PROGRAM NOTE
My four songs were composed in 2004 and 2006, two at a time, for the Bar Mitzvah celebrations of my two sons, David and Yaron Lotan, for Koleynu, the enthusiastic, amateur choir of Beth Shalom Congregation in De Kalb-Sycamore, where our family resided at the time. Koleynu is directed by Harvey Blau, a Professor of Mathematics at Northern Illinois University. The texts were extracted by me from my sons’ Torah and Haftarah portions—the biblical passages a Bar Mitzvah celebrant learns to chant in Hebrew, and also comments on, as part of becoming an “adult” member of the congregation.
I was filled with a sense of awe and joy upon discovering, both times, that the Torah and Haftarah portions my sons were to learn included some of the most pivotal of biblical texts: from the story of creation, to passages such as Ma Tovu (“How fair are your tents…”) and Hatznea Lechet (“and to walk humbly with thy God”). This made composing these songs all the more exhilarating for me. Yet it must be said that whenever I am present at a Bar Mitzvah and hear the 13-year old celebrant’s commentary (or D’var Torah), I am struck anew by the realization that even the most seemingly dry of biblical passages, such as the enumeration of laws or listing of generations, contains in it the seeds of great and eternal wisdom and inspiration.
—Shulamit Ran
Dedicated to my sons, my FOREVER-LOVES,
David Omri Lotan and Yaron Ari Lotan.
TRANSLATION
SHIRIM L’YOM TOV
Translation by Bruce L. Ruben
I. Shiru L’Adonai
(Haftorah Bereshit, Isaiah XLII)
God, our ruler, who created the heavens…
Who gave breath unto the people…
I, your God, have called thee in righteousness…
And made thee a covenant people, a light of the nations…
Sing unto God a new song…And God’s praise from the end of the earth;
You who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. . . Sing unto God a new song.
II. Yom ha-Shishi
(Haftorah Bereshit, Genesis I, II)
And there was evening, and there was morning…And God saw that it was good… And God saw every thing was made, And, behold, it was very good. And there was evening…the sixth day. And on the seventh day God the work which God had made, and rested on the seventh day from the work which God had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because in it God rested from all the work…
III. Ma Tovu
(Parashat Balak, Numbers XXIV)
How fair are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel
IV. Hazneia Lechet
(Haftorah Balak, Micah VI)
You have been told,
O humanity, what is good, and what God requires of you,
Only to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
The four songs may be performed as a group or separately in any combination.
Shirim L’Yom Tov—Four Festive Songs is published by G. Schirmer, Inc., on the Judith Clurman Schirmer Choral Series. The publication includes a guide to the transliteration of the Hebrew texts.
INFORMATION
Songs I and II first performed at the Bar Mitzvah of David Lotan, October 9, 2004
Songs III and IV first performed at the Bar Mitzvah of Yaron Lotan, July 8, 2006
Congregation Beth Shalom,
De Kalb/ Sycamore, IL
Koleynu choir,
Harvey Blau, director
Duration: c. 9’
RECORDINGS
Chicago a cappella, Jonathan Miller, Founder and Artistic Director: Days of Awe and rejoicing, Radiant Gems of Jewish Music, Chicago a cappella CAC 2006
KOLEYNU (all-volunteer choir of Congregation Beth Shalom DeKalb, Illinois), Harvey Blau, director, WHO KNOWS THIRTEEN? CBS00013