Probably the unusual sounds of acoustic guitar, piano, bass and drums accompanying some of the traditional Shabbat melodies led by Cantor Rochelle Helzner. The place was the synagogue's Herman Flax Library.

The next Kabbalat Shabbat with Instruments is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 23. The service starts promptly at 6:30 p.m. with a congregational dinner to follow in the social hall. (Reservations for the latter must be submitted to the TI office at least five days prior.)

Kabbalat Shabbat with Instruments is a traditional Shabbat evening service in which music is played as a way to heighten participants' spiritual engagement in the singing of the prayers.

The musician lineup consists of the cantor on her acoustic guitar, Marcia Bronstein on piano, Allen Minton on bass and Eric Marks on a variety of percussion instruments.

The cantor started Kabbalat Shabbat with Instruments at TI in summer 2006. The inspiration, she says, came during her latest sabbatical while visiting Manhattan to attend Shabbat services at B'nai Jeshurun, an innovative Conservative synagogue.

"Their use of moving melodies and of instruments to enhance the spirituality of the service really inspired me. I wanted to bring this sense of musical flow and of heightened prayerful emotion to Tikvat Israel," she says.

Further musical Shabbats will be scheduled soon, the cantor says.

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	Tikvat Israel Congregation 2200 Baltimore Road · Rockville, Maryland 20851 Phone: (301) 762-7338 · Fax: (301) 424-4399 · Send us an email!
	Affiliated with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which hosts this website as one of the many services provided to member congregations.