Rabbi's Message

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman
Read about the Rabbi
April 2003

Musical Instruments at Services

Elsewhere in the newsletter, the ritual committee reports on the results of our survey on prayer services. One of the proposals is to begin experimenting with musical instruments at some Friday evening services. We may also initiate a pre-service drumming circle one Saturday morning per month. Both of these ideas, while not traditional in modern Jewish communities, represent an attempt to find creative, authentically Jewish ways to open up spiritual practices to a broader range of individuals and to find ways of allowing people to connect to each other and to God through music and melody.

I wanted to use this column to provide some of the background of the traditional prohibition against musical instruments on Shabbat and provide a framework for our experiment.

Music has long been an integral part of Jewish worship and prayer life. The biblical Psalms were composed to be sung by the Levites (priestly helpers) in the ancient Temple. They were often accompanied on musical instruments - many of which are referred to in the music itself. "Praise God on lute and violin, with strings and flute," we sing every Saturday in Psalm 150. There is ample archeological and textual evidence of instrumentation in the ancient Temple and throughout Biblical Israel.

After the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 CE, the leaders of the community (the early rabbis) felt that the use of musical instruments indicated a level of joyfulness and merriment inappropriate for a community in mourning. They decreed that other than for a wedding feast, instruments would not be used while the Temple, Israel's most sacred shrine, was in ruins.

Parallel to this historical development, the rabbis began a process of codifying and illuminating the laws of Jewish practice (halacha). They began expanding on Torah laws, creating fences around them, in order to preserve the Jewish community's cohesiveness and adherence to Torah. The laws of Shabbat observance were included in this process.

Among the categories of proscribed activity on Shabbat are two that relate to musical instruments: the prohibition on carrying from one place to another and the prohibition against fixing anything to make it usable. The underlying principles behind these two laws deserve far more explanation than I have space for here, but it is enough to know that these law were extended to include a prohibition against playing instruments on Shabbat. Instruments on Shabbat were prohibited lest someone forget or be tempted to carry an instrument from one place to another or lest someone forget or be tempted to fix an instrument that has broken. (Electrical instruments fall under another category entirely and are not currently under consideration for our community on Shabbat).

These two parallel developments, one historically motivated, one legalistically motivated, have shaped Jewish thinking on this practice for nearly 2,000 years. We now have a situation in which playing instruments on Shabbat has become simply, something Jews just don't do - this is tradition!

For many of us, this would be enough. But for others, the desire to have musical accompaniment in services is a profound spiritual hunger. We have experienced the joy and connection that comes with singing in a group with a guitar or beating a drum in one rhythm. We have visited other religious communities with friends or in experimentation and feel that something here in Judaism is lacking. We know of, or may have visited, Reform and other congregations where instrumental music is a natural and integral part of the worship experience. And we question the relevance of a laws that may make little sense to us in today's world - most of us no longer observe the Shabbat prohibitions on which this one was based and we no longer see ourselves as a community in mourning praying for the day when we will return to the worship practices of our ancestors.

As Reconstructionists, we take the voice of tradition seriously. We claim that it has a voice, although not a veto. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to examine the tradition, understand its genesis and principles, and only begin to reconstruct after careful and informed discussion. We also take modern sensibilities and experiences equally seriously. The revival of the Jewish folk music tradition and the growing number of synagogues of all denominations experimenting with musical forms and practices says something about the human need for spiritual connection through music that we cannot ignore.

So this then is the framework for our experiment here at Agudas Achim. We will not throw out 2000 years of tradition and invite all instruments of every kind in at all times. Rather, we will move slowly with the following: We will allow percussion (and some acoustic) instruments to be played on some Friday nights and during children's services. We will begin a monthly drumming circle before services mornings (starting April 26) and may encourage instruments at other Shabbat programs. Instruments will not be permitted during Saturday morning services. We seek feedback from this and will re-evaluate over time. Please share your thoughts someone from the ritual committee or myself and please - even if you are sure of your opinion, give our experiment a chance. In this way, we add our voice to the evolving civilization of our people that we call Judaism.

Helping Children with Grief

I have become painfully aware of the increasing number of young people in our community affected by grief. The West Warwick fire, increasing rates of cancer, mental illness, and the war have all brought experiences of death and loss closer to many of our children than ever before. Please click here for some tips on helping children through this and about a program we will be sponsoring here at the synagogue. And please, please, call me if you would like more resources or to talk.

B'Shalom
Rabbi Elyse