The Dorothy and Peter Brown
Jewish Community Adult Day Program

Rosh Hashanah

2nd annual award-winning

Dementia Friendly Kol Nidre/
Yom Kippur Service

Join us for an intimate, abbreviated
Yom Kippur service for families and
their loved ones touched by dementia.
A luncheon will follow the service.

Sunday, September 16
11:00 a.m.

Set The Tone

Fleishman Residence | Blumberg Plaza

Use music to prepare for
the High Holidays.

6710 W. Maple Rd. | West Bloomfield, MI 48322

SCAN PAGE TO HEAR
CANTOR NAJMAN'S
KOL NIDRE

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

To register or for more info, call (248) 661-6390.

Individuals are encouraged to pre-register by September 12
with the understanding that last-minute challenges may
prevent them from attending. There is no fee to attend.

2018 5779

34

September 6 • 2018

jn

R

osh Hashanah is coming soon,
and you might not yet have
entered the space of the Days of
Awe. How can you into that reflective
mood?
Thanks to the internet, you can
hear the melodies of the Days of Awe
in advance. Check out these rendi-
tions:
• Rabbi David Polsky of Southfield
recommends links to Chasidic music
on Youtube, including bit.ly/2N2EwTE
and bit.ly/2BV7Uqw. For more mate-
rial, he recommends: Piyyut.org.il.
• Musician Laurie Mangold of
Louden County, Va., is a singer-
songwriter, guitarist and flutist who
performs as Laurie Blue on the inter-
net and at breweries, bars, community
events, private parties and kindergar-
tens. She also teaches Hebrew school
at Congregation Sha’are Shalom in
Leesburg, Va.
“I start singing pretty much any-
thing, randomly, around the house,
with the soaring High Holiday ma’ariv
nusach [evening service liturgy].
Hubby Jeff can confirm this. So, what
I’m listening to is myself, and it’s not
very good … but the melody moves
me.”
Mangold also seeks out other sorts
of Jewish music online, including the
Maccabeats: bit.ly/2Nqy31Q.
• Ezra Lubelsky, originally from
Antwerp, Belgium, now leads services
in Switzerland. You can hear his mov-
ing version of traditional Ashkenazic
prayer service liturgy at www.
nusachtefillah.com. Listening to these
files will certainly awaken memories.
• Former Detroiter Dina Najman
serves as rosh kehillah (religious
leader) and marta de’atra (author-
ity in Jewish law) of the Kehillah in
Manhattan, N.Y. She prepares for the
Days of Awe by listening to a special
tape of the music of her father, Hazan
Chaim Najman. Several of her rabbin-
ic colleagues also listen to this music
each year. Najman feels reluctant to

tout the work of her father, a humble
man, “but,” she says, “the richness and
the depth he brings to the tefillah has
never been matched, in my experi-
ence.”
Though the tape is not avail-
able, the cantor’s Kol Nidre and Yud
Gimmel Middot are online. (See
Blippar app instructions above.)

HOW TO MAKE IT FRESH?
Another way to get a charge out of the
same liturgy that we recite year after
year: Listen to it in a different accent
and a different musical mode. If you
are used to a classical Ashkenazic
liturgy, try hearing Shoham-Simchi
present the prayers in a Yemenite ser-
vice that is heartfelt and moving.
Find this on YouTube at https://
bit.ly/2PM4n0C or https://bit.
ly/2okT4QB.
Or you might hear the peniten-
tial prayers (Selichot) as recited
at Congregation Petah Tikvah in
Montreal, in the liturgy of the people
of Castille: https://1-tube.ru/watch/
ERbLFPg_9XI.
Or listen to the music that moves
your soul, even if it seems unrelated to
Judaism. Chana Finman, who teaches
art at Jewish Ferndale, said, “I find
that I contemplate the universe with
Bach. The meandering voice of a vio-
lin, intricate patterns of counter melo-
dy and fugue pull my heart and mind
to feel awe in the magic of living.”
• Tova Schreiber of Oak Park, pro-
gramming and engagement coordi-
nator for Congregation Beth Ahm
in West Bloomfield and Motor City
USY adviser, said, “One of the things
I enjoy most about the High Holidays
is the distinctiveness of the davening.
Those somber, old-school melodies
seem holy to me precisely because I
don’t hear them the rest of the year.
They have a rareness to them that
sends a chill up my spine. To preserve
that awesome effect, I make an effort
not to listen to them in advance.” •