This Is Why I Sing, Erev Yom Kippur 5780

(w/Dan Nichols)

This past June, we sat with Rabbi Laura and Rabbi Lisa on the patio of Cuvaison Winery up in Napa.  Some delectable wines paired beautifully with aged cheeses, dried fruit and nuts and we began to wonder about the tasting notes for songs… what pairings would best serve particular compositions and what notes of flavor arose from the notes of the music.

And then, as you released your latest album, we were pleased to see the tasting notes for each song as they appeared.

Here are the notes for the song entitled ‘This Is Why I Sing…’

Brave and open, this vintage is influenced by the Leonard Cohen tradition of whine making: sparse and rough-hewn with notes of French-press coffee and toast.  Pairs well with room temperature Wensleydale and over-ripe bing cherry.

I realize the notes are somewhat tongue in cheek but intentionally or not, I think you landed on some truth.

I should say that the spelling for wine in wine making is ‘w-h-i-n-e.’  And maybe ‘whine’ with the ‘h’ can also be described as a ‘plaintive cry’ which is how I commonly describe Kol Nidrei because I found this song to pair perfectly with both the prayer Kol Nidrei as well as the message of the evening.

Without consulting, I had chosen this song to pair with the message for tonight, then, I was pleasantly shocked when you told me that this was your own personal Kol Nidrei.  It seems that I also tasted the essence of toasted offering you infused into this deep blend.

Would you offer some thoughts on why this song is your Kol Nidrei and then, please, share it with us…

 

Dan’s shared thoughts about the creation of the song...

then sang it for us...

 

For the scrape and the pull of the nail on the string

The wish for something better a heavy sigh brings

For a cracked wooden box roaring galaxies

And fingertip secrets calluses set free

 

For the call and response of the hope I hear-

Thanks and the trust in a God I don’t fear

For my relief in a Holy One of Blessing

And my belief in a lifetime of wrestling

 

This is why I sing, this is why I sing

All I have I bring, this is why I sing

 

For the flesh and the blood of a body built to feel

The daily desire to know something real

For the quiet of twilight, the raw winter air

The riot of thunder, your hand in my hair

 

For whispers and screams and the joys of release

The days and the dreams in a home I know peace

For the love from someone who knows enough to leave

And the gift of a life that gives more than I need

 

This is why I sing, this is why I sing

All I have I bring, this is why I sing

 

For the sun and the moon and the shadow I cast

For all my tomorrows and yesterdays passed

For the rhythm of heartbeat that means I belong

The touch of a feather, the silence in song

 

This is why I sing, this is why I sing

All I have I bring, this is why I sing

 

Thank you

I spoke on Rosh Hashanah about lifting up our voices.  We called upon the voice of Harry Chapin whose song Flowers Are Red speaks of the child who wished to paint flowers in every color of the rainbow while his teacher quashed his spirit with the refrain…

Flowers are red, green leaves are green,

There’s no need to see flowers any other way than the way they always have been seen.  That child had been silenced.

 

To lift our voice we must find our voice.

For some of us, that literally means our voice.

Dan and I have learned from masters like Pete Seeger, Harry Chapin, Leonard Cohen and many more who use their voices to lift up issues, to move people to act, marching to the rhythm…

The boy in Chapin’s Flowers Are Red lost the voice of his art…

Others have not.

Great visual artists move people by creating messages that move us through imagery…

One of my favorite artists was not known for fine art…

I learned to read with Theodore Geisel.  His books were fun but at six years old, I had no idea how powerful some of his statements were, statements against authoritarianism, statements on sustainability, statements that are just as powerful and necessary today as they were when he published them.  Better known by his nome de plume, Dr. Seuss published Yertle the Turtle in 1958 and The Lorax in 1971.  The respective issues he lifted up are as important today as they were then.

Artists, visual and musical, lift up their voices as a matter of course but they are not alone…

I am convinced that no matter what you do, your gifts can be lifted up for good, for justice.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress.

She lifted her voice by sitting down.

Pete Seeger’s gone.

Harry Chapin’s gone.

Leonard Cohen’s gone.

Dr. Seuss… gone.

Rosa Parks… gone.

and Rabbi Tarfon is gone.

But Rabbi Tarfon left us with a very important reminder…

לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה.

Lo Alecha… _{(Pirkei Avot 2:15)}

It is not your responsibility to complete the task but neither are you free to desist from it.

I quote this passage a lot… because we need it a lot.

All of those great people are gone but we are still here.  Not one of them completed their task but every one of them engaged in it.

When we are feeling overwhelmed with the weight of need for the repair of our world, I find it so comforting to know that it is not our responsibility to fix it all.  Our heroes are mortal but their voices are not.

…because their voices reverberate in our own.

They pass the baton… and there is a unique baton for every one of them and for every one of us.

 

Pete passed me a banjo.

Harry passed Dan a guitar.

There are several young members of our congregation who were given Dr. Seuss’ paint brush.

What is the baton you carry and how will you wield it?

 

Tonight Thomas, Dan and Michael all lifted up the spirit of Kol Nidrei, a powerful baton we have handed through the centuries.

Kol Nidrei… the ‘whine’ of our people, the plaintive cry, the voice of generations vowing to do better and while each generation has yet to cross the finish line, we continue to pass the baton, the guitar, the cello, the paintbrush, our humble human voice…

I’m not Pete Seeger.

I’m not Dr. Seuss.

I’m not Rosa Parks.

But I’m standing here with the baton and searching for my particular way to move it forward.

I have no doubt that each and every one of us have our own unique way to carry that baton, to lift up our voice, to contribute to our sacred task of Tikkun Olam, to make the world just a little bit better.

On Rosh Hashanah, I focused upon the need to lift up our voice.  Tonight, and throughout this Yom Kippur, I would like us to take time to meditate upon identifying and celebrating our own particular gift, our own voice as it were.

Or… in Rabbi Tarfon’s language, our first task is to find our voice, to find the gift with we we are blessed and then our task is to offer it up.

In the Book of Numbers, we read that on Yom Kippur we were to bring an elevation offering which included a bull, a ram and seven one-year-old lambs._{(Numbers 29:7-11)}  In Leviticus, the offering for Yom Kippur is described as an offering of fire._{(Leviticus 26:23-32)}  They pair together nicely, the elevation offering and the fire offering.

What burns inside you that you must lift up?

What makes your heart sing?

Dan reprise