by Cantor Leigh Korn
from January 2008 Ruach
The Jewish calendar can often be a baffling thing. We often talk about how holidays are “early or late this year,” when, in essence, they are right when they always are. The reason things seem early or late is we always relate dates to when they fall on the secular or Gregorian calendar. This year Chanukah seemed very early and next year it falls at Christmas time. We can’t really blame anything for this odd occurrence except the moon. Even the lunar calendar is altered sometimes by the addition of a month, so that holidays would still be observed in their correct season.
While holy days sometimes seem early and other times seem late, dates sometime fall just right. Every year, according to our Torah reading cycle, we read the story of our Exodus from Egypt. We read how the Israelites escaped from slavery, crossed the Sea of Reeds and sang. The Shabbat when we read this story has become known as Shabbat Shirah – the Sabbath of Song, after this celebratory song of rejoicing that the Israelites sang. This year, the weekend of Shabbat Shirah happens to be the same weekend we memorialize Martin Luther King, Jr. What a wonderful confluenceof events! When a serendipitous occurrence like this happens, we call it, in Hebrew, b’shert. The same weekend we read and celebrate our freedom from slavery, we celebrate a man whose life mission was to fight for the rights and freedoms of all individuals.
This seemed the perfect event to have our 3rd annual collaboration with the choirs of Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church. We will mark these events with a program called “Freedomsong”. We will offer a program of music inspired by gospel, pop, and spiritual traditions. The music will celebrate the freedom of all peoples and also mark this Shabbat when we read the story of our Exodus from Egypt. Our choirs will be joined by a band and guest soloists. Please join us on Friday, January 18, at 8 p.m. and help us fill the sanctuary for this interfaith musical celebration.
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