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Welcoming Shabbat Instrumentally at Tikvat Israel.........posted Oct 12, 2008

Cantor Helzner rehearses with fellow musicians

The conditions outside were sweltering on a Friday night in late August, but inside Tikvat Israel the mood was buoyant as more than 50 congregants joined Cantor Rochelle Helzner for an inspiring Kabbalat Shabbat service with musical instruments. They sang soulful Shabbat melodies to the accompaniment of guitar, piano, bass and percussion.

Congregant Nancy Matheson was so moved by the upbeat service, which she first attended earlier in the year, that she felt inclined to post her thoughts on the synagogue's website blog.

"Many cantors 'perform,' but ours leads us in prayer," Matheson commented. "The cantor, accompanied by three wonderful musicians, seemed to be living the prayers and songs designed to welcome in Shabbat as she led us through the service, and that feeling enveloped the rest of us."

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.

Cantor Helzner opened the service in the synagogue's Flax Library by playing her acoustic guitar and chanting a nigun, a Chasidic melody that is generally wordless.

Many congregants closed their eyes and swayed to the uplifting melody that she sang to usher in Shabbat. During the singing of other prayers, participants showed their enthusiasm by clapping their hands in time to the music.

"Adding instruments to the service gives it remarkable energy and ruach," according to longtime congregant Cliff Fishman. "When the service includes instruments, people turn out in substantial numbers -- 50, 60 or more. And that alone makes the service with music a wonderful way to begin Shabbat."

Cantor Helzner started Kabbalat Shabbat with Instruments 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 on the borough's Upper West Side.

"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. "I feel that the instruments play a big part in helping to express the joy and the peace of the Shabbat evening service."

In the May 2008 issue of the Tikvat Israel Bulletin, Rabbi Howard Gorin commented on the addition of instruments to the Kabbalat Shabbat service. "No one who attended those services could fail to appreciate how lovely they were and how they attracted a much larger congregation than the norm," he wrote.

The service in late August was preceded by hors d'oeuvres prepared by congregant Roz Kram, allowing attendees to gather around circular tables in the lobby outside the library to greet one another.