Joyous Song...

I'm co-leading Kol Zimrah Friday with a very talented cast of characters, including Shamirpower and someone who wrote such an awesome tune for Veshamru I often refer to it as "the rockstar veshamru". I'm doing so on Sax and some singing (just like the good ole days).

For those that don't know, Kol Zimrah is an independent minyan that meets on the UWS once a month. The name is key to the praxis, as at KZ, all prayers are sung or chanted silently, there's no plain speaking, except for announcements and brief dvar torah. The other key component is that musical instruments are played as part of services. For some, this means our services are not "shabbat observant". Please note the quotes, if I could find some icon to denote hand quotes, I would.

I may be going to simple child route here, but my thing is this. G-d gave me this musical gift. Without getting melodramatic, music has saved my ass in this world a few times. So praying through my horn on Shabbas seems justified and necessary to me, because if I can honor G-d's name better through music than my hebrew (which ain't that great, I assure you), I'd rather do the best I can with the gifts I've been given. I'm just saying.

So, if you want to check out an awesome service with great prayer and great tunes, come to SAJ (15 W 86th St) at 6:30pm on Friday. Bring something vegetarian and stay for dinnah!