Sometimes it is right to be quiet. And sometimes it’s great to be loud and proud. We do this in the Shema. We begin proudly together ‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad.’ (Hear O Israel the Eternal One is our God the Eternal God is One’ Then every day apart from Yom Kippur we quieten to say ‘ Baruch Shem Cavod malchuto l’olam va’ed’’, ‘Blessed be God’s glorious name whose reign lasts forever and ever’.
According to Midrash (Deuteronomy Rabbah 2:35) the origin for this custom is in today’s Torah portion – when Jacob summons his children to bless each of them in his last days (Genesis 49:2), he asks them ‘When I am gone will you go and worship idols and abandon what I have taught you?’ They answer together (using Jacob’s alternative name): ‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad.’ (Hear O Israel the Eternal One is our God the Eternal God is One’, and so mustering his last breaths quietly Jacob exclaims ‘ Baruch Shem Cavod malchuto l’olam va’ed’’, ‘Blessed be God’s glorious name whose reign lasts forever and ever’. There is a time for the quiet and meditative.
Music at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue can range from the beautiful multi-layered four part harmonies of our choir on Shabbat and Festivals to the simple one line tunes that we sing with the toddlers at Shabbat Stay and Play. One of the favourites, which I got to sing yesterday, was this one ‘The Doors on the Ark’. Now one line of that song has always disturbed me – ‘The people in the shul sing nice and loud – all day long.’ My problem with is not that we should not sing loudly, but that we should do so all the time.
Where is the space for the sotto voce, the pianissimo, the meditative, the Baruch Shem Cavod? So when I lead this songwe have changed the words to ‘the people in the shul sing beautifully – all day long.’ And with Cantor Tamara to lead us there is every chance that we will.
The music of a Jewish community can be simple, it can be sophisticated, sublime and beautiful, rhythmic and moving, it can be special to one generation or to all. In Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller’s characterisation it can be music of majesty, stirring the soul to the grandeur of our tradition, of meeting, saying to us that we are together at a special time, of memory, reminding us of music that has been with us for generations, of meditation when we can close our eyes and sing softly or listen as our souls are bathed in sound. It is a blessing to us all and it is a blessing that we can all make real with the help of our Cantor.
Now you may know that Cantor Tamara’s experience since she entered the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music of the Hebrew Union College has been deep and broad. She has led congregations in much more than their musical life, just as she has for the past year here at EHRS. On gaining Semichah from HUC she became Cantor and spiritual leader of both Kehillah North London and the Ark Synagogue in Northwood. In mid-2020, just as the Covid pandemic changed everything, she became Cantor at Altyh Synagogue having to cope, just as Rabbi Debbie did here, with meeting her new congregation almost exclusively online for the best part of a year. Cantor Tamara joined us at EHRS in January 2024, leading music as well as all of the other aspects of being part of our clergy team, teaching, preaching, caring and accompanying our members through the life cycle.
Over that year we have come to know and love her as our colleague, cantor, teacher and friend. And we have the wonderful added bonus of getting to know Rabbi Anna, her wife, and Jonah their terrific son, and today can again welcome her parents Bruce and Ellen and her grandma Elaine who joins us whneever she can, online from Nashville, Tennesee. Tamara makes a difference in the whole Progressive Jewish world, teaching at the Shirei Chaggigah music conference and at Leo Beack College together with being part of the Executive of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis and Cantors.
Cantor Tamara told me that she was herself drawn into Jewish music and the beauty of our tradition by her Synagogue’s Cantor in White Plains New York. That of course is the essence of a Cantor – to get a Synagogue singing and bring the love and creativity of Jewish music to all our generations, just as Jacob in the Midrash and in our portion was dedicated to passing on his heritage through his children and grandchildren. Le’dor Va’dor – the name of the Synagogue which you lead Tamara.
Now your own Hebrew name Tamarah is Tovah Chayah – and you can’t get much better than that – it means good and life affirming – so may the people in this shul sing good and life affirming music for very many happy years to come under your leadership.
