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Sephardic Liturgical Music: Liturgical Music of Middle Eastern Jews Mark Kligman

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Sephardic Liturgical Music: Liturgical Music of Middle Eastern Jews Mark Kligman Sephardic Liturgical Music: Liturgical Music of Middle Eastern Jews Mark Kligman Jewish liturgical music in Sephardic and Middle Eastern communities shows a vast range of musical styles. The term Sephardic comes from the Hebrew word Sepharad, which is found in the book of Obadiah, verse 20. The region that is mentioned in this biblical passage is not known, but by the eighth century c.e. Sepharad was the term used for the Iberian peninsula. Jews moved into this region during the seventh century and were spread across communities surrounding the Mediterranean. Jewish life that emerged first under the Muslim and Christian rule of Spain has had an important impact on Judaism from the medieval era to the present. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 these Jews spread out across the Mediterranean and other parts of the word (this will be explained further). As used today “Sephardic” refers to the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula and their descendants in various areas of relocation. The liturgical music of Sephardic Jewish life is rich with a diversity reflecting the styles of the regions where these Jews lived. This essay will briefly survey the role of music in Jewish life during the post-Temple era (after 70 c.e.) and the history of Sephardic Jews, and then focus on styles of worship in their liturgical music, including cantillation of the Bible, liturgical song, and liturgical poetry. A Survey of Jewish Liturgical Music Jewish liturgical music develops in terms of form and function during the first millennium. Rabbinic sources, archeological evidence, and other sources attest to the important role of music during the First and Second Temple periods. Music was part of the daily sacrifice – Levites sang, and instruments were played, at the end of the ceremony. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.e. ritual life in the Temple ceased, prayer changed, and the context of worship shifted to the synagogue.1 Three daily prayer services were instituted, and by the seventh century the role of hazzan, the prayer leader, emerged. During this era music was a banned activity. A third century source from the Mishna (Sota 9:11) states: “From the time that the Sanhedrin ceased to function, there ceased to be singing [shir] at places of merriment as it is written: ‘They shall not drink wine with song’ (Isaiah 24:9).” The Sanhedrin, the legal court that governed Jewish life, ceased in 57 c.e. This Mishna records that as places of merriment included drinking, rabbis forbade going to these establishments because the Sanhedrin no longer functioned; if people who attended lost their good judgment and behaved immorally no authority existed to impose a ruling. The text from Isaiah is employed as a proof text for this purpose.2 This same text was used in a related discussion in the Talmud (Sota 48a) dating to the sixth century: “How do we know that the text (Isaiah 24:9) applies to the time when the Sanhedrin ceased? Rabbi Huna son of Rabbi Joshua, said: Because Scripture states ‘The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music’ (Lam 8:14).” The destruction of the Temple was seen over time as a profound event, and music, which is usually used for joyous purposes, was not appropriate. Singing during worship was allowed, but not instrumental music. Outside of worship the ban on music needed to be rearticulated by the rabbis. Rabbi Moses Maimonidies, a late twelfth-/early thirteenth-century codifier of Jewish Law, states in his work the Mishnah Torah: Similarly, they ordained that one should not play melodies with any sort of musical instrument. It is forbidden to celebrate with such instruments or to listen to them being played [as an expression of mourning] for the destruction [of the Temple]. Even songs that are recited over wine are forbidden, as it is written: “They shall not drink with song” (Isaiah 24:9). It has become a custom among the entire Jewish people to recite words of praise, songs of thanksgiving, and the like with wine. (Hilchot Ta’anit 5:14) In the fifteenth century the Shulchan Aruch, the main text that codifies Jewish law, states: “Producing a sound with a musical instrument is forbidden on Shabbat but knocking on a door, etc. is permitted when it is not done musically” (Orach Chayyim 338:1). In the nineteenth century the Reform movement reintroduced instruments into worship on the Sabbath and holidays. Even today Orthodox synagogues do not make use of instruments in worship, nor do Sephardic congregations. Jewish liturgical music during worship employs three musical styles that generally correlate to the type of text: (1) cantillation of biblical texts; (2) chanting of rabbinic texts, written from the first to the seventh centuries, with melodies added later; and (3) liturgical song from piyyutim or liturgical poetry, from the eighth century to the present, with more recent melodies. The centerpiece of the Shabbat morning service is the reading of the weekly biblical portion. Chanting of rabbinic texts is the mainstay of daily, Shabbat, and holiday liturgies. During the first millennium Jewish liturgy was formulated by the prayer leader who, in the earlier centuries, improvised the liturgical text. Over time these texts became standardized and compiled into the prayerbook. These portions were chanted, and each regional tradition has its own musical style. Liturgical song is the liturgical genre that has received the most development in the modern period. Many of the texts that are part of the High Holiday liturgy were created in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Over the past two hundred years, particularly among Sephardic Jews, new melodies have been added to these texts. The singing of piyyutim in the twentieth century has become an active para-liturgical context. Text and melodies of the past as well as newly composed or adapted melodies are sung. A Survey of Sephardic History The Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) was the center of Jewry up until the fifteenth century. 1492 serves as a final marker for the expulsion of Jews from Spain, although expulsions from this region took place both prior to and after that year. The tenth-to-twelfth centuries are referred to as the Golden Age of Spain. Under Muslim rule the Jews interacted with Christians and Muslims in free exchanges, often referred to as convivencia. As Muslim culture developed new forms of philosophy, logic, organization, grammar, and poetry, Jewish cultured flourished with significant achievements in exegesis (Nachmonidies, for example), philosophical works (such as those by Maimonidies), and poetry (Ibn Ezra, Halevi, Ibn Gabriol). These accomplishments forever influence Jewry. The Christian reconquest of Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries led to an increase of Jewish unrest. During this period the Inquisition forced Jews to convert to Christianity, or face death, and later expulsion. The expulsions led to Jews migrating to areas throughout the Mediterranean, to Europe, the Balkans, and the Americas (see fig. 1 on the accompanying CD). Along the Mediterranean routes Jews from Spain co-mingled with Jews in pre-existing Jewish communities like North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia), Greece, Egypt, and Syria. On the routes to the Balkans and Europe some Jewish communities already existed, but the new arrivals essentially established new communities, as did the Jews who arrived in South America (Brazil). The result is a network of groups connected through commerce by trade routes and caravans. Spanish Jews had a significant influence on the new locations of resettlement, as will be explained later. The dispersion of Spanish Jewry led to various forms of retention of cultural and religious traditions, and a definition of Sephardic Jewry needs to account for this complexity. The generally accepted definition is as follows: “Sephardic” Jews are from the Iberian Peninsula and their descendants in various areas of relocation. With the emergence of a significant Sephardic population in Israel, and a growing sense of ethnic pride, many of these Jews have taken on the label of “Mizrachi” or ”Eastern” Jews. The designation “Sephardi and Mizrachi” is an encompassing term to refer to this diverse population. At times non-Ashkenazi groups are included in this category, including Jews from Yemen, Iran, Ethiopia, and other locales, even though the migration did not include these areas. The population of Jews from Sephardi/Mirachi communities in the twentieth century shows significant changes in recent years (fig. 2). Prior to 1948, the year Israel was established as an independent state, over one million Jews lived in the Middle East. Fifty years of tumultuous change in the region led to a considerable shifting of the Jewish population. By 2005 ninety-five percent of the Middle Eastern Jews had emigrated from the region, most to Israel, and secondarily to Paris. The Levant is the French name for the Eastern edge of the Mediterranean, from Turkey to Syria and Egypt, also known as the Fertile Crescent. Portions, and even entire Jewish communities, migrated to Israel during the 1950s. Originally, following the expulsion from Spain, the Jews who fled to North Africa settled along the Northern coast in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. In large measure Jewish life in these regions prospered, with some prominent wealthy Jews. As shown in figure 2, the population of North African Jewry is larger than of Jews who migrated from the Levant and Yemen. Following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 the tension between Jews and Arabs made Jewish life there more difficult. Therefore significant portions of North African Jewry migrated to Israel and France in the 1950s and 1960s. Western Sephardic migration is the migration of Jews from Spain into Western European countries and the Americas.
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