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In Memory of Israel’s Fifth (and First Sephardi) President, Yitzhak Navon, A”H, a political leader, author, composer, advocate for Sephardic culture, and proud son of Jerusalem, the city to which his family returned after the Inquisition
9 November 2015
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For the past six months, Sephardi Ideas Monthly has been exploring the world of piyyut: Sephardi liturgical poetry and (soul) music. We began with Israel’s piyyut revival and then turned our attention to piyyut from the “Golden Age” of Andalusian Spain, a period that has provided both inspiration and textual material for contemporary artists. Sephardi Ideas Monthly is, with this edition, introducing a new feature: interviews with musicians who are involved in the piyyut revival.
For the month of November, Sephardi Ideas Monthly sat down with Yair Harel, a highly accomplished Israeli vocalist and musician who has pioneered musical outfits such as The New Jerusalem Orchestra, The Ben Tsvi Institute’s Piyyut Ensemble, and Taffilat. Harel is also a thoughtful and experienced educator who is a founding member of Israel’s “Singing Communities Project,” and the Musical Director of the Jerusalem-based “Piyyut Festival.” In addition, Harel edits the “Invitation to Piyyut” website, a monumental online resource that is used by schools, musicians, and laymen across Israel and that has revolutionized the place of piyyut in Israeli society.
 Click here to watch Yair Harel and the New Jerusalem Orchestra perform R’David Bouzaglo’s piyyut, “Tsur Sh’hechyani” (Photo courtesy of Tipeha Music) |
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Yair Harel
In 2010, Harel turned his attention to the United States by co-founding Piyut North America with Rabbi Roly Matalon from Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City. The project aims to make the world of piyyut accessible and relevant to North American Jews. Sephardi Ideas Monthly: Yair Harel, you have played a leading role in Israel’s piyyut revival, both as a musician and an educator. What do you think accounts for the popularity of piyyut among the Israeli public? |
Click here to watch Yair Harel and the New Jerusalem Orchestra perform R’David Bouzaglo’s piyyut, “Tsur Sh’hechyani”
(Photo courtesy of Tipeha Music)
In 2010, Harel turned his attention to the United States by co-founding Piyut North America with Rabbi Roly Matalon from Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City. The project aims to make the world of piyyut accessible and relevant to North American Jews.
Sephardi Ideas Monthly: Yair Harel, you have played a leading role in Israel’s piyyut revival, both as a musician and an educator. What do you think accounts for the popularity of piyyut among the Israeli public?
Yair Harel: For starters, take the music of North Africa, Andalusian piyyut broadly understood. We recently played Andalusian music at the “IndieNegev” festival in Israel’s south in front of 2,000 people, many of whom had never heard this music before, and they went crazy. Why? The music is melodic, dynamic, and even ecstatic. It’s rooted in popular music of the past and also includes a variety of influences─Spanish, Arab, African, Amazigh (Berber), and, of course, Jewish─so there are different musical elements that engage and communicate with the audience. Most deeply, for Jews today, the music facilitates a spiritual language that people are looking for. It gives voice to prayer.
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Sephardi Ideas Monthly: There’s a lot to unpack in the statement. Let’s start with piyyut being popular music of the past. What do you mean by that? Yair Harel: Historically, piyyut absorbed popular music from the surrounding environment. Take the piyyutim of R’Israel Najara [SIM: the great 16th-17th century payytan]. Najara lived in the cosmopolitan, Ottoman Empire and converted popular love songs into piyyutim that then became part of the ritual life-cycle. This meant that the piyyutim were sung in various contexts, from the synagogue to the Shabbat table to wedding parties. So the music was popular before it even entered the synagogue. It engaged with an audience even before it entered the synagogue. Then, once it became part of the religious ritual it assumed the status of a sacred song, or prayer, which also effected the way it was musically performed. If it succeeded in touching people’s hearts across the generations, it became part of the tradition and was preserved. Sephardi Ideas Monthly: What do you mean when you say that, “piyyut facilitates a spiritual language that people are looking for?” |
Yair Harel: Historically, piyyut absorbed popular music from the surrounding environment. Take the piyyutim of R’Israel Najara [SIM: the great 16th-17th century payytan]. Najara lived in the cosmopolitan, Ottoman Empire and converted popular love songs into piyyutim that then became part of the ritual life-cycle. This meant that the piyyutim were sung in various contexts, from the synagogue to the Shabbat table to wedding parties. So the music was popular before it even entered the synagogue. It engaged with an audience even before it entered the synagogue. Then, once it became part of the religious ritual it assumed the status of a sacred song, or prayer, which also effected the way it was musically performed. If it succeeded in touching people’s hearts across the generations, it became part of the tradition and was preserved.
Sephardi Ideas Monthly: What do you mean when you say that, “piyyut facilitates a spiritual language that people are looking for?”
Yair Harel: People in Israel’s secular and religious realms are looking for something. On the one hand there is this global return to roots that is a response to the hyper-modern world, and that’s true in Israel, too. And then within the religious world there is a desire for renewal. With all the differences between Israel and the United States, I believe that many Jews in North American share the same big questions. They’re also looking for how to engage Jewish life and practice in a meaningful way.
Piyyut throughout the generations was the most creative and personal element of the religious tradition. It wasn’t subsumed by halacha (Jewish Law), or formalized tefilah (prayer), and it was from the beginning a force for renewal. It always possessed a dynamic that on the one hand communicates with the holy and on the other hand is rooted in personal experience. You know, payytanim would embed their names within their piyyutim.
And people are looking for spiritual practice today. They often feel disconnected, and piyyut provides a spiritual language that is open and that doesn’t require you to define yourself ─ I’m this kind of Jew or that kind of Jew. You simply participate, whether you sing or you listen.
Sephardi Ideas Monthly: Can you say a few more words about the particular approach to spirituality embodied in piyyut, particularly Sephardi piyyut?
Yair Harel: The power of the Sephardi piyyut, dating back to Andalusian Spain, is that they renewed Shirat Hol (secular poetry) that was still informed by a deep, authentic, this-worldly religiosity. This constituted a return to and renewal of the spirit of Shir HaShirim, the Biblical Song of Songs. The music and poetry is connected to life, to desire, to love, but all the while it engages in a dialogue with the spiritual dimension. It’s a union of kodesh and hol, the holy and secular realms. Piyyut answers a deep need to live a full life, and classical Sephardi culture was wholly engaged in life, physical and spiritual, but still deeply rooted in tradition.
There’s another important spiritual dimension, which is that Sephardi piyyut was engaged in open dialogue with other cultures. This is a model for our spiritual life today. The challenge is to be open to the other elements, both inside and outside of the Jewish world. This isn’t a call to fusion in the superficial sense, and it’s not multiculturalism. Instead, Sephardi piyyut, thanks to its openness, is grounded in a real desire to listen, and learn, and so it engages in an authentic dialogue that, at its best, can be truly inspiring—meaning you get real inspiration when you open yourself up to an authentic spiritual path or tradition that is different from your own. That’s what the great Sephardi payytanim throughout history have always done, from Shlomo Ibn Gabirol to R’Israel Najara down to R’David Bouzaglo in the 20th century.
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Sephardi Ideas Monthly: Israel’s piyyut revival has been an amazing success story, perhaps the most significant artistic and spiritual development in Israel during the past decade. But you’re not satisfied. Why? Yair Harel: Poetry, music, ritual, spiritual language, community—all of these elements are part of one picture, one organic whole. The challenge is to recreate that wholeness. We’re not there, we don’t have that. The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language enabled Modern Hebrew poetry to break through to the world of hol, the secular side of life, to bring Hebrew back in touch with the secular realm. But that’s only half the story. |
Yair Harel: Poetry, music, ritual, spiritual language, community—all of these elements are part of one picture, one organic whole. The challenge is to recreate that wholeness. We’re not there, we don’t have that.
The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language enabled Modern Hebrew poetry to break through to the world of hol, the secular side of life, to bring Hebrew back in touch with the secular realm. But that’s only half the story.
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Take the interesting question: Are there new piyyutim being written today? I think a song, in general, represents the essence of the culture. So piyyut would be the essence of the spiritual culture. Today, there is a movement among Israeli poets to write what I think of as personal sacred poetry, poets like Haviva Pedaya and Elhanan Nir. In my opinion, that’s a step in the right direction. But piyyut as a written, living genre is still dead. We aren’t writing new piyyutim that resonate with the masses and that become part of our spiritual life. This relationship between the payytan and the community hardly exists today. We’re reinterpreting existing piyyutim and we’re playing them at concerts. Piyyut will truly be revived when new piyyutim connected to our particular time will be written and sung in the synagogue and at weddings, when they become part of our tradition, part of our rituals. When artistic form will meet sincere longing to renew the language of prayer, for individuals and even more for the community, then the piyyutim will have become part of our spiritual life. Then we’ll truly be able to say that piyyut has been revived. |
Piyyut will truly be revived when new piyyutim connected to our particular time will be written and sung in the synagogue and at weddings, when they become part of our tradition, part of our rituals. When artistic form will meet sincere longing to renew the language of prayer, for individuals and even more for the community, then the piyyutim will have become part of our spiritual life. Then we’ll truly be able to say that piyyut has been revived.
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Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved. Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error. The American Sephardi Federation is a proud partner of the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011). American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486
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Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.
Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.
The American Sephardi Federation is a proud partner of the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011).
American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486
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