Ask the Rabbi: Why do we still have a choir for the High Holy Days?

   Since my interviews last year, I have consistently maintained that if there is something odd or confusing encountered in any of the changes to our services that have come up while I have led services, that I would much prefer that the questions be asked directly to me than spoken about in frustration where I am unable to aid in the dialogue. If something comes up, I encourage you to email me at rabbi@sinaileeds.uk with the heading “Ask the Rabbi” and I will happily answer them in order in this space. This week, the question was “Why do we still have a choir for the High Holy Days?”

   Although many of us have a view of choir that varies from “That is what we used to do,” to “that is what my parents used to do,” we actually get to go back much further, as in the First Temple further, in order to look at the authenticity and importance of choirs in Jewish tradition. In 1 Chronicles 15:16 we read, “David ordered the officers of the Levites to install their kinsmen, the singers, with musical instruments, harps, lyres, and cymbals, joyfully making their voices heard.”

   If we wish to talk about “authenticity,” this seems like a pretty good argument for the gold kosher stamp to be placed directly over “The Choir.” David HaMelech is dated to circa 1000 BCE, so this seems like a good place to start and a good opening salvo to reinvigorate the standing of the choir within our Reform dialogue, even two decades in the 21^st century.

   But from a more practical standpoint from within a Reform context, the existence of a choir as part of Shabbat ritual dates to the very beginning of actual “Reform” in the synagogue when in the early 19^th century, Israel Jacobson installed an organ in the first truly “Reform” synagogue in Westphalia and slowly replaced the cantor with a choir. Composers such as Sulzer and Lewandowsky combined traditional modes from Ashkenazi rite with contemporary harmonies and four-part choirs and wrote some of the most sublime music ever associated with Judaism, music which is “performed” even outside of Jewish context until today.

   Yet when you mention Sulzer and Lewandowsky, the complications begin. “It is dry.” “It is boring.” Because we often associate choirs with “then” instead of “now,” we can easily be tempted to roll our eyes when we see that a choir will be part of a service. But are we really reacting to the choir itself or simply other elements such as the pace of the service or the fact that the existence of a choir reduces our ability to participate in every part of a service? Leaving aside the fact that there are indeed a significant number of members for whom the choir is important and integral, (and our responsibility to be in continuous dialogue with diverse needs) are there ways that we can look at a choir that can help us not only appreciate them but even be elevated through their existence?

   If I may be so bold, I would like to offer, if only as food for thought, a list of contributions of a choir during the High Holy Days (HHDs) that we might not have considered:

11)   The HHDs contain melodies that are not used on Shabbat and are generally (due to simple lack of repetition) less familiar than Shabbat melodies. The choir in liturgical context indeed at times acts in “concert” mode with specific art compositions, but the rest of the time it is functioning as a song-leader to help a congregation grasp and sing less-familiar melodies comfortably.

22)     One of the most important ancient musical practices of Judaism is the “call and response.” A good amount of the choir melodies that come from 19^th century Reform highlight this (think Lewandowski’s Lechu Neranana.) In the HHDs, call and response is written into a lot more of the Machzor (prayer book for the holidays) than in the Shabbat prayer book. The use of a choir enables call and response by helping lead the responses that may not be known, without having to interrupt the service to “teach” a melody.

33)     They aren’t called the “Days of Awe” for nothing. There are simply things that a solo voice or communal unison singing cannot do as well as a choir, especially expressing beautiful melodies through harmony. A solo or unison peace of music suggests harmony, but a choir fills out the major and minor and adds tension and release through dissonance and resolution. The expression of certain liturgical subtleties through harmony adds a dimension that cannot otherwise be expressed.

44)     The choir does indeed still represent a certain percentage of the community that “grew up” with choir music and relate to Judaism through that modality. Because normal Shabbat services are no longer done with a choir at Sinai, the HHD Choir not only evokes some of those links to our past, but as well shows kavod (respect) for those that love this part of tradition.

55)  The HHDs should feel different. Yes, the choir feels more formal and even “frontal” but there are times where getting everyone to fully participate in every prayer is the goal and other times that creating an appropriate atmosphere of prayer and awe through someone else’s (cantor, choir, rabbi, prayer leader, etc.) expression of prayer while we close our eyes and contemplate is the goal.

   It is understandable that we will vary wildly on our comfort with and desire for a choir. But as I said in an earlier piece of writing, if we get caught up only in statements of “I like,” or “I don’t like,” we are not only missing essential concepts of liturgy, we are as well focusing only on personal needs within a communal context. Jewish liturgy is designed to challenge and transport us. Services that are strictly a matter of taste are not serving the very essence of being b’nai Yisrael, literally the religion and tribe whose name means “wrestling with God.”