Judge Dennis Davis
The Chazzanaut of Yom Kippur
Judge Dennis Davis - The Chazzanaut of Yom Kippur
- Good evening to everybody. I have traditionally done this lecture each year, well, two of them, normally something about Rosh Hashanah and something about Yom Kippur. And I’ve always done one on Chazzanaut, on cantorial music. And tonight, I have to apologise in part, I’ve just returned this morning from Melbourne, having taught at the Melbourne Law School for the seventh or eighth time. Must say if there are any Australians listening, the Melbourne Law School is probably rated one of the 10 best law schools in the world and it’s an unbelievable institution. The only problem is that there’s an eight-hour time difference, so if I’m sounding more incoherent than I normally do, I do apologise. What I intend to do this evening is take you through some of the important parts of the machzor, of the prayers that we intone on Yom Kippur, give you a little background to them, so that maybe they’ll have some more meaning for you when you go to shul on Yom Kippur. In some instances I’ve got duplicates, and I’ll explain that in a moment. But I’ve chosen some of the key prayers and we’ll give you a little context to each of them. I’ve chosen in two instances duplicates for reasons that I hope will become apparent. The one of them’s “Kol Nidrei”, which I’ll come to, and the other is “Avinu Malkeinu”. And I have a real special surprise in the very last “Avinu Malkeinu” that I hope that you’ll listen to, because if it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, over this period, I think nothing will. So we start then this evening with “Kol Nidrei”. “Kol Nidrei” is an absolutely, it’s the central prayer in many ways. Everybody talks about the “Kol Nidrei” service, the “Kol Nidrei” prayer. And yet it’s an incredibly controversial prayer because, and so much so that many rabbis did not want to include it in the service.
In fact, even the great, I suspect, precursor to modern Orthodox Judaism, Shimshon Raphael Hirsch from Frankfurt, actually really didn’t really want to include, for the obvious reason, that people said, “Look, the Jews go to the holiest day of the year, the Yom Kippur, and they immediately say that whatever vows they make will not be vows. So what kind of reliability can we assume from any promise that a Jew has made?” And so the concept of , the annulment of vows, is really very complex. And I could probably, and I do, at my shul often, a number of them actually spend the whole of the drasha talking about “Kol Nidrei”. But what I’ll just say to you is this, that one of the better explanations for me is the notion, not that effectively, we are untrustworthy, which is a disgraceful, anti-Semitic trope, but rather that there are two aspects to this. That we acknowledge upfront that whatever vows we make, whatever commitments we make, we are human, we have limits, and we acknowledge that we may not be able to fulfil them all. And even more important than that, vows as such, and there’s a lot of Talmudic literature to support this, are not the crucial point. In fact, to make a vow, really irrelevant to the issue of Yom Kippur and to the 10 days of penance. The much more important thing is what it is that you commit yourself to doing, what it is that you do. And as we shall see a little later, when I get onto the “Un'tane Tokef” prayer, we’re much more concerned that people will return to ideas of prayer, to substantial versions of charity, the highest types that Maimonides spoke about, and of course, repentance.
And so it’s a complex prayer, but its absolutely haunting melody sets the entire tone for the whole of the service. And here is a marvellous rendition of “Kol Nidrei” as we begin the actual service with all of that textual complexity. Thanks very much. Well, I know that I’m probably treading on controversial water here. ‘Cause we know that in parts of the Orthodox tradition, not entirely, but certainly the predominant one, is kol isha, the idea of listening to the voice of a woman is like a terrible thing. Well me, I think Cantor Angela Buchdahl, who I might add, I think is also a rabbi, people can correct me if I’m wrong, and Chazzanit, just absolutely fantastic. I find it an unbelievably moving rendition of “Kol Nidrei”, capturing, in some ways, just everything about the nuances of our history. We move on because on the night of the Maariv of Yom Kippur, after we then go through “Kol Nidrei”, and we do the traditional Maariv evening service, we start with a series of prayers which are part of the Selichot, the penitence prayers, which have been said building up to Yom Kippur.
The interesting thing about them is they’re all in very general terms. Even we know that the general idea of atonement is one thing, the specific focus of atonement on Yom Kippur, something entirely different. And this piyyut, this poem which we recite, “Ya'aleh”, the first one, after we’ve actually gone through the standard evening service, this really focuses our attention on, in fact, all of these prayers. And we talk about our prayers ascending in the morning, sorry, ascending from the evening and arriving in the morning. This particular special piece of Selichot, this piyyut, is designed to say all of these particular prayers focused on one day. One must read them all together. And accordingly, we start with the one by which we read all together. One other issue about them is it’s an acrostic as such, but it doesn’t start with aleph, it starts the other way around. But that’s another matter. I have here a recording from that wonderful record of the “Kol Nidrei” service sung by Richard Tucker, who doubtless will have more attention diverted to him again when we get onto discussing America and his role at the Metropolitan Opera as a tenor. But of course, he was a great Chazzan in his own right. Of course his brother-in-law was Jan Pierce, I think I’ve mentioned that before. And certainly my father of blessed memory had this record in our house. And it was one that we used to play in the days leading up to the yamim hanoraim to give us some feeling for it. So here is Richard Tucker singing “Ya'aleh Tachanuneinu Mi'erev”. No, that’s not the right one. Sorry, Corrina, that’s number three. I wanted number two.
[Corrina] I think that is the second one.
[Dennis] That’s the first one, it’s the next one.
[Corrina] Right, this is the second one.
No, no, there was another one. We had a, lord. Yes, that’s the one.
[Corrina] Okay, here we are.
Yes, brilliant. Thanks, one thing about Richard Tucker, I mean, apart from that he had a glorious voice. I mean, you just listen to this “Ya'aleh”, and I know he was an opera singer but he was also very fine Chazzan. Because if you listen to this, you just feel all the pain, the anxiety, and people are praying, as it was, throughout the vicissitudes of history. He seems to capture that all, the tragedy and the anxiety of Judaism throughout its vicissitudes. The next prayer that we get onto, which of course we also say during Rosh Hashanah, is the “Un'tane Tokef” prayer. It is probably the central prayer, certainly on Rosh Hashanah, and to a large degree, as we say it in Musaf on Yom Kippur. It really is a masterpiece of the machzor. We know that there’s a story and I’m not going to go into it now, but Rabbi Amnon, who essentially refused finally to convert and was essentially, not decapitated, but his legs were cut off, his arms were cut off, and he was about to die thanks to the fact that he refused to acquiesce to his friend the Bishop of Mainz, to convert. And he’s wheeled into the shul. And the tradition is that it was in his dying breath that he uttered the “Un'tane Tokef” prayer.
But it’s a controversial prayer as well. 'Cause certainly my rabbi, Rabbi Starnov would always say to me, it’s far too anthropomorphical, the idea of the prayer that we all march before God and he judges us one after another. But I think ultimately what the prayer is about, this idea of , who’s going to live and who’s going to die, reflecting on the fragility of life, which also is reflected in part of the “Un'tane Tokef” prayer towards the end, where there’s a real moving reflection on the fragility of life, when we talk about that we’re no more than a piece of pottery, a blade of grass. And more than that, that sense in which we do not know our future, and that over this particular period, we have to think deeply about it. And that ultimately in this dramatic prayer, we come to the end and we say that effectively, , that actually it’s our actions, actions of teshuvah, repentance, and all that I spoke about in relation to that term when I lectured on Rav Cook, the idea, of course, of tzedakah and charity does not just mean charity in some giving of money. We all know that the highest forms of charity place people in the position where they never need charity again. Reconstruction of society, if you wish, and, of course, prayer are central. And this is a dramatic prayer which essentially tries to encapsulate this. It’s a wonderful rendition here by Chazzan Azi Schwartz. We’ll play the first part of it 'cause it’s quite long. And I can’t have it so long that you won’t get to your Yom Kippur services. No, no, we go back, Corrina, to–
[Corrina] Okay, go back to the other one?
The other one that you had on, before that one.
[Corrina] This one.
[Dennis] That’s the one, yeah. Great.
Okay.
Alright, Corrina, I think we can stop it there. Thank you, and it’s absolutely magnificent but I’ve got some other stuff to get through. You can, it’s an absolutely dramatic prayer. And I just wanted to highlight one line, , the small, still voice. The tradition is that God does not appear in a loud voice, a tad dramatically, in a still small voice. And the tradition even suggests that as we daven the Yom Kippur, it’s a still, quiet voice in our own conscience which allows us to be sufficiently stirred to aim towards the commitments that the “Un'tane Tokef” prayer actually produces. And I mean, I think this particular rendition, which is a classic one, also shows just how beautiful some of the cantorial melodies are on the Yom Kippur. I often have thought as I listen to this, “What a pity that I’m fasting,” and not sort of at my best when I’m listening to them, but they’re absolutely dramatic. The next one we come to, I think, Corrina, is the “Avinu Malkeinu”, I just want to make sure I’m right. Can we just go to the next one first, after that? That one. I want to get there first, sorry, slightly. Again, this is Azi Schwartz. This is, I mean, we all know this. Please sing along. Although I’ve got a special version that’s right at the end which will break your hearts, I think. But the “Avinu Malkeinu” prayer, which we say, it’s a fascinating prayer for all sorts of reasons. But you know, we all sing it with great gusto right at the end of the Yom Kippur service although it comes in the Ne'ilah, and I’ll come to Ne'ilah in a moment. But the story is told that there was a great drought in the land. Rabbi Eliezer got up and essentially did all the prayers of the Amidah to no avail.
And Rabbi Akiva got up and ultimately combined the two ideas, that to some extent we are children of God in the sense that each of us has the divine spark. And that secondly, he’s also our king, he’s the almighty. And that we essentially combine these two elements when we say the “Avinu Malkeinu” prayer. And particularly the one that we all sing commonly together, treat us with charity and kindness and save us. In just one aspect where tradition tells us that we don’t know who God is, we have no conception of the almighty as such, and that all we can do is ultimately to try to emulate divine characteristics. And when we ask God in our tradition to say, “Save us, treat us with charity and with kindness, , save us this way,” what we really should be saying and what we are saying and what we’re committed to saying, and what we say in the “Un'tane Tokef” prayer, is if we can in fact bestow our beneficence on those who are disempowered and are poor, and if we can show compassion to all within the society, then indeed that divine world will come down, well, 'cause it’s in our hands. And that I think is a central feature of this magnificent prayer. But here we hear the traditional melody at the end, feel free to sing along, I can never resist doing it myself. Thanks, Corrina. I have played various other versions over time. I thought, again, of repeating the glorious version by Barbra Streisand. But just for a change, I decided this one. No, I want to just go to the other, the next one. Not this one, Corrina, there’s the other one which is there.
[Corrina] Can you show me the name?
I think it’s the one about the “Kaddish”. Is there not one? We had it. No. Oh yeah, that was the one. Yeah, there, that’s the one. Right. The reason I’ve chosen this, the “Chatzi Kaddish”, by Cantor Marcus Feldman, is because this is part of the Ne'ilah service, and I thought I’d just like to say something about the Ne'ilah service. The Ne'ilah service, of course, is unique to Yom Kippur. It’s the only day of the whole of the Jewish year, that we have a separate service called Ne'ilah, “Closing of the Gates”. And ultimately it’s a dramatic service. Everybody’s tired, we’ve been fasting the whole day, been grinding on with, you know, service after service after service, and we come to Ne'ilah. And Ne'ilah essentially encapsulates all of the prayers in one service and it’s a dramatic ending. Because as you all know, we come to Ne'ilah, we say the “Shema”, we say , and we say , we assert the idea of God’s sovereignty. The entire service of Ne'ilah should be the most dramatic of all. And if you’ve got a Chazzan, or someone leading the service, a Chazzanit, who knows what they’re doing, in a sense, everything becomes more dramatic. And they, not only that, but all the tunes which we’ve used right through the day, they change, because of the drama of this particular service. So I just wanted to show you, it’s an illustration thereof, that even the “Kaddish”, which we say to open up the Ne'ilah service, comes in a very different nusach, different style, to anything else you’ve heard the whole day, and here is just that version. That’s just, it’s a very different Kaddish to the one we say, and it sets the whole nusach for this very dramatic prayer by which we end. Now I’ve got two addenda. Because it’s so hard to choose which version to take, each year I try to take different ones. But I wanted to give you another “Kol Nidrei”. I could not resist this. This is from a magnificent CD with the incomparable Itzhak Perlman playing with the great contemporary Chazzan Helfgot, who many argue was the sort of heir to the great Koussevitzky in many ways, being the great Chazzan of his generation. Here are the two of them in which Perlman is playing the violin and Helfgot does “Kol Nidrei” together with him. So can we have this one, Corrina?
[Corrina] Is this the right one?
[Dennis] That’s perfect.
[Corrina] Excellent. It’s a beautiful, slightly not as loud as I’d have wanted, but it’s a beautiful recording of Helfgot, the great Chazzan, with Perlman. I wanted to end with another “Avinu Malkeinu”. I discovered this, well I rediscovered this when I was in Australia this week, because of course the little boy who sings this is a South African, Bibi Shapiro, who eventually apparently landed up in Australia. I think he was discovered by Chazzan Choni G from the Gardens Shul in Cape Town. And this thing went viral. And I end with this 'cause it’s so beautiful, so moving, and just so lovely.
♪ I’m sorry for all I did wrong ♪ ♪ I’m sorry for all I did wrong ♪ ♪ I’ll try to be better forever and ever ♪ ♪ I’m sorry for all I did wrong ♪ ♪ I’ll try, I’ll try to be ♪ ♪ The best that I can be ♪ ♪ I’ll try, I’ll try to do what is right ♪ ♪ And be the best I can be ♪
- Just an absolutely lovely way for me to end this rendition and just turn to questions.
Q&A and Comments:
There’s much more that I could have done, but of course we are already at the hour mark, which is the witching hour. Let me just see if there’s anything on the question side that you would like me to answer. Thank you for saying I’m not incoherent, Rita.
It’s interesting, Rita Kay, you say, “I listen in memory of my beloved late parents.” Absolutely when I listen to this, I also think of my parents, I think of this period.
Stuart, thanks for reminding me. I didn’t realise that Angela Buchdahl was a senior rabbi of the Central Synagogue, which is absolutely wonderful.
Thank you very much, Miriam. It is strange, I suppose, for many of us brought up Orthodox to hear a woman sing. But quite frankly, I totally oppose the idea of kol isha. I’m more than happy to give a lecture on that at any time 'cause I think the texts which the fundamentalists use in this regard are palpably contested, but that’s for another moment.
Yeah, I agree with you about Richard Tucker. There’s something just, which encapsulates for me precisely the classical Chazzanaut of the traditional kind of sadness, joy, and reflection of Judaism. I have heard, Neville, the chief Chazzan of the IDF sing “Un'tane Tokef”, and it is excellent, and I shall do that next year. And I did do, Stuart, sorry, that was Neville, and Stuart, I did play the Barbra Streisand one I think two years ago, and I agree with you.
I have heard, somebody asked me about about Shulem Lemmer and that “Avinu Malkeinu” is also beautiful. Sandra asks me just to say something about the “Kol Nidrei” prayer. Very briefly, Sandra, it’s very controversial. Its first textual appearance was in the ninth century with Rabbi Amram Gaon. That’s the first time we find it in actual siddur or machzor. The Rishonim at that particular point, the great rabbis of the time, did not want to include the “Kol Nidrei” prayer. They absolutely resisted it. And there’s a huge theological debate about its meaning. I think it remained simply because it ultimately represented, to a large degree, what the whole of Yom Kippur is, which it’s a courtroom. We start, , “With the authority of the almighty and the authority of the congregation,” we commence. The service is constructed as a courtroom in which we are the accused and in which we’re seeking to have have the Chazzan and the prayers defend us. And I think to large degree, therefore, notwithstanding its controversy after the ninth century, and given the fact that the Rishonim didn’t want it, it’s somehow remained. I can say much more about it but obviously this isn’t the appropriate time.
Thank you for sending me another arrangement of “Avinu Malkeinu”, I love listening to that. I’m afraid no, Jacob Collingsburg was not known to me, I do apologise.
And thank you Abigail and Efrona. And I just thank you, all the rest of you. The little boy says it all. I think the little boy does say it all. The little boy says… And you’re quite right, Eli, to remind me, Raphael Hirsch, as I indicated earlier, did ban it because he thought it expressed what we wouldn’t fulfil. But I agree he also retracted that remark. But it does reflect the controversy of “Kol Nidrei”. I just want to say to you, to all of you, and be circumscribed in the Book of Life.
And we will meet again, well we’ll meet long before next year, but next year I’ll try to incorporate some of your suggestions. And when we get closer to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, I might try to get an email out to everybody so you can give me some ideas of what your favourite choices are of these prayers. Good night to all.