The Day The Music Died - Sukkot

in the 1960s it seemed to many of us that a new idealism was sweeping the world there was something in the air a whole generation was finding its cultural feat through a revolution in music the simple acoustic guitar was electrified and transformed into a juggernaut that could outblast the largest symphony orchestra there was a feeling that all you need is love and with a little help from my friends the times would be a-changing [Music] [Applause] however there came a day the music died the purple haze turned into a nightmare that ruined thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of lives when the basa mikdos the holy temple was standing an event of great joy took place during the festival of sukkot with great ceremony and rejoicing water would be drawn up from the gihon spring south of the temple mount brought up to the holy temple and poured onto the holy altar on a deeper level what was drawn up through this celebration with spirituality from the depths of being the nature of true spirituality is always to connect the wellsprings of the soul to the source of all the talmud tells that if you never experienced the joy of this simchas basashwava you had no idea what real joy was at night the water drawing ceremony was accompanied by music and dancing of incomparable joy massive candelabra taller than a house shone out into the night there was not a courtyard in yerushalayim that was not bathed in its light and they danced and they danced and who was it the dance the ordinary people the young no the greatest torah ages the talmidhammen were the ones that danced for it was they only they who were certain to harness this tremendous excitement and power and direct it to the service of god [Music] the chapter of the talmud which describes this celebration is the flute the word khalil is related to khalal which means an empty space for the sound of the flute comes from the empty space the column of air inside the instrument but the word khalil is also connected to another word in hebrew which means desecration that empty space that column of air is like a blank sound canvas on which the sounds of holiness of the greatest simha of joy can be painted but that halal can also generate a music that can be a spiritual drainpipe into which thousands of lives can vanish music has a tremendous power to a great extent it depends on the soul of the player and the composer whether that power is negative or uplifting music isn't always a stairway to heaven [Music]