Notes from Cantor Avima

There are many indicators that Rosh Hashanah is approaching. A slight nip in the air, the changing angle of the sun and cooler nights alert me that we are nearing closer to the High Holidays. But, there is nothing like that moment when I walk into the familiar sanctuary and see not our regular set up, but our expanded space open to the back of the social hall, filled by chairs set up in neat rows waiting to be occupied by a swelling congregation. It is that moment, usually the day before Rosh Hashanah that I know that Rosh Hashanah is only hours away. And, in that quiet moment, I can already hear the beginning notes, in a major mode... that little melodic theme of the High Holiday evening service. As I walk into that empty sanctuary awaiting souls, I hear the melody that has heralded every High Holiday season in Ashkenazic synagogues for centuries. 

Rosh Hashanah Evening - Bar'chu -Cantor Marc Berman

In the following teaching video, you can hear the well known melody very clearly, notice the long melody "niggun" that precedes the actual words of Bar'chu:   Joey Weisenberg Iconic Nusach for Rosh Hashanah

These melodic motifs are repeated throughout the High Holiday evening services. You can hear how the motifs are used in the following video which demonstrates many excerpts from the evening service: The congregation is expected to join in for all those wordless passages. High Holiday Evening service motifs - excerpts

I have to admit that every year it seems that fewer congregants come to the evening services, but maybe you  will listen to these videos and be drawn to come to our sanctuary and hear the melodies in our own sanctuary sung by our own voices. It can be magical. You might even feel yourself transported to all kinds of spiritual recesses in your mind.

See you Monday evening, September 22 at 7:15!