{"id":83381,"date":"2020-11-14T21:52:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T19:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=83381"},"modified":"2020-11-14T21:52:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T19:52:02","slug":"psalms-in-contemporary-jewish-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/psalms-in-contemporary-jewish-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Psalms in Contemporary Jewish Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"83381","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"611","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From the Temple to today - a rich vein of spiritual song\r\n","content":"

In most respects, our chapter is a typical psalm, with the author expressing gratitude to God for His help in overcoming Israel\u2019s enemies and expressing the fundamental concept that victory is His: \u201cIt was not by their sword that they took the land, their arm did not give them victory, but Your right hand, Your arm, and Your goodwill, for You favored them\u201d (4).<\/span><\/p>\n

The very next verse, articulating the same idea, was one of the first Hassidic songs I can recall hearing. The words are \u201cYou are my king, O God; decree victories for Jacob!\u201d (5) and the song is composed of its last three Hebrew words: <\/span>tzaveih yeshu`ot ya`akov<\/span><\/em>. You can <\/span>listen to Yosef Karduner sing it here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Towards the end of the chapter, however, the psalmist struck a note of caution, stating that \u201cIf we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god; Would not God search this out\u201d (22-23) and, consequently withdraw His assistance? In anticipation of such abandonment, which he likened to sleep, he prayed: \u201cAwake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arouse Thyself, cast not off forever\u201d (24). This, too, was <\/span>put to song (by Mordechai Ben David) <\/span><\/a>and became an anthem of the resistance to the Gaza disengagement of 2005.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the psalmist tried to \u201cguilt\u201d God into taking up Israel\u2019s cause by arguing that \u201cIt is for Your sake that we are slain all day long, that we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered\u201d (23). This thought, too, gave birth to a song <\/span>whose rendition, here, is accompanied <\/span><\/a>by the plaint: <\/span>shik shoyn mashi\u2019ach<\/span><\/em> (send the Messiah already).<\/span><\/p>\n

Talmudic sages and medieval exegetes, while sympathizing with this sentiment, were still troubled by the plain sense of \u201call day long.\u201d While Jewish history is laden with persecution and banishment, surely they do not occur daily? Their reply was that the verse refers to the daily fulfillment of the covenant of circumcision that despite its statistical improbability remains a constant threat to life.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Psalms in Contemporary Jewish Music","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"From the Temple to today - a rich vein of spiritual song","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xUDe08ZylDE","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83383,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83381\/revisions\/83383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}