Why Does Judaism Value Music?

At this Sunday’s Ryterband Lecture Series, we will be joined by Cantor Yvon Shore, Director of Liturgical Arts and Music at HUC in Cincinnati, which brings back memories of my time on campus with her.  Through Cantor Shore’s role, she oversaw all services held in HUC’s Chapel.  Students led multiple services a year, and at our initial planning meeting Cantor Shore would open with, “So where are you and God right now?”  She used our answers to help craft a theme for the service, including the musical selections.   

Now, as you likely know, musicality is not my strongest suit; my comfort zone usually involves digging into the depths of meaning of Jewish texts.  I prefer leaving the musical exploration to Courtney and our guest musicians and soloists, which I think your ears appreciate as well.  Today, I delve into the music world of Judaism just a bit. 

In the description of her lecture, Cantor Shore asks the question, “Why does Judaism value music?”  I’ll leave the fuller answer for her to give – but suffice to say for right now that our connection to music is as strong as our connection to text.   

As students begin the B’nei Mitzvah tutoring process, I give them a cliff-notes version of how our Torah came to be chanted the way it is.  The Torah scroll itself does not contain vowels, musical notations, or punctuation, so to be rendered accurately different methods over time developed to chant the text, since musical phrases are easier for us to remember.  I ask our students which would be easier – to recite or sing the chorus of a familiar song, or a paragraph of a familiar book – most choose the song.  Torah cantillation involves repeated musical motifs, tropes, that aid not just in rendering the Hebrew accurately with vowels, but essentially supply the accent marks, the punctuation, and at times meaning as well.  Some of the “rarer” trope marks highlight specific parts of the text.  The flourishes a person puts, adds their own layer to the text as well.   

Those tropes can be rendered in slightly different ways depending on where we are in Jewish time: Shabbat, versus holidays, for example and is further nuanced by what musical versions (nusach in Hebrew) of the prayers we use.  Someone with a good grasp of that nusach could hear a recording of a service and identify the general time, day, and/or holiday based on the sounds alone. 

The Reform movement generally does not heed by the traditional nusach as much – though you will hear it in prayers like the Amidah and Chatzi Kaddish.  We layer the service with musical pieces that proverbially date back to Sinai, to just yesterday, and in between.  Much like an individual putting their own voice into the ancient Torah tropes, each service, the services leaders put a bit of ourselves, through the voices of Jewish artists past and present, to answer the question of where we are with God right now and where we are with ourselves right now. 

So, my short answer to Cantor Shore’s question of Judaism’s value of music is, that we value music as a means of telling our stories, spilling our souls before God, and connecting to each other in the room, and to our ancestors of the past.  Don’t let that answer suffice for you though – come hear for yourself, come to services and experience the layers of music, and perhaps consider, where are you and God right now?  What do you need spiritually?