My Rock ‘n Roll Jewish Heritage Is Beautiful to Me
This column is inspired by a recent photo I saw in the news of ordinary Israeli citizens coping with the stresses of war and bombardments in underground shelters. There was an older gentleman playing guitar next to an impromptu yoga class, next to an underground daycare tent city with festive lights, next to a minyan praying.
I have been thinking of the IDF soldiers and citizens who may be suffering from PTSD and other stresses, and wanted to recommend music therapy and playing guitar as a wonderful way to reconnect with yourself and soothe your soul. It just might help and it might save a life. Try it!
There is a Canadian angle here. A nice Jewish neuroscientist by the name of Daniel Levitin, who started out in the music business in Los Angeles, did MRIs on the brains of musicians at his laboratory at McGill University, and found that music works every side of the brain and helps to secrete pain and stress relieving neurochemicals naturally. We are hard wired for musical experience just as we are hard wired for spiritual experience. Check out his website and books here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Your_Brain_on_Music
This post is dedicated to my dear old friends from the Hamilton Hebrew Academy (HHA), many of whom are now living in Israel, and especially to Ira, with whom I learned to count on the piano keys in our kindergarten class. We both began writing pop music a few years later, Ira as a professional and me as an accomplished amateur.
In my home studio, I have accumulated many guitars and amplifiers and music books, and I have done acoustic experiments in recent years using guitars made of different woods and of different shapes, sizes and specifications to determine my preferred sound for certain songs. Basically, I have never met a guitar I didn’t like, and even cheaper models can be set up to make them easier to play. Guitar companies sold more guitars during the COVID pandemic than at any other time!
The science of guitar making has also improved considerably in recent years with computer aided design. Israeli guitar makers are getting rave reviews in the professional magazines and by professional reviewers. Check out this review of B&G Guitars made in Israel:
Darrell Braun is one of my favorite online guitar gurus and teachers. He is Canadian, based in Vancouver, and remarkably warm and accessible. I have learned so much from him! Check out his Youtube channel. He does product reviews and technical lectures on topics like 'how to set up your guitar'. Here is his rave review of the Made In Israel B&G Step Sister electric guitar:
The Israeli press at 21c has done an outline of many Israeli guitar makers who are winning rave reviews around the world. For the gear heads like me, here is that link. Many are outside my price range, but I aspire to play them one day, perhaps in Israel!
I enjoy relaxing by looking at guitar sites online. It is fun to learn new Hebrew vocabulary by searching for guitars at Kley Zemer, Israel's leading chain of music shops. And I can toggle back and forth from Hebrew to English if I don't understand. Guitarot Hashmaliot (Electric Guitars) is my new favorite word!
They carry most of the major North American brands as well as a number of new brands that are not as well distributed here in Canada. I do recommend entry level Yamaha, Fender, and Epiphone guitars for those starting out, but the new affordable Bromo acoustics look very interesting. They are made in Indonesia to exacting standards and getting great customer reviews. Head on down!
https://www.kley-zemer.co.il/
Many years ago, my rabbi in Toronto who inspired my Israel advocacy told us that the 'Kumsitz' or folk singalong is still very much an Israeli tradition, at the beach, at parties and cafes, or even in shelters and safe rooms. It is really a great way to calm your soul, trust me.
There was a charity called Guitars for Israel established on Facebook some time ago encouraging donations of musical instruments to support Yotzrim Rock, a music program for underprivileged kids. I am not sure it is still active. One of the hottest photos on its website was of a gorgeous female Israeli soldier leaning against a wall oh so casually with her sunburst Fender acoustic electric guitar. I have a similar model and recommend them highly. You can be that cool too!
Israeli artist David Broza has also been involved in supporting music education through his foundation One Million Guitars. A guitar seems a simple thing, but it can make a tremendous difference, globally. https://onemillionguitars.org/
I first got interested in playing rock arrangements of Jewish music when I saw the Feenjon Band play at a fundraising event for Israel in the 1970s. They were famous for their folk cafe in New York City. Naturally, when they played "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" (Jerusalem of Gold) they brought down the house.
Sometimes songs are prophetic. Naomi Shemer, the first lady of Israeli song, wrote "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" for a folk festival in May 1967, just before the Six Day War and the recapture of Jerusalem by Israeli forces for the first time in millenia. I can still see the photos of Israeli soldiers dancing jubilantly at the Western Wall. The song became an anthem that everyone knows in Israel. I especially like this powerful rock version, recorded three years ago. We will dance again. Let's get started.
Recently, during the most horrific bombardments, I found myself strumming "Lu Yehi", another classic song by Naomi Shemer, as performed by Chava Alberstein. It was written during the Yom Kippur War and was the only thing that could comfort me.
I listened to the original album with my HHA classmate Susan a few blocks from here in 1973. Susan lives in Jerusalem now, a wife and mother of twins and a kindergarten teacher. I wonder about my friends and their families in Israel and how they are coping.
I think of us as children and worry about them now. Some bonds are unbreakable. David was a tank commander. Rachel worked in intelligence. In our Hebrew school classroom, during morning prayers, I discovered that Psalm 150 was the original rock band. It had the most instruments. As a budding music student and composer, I decided that "Sing unto the Lord a NEW song" would be my motto. It still is.
The commentators say that the last line of Psalm 150 means that everything that has breath should praise God, and I think this is a great motto to live by. https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.150.6?lang=bi
Many years later I did a comprehensive study of the Psalms and all the references to music and musical instruments in the Bible. As a musician and guitarist I was intrigued by all the references to musical instruments and scales and what were apparently pop songs of the day. We are not altogether certain what the Sheminith meant, whether it was an octave scale or eight stringed instrument.
I was amused by the musical instructions in the Psalms by the arranger of music to play some of them to the tune of 'Doe of the Dawn' (Ayelet Hashachar, Psalm 22) or 'Do Not Destroy' (Al Tashchet, Psalms 57, 58, 59, 75).
I am not sure about the last one. It might be a plea to God for mercy on the Jewish people and not to destroy us utterly (so relevant today). Or, it might have been a copyright dispute among some the composers of the Ancient Temple, a plea to include their court composition in the anthology of Psalms.
When my father passed away I especially loved Psalm 49 (read in houses of mourning), which emphasized the message that however successful we may be materially, and how the world might congratulate us for our worldly achievements, we are all mortal, and as our rabbi said, "You can't take it with you!"
I especially loved the reference to the line that on the strings of the lyre, David would solve the riddles of life and expound his theme to music. https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.49?lang=bi
This is echoed in many places in the Psalms, and to me, most evocatively in Psalm 33, exhorting us to praise God on stringed instruments. https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.33?lang=bi
As a guitarist, naturally I was thrilled. In fact, one of the contemporary songwriters I most admire, Paul Simon, was noted for saying that he played guitar to hear what his soul had to say to him.
I chose my first Yamaha folk guitar (and some subsequent ones) based on the size and shape of the guitars Paul Simon played. I was entranced by his harmonics. I am still. He will soon be performing in Canada, at the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto on June 25. Contact ticketsales.com for details.
In Psalms 16 King David is know to have said, "My heritage is beautiful to me." Some commentators have interpreted this to mean a special link between our spiritual heritage as Jews and the land of Israel. https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.16?lang=bi
I would like to interpret this line more widely as a self-esteem statement about pride in our beleaguered Jewish identities and in our support for Israel, particularly when we are under ideological and military attack.
The question of developing pride in a stigmatized identity often under attack has long been with us since ancient times. Just like the egg on the seder plate, one of the few foods that becomes tougher with increased cooking, that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
Our interlocutors often do not respect us. We must respect ourselves, and take the time to educate and nurture ourselves accordingly. Activism is more than clicking 'like' on a social media group. We must be ourselves and be authentic about it. One of the best ways to do that is by cultivating our knowledge of Israeli music and culture.
During the 2014 Gaza War I did two live shows of Israeli music for the kids and counsellors at Camp Kadimah in Hamilton. I was dressed more or less like Goldie Hawn as Private Benjamin and Alan Alda in M*A*S*H in green army shorts, combat boots, Hawaiian shirt, and a whimsical straw cowboy hat with a six-sided Marshal star that looked like a golden Star of David. The kids loved me, especially the girls. We talked about ways of supporting Israel charitably and sang some songs. Then we did a taste test of Israeli cookies from the kosher aisle of our local supermarket. In my best heroic commercial voice, I suggested the kids ask Mom for cookies from ISRAEL when they go shopping!
One of the songs we did that night was this version of "Eretz Zavat Chalav U'Dvash" (Land of Milk and Honey). And if this recording by Nina Simone and her band does not convince you that Israel is NOT an apartheid state, nothing will. Glad we cleared that up. Add it to your Israel advocacy file! Many non-Jewish artists used to record Israeli folk songs. I especially love Harry Belafonte's "Erev Shel Shoshanim".
If you are interested in learning to play Jewish music, there are many sheet music anthologies and chord charts available online, including websites like Zemer. I especially like the sheet music of Velvel Pasternak, one of the greatest transcribers of Jewish music of many genres. He was born in Canada and passed away a few years ago, and was buried in Israel. Learn more about him here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvel_Pasternak
https://zemer.io/
Well, that's all the time I have right now. Spring has sprung in the Dundas Valley, and it's time for me to adjust my many guitars for the current heat and humidity wave. Pick up a guitar. It will do you good.
Stay well and strong. Am Yisrael Chai. We send our love from Canada.