Weekend for musicians in Tiberias

Last Friday and Saturday, ten members of the kehillot, who serve in the field of music in the Hebrew speaking communities, were hosted at Casa Nova in Tiberias.

In fact, this was the second of such meetings as a year ago Father Rafic and Benny the seminarian organized a musical encounter, whose goals were to strengthen the collaboration among the musicians of the kehillot, expose them to the musical treasures that exist in our kehillot going back to the days of the founders and until today, and to teach about music in the liturgy.

On Friday evening we gathered and after each one had received his or her room, we met together in order to begin our work. At the start, we made a short round of personal introductions and then Benny taught us to sing the hymn Ave Regina coelorum, in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Land, celebrated that very day, a traditional hymn translated by Father Rafic into Hebrew and set to music by Benny.

After mass and dinner, we gathered once again in order to read together the readings for the following Sunday. After reading together, each one took a time in silence to pray on the readings and meditate upon them. Then we shared with one another what we hd gained from the readings.

After this part of the evening, Father Rafic spoke about the importance of choosing music for the liturgy that is suitable to the readings. We ended the evening with night prayer.

The following morning, we gathered and after breakfast we began work. Father Raqfic gave a talk about the origins of Christmas, its development and the difference in dates between the Churches of varying traditions. It was interesting to hear about the feast as a sacrament because it celebrates “the divine becoming tangible” (Father Rafic quoted here Cardinal Lustiger).

After the lesson, Benny taught us to sing songs for Christmas. One of the songs we learnt, “Shower o heavens from above” has a unique story in the kehillot as it was a song set to music by Brother Yohanan Elihai and was, in fact, the first and only song sung during the first mass in Hebrew celebrated in Jerusalem in 1956.

In the afternoon, we gathered again in a meeting during which Myriam from the Haifa kehilla shared on where she derives the inspiration and sources for her composition. Myriam has experience in composing original songs and translating into Hebrew from other languages. She told us how she began to be involved in music and especially in composing and explained to us her vision of music as a way of prayer.

In the evening, we concluded the gathering by participating in the weekly mass in Hebrew in the Tiberias parish and there even had the occasion to put into practice some of what we had learned.

It was a great joy to meet old friends and make new ones. A special thanks to all who took the time to prepare the meeting and especially to Father Rafic and Benny and the community of Koinonia John the Baptist who welcomed us so warmly.

We will meet again at the next gathering.