carmi brooks

Megillah – book of Ester

KCLS has section that allows free access to MANGO language study.

Mango Languages

Biblical Hebrew is one of the choices, as well as Modern Hebrew.

( note that developers of Mango, refer to Torah from Christian point of view)

Culture Note

https://ajourneyofspirit.com

A Journey of Spirit is a documentary that tells the story of the remarkable singer, songwriter and guitarist Debbie Friedman. One of the preeminent women in contemporary Jewish culture, Debbie has integrated contemporary melody with Jewish liturgy to transform Jewish sacred music, making the text accessible to a large and diverse audience. A Journey of Spirit explores the tremendous power this artist and leader has to promote spirituality, healing, and community.

This 75-minute documentary explores the transformation of liberal Jewish worship, the growth of the new profession of Jewish singer/songwriter, and humanity’s need for healing. Viewers are treated to a lively and heartfelt exchange as A Journey of Spirit places the debate about contemporary versus traditional prayer music squarely on the table.

https://reformjudaism.org/blog/you-can-help-ensure-democracy-thrives-israel

Did you know that even though the Reform Movement is the largest Jewish movement in the US, Reform Jews are a minority in Israel? And that certain political and social forces in Israel intentionally seek to not only diminish Reform Jews’ ability to expand and worship, but to roll back or curtail rights for other religious and cultural minorities, LGBTQ+, women and more?

In 2025, you have a unique opportunity to help ensure Israel remains a free, democratic and pluralistic society for all Jews by voting in the World Zionist Congress elections.

Controlling an annual budget of over $1 billion, the World Zionist Congress, which represents Jewish communities from around the world, meets every five years to:

• Set policies that affect the status of Reform Jews in Israel and millions of Israelis
• Make decisions that influence hundreds of millions of dollars in spending
• Influence construction projects and therefore the choice between settlement expansion or a path to peace, and ensuring investment in communities destroyed on October 7th

4 members get acknowledgement and certificate for their faith

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Cantillation (from the Latin cantare, meaning “to sing”) is the practice of chanting from the biblical books in the Jewish canon. It is often referred to by the Yiddish word leyn . The practice goes back to the time of Ezra, when the Jewish people returned from their Babylonian exile following the destruction of the first Temple (about 510 B.C.E.).

Realizing that the people had stopped observing the laws of the Torah , Ezra took it upon himself to read portions of the Law every time he could assemble an audience. Sabbaths and festivals provided obvious opportunities; so, too, did market days, when large groups would gather to buy, sell, and catch up on local news. Market days were Mondays and Thursdays, and so, to this day, the Torah is read publicly at least three times each week.

Of course, Ezra did not have the benefit of modern acoustics, microphones, or even the undivided attention of his congregation. Ezra stood in the marketplace surrounded by squawking chickens, braying animals, and unruly children, and competed with the sounds of life. Exaggerating the highs, lows, and cadences of normal speech, Ezra projected the holy texts in a style caught somewhere between speaking and full-blown singing.

Formalizing the Practice

Ezra did not read the Torah in the manner common today. In fact, it is assumed that he differentiated only the beginnings, middles, and ends of verses. The notion of chanting the Bible was an evolving one that gradually became accepted and musically more elaborate. By the second century, Rabbi Akiva (ca. 50-135 C.E.) demanded that the Torah be studied–by means of chant–on a daily basis (B. Sanhedrin 99a).

Rav (third century) is quoted in several Talmudic discussions as understanding Nehemiah 8:8 (in which Ezra’s public reading is described) as referring to punctuation by means of melodic cadences. Johanan (d. 279 C.E.) of the Tiberias Academy is credited with fixing the notion that it is not only customary, but required, that the reader use the proper musical chant. He states categorically, “Whosoever reads [the Torah] without melody and studies [Mishnah] without song, to him may be applied the verse (Ezekiel 20:25): ‘Moreover I gave them laws that were not good, and rules by which they could not live”‘ (B. Megillah 32a).

We must note that the biblical texts available to Ezra, to the Rabbis of the Talmud, and even through the sixth century, were like the Torah scrolls in use today: devoid of any vowels, punctuation, and grammatical indicators. Ezra and those who followed him depended upon an oral tradition for their understanding of the proper pronunciation and accentuation of the sacred texts. As chanting became more widely practiced, a system of hand signals common in the ancient Near East began to be employed. This system, called “chironomy,” required an assistant to the reader to use gestures of the hand and fingers to visually illustrate the proper musical rendition of the text.

The Masoretes

Much later, in the second half of the first millennium, a group of largely anonymous Masoretes (“conservators of the tradition”) redacted the oral tradition inherited from Moses. These scholars notated the missing vowels, punctuation, and grammatical organization into the text using a set of 28 symbols called “neumes” (te’amim). Later the neumes were also used to provide musical direction to the reader. Simple (and sometimes more complex) melodic patterns were attached to each symbol to provide for a fully detailed rendition of the biblical text.

As the system became more elaborate, chironomy became of increasing importance, since readers were now compelled to provide more sophisticated musical renditions based upon varying combinations of these neumes. Moreover, while the neumes appeared in various versions of the Bible acceptable for study purposes, it remained customary to chantpublicly from a non-punctuated scroll. Chironomy remained commonplace in the time of the Masoretes and through the 11th century and has enjoyed some renewed interest in our time.

Excerpted with permission from Discovering Jewish Music (Jewish Publication Society).

As part of the celebration, the Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried or danced around the synagogue seven times. During the Torah service, the concluding section of the fifth book of the Torah, D’varim (Deuteronomy), is read, and immediately following, the opening section of Genesis, or B’reishit, is read. This practice represents the cyclical nature of the relationship between the Jewish people and the reading of the Torah.

WHAT ARE SH’MINI ATZERET AND SIMCHAT TORAH?

הנפש

MISHKAN HANEFESH

Machzor for the Days of Awe

https://images.shulcloud.com/1440/uploads/pdfs/MishkanHaNefesh-RH.pdf

1     Arvit . Evening Service ַעְר ִבית 1
103 Shacharit . Morning Service ַשׁ ֲחִרית 103

 236 Torah and Haftarah Readings
303 Minchah . Afternoon Service ִמ ְנ ָחה 303

329 Alternative Torah and Haftarah Readings

 343 Sources and Permissions