Five women cantors celebrate Shabbat

SAN DIEGO — Thank G-D for music. The miracle of splitting of the Red Sea is done to the sound of music, as the Hebrews are all in song, following the lead of Miriam in Shirat Hayam–the Song of the Sea. The fall of the walls of Jericho is done to the sound of trumpet. David plays the lyre. The entirety of the Psalms–Tehillim–are under the direction of a choirmaster/conductor.

During the Omer, my favorite time of year, music is halted, and then resumed after the 33rd of the Omer. We are almost there, Lag Ba’Omer falling on May 12th this year. Purim was here not too long ago. For several years I played in the Temple Emanu-El Honorable Menschen Klezmer band, and Purim was our time to shine and make merry. More recently I have played in the Tifereth Israel Kol Tfillah band at Kabbalat Shabbat, about once a month. At Chabad of College Area I would hear Rabbi Chalom Boudjnah carry his tunes for Shabbat (a kosher and Halachic activity, carrying a tune on Shabbat is allowed and encouraged). I miss music on Shabbat. I kinda miss participatory music-making at the shul. Yesterday’s Kabbalat Shabbat, sponsored by San Diego Outreach Synagogue, was a welcome respite from having to hear my voice for the sixth Shabbat in a row.

Yesterday’s Kabbalat Shabbat was bluesy, informative, and the connection to the Emor Torah portion was timely and poignant–we are still people of the book, virus or not. The evening, a celebration of women composers of Jewish music led by five women cantors, was hosted by Cantor Cheri Weiss.

Beginning the Kabbalat Shabbat service was cantor Bryce Megdal, singing Hine Ma Tov (How Good/Pleasant It Is) composed by Elana Arian. The entire song of Hine Ma Tov as performed by cantor Bryce Megdal, with a communal call and response by Kabbalat Shabbat participants, can be found via this link.

Cantors Weiss and Rebekah Mirsky were anchoring the evening’s musical celebration. Weiss, a cantor and a spiritual leader, is musical director of San Diego Jewish Community Choir, and she is a current rabbinical student at AJRCA. Cantor Weiss leads the San Diego Outreach Synagogue.

Cantor Rebekah Mirsky, is the founding cantor of Beit T’shuvah, a synagogue and a residential recovery facility, and a sought after B’nai Mitzvah tutor. Cantor Mirsky wants the prayer service to be fun, meaningful, and rewarding, and her newest album, The In Between, can be heard by via this link.

Cantorial soloist Jackie Rafii, an entertainment lawyer about to complete her cantorial studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion California with a Masters in Sacred Jewish Music, has a beautiful rendition on YouTube of Tsur Mishelo to music composed by cantor Sarraf of Shiraz, Iran. The music is haunting, as there is a terse melodic contour that is expertly woven, and the sparse musical accompaniment complements cantor Raffi, underscoring her virtuosic vocals. The 2016 live performance with an oud player, a percussionist and a violinist at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles can be viewed in the video above or via this link.

Another cantorial soloist, Alyssa Rosenbaum, a 6th grade teacher of trope and religious studies at Sinai Temple Religious School, rounded off the Celebrating Women Composers program. Rosenbaum is to become an ordained cantor in May 2021, completing her Masters Degree in Jewish Sacred Music at the Academy for Jewish Religion California.

As we are in a period right before the arrival of Shavuot, it is perhaps more palpable to imagine the psychological space of the Jewish people as they were about to enter into a covenant, replete with new orders, tenets, and commandments, similar to the way everyone in quarantine is as far removed from business as usual as is possible.

In ancient times Lag Ba’Omer marked the end of a plague for our Jewish ancestors, and may the 33rd of the Omer bring about the end of our current plague. Amen.

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Omer Zalmonowitz is a writer, musician, and teacher living in Southern California. An enthusiast of all things woodsy and montane.  He says his greatest achievement to date is having fallen in love with the world over and over again.