Sunday, December 18, 2022/24 Kislev 5783
To my Friends at Shabbat with Friends, I am on my way to New York City to celebrate Hanukkah with the Rising Song Institutes’ Singing Intensive organized by Joey Weisenberg. Many of you heard Joey during his visit to New Mexico in August. As you witnessed, Joey is a charismatic and multi-talented musician. More important he is a revered teacher and mentor for musicians, people who love to sing, and anyone with an appreciation of Jewish music. I discovered Joey almost seven years ago and attended my first Singing Intensive which he holds in NYC every year. Experiencing the Intensive changed my life. Singing four days with 150 fully engaged people from all corners of Jewish life is quite amazing and incomparable. Joey’s gathering attracts folks from across the States and in Jewish communities all over the world. Because of the respect that other gifted Jewish musicians have for him, he can bring together outstanding artists to teach and share their music over four days of workshops on Jewish song, Niggun, and music from Sephardic, Oriental, Israeli, and American masters. I try to go every year for inspiration, renewal, and new songs that I share with all of you, my community. I have never been disappointed. This year will be special for it is the first time over the six times I have attended that the four days fall over Hanukkah. Hanukkah is an unusual minor festival since we sing the Hallel in weekday morning services (Thanksgiving psalms 113-118), usually a cherished liturgy of the major festivals. The Hallel is a repository of Jewish musical creativity over the generations. I am looking forward to adding to my knowledge of the beautiful music of the Hallel. Pesah is the festival most deeply connected to the Hallel, so what I sing and learn next week I will bring back to New Mexico to enhance your Sedarim and celebrations of that great and beautiful “Hag”. Even if you can’t go to the Intensive, you can enjoy its fruits by checking out these online resources which the Rising Song Institute makes accessible online. Check out Joey’s online master classes HERE. Or listen to the music of talented artists that Joey highlights at the Intensive, HERE. If you want a special treat, listen to his Joey’s band, the Hadar Ensemble which has inspired our own Oneg Shabbos Ensemble. Learn more HERE. In whatever way you celebrate, may you have an illuminating, hopeful, and inspirational Hanukkah. Hag Urim Same’ach, May you have a joyful festival of lights, Rabbi Dov Gartenberg
0 Comments
Shabbat with Friends NM is introducing our inaugural fall programs. This post gives me an opportunity to explain the place of the Fall Jewish festivals in Shabbat with Friends NM (SWF). We intentionally are not offering Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah services. Many of those who participate in SWF are active members of local synagogues which offer comprehensive services of these festivals. We encourage affiliated and non-affiliated SWF participants to attend a synagogue for these festivals.
I founded Shabbat with Friends to focus on enhancing the experience of the Jewish Sabbath, specifically on convening Shabbat gatherings in homes. These Shabbat gatherings are not formal worship services. Rather they are organized to bring people together around meals, singing, and Torah study. They are meant to revitalize the spiritual and social Shabbat traditions such as table singing, informal Torah study, enlivening conversation. These gatherings also aim to foster relationships, friendships, and fellowship among participants. In future posts I will write about the unique attributes of Shabbat with Friends NM as a Jewish organization and why it is important for similar types of organizations to emerge in Jewish communities. I will also address the role of the rabbi as a critical element of what Shabbat with Friends is attempting to accomplish. I hope these writings will engender a vigorous and thoughtful conversation in the New Mexico Jewish community. Shanah Tovah U’metokah- May you have a sweet new year, Rabbi Dov Gartenberg ![]() I was enthralled by Joey Weisenberg’s visit to New Mexico. And those who had the fortune to attend either the concert gathering on 8/28 in Albuquerque or the Workshop on 8/29 in Santa Fe were clearly moved by his gift of gathering people close to sing the songs of the Jewish people. Joey Weisenberg has been my teacher for seven years. Every time I sit with him in a circle of people, whether it is 5 people or 100 people, I am transported to another place. I also watch what he does as a teacher to become a better teacher. I am never disappointed. Let me share what I learned this time. Singing is a powerful way to build community. Joey composes new songs and restores old Jewish songs. That is only one aspect of his genius. The other thing he does is to birth a song and enable the people gathered to make it their own both as individuals and as a group. At the workshop the 45 or so people there learned a simple nigun from him. We spent two hours (I lost sense of the time.) experiencing and learning how a song takes hold with people as it took hold with us. Proximity matters. Joey reminded me that to experience the spiritual power of singing, we need to be physically close to each other. We must sacrifice a need for physical space to be able to recover the intimacy of group singing. The metaphor Joey used to describe this was memorable. If you start a campfire, if you place the kindling and the logs too far apart, the match may ignite the fire, but it will burn out quickly. But to light the fire and to extend and grow the fire, you need to stack the kindling and the logs. We must be willing to stack ourselves together to feel the power of song to unite us. Joey also demonstrated how this applies to prayer in synagogue settings when we sit far apart from people. Prayer and song are closely related in Jewish prayer, but often, our collective prayers are distant echoes. Judaism is a culture and religion of empowerment. While there is a great variety of Jewish expression, Joey demonstrated what it means to create a space where everyone’s voice is critical. While there is a role for classical, organized music and song, it is possible to foster an environment where everyone is invited and empowered to sing regardless of the quality of their voices. The role of the leader is not to be a soloist or an expert, or a performer. The leader’s purpose is to engender participation and a help people gathered to rediscover the feeling of community. When Joey talks about building singing communities, he is demonstrating how to build communities that honor the dignity to each member of the community. He is much more than a performer; he convenes people to sing and lets the unfolding song build connections and relationships with everyone in the circle. It is a tribute to Joey Weisenberg that 4 days after he left town, I am still having multiple conversations with others about the magical feeling of his appearances. For those who attended, please share with me what you learned and experienced. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Dov Gartenberg Please contact me if you are interested in working with a team to follow up Joey’s visit to foster more singing in our community and utilizing his online learning resources to build our knowledge of Jewish music. dov@shabbatwithfriends.org. Reserve Tickets for Joey Weisenberg in New Mexico Appearances![]() Joey Weisenberg in New Mexico, Artist in Residence |
Rabbi Dov GartenbergRabbi Dov is the founder of Shabbat with Friends NM. He became a rabbi at 29 after schooling at UC Berkely, Harvard, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He has maintained a blog for over twenty years, giving commentary on a wide range of themes, concerns, and passions. Archives
December 2022
Categories |