Tuneful

So. YHB had the choice, at Beth Bolshoyeh, between the traditional service or the alternative service, that is, between Papa Rabbi or an acoustic guitar. I chose the guitar this year, because it couldn’t possibly be as irritating as Papa Rabbi, right? Of course, right.

Anyway, I wanted to talk a trifle about some of the Rosh Hashanah prayers. But before I begin on those seems like an appropriate place to talk about adonai, s’fatai tiftach, ufi yagid t’hilatecha, a prefatory phrase that is slipped in front of the Amidah. I don’t think it was ever said out loud when I was growing up in a conservative shul. When I was in Virginia, the Rabbi would chant it in a quick loping tone while those of the congregation that tended to do that sort of thing would mumble it underneath and the rest would listen. I didn’t know that it has become popular, at least among the Reform synagogues, to make an actual song out of it. I suspect that it’s a very old idea, and that my Conservative shul didn’t do the undignified chasidic business of singing before the Amidah as a reaction, but I don’t really know.

Our cantor has taught the kids a lovely nigun for it. TSOR didn’t turn up the tune for y’all’s listening pleasure, which means you won’t get a sense of it. For those who will be able to guess (and any Gentle Reader who knows the tune from his or her own shul please let me know) something close to the tune from this, it goes: ya-la-la-la-la-la-la-la adonai, ya-la-la-la-la s’fatai tiftach, ya-la-la-la-la ufi yagid, ufi yagid t’hilateh-eh-cha-ah, ya-la-la-la-la-la-la-la adonai… and so on, around and around. I love it as a separate prayer, as a swaying ecstatic song. The words are simple: Divine, open my lips, so that my mouth can declare your glory.

It’s a prayer of supplication, asking for the ability to pray in praise. Usually in such prayers we pray for strength or courage or patience, things that will help us in our daily lives. Or we ask for tangible things, our daily bread or a pony. I recently found out that one common Yiddish prayer said over the Shabbat candles included a petition for the family to prosper enough that the men wouldn’t have to profane the Shabbat by working; that struck home, of course, because YHB works on Saturday. But this is more direct: Give me the ability to praise the Divine. And where should such an ability come from? Where else but from the Divine directly?

I find myself singing that tune over and over again. Partially because it’s just an earworm, of course; ya-la-la-la-la-la-la-la adonai, ya-la-la-la-s’fatai tiftach. But also as a prayer for myself and for Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe.

Hm. And just as I am using it as its own prayer, rather than as a lead-in to the Amidah, evidently I’ve made this its own note, rather than as a lead-in to talk about the Rosh Hashanah liturgy. Which seems right.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.