Dear Shaare Family,
This week, a friend told me that he feels like we are in a period of mourning akin to the Three Weeks or the Nine Days, and that since Shemini Atzeret, he has not been able to listen to music. Others have expressed similar sentiments about this time period, if not about music. Indeed, the loss of music has been stark almost immediately. After all, some of the most gruesome and indescribable carnage took place at a music festival. But I think that in this context, the importance of music cannot be overstated. Members of the Israel Philharmonic have been traveling the country delivering impromptu and free concerts to evacuees, and Israeli music stations have expanded their caller request hours. People need music at a time like this, especially because some of those who were murdered aside from at the festival were also linked with music. Debbie and Shlomi Mathias hy"d, were a songwriter and music teacher, respectively, who loved to sing and for whom music was an integral part of their lives. She and her husband were murdered while protecting their youngest child, their 16 year old son Rotem, who survived by hiding under his mother’s body and playing dead (their other children, daughters Shir and Shakked, were elsewhere and survived by hiding). Debbie was the sister of former Shaare Tefilla member Hadassah (Judah) Troen; it’s possible that members of our community met the Mathiases.
On Sunday, Amitai Granot was killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah terrorists at IDF targets. Amitai was, by all accounts, a remarkable young man who had just gotten engaged two weeks prior. The funeral was indescribably painful to watch, of course- awakening emotions of sadness, rage, empathy and even optimism. What was remarkable was how integral music was at this event, too. The singer Evyatar Banai sang the song Yeladim (starting at 2:00), Amitai’s favorite song, accompanied by Amitai’s brother Hadar. The funeral concluded with a kumkzit7s of sorts, accompanied by the Chassidic clarinetist Chilik Frank. Amitai is the son of Avivit and Rav Dr. Tamir Granot, who is the Rosh Yeshiva of the Orot Shaul Yeshiva in Southern Tel Aviv. Rav Granot is a Torah scholar of note, and an academic one as well. His PhD was on the efforts of the Klausenberger Rebbe zt”l, about whom we have spoken in the past, to rebuild a community and rehabilitate Jewish life after the Holocaust. The theme of building after trauma is, tragically, one that the Granot family will now know all too well…
Aside from his leadership and his scholarship, Rav Granot is also known for his musicality. He is a “singing Rosh Yeshiva” who leads his Yeshiva in musical events regularly and who records Chassidic tunes together with them. Here are a few examples:
1. A concert in which he was the musical soloist featuring music from Chassidic courts and Rebbes during the Holocaust.
2. Leading the Yeshiva in the Friday night zemer Kah Echsof, in the popular setting composed by Rav Aharon of Karlin.
3. Shalom Aleichem of the Spinka Chassidim
4. The Setting of the Zemer Tzur Mishelo of the Vizhnitz Chassidm
5. Albeit not seasonal, but thematically appropriate- singing the Bobov setting of the section of the Haggadah, והיא שעמדה - that in every generation enemies rise up against us to destroy us, and God saves us from their hands. In the Bobov tradition, this is sung numerous times, each time increasing in speed and energy. May it come true soon!ֿ
Finally, if there can be said to be an anthem for the Jewish people in the last two weeks, it has been Abie Rotenberg’s setting of the prayer Acheinu (here in the original recording).
אַחֵֽינוּ כָּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל הַנְּ֒תוּנִים בַּצָּרָה וּבַשִּׁבְיָה הָעוֹמְ֒דִים בֵּין בַּיָּם וּבֵין בַּיַּבָּשָׁה הַמָּקוֹם יְרַחֵם עֲלֵיהֶם וְיוֹצִיאֵם מִצָּרָה לִרְ֒וָחָה וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְ֒אֻלָּה הַשְׁתָּא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן:
[As for] our brethren, the entire House of Israel who [still] remain in distress and captivity, whether on sea or on land, may God have compassion on them, and bring them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, from servitude to redemption, at this moment, speedily, very soon; and let us say Amein.
Long before he composed this timeless setting, Yossele Rosenblatt composed a setting for it as well. Listen to him sing it
, as he cries for the fate of the Jewish people living in dire straits everywhere.
This Shabbat, we are privileged to host the person who has been singing at virtually every public event hosted by the Jewish community in Dallas since the events of Shemini Atzeret = AYA teachers R’ Pdaya and Rachel Halperin. I hope everyone will join us for the events of a musical Shabbat, and pray that Shabbat brings peace, quiet and spiritual elevation to our brothers and sisters in Israel, and to all of us.
Last Week’s MSOTW
