Joey Weisenberg: The Torah of Music - Judaism Unbound Episode 504
Is Jewish music a form of Torah (spiritual wisdom)? Joey Weisenberg, a musician, composer, and founder of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute, thinks so. He joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about contemporary singing communities, the history of wordless melodies (nigunim), and unbound approaches to prayer. This episode is the second in an ongoing mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes mobilizing Jewish music -- past, present, and future -- as a launching point into conversations about contemporary Jewish life and experience.
[1] Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to check out our up upcoming courses in the UnYeshiva. Amazing learning opportunities are available for registration exploring the book of Jubilees, Jewish Exile and Liberation, the Talmud, and Antisemitism Unbound! Financial aid is available via this link.
[2] Learn more about Joey Weisenberg via JoeyWeisenberg.com, and check out Rising Song Institute by heading to RisingSong.org.
[3] For the first episode in this series on Jewish music, see Episode 503: Jewish Music - Elana Arian. For the Judaism Unbound episode featuring Shefa Gold, referenced by Dan in this conversation, see Episode 362: Love at the Center - Shefa Gold.
[4] Weisenberg references a passage on one of the first pages of the Talmud, and the quote “in a place of prayer, there you will find song.” See B’rachot 6a for the full passage in the Talmud.
[6] For more on “A shofar is sounded, and a still, small voice is heard,” see this reflection from Shefa Gold.
[7] Dan (and Weisenberg after him) each reference Elie Kaunfer’s ideas about Jewish liturgy and its “hyperlinks.” For Kaunfer’s dissertation, where he explores the notion of intertextuality (what in this episode is described via “hyperlinks”), click here — it is entitled Interpreting Jewish Liturgy: The Literary-Intertext Method.