Music and the Israelite Community

This article was based on a program commemorating the life of Chief Rabbi Levi Ben Levy on February 21, 2010 at Beth Elohim Hebrew Congregations, Saint Albans, NY.

The memorial program for Chief Rabbi Levi Ben Levy was a tremendous success. Representatives from all the area congregations were present and Rabbi Debra Bowen came with a delegation from Philadelphia. The theme of the program was “The Musical Praise” of our late Chief Rabbi. This gave us an opportunity to examine the history, role, and influence of music on our practice of Judaism. The slide presentation carefully illustrated how our leaders, starting with Rabbi Arnold J. Ford, thought it vitally important that we preserve and integrate our musical traditions into our Judaic practices. Ford, Matthew, and Levy were all accomplished musicians as well as rabbis.

Our founders wisely separated two interrelated questions: (1) Who we are historically and theologically and (2) How we observe and express our beliefs. They observed that there were many Jewish communities around the world that shared the essential core beliefs, but yet maintained very distinct Jewish traditions. It was never their intention to make our community a clone of any other.

Shuvah (the process of returning to Judaism) is largely one by which people who have been called by God, return, and give all their praise, thanks, devotion, and obedience to the Creator alone. Our early leaders understood that many of our people who were coming out of darkness had to purge themselves of idolatry, free themselves of theologies that include the worship of a man as part of a trinity, and come into an understanding of the indivisible oneness of God. “Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Deut 6:4) This process did not require that we abandon the fervor, passion, power, and spiritual ecstasy that is possible through our cultural praise tradition.

How we praise Hashem comes out of our understanding of our Biblical tradition and our African heritage that we brought with us to our exile in Christianity. In other words, Christian missionaries did not teach their slaves to pray are we do. Slave maintained their praise tradition and misapplied it to Christianity. Now we are bringing it back to the worship of the Creator. People have said that our praise tradition resembles those of Black Christians. We believe the reverse is true: Black Christians have praise traditions that closely resemble those of the ancient Israelite. The Torah clears says, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Deut 6:5. Sabbath morning prayers said in synagogues all over the world include the passage, “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” Psalm 150:3-6. Yet, despite the fact that we all read this, few of us actually do it. Those who do might be accused of sounding like Black Christians. Furthermore, we have Biblical examples showing that David danced, Miriam played her tambourine, Moses sang, and Israel “cried” unto the Lord. Ironically, it was fear of ridicule by White Protestants that prompted White Jews to strip their services of many of our praise attributes. Of course, many of these traditions still find expression among Hassidic Jews who have, over the centuries, ignored criticism and pressure to conform to restrained expectations.

Rabbi Bowen’s brief remarks also focused on the musical theme of the day. She used several musical examples such as the Negro Spiritual “Go Down Moses” to demonstrate the deep affinity that our people have had with the Biblical Hebrews and Israelites. And, while we affirmed our cultural origins we also celebrated our embrace of certain European influences that are clearly seen in the structure of our liturgy, which is based on an Orthodox siddur, the prominence of many popular Jewish songs, our method of chanting or davenning, the presence of Hebrew, the calendar we follow, and mystical techniques designed to achieve a higher level of “kavannah” in prayer. We are proud and thankful for the ways in which we have incorporated these European customs into our current praise tradition. Therefore, our praise tradition is eclectic, but yet original.

Rabbi Baruch Yehudah, Dean of the Israelite Academy and a gifted vocalist himself, spoke about the origins and importance on this music to our way of life. He pointed out that we have never been merely consumers of these various traditions; instead, we have always been creators as well. He sung several examples of songs composed by Cohen Levi. One was an Israelite rendition of the 150^th Psalm in Hebrew call “Hallelujah” . The other was a deeply moving piece called “What’s My Name?” (see YouTube Video) In Rabbi Baruch one not only sees the importance of music, but also dress as integral parts of our cultural identity.

Throughout the program there were musical selection by Mother Tariah (sp) and a mini concert by the Beth Elohim Choir. Plaques in memory of Rabbi Yahonatan and Asher Ben Yehudah were unveiled on our Tree of Life. Yizkor prayers were made for all of our departed leaders. CD’s and DVD’s of this event are available for purchase.