AN ANTHOLOGY OF THOUGHT & EMOTION... Un'antologia di pensieri & emozioni
הידע של אלוהים לא יכול להיות מושגת על ידי המבקשים אותו, אבל רק אלה המבקשים יכול למצוא אותו

Sunday 8 October 2023

I STAND WITH ISRAEL.... ALWAYS!


I stand with Israel, and you should too!

The world cannot sit on the fence when terrorism
is killing innocent people
.

Israel, I love you!

Thursday 31 August 2023

MY MUSICAL MEMORIES...

Me, Kinkatso
Hey, I'm just an old hippie!
You know, peace and love...
I was born in the 1950s, when the rock 'n' roll movement was quickly coming to an end with the Day the Music Died (as explained in the song "American Pie"), the scandal of Jerry Lee Lewis' marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, and the induction of Elvis Presley into the United States Army. As the 1960s began, the major rock 'n' roll stars of the '50s such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the U.S. came to be dominated by girl groups, surf music, novelty pop songs, clean-cut teen idols, and Motown music. Another important change in music during the early 1960s was the American folk music revival which introduced Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, Odetta, Phil Ochs, and many other singer-songwriters to the public.

Girl groups and female singers, such as the Shirelles, Betty Everett, Little Eva, the Dixie Cups, the Ronettes, Martha and the Vandellas and the Supremes dominated the charts in the early 1960s. This style consisted typically of light pop themes about teenage romance and lifestyles, backed by vocal harmonies and a strong rhythm. Most girl groups were African-American, but white girl groups and singers, such as Lesley Gore, the Angels, and the Shangri-Las also emerged during this period.

Around the same time, record producer Phil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the Wall of Sound. This style emphasized higher budgets and more elaborate arrangements, and more melodramatic musical themes in place of a simple, light-hearted pop sound. Spector's innovations became integral to the growing sophistication of popular music from 1965 onward.

Also during the early 1960s, surf rock emerged, a rock subgenre that was centered in Southern California and based on beach and surfing themes, in addition to the usual songs about teenage romance and innocent fun. The Beach Boys quickly became the premier surf rock band and almost completely and single-handedly overshadowed the many lesser-known artists in the subgenre. Surf rock reached its peak in 1963–1965 before gradually being overtaken by bands influenced by the British Invasion and the counterculture movement.

The car song also emerged as a rock subgenre in the early 1960s, which focused on teenagers' fascination with car culture. The Beach Boys also dominated this subgenre, along with the duo Jan and Dean. Such notable songs include "Little Deuce Coupe", "409", and "Shut Down", all by the Beach Boys; Jan and Dean's "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "Drag City", Ronny and the Daytonas' "Little GTO", and many others. Like girl groups and surf rock, car songs also became overshadowed by the British Invasion and the counterculture movement.

The early 1960s also saw the golden age of another rock subgenre, the teen tragedy song, which focused on lost teen romance caused by sudden death, mainly in traffic accidents. Such songs included Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel", Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her", Jan and Dean's "Dead Man's Curve", the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack", and perhaps the subgenre's most popular, "Last Kiss" by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.

In the early 1960s, Britain became a hotbed of rock 'n' roll activity during this time. In late 1963, the Beatles embarked on their first US tour and cult singer Dusty Springfield released her first solo single. A few months later, rock 'n' roll founding father Chuck Berry emerged from a 2+1⁄2-year prison stint and resumed recording and touring. The stage was set for the spectacular revival of rock music.

In the UK, the Beatles played raucous rock 'n' roll – as well as doo wop, girl-group songs, show tunes – and wore leather jackets. Their manager Brian Epstein encouraged the group to wear suits. Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. Late in 1965, the Beatles released the album Rubber Soul which marked the beginning of their transition to a sophisticated power pop group with elaborate studio arrangements and production, and a year after that, they gave up touring entirely to focus only on albums. A host of imitators followed the Beatles in the so-called British Invasion, including groups like the Rolling Stones and the Kinks who would become legends in their own right.

As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to electric guitar that replaced Chuck Berry, previously seen as the gold standard of rock guitar. Rock artists began to take on serious themes and social commentary/protest instead of simplistic pop themes.

A major development in popular music during the mid-1960s was the movement away from singles and towards albums. Previously, popular music was based around the 45 single (or even earlier, the 78 single) and albums such as they existed were little more than a hit single or two backed with filler tracks, instrumentals, and covers. The development of the AOR (album-oriented rock) format was complicated and involved several concurrent events such as Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, the introduction by Bob Dylan of "serious" lyrics to rock music, and the Beatles' new studio-based approach. In any case, after 1965 the vinyl LP had definitively taken over as the primary format for all popular music styles.

Blues also continued to develop strongly during the '60s, but after 1965, it increasingly shifted to the young white rock audience and away from its traditional black audience, which moved on to other styles such as soul and funk.

Jazz music and pop standards during the first half of the 1960s was largely a continuation of 1950s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such as John Coltrane and Nat King Cole precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late 1960s largely spelled the end of jazz and standards as mainstream forms of music, after they had dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.

Country music gained popularity on the West Coast, due in large part to the Bakersfield sound, led by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Female country artists were also becoming more mainstream (in a genre dominated by men in previous decades), with such acts as Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette.

Already heralded by Colin MacInnes' 1959 novel Absolute Beginners which captured London's emerging youth culture,[10] Swinging London was underway by the mid-1960s and included music by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, Small Faces, the Animals, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and other artists from what was known in the US as the "British Invasion".[11] Psychedelic rock from artists such as Pink Floyd, Cream, Procol Harum, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Traffic grew significantly in popularity.

Large venues, besides former music halls, included Hyde, Alexandra and Finsbury Parks, Clapham Common and the Empire Pool (which became Wembley Arena). This sort of music was heard in the United Kingdom on TV shows such as the BBC's Top of the Pops (where the Rolling Stones were the first band to perform with "I Wanna Be Your Man"), and ITV's Ready Steady Go! (which would feature Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1" as its theme tune), on commercial radio stations such as Radio Luxembourg, Radio Caroline and Radio London, and from 1967 on BBC Radio One.[12][13]

The Rolling Stones' 1966 album Aftermath has been cited by music scholars as a reflection of Swinging London. Ian MacDonald said, with the album the Stones were chronicling the phenomenon, while Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon called it "the soundtrack of Swinging London, a gift to hip young people".

During the early 1970s, popular music continued to be dominated by musicians who had achieved fame during the 1950s and the 1960s such as the Rolling Stones, The Who, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, and Eric Clapton. In addition, many newcomer rock groups such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin appeared. The Beatles disbanded in 1970, but each member of the band immediately released a highly successful solo album, and Paul McCartney especially would remain extremely popular throughout the decade. Singer-songwriters such as Elton John, James Taylor and Jackson Browne also came into vogue during the early 1970s.

So, to make a long story short, the Sixties and Seventies form the background of my musical predilections. Here is a selection of my preferences:

BILITIS, music soundtrack by Francis Lai

SAN FRANCISCO, by Scott McKenzie


WORDS, by the Bee Gees


HEY JUDE, by The Beatles

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND, by Bob Dylan

HURRICANE, by Bob Dylan

LIKE A ROLLING STONE, by Bob Dylan

SUZANNE, by Leonard Cohen

SURFIN' USA, by The Beach Boys

GOOD VIBRATIONS, by The Beach Boys

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN', by The Mamas & The Papas

MONDAY MONDAY, by The Mamas & The Papas

LE METEQUE, by Georges Moustaki

FOREVER AND EVER, by Demis Roussos

THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE, by Simon & Garfunkel

MRS. ROBINSON, by  Simon & Garfunkel


LOVE IS BLUE, by Paul Mauriat

LOVE STORY - One hour sound track for piano and
violin of the beautiful song by Francis Lai

JAMES BOND MEDLEY, performed by
the WDR Funkhausorchester

LOVE'S THEME, by Barry White

AQUARIUS, by The 5th Dimension

EVERYBODY'S TALKING, by Harry Nilsson

DELILAH, by Tom Jones

AFRICAN BEAT, by Bert Kaempfert

LARA'S THEME (Dr. Zhivago), by Maurice Jarre

ROCK YOUR BABY, by George McCrae

MY GIRL,  by The Temptations

C'ERA UNA VOLTA IL WEST, by Ennio Moricone

ADDIO A CHEYENNE, by Ennio Moricone

THE BEST OF ENNIO MORICONE
(Greatest Hits)

ACQUA AZZURRA, ACQUA CHIARA, by Lucio Battisti

SAMBA PA TI, by Carlos Santana

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN, The Animals


HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN, by Creedence Clearwater Revival

BAD MOON RISING
by Creedence Clearwater Revival

LONG COOL WOMAN IN A BLACK DRESS, by The Hollies

MY SWEET LORD, by George Harrison

NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN, by The Moody Blues

A WHITER SHADE OF PALE, by Procol Harum

HOTEL CALIFORNIA, by the Eagles

NO WOMAN, NO CRY, by Bob Marley


To be continued... (I'm open to suggestions, c'mon!)


Wednesday 30 August 2023

MUSIC AND PRAYER

A young Bob Dylan singing his songs

 Why Music is Fundamental to Jewish Prayer

Jewish tradition teaches that music unlocks the door to divine connection.

Music is the most immaterial and ephemeral of all the art forms. We can’t see music, we can’t grasp it in our hands, but we can feel it working through us and the world. As such, music represents our connection to the divine, to each other, to everything. Music is a wordless prayer that opens up our imaginations to the divine source of all life.

In the Hebrew numerological system known as Gematria, the numerical value of the words for prayer, tefillah, and song, shirah, are identical. From this we can see that music is a form of prayer, and prayer is a form of music. They are like two legs of the spiritual throne, mutually supporting each other. Indeed, the Talmud teaches us that music and prayer are virtually synonymous, declaring:

Where there is song, there is prayer Berakhot 6a

What is the source of this linkage? Is it possible that music can open our ears and our hearts so that we can better sense the nuance and subtleties of the world around us? If we open our mouths and sing our imperfect songs, can we connect with the divine songs of all creation? Can our prayer chants open the gates of heaven? Can our melodies unlock divine mysteries?

Jewish tradition suggests that it can. The prophets of ancient Israel surrounded themselves with music, using its power to help them enter an ecstatic mindset. In one story, the prophet Elisha wanted to hear the word of God, so he requested that a musician start to play. As soon as the musician played, Elisha’s prophetic abilities commenced: “And when the musician played, the hand of God was upon him.” II Kings 3:15

In another story, Saul, who had not yet become king, joined a roving band of prophets and musicians who were playing a harp, drum, and flute to help the prophets enter a state of expanded consciousness. I Samuel 10:5-6 These three instruments — harp, drum, and flute — represent the three paradigmatic elements of music: harmony, rhythm, and melody. Joining the parade of musicians, Saul found that this musical-prophetic experience allowed the spirit of God to rest upon him and allowed him to transform into an ish acher, a different person, to find an alternate reality of himself in which he became capable not only of prophesying, but ascending the throne of Israel.

Music, we might assume, must have opened up the prophets’ ears, enabling them to hear the divine voice speaking through them. Music, in this sense, worked like an elite reconnaissance unit sneaking through the prophets’ defensive bulwarks and barriers, or like a sweet-talking lover wooing his beloved. Music paved the way for the bestowal of the great gift of divine love, of the prophecies which we have at least partly retained in the words of the Torah and later poetry and writing.

Is it possible that music also can help us enter different realms and discover alternate realities in which we might pursue better versions of ourselves? Can music open us up to our own inspiration and prayers as it opened up the pathways of the prophets?

The 18th-century Hasidic master Nachman of Breslov offers that there might be something left that we can access from this source of prophecy. A sacred musician, he explains, is called a chazzan — a Hebrew word with the same root as the word hazon, meaning “vision,” and which is also the common modern term for a prayer leader. The chazzan, Rebbe Nachman tells us, “snatches the song from the place where prophets suckle.”

Melodies form a divine ladder that connects the earth with the heavens. In Hebrew, the word sulam means both “ladder” and “musical scale.” Perhaps the most famous story of a path to the heavens is the story of Jacob’s ladder, in which the patriarch dreams of a ladder on which angels are going up and down. Angels, according to the medieval authority Maimonides, had one essential function: singing.

Jacob’s ladder must then have been a kind of musical scale, with melodic angels rising and descending along with the prayers of mankind. When we sing, we hope to allow ourselves to experience a state of elevation, a taste of the heavens, a glimpse of the best versions of ourselves.

To be a musician then is to be an activist of the spirit. But the music doesn’t do this on its own. It requires us to react to the music, to open up, to change along with it. We must allow the sound of our singing to awaken us, to bring us to positive action, to let song help us to do our work in the world with sensitivity and grace.

Ultimately, melodies are just a bunch of notes—whether they’re fundamentally meaningless or transcendent depends entirely upon how we choose to listen, how we choose to direct our intentions, and whether we let ourselves join the song. Singing signals not an escape from life but an imaginative attempt to remind us what is yet possible. Music offers us rung after rung to climb to the heavens, where we hope to discover our best selves, so that we can then emulate that holiness in our regular lives. Let us find our melodies, and let us find our prayers, and let us bring the world to life.



This essay is adapted from “The Torah of Music: Reflections on a Tradition of Singing and Song” by Joey Weisenberg with translations by Joshua Schwartz. 

Click here to learn more.

Monday 28 August 2023

The Essence of Rosh Hashanah

 

Rosh Ha-Shanah is celebrated from the evening of Fri, 15 Sept 2023 to Sun, 17 Sept 2023

Rosh HaShanah (Hebrewרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָהRōʾš hašŠānā, literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (יוֹם תְּרוּעָהYōm Tərūʿā, lit. "day of shouting/blasting"). It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (יָמִים נוֹרָאִיםYāmīm Nōrāʾīm, "Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25,[1] that occur in the late summer/early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah begins a ten-day period of penitence culminating in Yom Kippur, as well as beginning the cycle of autumnal religious festivals running through Sukkot and ending in Shemini Atzeret.

Rosh Hashanah is a two-day observance and celebration that begins on the first day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. In contrast to the ecclesiastical lunar new year on the first day of the first month Nisan, the spring Passover month which marks Israel's exodus from Egypt, Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the civil year, according to the teachings of Judaism, and is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, as well as the initiation of humanity's role in God's world.

Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram's horn), as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to "raise a noise" on Yom Teruah. Its rabbinical customs include attending synagogue services and reciting special liturgy about teshuva, as well as enjoying festive meals. Eating symbolic foods, such as apples dipped in honey, hoping to evoke a sweet new year, is an ancient tradition recorded in the Talmud.

The Hebrew month of Elul, a spiritually super-charged time leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, has a surprising theme. The word “Elul” is an acronym for the phrase "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li – I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me" that comes from King Solomon’s Song of Songs (6:3).

 
To borrow from Tina Turner’s famous song, what’s love got to do with it?  Why does this phrase that articulates the deep longing between two lovers, which is a metaphor for the love between God and the Jewish People, serve as the core focus of preparing for Rosh Hashanah? 
 

What’s the Essence of Rosh Hashanah?
 

Rosh Hashanah transports you back to the very beginning of time when God, as CEO of the universe, was setting budgets and job descriptions for all of humanity. As a mutli-gazzilionaire, there is no limit to what this CEO can allocate. The only limit is His employees’ understanding of the company’s vision and the extent of their responsibility to implement the CEO’s bottom line.    
  

On Rosh Hashanah, you stand before God as CEO of the universe, making your case for the upcoming year. The previous year is over; your past performance is not relevant. Every person is starting a new chapter and everything is up for grabs. Now is the time to get clarity, articulate your dreams, and genuinely commit to make them happen.

The month of Elul is the crucial time period to recalibrate your goals and get ready to make your presentation to the Boss Himself.    

Two Obstacles
 

But embracing this challenge requires overcoming two sizable obstacles that you likely find yourself slamming into: apathy and discouragement.

 
If you don’t care about furthering God’s bottom line, why bother with all this introspection and chest-beating? You’re perfectly content to stay where you are, putting in your minimal effort to live a decent life and spending the rest of your time on social media and binge-watching, and whatever fix you need to comfortably pass away the time.  Apathy stops all growth in its tracks.

 
And if you do want to work on personal growth and take preparing for Rosh Hashanah seriously, there’s that voice that whispers in your ear: “Who are you kidding? How many times have you gone down this road, and look where you are? In the exact same spot, with the exact same issues. People don’t change. Admit it, you’re a failure and there is no reason to think this year will be any different.”
 

Discouragement saps your energy and cynically undermines your ability to change.

The phrase “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me" that typifies the essence of Elul is the life preserver you need to extract you from your debilitating apathy and discouragement. 
 

How so?
 

Love is the Pillar
 

Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, popularized the expression, “Love is a verb.” One of the Judaism’s commandments is “to love your neighbor” which most commentaries define as expressing love through action. It’s tricky to mandate an emotion; commanding action is far more doable.
 

Marriage is the commitment to shower your spouse with acts of love, no matter what mood you’re in and whether or not you’re feeling the love. Regardless of your feeling, love her – meaning put your love into action. Show affection, give compliments, go out on a date, be curious and listen, and most importantly care about the things your spouse cares about. As Rabbi Noach Orlowek, a well-known educator in Jerusalem, often says, “What’s important to you is important to me.”
 

Putting your love into action fosters feelings of love. What starts as a verb becomes an object.  And the distance you may have been feeling between you and your spouse dissipates as the intimacy is restored.
 

Now apply this with God. It’s okay if you’re not feeling the love. Love is a verb; just do it. Don’t wait for the sudden inspiration. Take a few quiet moments and ask yourself: what are the things that are important to God that I can work on making important to me? Give yourself some time to answer; you may be surprised to hear what your inner self says when you access it with honesty and vulnerability.
 

Then select one or two things that speak most to you and start implementing them, slowly but surely. These first steps loosen the shackles of apathy and help close the spiritual distance you may be feeling with God. But you need to make the first move, not God. That’s why the phrase begins, “I am for my beloved” – it’s starts with you taking the first step.
 

The Ultimate Cheerleader 
 

Love flows both ways. Once you take that first step in drawing closer to God, your efforts will be met with God’s welcoming embrace.  God’s love is a constant. Even the smallest step forward impacts the tenor of the relationship.
 

God reciprocates, as expressed in the second part of the phrase, “and my Beloved is for me.” This is essential to overcoming discouragement.
 

While you may have moments where you feel like throwing in the towel and give up on yourself, God sees what you’re really made of. As your Creator Who invested in you immeasurable potential for greatness that only you can achieve through your unique mission in life, God is rooting for you and wants you to succeed. Feel that love and allow it to empower you to take the next step forward in your journey.
 

Preparing for Rosh Hashanah should not be a heavy downer. It’s an auspicious, exciting time for clarity and closeness, grounded in positivity and love.
 

That’s why the essence of Elul is expressed through the phrase "I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me", underscoring the love that exemplifies this period.
 

Turns out that love has everything to do with it. Initiating small steps to strengthen your relationship with God will shake off your apathy and arouse a greater feeling of love and closeness. And this, in turn, will be reciprocated by God’s constant love, giving you the encouragement and confidence to plow forward, step by step, in fulfilling your life’s journey.   
 

Shabbat shalom, and feel free send me questions and comments.

Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith
Editor in Chief, Aish.com

Sunday 27 August 2023

MORE LOVE FROM DR. SAXLOVE...

 Two weeks ago I posted a comment on Dr.SaxLove's piece "Smooth Motown Jazz" on YouTube, thanking him for his great compilations. Here it is:
If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out" said Louis, and Mark's got it! Thanks, man.

...And here is the piece:
Love it!

...Now the next one would be this:


Enjoy!