One of the most beautiful blessings the Torah has for us in the book of Leviticus (Chapter 26 verse 10) is “…and remove the old to make way for the new”- in Hebrew: “וישן מפני חדש תוציאו” God promises the Children of Israel that they will enjoy such prosperity and profusion, that they will be able to remove the old in order to make room for the new, and enjoy it.
Shaare Zion has been blessed with resources and dedicated people, who have the drive and vision to make our congregation move forward, innovate and renovate, come-up with and execute new ideas and projects. As a result, you are enjoying a new and much improved website. “… and remove the old to make room for the new”. Indeed, we have been blessed!
Interesting enough, the concept of ‘removing the old in order to make room for the new’ is not exactly an obvious thing in Judaism. The fundamentals of our faith and religion are cemented with the principal of preservation and conservation of our ancient tradition. Even when we modernize things - we still follow basic Halachic principals. Reason being, that in Judaism there can be no progress without remembering and honoring the past. Napoleon once said: Only people who remember their past - will have a future. Therefore, our tradition is the basis for everything that follows.
I come across the same pattern in the course of my work as a cantor. The cantorial-art of our time is moving in three circles. The first one is the old and traditional “Nusach” - traditional ‘modes’, which are the basic musical themes we have for each and every service. These themes - or ‘melodies’, if you will - are never changed, they cannot be changed, and we all know them and use them.
The second circle is made of cantorial-works, pieces, which were composed by various cantors, choirmasters and composers since the late 19th century until the end of the 1960’s. We regard those works as a “Traditional Chazzanut”, and we incorporate many of them in our services on a regular basis. The famous “Retze” we often perform at our Synagogue is just one example.
The third circle is what we call “Modern Hazzanut”. It is lighter, has more ‘sing-a-long’ properties in it, and it is better suited for modern times because it ‘moves faster’ and reminds us of popular music. “L’dor Va’dor” which is sung in our Synagogue is a good example of that trend.
Why and how modern Hazzanut is connected to traditional Hazzanut is a separate issue which we will discuss in the future, but it is very clear that the idea of ‘removing the old to make room for the new’ is not applicable to cantorial-art. Here, we combine old and new traditions, when the goal is to create a balanced, interesting, beautiful, and above all - inspiring services in Shul.
Cantor Shmuel Levin
