This coming Shabbat is known as Shabbat Shirah.  Here at B’nai Israel Gainesville we will celebrate song with guest artist, Rabbi Noam Katz who will bring to our congregation his unique sounds of Jewish worship and teaching.  We call our weekends of musical energy, “Deep Soul Shabbat”, following a phrase that appears in the weekday tachanun prayer that implores God to endow us with a “deep spirit”.  

And yet, on this week of Shirah, of song, we are saddened by the loss of one of the preeminent creative voices of Jewish prayer in our times.  Debbie Friedman, z”l lost her struggle in her fight for health this past weekend and her creative spirit stilled.  Yet her voice will sing on in our hearts and souls through the gifts of song that she provided us and that lives in the voices of so many prayerful souls.  

“Ki l’cha tov l’hodot u’le’shim’cha no’eh l’ho’dot l’zamir”

“For it is good to chant praise; to You it is fitting to sing”