In his classic anthem “Hallelujah,” singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen submitted, “Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord/that David played and it pleased the Lord.”
Or as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the late chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, once wrote, “When language aspires to the transcendent, and the soul longs to break free of the gravitational pull of the earth, it modulates into song.”
Music has long played a central role in Jewish life, from the long tradition of the Chazzanut and the niggunim of the Chasidim to the kibbutz folk singers of Israel’s founding days and the spirited sing-alongs of the Reform camping movement.
And then there’s the klezmer musical tradition and the Bendigamos, the Shabbat table songs of the Sephardim, as well as the ancient and contemporary melodies and prayers heard in synagogues.
In this vein, Pikesville’s Chizuk Amuno Congregation will present a seven-part series, “Spirit & Song,” on weekends from November to June featuring some of the nation’s leading lights in Jewish music.
Kicking off the series Nov. 10-12 will be Rabbi Josh Warshawsky, an internationally known Jewish musician, performer, song leader and composer. A native of Deerfield, Illinois, Rabbi Warshawsky serves as the rabbi-in-residence at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago and has released five albums. His melodies, which fuse traditional and contemporary musical styles, are sung in synagogues around the world, including Chizuk Amuno.
“Through prayer, through song and harmony, through spirituality, through ritual, through community, and through justice and fairness, the way is illuminated and becomes clear,” he wrote on his website.
On the weekend Dec. 1-3, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu will perform the traditional music of his Abayudaya community in eastern Uganda. In 2007, Rabbi Sizomu, grandson of community elder Rabbi Samson Mugombe, released the CD “Sing for Joy: Abayudaya Jews-Uganda.” On Saturday, Dec. 2, he will deliver the dvar Torah in Chizuk Amuno’s main sanctuary and lead a lunch-and learn session.
Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer will perform at the series on Dec. 15-17. She is a former rabbi/cantor at The Kitchen community in San Francisco and rabbi/co-music director at the Romemu congregation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Rabbi Meyer is also the rosh tefillah, or head of prayer, and artist-in-residence at Hebrew College in Boston. A former actress, she appeared in Roman Polanski’s acclaimed 2002 film “The Pianist” and the TV show “Scrubs.”
Reisterstown resident, author, poet, musician, yoga and meditation instructor, and hospice chaplain Rabbi Benjamin Shalva will appear at “Spirit & Song” on Jan. 22 and 29. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Rabbi Shalva is a seasoned spiritual leader, educator and song leader who leads the Shir Shabbat services at Chizuk Amuno. He also serves on the faculty of The Soul Center in Pikesville.
Performing on the weekend of Feb. 2-4 will be Dr. Eliezer B. Diamond, who is the Rabbi Judah Nadich Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is author of “Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture (Oxford University Press). Dr. Diamond will serve as Chizuk Amuno’s prayer leader that weekend and plans to bring his unique melodies to worship services.
On Feb. 23-24, multi-instrumentalist, composer, prayer leader, author and educator Joey Weisenberg will be featured at “Spirit & Song.” The founder and director of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute in New York, he is the author of “Building Singing Communities: A Practical Guide to Unlocking the of Music in Jewish Prayer” (Mechon Hadar) and “The Torah of Music” (Hadar Press). The latter is a treasury of Jewish teachings and insights that in 2017 received the National Jewish Book Award.
His most recent album, “L’eila,” was released last year by Rising Song Records.
Rounding out the series will be Weisenberg’s colleague at Rising Song Institute, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz, on the weekend of May 31 and June 2. An educator, composer and performer, Rabbi Mintz’s albums of original spiritual music include “The Narrow and the Expanse” and “Yetzira.”
The New York-born Rabbi Mintz earned degrees in music performance and religious anthropology from the University of Michigan. Before her ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, she worked in Jewish experiential education at the Neve Hannah Children’s Home in southern Israel, at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn and as the education director at New Orleans’ Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation.
For information about “Spirit & Song,” visit chizukamuno.org/chizukpresents.
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