Had a good cry today

Velvel Pasternak (head honcho at JewishMusic.com) sent me a 3 cd set of some of the great master Cantors of the golden era of Hazzanut, and I was listening in the  car. At first, I was overcome with joy, hearing these brilliant artists do their thing—even yelling out in sport metaphors like: “Bring it Yosseleh!” or a simple, yet satisfying, “Yes!” Soon I got to the titanic voiced Gerson Sirota singing R’tzei, and somewhere in the middle, I had a vision of him being burned in the Warsaw Ghetto on Volinski Street #6, together with his family during the uprising.

So I cried.

I cried for him, but mostly I cried for me… for us… for loss… for lack of understanding… how is it that a people will go to such great lengths to show pride in their yiddishkeit, purchasing the most beautiful etrog, the finest Challah Deckle, the most ornate Torah Crowns, contribute gladly to multi-million dollar campaigns to build the most beautiful Shuls, insist that their Rabbi address them in the most stimulating manner… but when it comes to singing our magnificent, awe inspiring liturgy, we do so on the musical level of Sesame Street.

How is it that the People of the Book, the nation of Nobel Laureates, will insist on the concept of “Hiddur Mitzvah” for everything except music? Wonderful nursery rhymes were composed in the nineteenth century. Why weren’t those Jews eager to pray to baby tunes? Does Beit Hillel not say: Ma’alin bakodesh v’ein moridin (You must increase holiness, not decrease it)? Do you need to go to school for five years to take pre-existing tunes, from non-sacred idioms, and shove them into the liturgy whether they fit or not, so we can be part of a trend?

There is an elephant in the room. Can we please, at least, talk about it?