Pat’s Blog

Claudia and I really liked the following “Musings” on Music, written by one of our listeners, Brook, who happens to be a Yentl - a woman who loves the study of the Torah. She is a Messianic Jew, who loves her people, and loves the history and teachings.

This is REALLY quite good, as are all of her Musings, and well worth your time to read, giving you great insight into the Jewish mindset and the reasons behind some of the Biblical passages.

My love of music has led me into an informal study of music and singing in Jewish tradition. As you know, all prayers and blessings in Judaism are sung in Hebrew…they are never spoken…and the tunes are thousands of years old. Even readings from the Torah are sung…again to tunes that are ancient.

The Jews have a real love for music and find expression the best with the harp. There are 2 kinds of harps, a kinnor which has 8 strings and is commonly referred to as King David’s harp and a nevel which is a lap harp that has 22 strings and half levers to really change the tones.

The Jewish Sages tell us that when Messiah comes, he will add 2 more strings to the kinnor and change the octave to a dectave (think that is what it would be called). Right now, 10 string kinnors are being built in Jerusalem by the House of Harrari (American Jews who made aliyah to Israel…they are master harp builders and have restored the ancient kinnor and nevel) as the religious Jews believe Messiah is coming very soon.

The 22 strings on the nevel correspond to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each string is named after a letter.

Jewish tradition tells us that when G-d created everything, He did so while playing a 22 string nevel and that He sang everything into existence.

It is interesting that in the book of Revelation, John writes that G-d has given all the inhabitants of heaven a harp.

The Jewish prophets and prophetesses also sang their prophecies…they did not speak them or just write them down. Jewish tradition states that the prophet would sit quietly and strum upon a kinnor or a nevel and wait upon G-d. The prophet would then feel the presence of a hand upon his/her shoulder…would open his/her mouth…and sing the words that G-d had placed in his/her mouth.

In the days of the Second Temple, there were many visitors from other lands who came to Jerusalem to see the wonder of the Temple and to conduct trade. Some writings from these mostly Greek and Roman visitors remain which shed some light on to the everyday life of the Second Temple era Jew. They record that virtually every Jew had a small kinnor that was tied to a belt about their waist…that they sang all the time…work songs…prayers…blessings…etc. One traveler stated that when one got within a certain distance of Jerusalem (think it was several miles if I remember correctly) that you could hear the harp music coming from the city and surrounding areas.

In the Second Temple, there was a great nevel…it was placed upon a stand in one of the courtyards and the breezes would move along the strings and the nevel would play beautiful tunes. The Jews thought it was G-d playing the nevel.

When the Jews were led into Babylonian captivity at the end of the First Temple period, they hung their harps in the branches of the trees as they would no longer sing the songs of their land. Think this is referenced in either Jeremiah or Lamentations?

Personally, I think Messiah sung the Sermon on the Mount. The way that “sermon” goes is very much structured like a song. Ever see the movie The Robe? There is a scene in it where Marcellus, the Roman Centurion who crucified Jesus, is having a discussion with a woman in Cana who is crippled. But she plays a kinnor and sings for the people in the town. I thought it interesting that she sang the words of Jesus while strumming the kinnor.