A Shabbat of Harmony

When I was in Israel in October for the Ramat Hanegev trip, I had the opportunity to attend a unique Kabbalat Shabbat, or Friday evening service that was way out of my comfort zone. Normally, I am a pretty traditional, back to the basics kind of guy when it comes to tefilah, prayer. I tend to avoid what some might call crunchy/granola or hippy-dippy-like worship services as they generally do not appeal to me. But, a close friend of mine was one of the leaders of this particular worship service and it was going to be my only chance to see her. I convinced Ari to come with me to check out the service. It was in the basement of the main Reform synagogue in Jerusalem. When synagogues have “basement” minyanim they have a tendency to be alternative style worship services. So the fact this was the Reform shul’s alternative minyan should have clued me into what I might expect.

I was incredibly surprised at both my immediate response, as well as my continued attitude toward what I experienced that Friday night. There was a sense of warmth and spirituality that I had not felt in a Kabbalat Shabbat service in a long time. Since then, I have been contemplating introducing this style of service here at MKT. Though it is difficult to replicate what they have been able to accomplish at Navah Tehila in the basement of Kol HaNishama in Jeruslaem, we are going to try to mimic the worship service that they created. On Friday night February 22, we are going to rearrange our worship space in the sanctuary, put aside our regular prayer book and traditional prayers service, and go all new-agey. It will be a new (curious) experience for all of us.

I asked Cantor Gale to prepare some clips of the music we will be using so you can listen and get familiar with the words and melodies. You can click here to hear the songs Shabbat of Harmony Clips

Here are the transliterations of the words to the songs:

Psalm 95: L'chu neran'na LAdonai

Psalm 29: Adonai oz l'amo yiten; Adonai y'varech et amo ba-shalom

Lecha Dodi: L'chah dodi likrat kolah, p'nei shabat n'kab'lah.

Shamor v'zachor b'dibur echad, hishmi-anu eil ham'yuchad,

Adonai echad ush'mo echad, l'sheim ul'tiferet v'lithilah.

Psalm 92: Ma gadlu ma'asecha Adonai; m'od amku mach-shevotecha

Psalm 93 Mikolot mayim rabim; adirim mish-b'reyam.

I want to wish the Warnick/Boshes families a Mazel Tov on the Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat of their son Bennett and look forward to seeing everyone at our Shabbat of Harmony a week from this Friday night at 7:30 PM. Just a reminder that this Friday night services are at 5 PM.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Bradley Tecktiel has been Midbar Kodesh Temple's spiritual leader since August 2008. Rabbi Tecktiel was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in May of 1996. He holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees, one from List College and one from Columbia University. He also holds a Masters of Arts from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

You can follow him on Twitter @RabbiMKT.