With the arrival of the Jewish month of Elul, many observant Jews are preparing themselves ahead of the High Holidays, gathering in synagogues in the wee hours for ancient penitential prayers, called Selihot.
For those who want to prepare themselves this year for the holiday season, and the impending anniversary of October 7, there’s the Piyyut Ensemble, which is touring the country with concerts focused on Jewish penitential poems and prayers recited in the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The ensemble offers fresh takes on ancient liturgical melodies and comprises 19 musicians aged 24 to 85. The band will add two more musicians to the lineup — rocker Berry Sakharov and singer Riff Cohen — when it visits Tel Aviv’s Reading 3 venue for a September 23 concert.
Yair Harel, director of Piyyut Ensemble, called the show “an invitation to communal prayer.”
The ensemble’s performances include original arrangements for the penitential prayers, using the artists’ unique musical language to create an original and fresh sound, said Harel, who has previously worked with both Sakharov and Cohen.
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“Liturgical prayers have been around for hundreds of years and invite listeners, together and individually, to confront the greatest challenge of all, forgiveness,” he said.
It is deliverance from the calamity of October 7 and its aftermath, though, that provides the emotional underpinning of “Hoshana,” a new song recorded by Cohen and the rest of the ensemble for the Selihot tour.
The ensemble’s notes for the song call it a cry of entreaty and prayer, a plea and request for salvation.
“Even in these difficult days, when pain, sorrow and worry unite us, there is not always agreement among the 19 members of the ensemble on what is right,” wrote the group. “And yet, we stand together on the stage, sing and shout, and ask for salvation.”
The song’s lyrics are infused with psalmist allegory and a pleading intensity aimed at God, echoing the Hoshanot prayers recited on Sukkot, the holiday closely following Yom Kippur:
For your sake, mighty of mighties / For your sake, creator of mountains
For your sake, who humbles and lifts up / For your sake, lord of lords
Hoshana – save us
For your sake, rider of clouds / For your sake, awesome in praise
For your sake, hearer of prayers / for your sake, creator of souls
Hoshana
For your sake, the examiner of hearts / for your sake, knower of secrets
For your sake, who answers in times of trouble / for your sake, caller of the generations
Hoshana
The Selihot tour dates include Sefer Midbar in Tekoa on September 15, Tel Aviv’s Reading 3 on September 23, Pardes Hanna on September 24, and Jerusalem’s SidraTarbut on September 25.
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