Cantor Shermet is PUBLISHED!

Congrats to Cantor Wendy Shermet on the inclusion of her article The History of the Cantorate in the newest volume of Studies in Jewish Civilization I Will Sing and Make Music: Jewish Music and Musicians Throughtout the Ages.  The publication includes papers given at the Nineteen Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium, held in the fall of 2006.

Here is an excerpt:

Speaking personally, I truly believe that a strong part of my job is to keep our modes and history alive.  Just as one will not read a portion from Genesis at the time appointed for reading Leviticus just because she/he likes it and it’s familiar, or eat challah during Pesach because it tastes good, I am not going to sing a morning mode in the evening or a Hanukkah melody during Sukkot.   We are not a people living in a museum; we are a thriving, alive culture, and I want to do my part to keep it that way.

Yasher Koach, Cantor!

Sometimes life is so hard, you just have to sing.

Today in staff meeting Cantor Shermet gave a compelling D’var.  She shared an article “The Music of Recession” by Goldie Rosenberg. Rosenberg writes about her father’s struggles in tough economic times, his choices, his pressures, his struggles, his relationship with God. It’s a beautiful teaching and so powerful in the midst of our current economic crisis.

As my father told me the story, he said, “It was so bad, I just had to sing.”

“Say again?!” I wasn’t sure I heard right.

He smiled and told me, “Sometimes it is so bad, you just have to sing to God.”

Music is an odd invention; it always employs force. Think about it. The drum is a skin stretched to its tightest which you then pound away at with the drumsticks. The guitar is strings pulled taut, which you then pick or strum at, exerting pressure on the right string. The piano works more or less like the guitar, with strings being stretched and then hit. The flute, the clarinet, the oboe — they take breath pushed strongly through it and constrain it into a narrow space so that there is pressure on that breath, until it escapes through an opening.

All instruments are pressure concepts. As soon as you take away any tension, your instrument won’t work. It needs pressure. (Read the whole article)

As God’s instruments, do we have what it takes to withstand the pressure, to sing a new song to the world?

Thank you for sharing Cantor. Yashar Koach.

The D’var was so powerful we decided to share it with the Board of Trustees as an opening prayer.