Chazzan Eli Marcus

[Music] [Applause] do [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] welcome ladies and gentlemen and thank you for joining us on this journey through the songs and stories of the high holidays you know our high holiday service didn't always look like this back in the times of the holy temple the khan him and levine and of course the koen gadol the high priest performed the service throughout rosh hashanah and yom kippur but after the exile 70 years in babylon the jews came back to the holy land of israel and they had forgotten the art of prayer of course our ancestors were masters at the art of prayer so came along ezra and the men of the great assembly and they established what is now known today as the sitter as time went on prayers were added through the many poets as they're called in hebrew paitanim the most famous is whose identity is unknown but the irizal testifies to his holiness and to the fact that all of his prayers were written with the true and holy intention now of course music and singing has been a part of our history since the beginning of time of course the singing of the levium of the levites in the holy temple but music has a holiness especially when it comes to prayer and the songs that we sing and of course prayer as the talmud tells us is a service of the heart where we pour out our hearts to god and what better way to do that than through song that really brings out the voice of the soul [Music] m [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] moving through the prayers we now reach aveeno malcano one of the central prayers of the high holidays throughout rosh hashanah and yom kippur now the talmud tells us that once in the land of israel there was no rain rabbi eliezer stood up and prayed 24 prayers and he was not answered but rabbi akiva stood up and he said our father our king we have no one but you and the heavens opened up and the rain began to pour so the rabbis adopted this prayer for the high holidays and what better way to talk to our father in heaven first referring to him as our father then as our king and beseeching him to bless us with a happy and sweet new year the first melody that we're going to sing today was composed by the altarebin rabbi zaman of lyadi the founder of the chabad movement who was a prolific composer and the second one although its exact origin is unknown it comes from eastern europe and has been sung for hundreds of years [Music] for me you know i'm all [Music] my [Music] you [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] yes so i'm sure we're all wondering what did the songs what did the music sound like in the holy temple the levites with all their singing playing their musical instruments so our tradition tells us that after the destruction of the second temple the jewish people were sent into exile the families of the levites decided to stop the tradition not to pass on the melodies so that it shouldn't fall into the wrong hands and be used for the wrong purposes however the previous lava chureba tells us that in the times of the maharao 16th century scholar and kabbalist famous for creating the golem the situation for the jews was terrible and he asked that it should be revealed to him from heaven some special melodies that would help elicit god's mercies and bring peace and tranquility for the jewish people and the songs that were revealed to him are known as the skarbava nigunim skarbava means the holy songs and we use these today for the melodies of the high holidays for different prayers [Music] is [Music] i know [Music] oh [Music] we now come to the unesan token prayer one of the most powerful prayers of the high holidays the story is told about the amnon of mainz germany who is always being pestered by the local archbishop to convert to christianity finally said to him give me three days and i'll have an answer for you [Music] but as soon as he left the presence of the archbishop he thought to himself how can i even waver for a moment about giving up my faith on the third day ravanan failed to appear so the archbishop sent his guards to bring him in by force and when he arrived he said your punishment for failing to appear will be to have your legs and hands cut off the legs that should have brought you here with his last remaining strength of amnon requested to be brought into the synagogue where it was the day of rosh hashanah and he recited this prayer of one asana declaring god's awesomeness he concluded the prayer and return to soul to heaven my dear friends the unisana take of prayer [Music] the [Music] my [Music] um [Music] m [Music] we now come to the yom kippur prayers beginning of course with the konni dre with its beautiful haunting melody this prayer first appears in the siddhara of gon who lived in the 9th century but this prayer took on new significance during the time of the spanish inquisition when jews were forced to live a double life accepting a new faith but this became their yearly renunciation of their adopted faith and proclaiming their true belief in god the story is told that one year in the shul of the baal shamto the founder of the hasidic movement just as they were about to begin the konidre prayer a young farmer boy arrived illiterate not knowing how to pray the only thing he could do was make the animal sounds and from the back of the shul he began to cry out kukuriku kukuriku this is what i can say to god and ask him for a sweet new year the members of the show quickly began to shush him and hush but turned around and he said i want you all to know that his heartfelt prayer his pure sound is breaking through all the boundaries and going straight up to heaven and through him we will be blessed with a sweet new year so let's join together as we sing the call nidre prayer [Music] m [Music] foreign [Music] the [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] he [Music] is [Music] is we have now reached a section of prayer which has many chabad melodies the prayer of yala is an old chabad melody the prayer of darkikha which is a melody which was taught by the rebbe and the prayer of kehine kahimer a melody which was composed by the khasid aaron khartonov very beautiful melodies which have become well known throughout the world and really bring out the emotion and the feeling of such a holy day join together as we sing through these prayers [Music] oh [Music] hey [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] one of our favorite prayers throughout this young kipper service has two melodies both which were taught by the one describes the baal chuba the penitent soul and the second one describing that sadiq who has a much smoother road and we can hear in the melodies how both of these feelings are expressed [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] my [Music] my [Music] foreign we've now reached the end of the yom kippur prayers and just before that special moment where we blow the chauffeur we sing a song of victory custom is to sing a song known as napoleon's march a song expressing our trust that god has forgiven us and has blessed us with a beautiful sweet new year [Music] foreign [Music] line you