Jewish faith places a strong emphasis on music in its rituals of worship as well as in its secular culture. At a Jewish synagogue or temple, quite often there will be a professionally employed individual known as a cantor, or at very least someone to perform this separate function of the service. The cantor leads the congregation in chanted or sung prayer. Professional cantors attend cantorial schools and are ordained clergy who work in conjunction with the rabbi to teach the congregants about the meaning and significant of the Jewish scriptures. The cantor leads the prayer services, teaches congregants such as children making a Bar or Bat Mitzvah how to intone and read from the Torah, and also conducts weddings and funeral services. The cantor is called the "emissary of the congregation" or master of prayer and his service is an ancient one, it has existed since the beginning of the religion (Kolatch 1981, p. 146).

In Judaism, religious prayers are sung without musical accompaniment. The only musical instrument used during the services of most congregations is that of the Shofar, a ram's horn sounded on the High Holidays of the New Year Rosh Hashanah and the Day of Atonement Yom Kippur, as a call to prayer and repentance (Kolatch 1981, p. 221). Some Reform congregations use organ music during services. This arose due to commonness of musical instruments in Christian worship, which permeated into Jewish culture from larger American and European culture when the Reform movement was taking hold. However, the use of organ music, because of its perceived Christian origins has been quite controversial, and many Orthodox and Conservative synagogues, although they joyfully use music in other contexts, reject its use.

The ethnomusicologist Merriman has defined the approach of a particular people to music in terms of three notions: concept, behavior, and sound. Concept defines the way people think of music in a broad sense. For example, for the Jewish people, the concept of music takes the form of a religious vehicle that is composed of chanted prayers and forms the music of communal worship. Chanted prayers make use of Biblical Hebrew as a sacred musical form designed to connect with the past and produce a sense of awe. The concept of music is also that it is used during celebrations a and played during significant personal ceremonies, which may span everything from traditional folk dancing at a heritage festival to popular music played at Jewish weddings, Bar-Mitzvahs and Bat-Mitzvahs. The concept of music is that it is a pure art and form of entertainment in informal contexts -- but is presented in a way that is still connected to the culture and beliefs of Judaism (Nettl 1983).

There is some interplay between these different uses, of course -- some synagogues may host a troop of Israeli folk dancers or singers of secular music, for example. Also, Jewish music use may differ depending upon the culture of the congregants, if they are Ashkenazi, of Eastern European origin or Sephardic, of Middle Eastern and Southern European (such as Spanish) origin) (Kolatch 1981, p.23). The second two aspects of Merriman's taxonomy are also reflected in Jewish worship. Certain non-musical behaviors of the congregants are also part of the musical experience, such as bowing during prayer (Nettl 23). The final attribute of sound is also affected by the nature of worship, as Hebrew and intonation are essential components of what makes a prayer sound like a prayer, and in a secular context, the cultural sounds of music affirm a certain ethnic aspect of the congregation's practice of Judaism, whether Ashkenazi or Sephardic.

The Conservative synagogue I attended was composed of an Ashkenazi Jewish congregation. Conservative Judaism is less stringent than Orthodox varieties, but is more traditional than Reform Judaism. It was on a Friday night, and the room was mainly made up of older individuals, although there were a few single men and some families with children. Many of them seemed to know one another well, and laughed and talked. When they approached me as a stranger, I explained what my purpose was -- to observe the use of music during services on a typical Shabbat. They told me that the synagogue was more crowded during the holidays. They said the cantor was well-liked, although they felt that the previous cantor had a better voice. Men and women sat together. The entire sung prayer aspect of the service was in Hebrew. The people seemed comfortable and familiar with the prayers, as they seemed to know when to stand and sit, occasionally rocking with devotion. Their responses to the words of the prayers seemed unforced and confident, again underlining their familiarity. The need for mutual participation in the musical prayers created a sense of unity and cohesion of worship.

As someone who does not speak or read Hebrew, a language which is not written in the Roman alphabet or even related to English I had difficulty following along with the services. The use of the foreign language, intoned, created a sense of awesomeness and timeless power that clearly set a distinct tone from the friendliness preceding the ceremony. It gave an otherworldly quality to the service that even the rabbi's address during the service lacked. The sound of the intoned, musical chanting, the ritualized bowing, standing, and seating created a sense of solemn and formal communal harmony.

The sounds of the cantor's use of Biblical Hebrew and the behaviors of the congregants clearly marked this as 'sacred time' and 'sacred sound,' and underlined the significance of vocal music in the Jewish congregation. Later, I found that one of the prayer sequences I heard is known as the Shema and is part of every religious service (Kolatch 1981, p.114). I attended on Friday evening. Friday evening and all of Saturday spans the Jewish Sabbath, the most important period of worship during the week.