Two thoughts about "Rain"
Oct. 20th, 2008 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuTomorrow we recite Geshem, the supplication for rain. I have been honored with the privilege of leading the congregation for that prayer, and so I've been reviewing it. I have two thoughts as I prepare.
1. Throughout the High Holy Days, when we add piyyutim (liturgical poems) to the Amidah prayer, they are prefaced by Misod Chachamim "Because of the wisdom of our ancestors, we are permitted to alter the order of the prayers and add additional supplications here, which we would normally not be allowed to do." Why don't we say Misod Chachamim when we add the piyyut for Geshem (or its springtime counterpart, Tal, the supplication for dew)?
2. I've been using Cantor Pinchas Spiro's masterful "Musical Machzor" to review the ancient ("from Sinai") traditional melody for Geshem. He has everything completely notated in standard musical notation, and sometimes he works in some beautiful subtleties. For example, in the stanza about Aharon, on the words korei umazeh which describe what Aharon would do in the avodah service on Yom Kippur, Canto Spiro's notated music slips in the distinctive two-note motif from the portion of our contemporary Yom Kippur service in which we recount the High Priest's avodah service. It goes by very quickly, but it lends an extra resonance to the text.
1. Throughout the High Holy Days, when we add piyyutim (liturgical poems) to the Amidah prayer, they are prefaced by Misod Chachamim "Because of the wisdom of our ancestors, we are permitted to alter the order of the prayers and add additional supplications here, which we would normally not be allowed to do." Why don't we say Misod Chachamim when we add the piyyut for Geshem (or its springtime counterpart, Tal, the supplication for dew)?
2. I've been using Cantor Pinchas Spiro's masterful "Musical Machzor" to review the ancient ("from Sinai") traditional melody for Geshem. He has everything completely notated in standard musical notation, and sometimes he works in some beautiful subtleties. For example, in the stanza about Aharon, on the words korei umazeh which describe what Aharon would do in the avodah service on Yom Kippur, Canto Spiro's notated music slips in the distinctive two-note motif from the portion of our contemporary Yom Kippur service in which we recount the High Priest's avodah service. It goes by very quickly, but it lends an extra resonance to the text.