8-Dec-99 Concert at Heritage House
The choir got double the mileage from the songs we've been practicing by doing a concert at an assisted living place in Brookline, near Cleveland Circle. I couldn't find a space in the parking lot and ended up leaving my car about three blocks away on Beacon Street. I got to where we were singing just in time.
Besides the choirs and a piano, we had a clarinet and a tof. A tof, with a long 'o', alias dumbek, is an hourglass-shaped middle eastern drum about a foot in diameter and two feet long, played with the fingertips. We used the instruments on about three up-tempo numbers, and they added a lot.
The two numbers I want to tell you about are 'Al G'vot Sheikh Abreik' and 'Moshiach'. 'Sheikh Abreik' is an old Israeli classic that I know from a folkdance record from the '60s, one of those Zionist "I love the land and its history" things. It had lots of clarinet solo, vocal solo, clarinet plus vocal solo, occasional choir backup, and a driving tof in the background. The soloist was Beth, a tenor from the Temple Emeth choir who puts out more sound than the rest of the tenors from the two choirs combined (and will sometimes ask the rest of the section if they're really singing or not). She sounded great, and looked more feminine than I've ever seen her before. That means you could tell that she's a woman.
'Moshiach' is another up tempo song, this one Chassidic rather than Israeli. 'Moshiach' is the original Hebrew word for 'messiah', and the words mean "I believe with perfect in the coming of the messiah. Even though he may tarry, I wait for his coming." That's one of the dozen or so main points that medieval philosopher Moses Maimonedes boiled down Judaism to. When I was a kid I tried to avoid singing Christmas carols because I didn't believe the words. Now I don't mind singing them, because I've realized there are lots of Jewish songs of which I don't believe the words either.
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