Knees knocking - Merle Feld. A story about my mother, Lillian Lewis, may her memory be for a blessing: For most of her working life, my mother was a first grade teacher.
Once, when she was already in her late 50s, early 60s, she remarked to me at the end of August how nervous she was approaching the first day of school. And I thought, how could you be scared facing 6 year olds (I had no experience teaching anyone at this point in my life) but even more I thought - you've done this for years, how could you still be nervous? Reading my face, she went on, "When the September comes that I'm not nervous anymore, I'll know it's time to retire. " I learned so much from this - that respect for what you do and the people you serve is essential, that facing those people and the responsibility of serving them is scary, and if it's not, you'd better go do something else.
So if your knees knock contemplating the beginning of something new this fall, or contemplating the return to something old and familiar, I say, Good! MAKING ROOM FOR THE CONGREGATIONAL VOICE. Jewish Women's Archive. Jewish Rituals for Holidays. Advocating for the Growth and Diversity of the Jewish People. Www.clal.org. The Sanctuary of Melody. Elie Wiesel once said of Hasidic singing that it will "drive your soul out of yourself in order that it may rejoin its Source and become one with it in the heichel hanegina, the sanctuary of melody.
" As a musician, and especially as one who plays music in spiritual and other personal growth contexts, the "sanctuary of melody" has always intrigued me. What is the secret promise waiting for us in this hidden realm of music, the sacred sphere of sound? Is there a mystical message of melody that can transport the soul to places in consciousness that can never be approached through mere words? Beyond Religion with Rabbi Rami. Velveteen Rabbi.