Cantor Moses' Musings-- ELUL

קַוֵּ֗ה אֶל־יְ֫הֹוָ֥ה חֲ֭זַק וְיַאֲמֵ֣ץ לִבֶּ֑ךָ וְ֝קַוֵּ֗ה אֶל־יְהֹוָֽה׃

Look towards God. 
be strong and let your heart take courage!
Look towards God. 
Psalm 27:14 

This is one of my favorite passages in all of the 150 Psalms of David. Every day during the month of Elul that just arrived a few days ago, reminds us to start spiritually preparing for the High Holy Days. We are invited to immerse ourselves in rituals that help us prepare for the deep spiritual work of “teshuva,” a returning to our best selves through acts of prayer, tzedakah, and repentance. This passage we recite twice a day in psalm 27, should wake us up by encouraging us to practice patience and strength. We should do this by not only passively looking towards the Divine but relying on our own actions of courage and resilience as we actively trust in God at the same time. 
This task feels extremely daunting in this challenging moment we are living in as Jews. “Teshuvah,” meaning returning and repenting, is the central gesture of the High Holy Day season. Rabbi Joseph Solevetchik describes teshuva as a circular motion. He writes,“If you aren’t moving along the circumference of a circle, it might seem as if the starting point is getting farther and farther away, but actually it is also getting closer and closer. The calendar year is such a circle. On Rosh Hashana, a new year begins and every day is one day farther from the starting point, but every day is also a return, a drawing closer to the completion of that cycle.” Rabbi Solevechitch points out that every step we take away is a step closer to home.
This Shabbat, we invite you to come home as we begin to celebrate this cycle of life as we bring new babies into the covenant, bless new adventures,  as well as come full circle as we welcome the “Millie Baran Project” to Temple Israel. In collaboration with a local organization, A Tribe for Jazz, composer and pianist Albert Marquès will be presenting his Ampl!fy Voices project, the haunting and heartfelt “Mir Zaynen Do,” a musical collaboration with 99 year old Holocaust survivor Millie Baran. 

Released as three tracks/videos, this new jazz composition includes Millie and her daughters singing the Yiddish song “Mir Zaynen Do” (We Are Here מיר זיינען דא). Its lyrics were written in 1943 by Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish inhabitant of the Vilna Ghetto, who was inspired by news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Mir Zaynen Do (also known as “Zog nit keyn mol," “Partisan Song” or "The Song of the Warsaw Ghetto") was adopted by Jewish partisan groups throughout Eastern Europe during World War II, and became a symbol of resistance against Nazi Germany.

With the help and partnership of Jewish Family Services, we will also be welcoming and hosting local Holocaust survivors to stand and be recognized for their courage, resilience and faith, the true essence of the psalmist words. 

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