This Friday's Kabbalat Shabbat service was as electric as any I have experienced as a member of the congregation. I felt the energy of being up front, of leading, while sitting with everyone else, as if a spark ignited with the rabbis and cantor and spread outwards into the brush of bodies. I kept my eyes closed for most of the service but could almost see the illumination of our sounds through my eyelids. I think, after a week of mourning, we all made an unspoken, unanimous decision to re-join our souls to the world--and what a wedding it was, joy meeting sadness and whirling her away.
If you mix enough emotions together and simmer over music, they will eventually boil like a frenetic stew. Sometimes I think I could live on this nourishment alone: the vitamins of Shabbat, better than any earthly feast.
3 comments:
Your description of the energy of emotions and music reminded me of my son's wedding 16 months ago during the Lebanese war. A friend described it on his blog much better that I could: http://outofstepjew.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_outofstepjew_archive.html#115519840916366190
Sorry, the link wasn't copied correctly. Here it is as a TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/2sdu2z
Thank you for this link--what an intense and beautiful experience that must have been (and, mazal tov!). It is strange how feelings of joy and sorrow can get energy from each other.
(I will be back writing soon; like the rest of NYC, my brain has decided to take a vacation this week.)
--aa.
Post a Comment