Judge Dennis Davis
The Chazanut of Yom Kippur

Judge Dennis Davis - The Chazanut of Yom Kippur

- Good evening, good afternoon to everybody. This in a sense is the kind of second lecture of two, one I presented last night, in which I did look at the liturgy of, well, the structure of the prayers of Yom Kippur. And I said that that was a sense of a commentary for what I wanted to do tonight, where the music will do the talking rather than me to a primary extent. And so, this evening we are going to look at a variety of different prayers. Not many, but different versions as it were of some, and others just one which are particularly important, and which to some extent, I think, represent the quintessential prayers as I indicated last night, of Yom Kippur. And of course we have to start with call Kol Nidre. And I explained Kol Nidre last night. I’m not going to go over it again. But what I will say is just one thing, of course the music is extraordinarily haunting and has been around probably since the 13th century. And what is interesting is that clearly it’s influenced a whole lot of people. And I’d like to just refer you to the late quartets of Beethoven, the sixth of those, sorry, the late quartets opus 131, sorry, of the late quartets, the sixth movement of which the opening few bars very much sound like the opening of Kol Nidre. I invite you to actually go and listen for yourselves.

It’s interesting that Beethoven, probably through someone else, got to hear the melody of Kol Nidre and incorporated it in the sixth movement, that I do find quite fascinating. But here we’ve got a rendition from Richard Tucker, who has recorded a whole service of Yom Kippur, I’m just going to have two of his extracts. Last time I think I played the Jan Peerce version. This is his brother-in-law, Richard Tucker. Apparently they didn’t speak very much to each other. Tucker, as you know, was one of the great tenors at the Metropolitan opera his day. He certainly came to South Africa, and I remember that well. But he’s got a rendition of Kol Nidre, which I suppose in a sense is a quintessential rendition. And so, you know, I’m going to play it right through, because it does seem to me that a great tenor singing this is just something made in heaven. So let us hear clip one, Emily.

CLIP BEGINS

• [Announcer] The sound of the shofar, a long, drawn out tone, a series of broken notes, a sharp staccato sound, saying in the words of Maimonides, “Awake, you sleepers, from your slumbers! Ye who forget eternity in the pursuit of the moment.”

• [Announcer] The prayer service for the eve of the day of atonement is distinguished for its solemnity, its poetic beauty, and its inspiring power to lift the worshipper toward God. The theme of the service is the power of repentance, and God’s willingness to accept the sinner once he atones for failures of the past and resolves to live a life of purity and holiness in the future.

CLIP ENDS

• Okay, we’re going to go onto clip two in a moment. Sorry if the sound wasn’t as good, when I played it, it seemed much better. I do apologise. I am going to play one more Richard Tucker, but because as we move through the Ma'ariv service, there are a whole lot of these piyyuṭim, these liturgical poems, which we recite, which we sing. And they’re all there to essentially pray to God that we can find Him, and find salvation through Him, and through our repentance. And the first of these, which we say after essentially going through the traditional Ma'ariv services, . Now let us just hear Richard Tucker sing one or two of the verses there are, before we move on. It’s just not working. The third clip is, we get to Shma Koleinu, it’s also in the evening service. Let’s see. It’s a very heartfelt prayer when we say and we return us, return us. And it comes towards the sort of end part of the Ma'ariv service. Here’s Cantor-, I mean Yomeinu singing it. Right. I was initially going to do Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and there was one wonderful Rosh Hashanah part which I just couldn’t resist which comes from the Mussaf Rosh Hashanah, Haben Yakir Li and I could not resist playing this for you. So this is the next clip, Emily? Right. I want to now play three versions of U'Netaneh Tokef which I said to you last night, is an absolutely crucial part of the service and really is perhaps the highlight of the whole Mussaf service, both for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

And the first of these is Akaz Anit and we’ll hear her first, So the next clip, please, Emily. I really find that very, very beautiful. I’m now going to change tune entirely to show you just how universal U'Netaneh Tokef is. ‘Cause one of the most famous musicians who’ve died very recently played used the U'Netaneh Tokef source for one of the most famous of his songs. And here, let us play it together. Listen together, because it’s extraordinary that it became a song for our times. And it’s based on U'Netaneh Tokef and it’s by Leonard Cohen.

CLIP BEGINS

A happy lad. ♪ And who by fire, who by water ♪ ♪ Who in the sunshine, who in the night time ♪ ♪ Who by high ordeal, who by common trial ♪ ♪ Who in your merry merry month of May ♪ ♪ Who by very slow decay ♪ ♪ And who, who shall I say is calling? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate ♪ ♪ Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt ♪ ♪ Who by avalanche, who by powder ♪ ♪ Who for his greed, who for his hunger ♪ ♪ And who, who shall I say is calling? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And who by brave assent, who by accident ♪ ♪ Who in solitude, who in this mirror ♪ ♪ Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand ♪ ♪ Who in mortal chains, who in power ♪ ♪ And who, who shall I say is calling? ♪ ♪ Who shall I say is calling? ♪ ♪ Who by fire, who by water ♪ ♪ Who in the sunshine, who in the night time ♪ ♪ Who by high ordeal, who by common trial ♪ ♪ Who in your merry merry month of May ♪ ♪ Who by very slow decay ♪ ♪ And who, who shall I say is calling? ♪

• Neil Larsen on the Hammond B-3

• Our musical director, on the bass, Roscoe Beck.

CLIP ENDS

• Thank you Emily. I’m sorry, I’m having a real struggle here because our internet is very unstable thanks to load shedding but I hope you got the most of that. And may I say, if you read the text, when he says who by fire, let me read the text to you where it says who will live and who will die? Who will die at his predestined time and who will die before his time? Who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast? Who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague? Who by strangulation and who by stoning? Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried? Who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted? And Cohen therefore took that very much as a theme for our times. Now let me play you a classic example of U'Netaneh Tokef. The beautiful version from the Akaz Anit. We’ve heard Leonard Cohen’s he has a classic version by Hazzan Moshe Koussevitzky, many of whom regard as the greatest Hazzan of the 20th century. Obviously it’s a controversial claim but certainly he was up there. So can we get the next clip, Emily? Hello? Okay, we can lead, so that’s a classic version by Hazzan Koussevitzky. I’m having difficulty lecturing to you tonight because my internet is incredibly unstable. So I don’t know how much you are hearing and I do apologise for that. But this is life in South Africa at the moment. Where, depending where you are you get proper internet or not. Hopefully you’ve heard more than I have. I want, if I may then, to conclude. I had these two extra ones but I’ve unfortunately not been able to play them. I want to conclude with, of course, Avinu Malkeinu.

I played the Barbara Streisand version last year. This version I want to play which is with the choir and Azi Schwartz. It’s a similar tune but it gives you that sense right at the end of the service, when we are there and in full throated voice we sing Avinu Malkeinu. Now the interesting thing about Avinu Malkeinu is it’s a prayer that’s sourced right from the Talmud time, the tractate of Talmud, which records a time in Israel where there was no water. And Rabbi Ali Al-Fed then then had 24 blessings in order to try to persuade God as it were to bring the Mayim bring the water and nothing happened. And then his pupil, Rabbi Akiva used three or four verses from this Avinu Malkeinu prayer and suddenly it started to rain. And since then the tradition has had it that Avinu Malkeinu is our central prayer for communication with God, that right as we come to the Nela prayer, the closing of the gates and we pray that our prayers will in fact be answered as were Akiva’s in the Talmud, which was basically the precursor to Avinu Malkeinu. So let’s hear the last clip the Avinu Malkeinu prayer by Hazzan Azi Schwartz. Going to be the last one now. I’m going to answer questions now but for those who are not going to listen to them, let me wish you G'mar chatima tovah, that we all should be inscribed for a joyous, fulfilled and meaningful year. Let me turn now to the questions and comments which I will gladly deal with.

Q&A and Comments:

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for your compliment. Yesterday you mentioned the importance, says Ellis, of Moses and the golden calf and the plea to Ashrem. What I was talking about there, Ellis, was the fact that it was essentially the Midrash Rabbah, the Midrash which explicates on the text of the Torah. We do know that Yom Kippur is the day where Moses descended for the second time with a second set of tablets that the people of Israel had been pardoned for the sin of the golden calf. And I then had explained in great detail which I’m not going to go over again, the manner in which Moses persuaded God to break his own, God’s own vow and not destroy the Jewish people. That there is no mention of this. Of course there isn’t.

Oopsy. Sorry, I missed that. There’s no mention no, what we, what is mentioned of course and we know is why the 10th day of Tishri is Yom Kippur because we know that Moses descended the mountain that day. And what I was doing was explicating upon it from the Midrash which I had learned initially from a wonderful lecture given by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Susan, yes, it possibly was more of a family rift than between the two tenors, but they were brothers-in-law.

Harold, I’m not quite sure which version of version are you talking about the Kol Nidre? And yes, I think that’s wonderful. I think that aveny Kol Nidre that actually and maybe you’re talking about the Brook version any version of Kol Nidre is a wonderful, course a lovely version too which inspires you. That’s wonderful. It adds to spirituality. I’m happy to send the links to people so that they can get the recordings Debbie, so that people can hear them better.

Thank you very much to Avral and Gabby and Rochelle.

Yes, Rabbi Andrew Booktal. She’s fantastic. And I did want to play one or two more of her recordings and then got waylaid and I should have.

Q: How do you account, Linda says, for Leonard Cohen’s profound interest and knowledge of Judaism for him to turn to Buddhism?

A: I think he was he was always somebody who was looking for the spiritual whether it be in Christianity, Buddhism, or Judaism. But he never left this kind of commitment to Judaism. And you know not only is this wonderful one that I played for you which is the U'Netaneh Tokef , Who by Fire. But there’s also the wonderful poem which he sings about the Akedah, the actual sacrifice to Isaac. And if you’re interested in his Jewish connections if you Google Rabbi Jonathan Sachs and Leonard Cohen there’s a wonderful eulogy that Rabbi Sachs paid to Leonard Cohen which is on YouTube, I’m sure, in which he actually explains the way Leonard Cohen was so faithful to the text of the Akedah to the sacrifice of Isaac. Well well worth listening to.

Thank you Susan. Young Pierce came to South Africa as my parents remain very friendly with him until his death and his wife. This he might, I, yes, I think he did. I didn’t hear him, but I certainly remember going to the Garden Show and listening to Richard Takadu Kiddish. It was absolutely fantastic.

Again, Sheri, I agree with you about Cantor .

Thank you very much to Miriam Aubrey and thank you very much. I will, you know, it’s interesting, Aubrey I did look for Cantor Lichteman on YouTube, the Italian Talker. I couldn’t find it, but I’ll look again and I’ll show you we’ll do another presentation of Kazan Nuz and I will include it. Esther, yes, you are right that Barbara Streisand the sings Avinu Malkeinu beautifully. I played that last year. Funny enough, some people didn’t like it, I loved it. There’s a message here from 3 4 5 9 3 7 I dunno who you are, but you say I was lucky to see the Hallelujah forum yesterday and heard Leonard sing the entire Nidra Yamin prayer.

It’s a pleasure Lilly. Sorry Lilly, it’s a pleasure to have included the code. I wanted to show I mean the purpose of my inclusion there was to say these prayers are not just antiquated. If you take someone the creativity of Leonard Cohen they speak to our, our condition and us in our times and that it seems to be remarkable. Yes, there’s a very stirring version of about Al Johnson of Kol Nidre.

Mimi, thank you very much to Sarah, thank you very much to Mindy and thank you very much to Naomi.

Yes, Abigail the last piece was from Park Avenue, the incomparable Azi Schwartz. I think he’s just got a fantastic voice.

And thank you again Jennifer and Sharon and Tanya.

Sheila says I see is it Moishe Oysher on your list, Moishe Oysher recorded a very jazzy version of Yala. Moishe Oysher actually came to South Africa too and and there are lots of recordings that he’s, funny enough there was I trying to get you the best possible recordings and the ones that Moishe Oysher were not quite as good as I thought they might be but he’s well worth listening to because I think he was one of the first Hazzan who jazzed everything up in a quite dramatic and marvellous way and well worth listening to if you can get him.

Thank you very much Jules and Steven. It’s very kind of you and Mary and Mimi and all the others who, I really, thank you so much.

Makor says Isaac Alter’s music is available transcribed in Google. He was the most wonderful hazzan just for those of the you who dunno, Kenta Ulta at the Walman Street Shul. He was an absolute extraordinary he was always a great debate. He was the best hazzan in South Africa. He was always up there, one of the great Hazzan and yes, he has music on Google, which is absolutely fantastic.

And yes, there is a very beautiful, Marissa’s right U'Netaneh Tokef by the Israeli Arab Rosenberg, which I do know about and I had thought of playing but I kind of ran out of it. It’s interesting that Francine says synagogue in Montreal, which is fantastic.

Thank you very much Delinda and thank you Brian for giving me the link to Hazzan Lichterman. I want to say about Hazzan Lichterman, since a number of people raised him. He never had the kind of voice that Simka Kuchivisky had but I couldn’t think of a more musical hazzan in many ways. And there was no question for those of you who come from Capetown, that the combination of Cantor Lichterman and the choir was absolutely brilliant. I remember going a number of times there.

And thank you very much to Barbara and to all of you again, G'mar chatima tovah.