The Evolution (Not Revolution) of Sacred Music and Prayer at Beth Am Israel of Penn Valley, PA.
Fifteen years ago, Rabbi David Ackerman (then just starting his tenure as Rabbi) and I, then starting my fourth year as Hazzan, put this question to forty or so congregants as part of a conversation we called, "Reimagining Shabbat":
"What Do You Want Your Prayer Service To Look Like, Sound Like, and Feel Like In Five Years?"
Facilitated by congregant Ilene Wasserman, this conversation among a group of self-identified stakeholders led to one resounding conclusion: BAI wants more music, in more places in their worship services. But adding a guitar here or a drum there were not the ends but rather the means to creating more deeply meaningful, alive and spiritually connected prayer experiences. In other words: It's about building community through prayer and music making. As Ilene would say to me in those early days when I had only a vague idea of what I was doing: "You are planting seeds, and over time, and if tended to properly we will be able to watch them grow'. Those were prescient words back then, and I wasn't sure through all of the many twists and turns how the seeds we planted might ever turn to become full-grown, lively, engaging and joyful prayer at Beth Am. I had the opportunity to present this work at the USCJ conference in Boston in December of 2019. About forty colleagues attend the session entitled, "Musical and Prayer Evolution (Not Revolution)". Clearly, there was curiosity (and some skepticism) about how this all works.
The key part of the presentation centered on our Music Prayer Lab that we (that is, myself and the many congregants who come once a month on Sunday Nights) create, now in its tenth year of existence. The MPL, which started as a one-off drum and prayer workshop, then grew into a drum circle and two years later morphed into the MPL, has over time become a transformational partnership between myself and the participants, between the MPL and the congregation, and perhaps most importantly, acts as a space to deepen one's own relationship with Music, Prayer, and the Divine. The Goals of the MPL:
Foster a spirit of prayerful and playful improvisation.
Invite deep listening to one’s self, each individual and the collective sound of the group.
Encourage people from the lab to come to participate in the formal services at Kabalat Shabbat and Shabbat morning (and other times-holidays, weekdays)
Build awareness to be present and 'in the moment'- a key to deep prayer- and to bring the lab experience into the formal prayer spaces and vice versa, with one informing the other.
I also spoke about our practice of an "Open Bimah", that basically states that anyone can come and join in leading our service at any time, with no preconditions or 'prescreening'. Its origins are in my days playing bars in Jerusalem. My bandmate, Eitan Brown and I would purposely have an extra guitar and mic ready to go, in case someone walked in the bar and wanted to jam with us. One night someone came in, jammed with us and joined our band. Many years later I adapted this for our worship service at Beth Am Israel. (I should add here that most of the people at the session looked visibly confused that this would be allowed at all, let alone work!)
This 'open bimah' was fraught with risks and was not always an easy practice. In the early years, there were many frustrating and confusing moments we needed to sort through: Navigating issues such as integrating amateur musicians and prayer leaders who were just learning their way, issues of quality control, volume, learning the music and prayer, communication, leadership and on and on. And: I was making this up as we went along, informed by my years leading groups, (in particular over seven summers leading Music Workshops at the Ziering Brandeis Collegiate Institute in Simi Valley) in my work creating improvisational music and songwriting, my brief stint as a Music Therapist, and well, just praying a lot!
Over time we worked out most of the kinks but not without returning again and again to this overarching principle: That everything we do is in the service (no pun intended) of the prayer. We are not there to perform, to offer a rehearsed and 'set' piece. This attitude hopefully emanates out to the entire congregation and invites each person into prayer, to own their own experience (as opposed to having it done for them) to be present to bring their full selves to the moment. As one of my teachers, Rabbi Shawn Zevit says, 'You are praying your instrument", your guitar, trumpet, mandolin, upright bass, banjo, drum, voice, even your presence are not merely extensions of one's prayer, they are one's prayer.
This extends to the way in which we welcome our kids and teens to grow into prayer leaders in their own right; to the way in which we've seen many of our adult congregants emerge as 'shliechei tzibbur', prayer leaders of our community, to creating new ways and places (like adding a Wednesday morning Musical Minyan) all to expand the way music informs how we offer prayer. One of our young adult members, Liv Freiwald, now 26 and living in Brooklyn, came to the session to share her experience of joining her older sister in leading Friday night while preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, emerging over several years as a dedicated, valued and beloved leader of Kabalat Shabbat and other worship services (including co-leading Kol Nidre for many years) and then over time sharing this space with her younger sister, Caroline. Caroline would continue leading Friday Night services for many years, as well as returning with her sister Liv to lead High Holiday services, many years after leaving the area.
While some of this is sheer serendipity, this core principle remains true: Beth Am Israel is committed to fostering openness and willingness to explore the unknown, to take risks and learn from mistakes, continually coming back to the idea of putting the prayer first. All of this work takes time, a lot of time. Years. It takes, first and foremost a commitment to doing it on a regular, consistent basis. It has to be every week, not once a month, not only in the summer, not on ‘special occsasions.’ It has to be WHAT WE DO. It also takes time: time to bump up against resistance, to build consensus, to try, fail, try, experiment, grow, learn, develop, cultivate relationships, fail, try, succeed, repeat. It takes patience, persistence, and most importantly, partnership. Partnership (and trust) between clergy, between clergy and leadership, between congregants, between everyone. This is the special ingredient that makes all of this work and which led us, now fifteen years in, to where we are now. This collaboration reverberates through every part of our Tefilah experience: formal, informal, Shabbat, weekday, Holiday, High Holiday. I am grateful for the support and encouragement of our Rabbi and co-pilot, Rabbi David Ackerman, for every congregant who steps into this work with vulnerability, courage, and faith, and for everyone who embraces this somewhat radical approach to community prayer and which (hopefully) makes our Tefilah joyful, relevant, meaningful and alive.