Liturgy/Hazzanut

Courses in the historical development and theology of liturgy; the structure of the siddur; exposure to the multiple versions of prayers in different Jewish communities; the “style of Renewal davvenen’.

Classical Ashkenazi Nusach

Two-year core curriculum in the classical Ashkenazi-Lithuanian tradition including a semest in each of: Shabbat Nusach, Rosh Ha’Shanna, Yom Kippur, Shlosh Regalim. The entire liturgical year is covered, including life cycle. The pedagogy is focused on mastery of Nusach as an improvisational medium. Study sources: an extensive collection of sheet music developed by Hazzan Kessler, based on the work of earlier authorities, particularly Max Wohlberg. Printed music includes sections of scalar and motivic analysis along with samples, e.g. multiple settings of texts. Classes include coaching of talmidim as they develop their own style and improvisational skills.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required

Entering Deeply into the Shema: Teachings and Practices

The Shema: Often the first prayer we learn as a child, and the last offered on our deathbed, it is both mantra and consciousness raiser. Uttered not so much to God as to ourselves, it is a reminder that beneath all the variation, all the distinctions and separations, there is a deeper Unity that binds. In this course, we will explore key readings and practices of the Shema: moving from rabbinic and philosophical notions to (especially) the mystical. All key teachings will be provided in the Hebrew or Aramaic original; English translations will also be available.

Elective

Hazzanut Masterclass

Yearly course as part of the Study Intensive Week attended by all ALEPH Ordination Program students and faculty. Study sources: music by Cantorial composers, e.g. Leib Glantz, Moshe Koussevitsky, Adolph Katchko, etc, plus audio tracks of the great Hazzanim. The class includes analysis and performance in masterclass format, including work on stylistic aspects, vocal issues, and emotional communication.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required

Introduction to the Siddur

Entry into the ALEPH Rabbinic Program and completion of the Rabbinic Pastor and Cantorial programs require a basic understanding of our liturgy and its central concepts and terms. In this course, we will explore basic terms such as matbe’a ha-t’fillah, chiyyuv, sh’ma u-virchote’ha, and heiche k’dushah. We will look at what makes a shacharit service whole and how weekday, Shabbat, and holiday services are similar to and different from each other.

RP: ALEPH Required
Elective

Jewish Music History

(Two-semester course). This course addresses a wide range of topics under this heading, including known scholarship on early Jewish music, the cultural contexts in which the multiplicity of Jewish communities developed their musical traditions, and Jewish music in modernity. Some lecture titles (by way of example) are: The Music of the Temple; Early Jewish Music and its Influence on Early Christian Chant; Cultural and Denominational Diversity in Jewish Liturgical Music; The Basic Elements of Ashkenazi Modality; Environmental Influences upon Cantorial Music; European-Jewish Psalm Settings; Learning to Chant the Bible in the Bukharan-Jewish Tradition; Sulzer’s Musical Style in the Context of 19th-century German Romanticism; A Hundred-and-fifty Years of Jewish Art Music: from the French Revolution to the outbreak of World War II.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required

Life Cycle Ritual Practicum Parts 1 & 2

Pre-requisite: Liturgy of the Lifecycle. In this ten full-day (two full weeks) summer residential training course wedding/commitment ceremonies, funerals, and baby-naming ceremonies, are created and enacted. Other life-cycle events are touched upon integrating traditional forms and liturgies with new approaches. Participants share experiences and resources, give and receive feedback, and are lovingly yet challengingly coached. This intensive master class uses hands-on practice of skills for using Jewish ritual tools. Practical skills, traditional structures, contemporary adaptations and mystical underpinnings of Jewish ritual tools and skills are explored in a laboratory setting.

(Liturgy of the Life Cycle and Life Cycle Ritual Praticum Parts 1 & 2 are listed in Kli Kodesh and Liturgy. These courses must be taken in sequence.)

Cantorial: ALEPH Required
Rabbinic: ALEPH Required
RP: ALEPH Required

Liturgy of the Lifecycle

A class to introduce and complement the Life Cycle Ritual Practicum. This sequence explores the rituals and customs of the Jewish lifecycle. Students will develop understanding of the history minhagim and halachah associated with each event in the cycle of life – and explore the circumstances and context that has led to the development of new rituals and ceremonies at various stages in Jewish history. Even as we recognize that the contemporary era is a time of great fluidity and paradigm shift, the course will emphasize knowledge and fluency with the traditional sources as the basis for exploration and development of new or innovative approaches. This class will look at halachot and customs associated with traditional and modern life cycle events, and at both classical and modern liturgical texts associated with these events, covering birth, maturation, marriage, and death. There will also be consideration of conversion, divorce and newly identified life-transitions such as retirement, leaving home, menopause, entering military service. (Cross listed in Kli Kodesh and in Liturgy)

Cantorial: ALEPH Required
Rabbinic: ALEPH Required
RP: ALEPH Required

Liturgy: Festivals

This course offers a rigorous historical and textual survey of the liturgy of the Shelosh Regalim, Yamim Nora’im, Minor and Contemporary Festive and Mournful Days (including Yom HaAtzma’ut, Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikkaron, Tu B’Shvat, Purim, Hannukah). The critical texts of each day will be examined for historical context, and also for spiritual significance and ritual agenda. We will consider the dynamics and structure of these unique gatherings of the Jewish People, and the various strategies that have been employed by denominational streams and Jewish Renewal to construct and reconstruct meaning in the layered rubrics that have been passed down to us. The course will pay close attention to the text, but aim “beyond the text” to empower future rabbis and cantors to lead the Jewish People with learning, insight and courage.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required
Rabbinic: Content Required

Liturgy: Shabbat v’Chol

This class offers a literary, historical and religious approach to the daily and Shabbat liturgy. We will look at current scholarship concerning the development of the matbe’a ha-tefillah and the institutions and structures of Jewish liturgy. We will also study the texts closely, looking especially at the implications of quotation or reference to Biblical/Rabbinic sources. The piyyutim of Shabbat and the Daily service will be studied closely – and there will examination of the history and current customs of Keri’at HaTorah.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required
Rabbinic: Content Required

Liturgy: Yamim Nora’im

This course offers a rigorous historical and textual survey of the liturgy of the Yamim Nora’im. The critical texts of The High Holidays will be examined for historical context, and also for spiritual significance and ritual agenda. We will consider the dynamics and structure of these unique gatherings of the Jewish People, and the various strategies that have been employed by denominational streams and Jewish Renewal to construct and reconstruct meaning in the layered rubrics that have been passed down to us. The course will pay close attention to the text, but aim “beyond the text” to empower future rabbis and cantors to lead the Jewish People with learning, insight and courage.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required
Rabbinic: Content Required

Middle Eastern Maqam

Exposure to the classical modal tradition of the Middle East, in which most Jewish music is grounded. A number of basic modes will be studied, with access to online resources. As part of the work,talmidim will be expected to demonstrate their knowledge by composing their own melodies in these modes.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required

Music of the Jewish Liturgical Year

Basic nusach and melodies for non-cantorial students. Jewish liturgical music is based on sets of musical modes with melodic motifs for different types of prayer. It is calendar-linked to event and time of day. Folk melodies, niggunim, compostions for cantor and choir, and contemporary liturgical songs have supplemented or supplanted traditional nusach as synagogue life has changed. This course covers the basics of nusach, melodies and niggunim, with the goal of competence in leading services that are traditionally grounded and melodically accessible. It is intended for both music readers and non-readers. Participants should be able to download mp3 files and have a working knowledge of the siddur and machzor. (Cross listed in Kli Kodesh and Liturgy/Hazzanut).

Rabbinic: Content Required
RP: Content Required

Mystical Piyyut as a Gateway to Deep Practice

Chanted at the festive table, in Shabbat and High Holiday prayers, at dawn vigils or in hitbodedut, Piyyutim, the alliterative prayer-poems of Jewish tradition, are are at once a literary and an embodied art. Some piyyutim express longings for the Beloved (Yedid Nefesh), the mystical joy of Shabbat (Yah Ekhsof), the music of the heavenly spheres (El Adon), while others are stately and mysterious (Adon Olam), trance-formative (L’Chei Olamim), or trace a quiet blossoming into devekut (El Mistater). In this course, we will focus on a selection of mystical piyyutim, especially those that have entered into the liturgy and zemirot. We will decode their deep meanings, their performance context and kavvanot, and will learn chants (spanning the Jewish world) that enliven and transform the semantic meaning. Students in the course will have access to a website that will provide historical and literary analyses, sound clips, and visual dimensions of these prayers.

Elective

Non-Ashkenazi Jewish Music: Sephardi and Italian Music; Moroccan; Iraqi; Yemenite

These courses are exposure to the musical styles of communities whose traditions are not part of the American mainstream. They are taught by teachers native to those traditions, and include a range of styles: nusach, piyyut singing, and folk melodies. The courses may be of less than one semester duration.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required

North African Jewish Music

This course explores the musical traditions associated with North African Jewry – herein defined as Maghrebi Jewry and including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and al-Andalus (historical Sepharad or Spain) – from both ethnomusicological and practical perspectives. The scope of the course will include exploring different historical periods, regional and interregional connections between Jewish communities, intercultural connections between Jewish and non-Jewish communities, through the vantage point of liturgical, paraliturgical, and non-liturgical musical expressions.

Cantorial: ALEPH Required

Pedagogy: Teaching Tefillah

This seminar establishes a methodological approach to the teaching of the Siddur and the Mahzor. Theological issues arising from these prayer books will be discussed. Affective approaches that complement cognitive and skill learning will be explored. Observation and micro-teaching are required.

Elective

Tehillim

Study of Tehillim from the daily and weekly liturgy. Attention will be paid to the poetic structure, linguistic aspects of Psalms, theological and spiritual messages of the Psalms, and the relationships between the Psalms studied and other passages of Biblical narrative and poetry.

Cantorial: Content Required
Elective