Today
is Day Four of Week Five of the Omer. That is Thirty-two Days of the
Omer. The Theme continues to be Happiness.
Anybody
who knows me, knows that music plays a constant part in everything I do. In my work as a Rabbi, I focus on the musical
aspect of religious ceremony as an important element in setting the mood that I
seek within my group. I’m actually not
exceptional amongst my Progressive colleagues in this way; certainly in
American Reform Judaism there is a tendency among Rabbis to play guitar and to
incorporate the musical style that the instrument engenders, into their
religious services. Okay, in my case
it’s ukulele! I used to use a guitar,
and the first time I led a tour to Israel I picked up a ukulele because I
wanted to lead singing in the tour bus, and I couldn’t imagine negotiating the
aisle of a motor coach with a guitar.
The ukulele worked just fine.
Afterwards, I found myself playing uke more and more to where I hardly
played the guitar anymore.
People either love or hate that I’m a
ukulele-playing Rabbi. Some people respond
positively because the uke is so cute and delightful. One woman in my congregation in Colorado told
me: When you pick up the uke, there’s
a big smile on your face, and we find it infectious. And some people respond negatively,
because they don’t see the uke as a ‘real’ instrument, rather as a
plaything. And then there is the third
group: the traditionalists, for whom the
use of any musical instrument in religious worship just doesn’t seem
right.
I’ve incorporated music, and
specifically the ukulele, in just about everything I do in my rabbinate. I use it in the regular weekly Shabbat
services, and I vary the tunes for various parts of the service based on my
moods. When someone in the congregation
has a special occasion, I sometimes offer a special song: Debbie Friedman’s Tefilat Haderech is
somebody is going away on a long trip; Craig Taubman’s Sh’ma Beni for a
baby-naming or even a bar/bat mitzvah; Taubman’s Journey for somebody
moving away permanently. I’ve used This
is the Moment for weddings. I even
do music at funerals on request. One
woman asked me to sing Side by Side for her husband’s funeral. A man requested G-d is Great, Beer is
Good, People are Crazy for his wife’s funeral. I have to tell you – that was the
strangest musical request I’ve ever fulfilled.
But it worked.
My notoriety for singing and playing
music goes beyond the congregations I’ve served. When my son, Eyal was born three months premature,
I used to sit in the Newborn ICU and sing to him. A year after we took him home, my daughter
was born, also premature, and she too did a stint in the NICU. The day after her birth, Clara and I went to
see her in the hospital and immediately opened her charts. In the care notes were the warnings: the child’s mother is an RN and will
expect detailed briefings every day. The
father likes to sing.
Music is, in effect, the soundtrack of
our lives. Whenever I listen to an ‘oldies’
station which plays music that was popular in my formative years, the sounds of
the various songs take me back to the experiences I had in those years. I know that I’m not alone in this. When I hear a song that I remember from the
70’s when I was in high school, it takes me back. The first time that I heard Madonna sing Spanish
Lullaby, I happened to be on a beach in Southern Spain; now whenever
I hear the song, I can close my eyes and be transported back to that same
beach. I can see it – and even smell the
salty air and the coconut butter that the Spaniards slathered on their lithe bodies.
There is much research that shows a
correlation between listening to music, and Happiness. In fact, neurological research shows that
even in children as young as five months respond positively, the brain
receptors associated with Happiness becoming active, when the child is exposed
to music. Anecdotal evidence makes the
correlation even younger, even in utero.
And we all know that we can create the kind of electricity that we
desire, between individuals, with music helping. How many seductions involved playing jut the ‘right’
music, calculated to set the mood? C’mon
guys, ‘fess up; how many have put that Bolero disc in the machine when that
special lady came over to your pad??!
So of course, certain kinds of music
work better than others for setting the desired mood. Music that is harsh and cacophonous is
unlikely to soothe the savage soul. But
most of us, whilst favouring one or two types of music, cn enjoy various genres
of music.
Music is one of the easiest path to
Happiness. A life filled with music cannot
help being a Happier life.
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