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Dvar Torah Musical bkmrk: Yom Kippur: flamenco Avinu Malkeinu [1]
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Date: 2022-10-05
KOSMOS Ensemble joined by dancer Natalia Garcia-Huidobro, and Ulises Diaz ~ Sephardic melody, Passion, Grace & Fire. The musically thematic resemblance to one of the traditional melodies of Avinu Malkeinu —a Jewish prayer dating back centuries, recited/sung during services of the Ten Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur in Sephardic and Western Ashkenazic custom— is enhanced by Garcia-Huidobro’s repeated motion of hand drumming heart,…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAQhYN6lnKg
From JTA (edited for length)
On this most physically demanding of Jewish days, by tradition we thump at the heart during the Vidui — the confessional portion of the service composed of the Ashamnu and Al Chait. Some imagine it’s some kind of Jewish self-flagellation. In fact, it’s a physical motion and sensory experience that give us live connection between spirituality and physicality: between the reality of feeling, thought and action connected.
To Rabbi Goldie Milgram — master’s degrees in social work and Hebrew letters, founder of Reclaiming Judaism, an organization seeking Jewish innovation and “maximal involvement,” and author and publisher of a number of books on creating a meaningful Jewish life — this act is acknowledgment that “I am out of alignment.” No one is perfect, and life is full of hard challenges. At Yom Kippur, we make space for facing when we fall short.
To Milgram, tapping at the heart is drumming —drumbeat and heartbeat— even dancing one’s prayer that virtually anyone and everyone can do. Or tracing slowly over the heart, a continuous motion. “The body is the instrument” to speak, hear and listen to both head and heart. for reaching the personally applicable “we have sinned...”.
Why not tapping one’s head, to connect with thought that may have prompted actions misaligned from commitment? Reb Goldie reminds us that in Judaism, the heart is the seat of commitment, our awareness of ‘ahavat Hashem’ [love of God] starts there. The head as center is a Western concept, detached from heart.
It may help to remember aspects of body, family and Judaism where we would like to be more in alignment with the mitzvot. She points out that drumming the heart in this moment is not enough: we need to forgive ourselves, and we have to engage afterwards on these things.
“Tapping on your chest, the door of your heart flies open…. That’s the beginning of teshuvah,” the Jewish concept of returning, of asking and giving forgiveness, of determination to make amends, all combined, that resonates throughout the Yom Kippur liturgy.
The Viddui, she said, is written in the ” ‘we.’ We take responsibility.”
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