Armoured Angels?Written by Robert Bruce Baird
Armoured Angels?:Why on high do angels sing? Hearts below to heavens bring Soldiers of G-d or armoured archangels go Fighting Dragons or Dracula’s guides Mixing potions like Champagne or Frangelico While saying women must be ‘clean’ to be brides Images drawn on ceilings and walls Homes outfitted from great malls Clashing times and value systems Maidens hauling water in cisterns Borne on shoulders from past Church flags should be at half-mast Raphael or Botticelli Am I really being silly? Bringing forth such images and icons Saying evangelists are really just Cons While in angels I do believe Here on earth on every eve Heavens beyond our here and now Beyond moon and that cow In Logos we have word or sound String Theory brings it to ground We can creatively manifest Even when we are at rest
| | It's Called Jewish Music, But Is It Really Jewish?Written by Seth Yisra'el Lutnick
A while back I was driving along Jerusalem highway scanning radio stations. On one frequency, a very intense dance beat was exploding out of speakers. I was about to move dial some more in search of a Jewish tune when vocalist started in. Shock of shocks, he was a heavily Hassidic singer, complete with eastern European pronunciation. And what was he singing? "Kumee oy'ree ki va oy-reich.." from 16th century Rabbi Shlomo Alkavetz' classic Sabbath poem, L'cha Dodi. Before he had began his rendition I had been expecting something like "Oh baby, way you move with me ..."!I had to ask old question, "Is this good for Jews?" And I had to give old answer, "Does hair grow on palm of your hand?" Of course it's not good for Jews, I felt. Poor, unfortunate L'cha Dodi, dragged from fields of Tsfat on Sabbath eve and infected with Saturday Night Fever! Lovingly done by a Hassid, no less! Speaking of Tsfat, I recall meandering about their Klezmer festival once and hearing a contemporary setting of Psalm 126. It was to a funk rhythm, and words did not fit. The singer had to split words in two, which rendered them more or less meaningless. Good for Jews? Nah. What bothered me about this so-called Jewish music? To put it briefly, besides words, it just wasn't. It was dance, trance, shmantz. It was hip, driving, suggestive. If this music was asked where it wanted to play, synagogue or sin-skin club, answer was clear. If Jewish music is to be defined as such, it must have authentic Jewish roots. And so much contemporary music simply does not. Where was source of this tradition? Nowhere. That's what bothered me. But, as Tevye reminds us, there's another hand. After all, go listen to classic Hassidic nigunim (melodies). Then go listen to Russian folk songs. Eerie, no? Weren't those folk songs "dance" of their day? Even stronger, go watch religious kids. They love contemporary popular music and all its villains. What these new Jewish groups do is take what's hip and put Jewish content into it. Isn't that what original Hassidic nigunim were all about? If we don't want to lose our young people in culture war, we have to compete. Didn't Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch bring choral works of Lewandowsky and Japhet in to synagogue service, even though they were completely in style of German composers of age, such as Schubert and Mendelssohn (he needs an asterisk because he was halakhically Jewish)? So maybe I should not only calm down, I should applaud this phenomenon.
|
