המלך הקדוש | From Uman to the Olam: Clapping upon the Coronation of the Holy Majesty during the Days of Awe (neohasid·org)

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28 September 2011 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Phonaesthetics

Tags:

Atah Qadosh (Third Blessing of the Amidah), Breslov, clapping, Coronation, ecoḥasid, חסידי ברצלב Ḥasidei Bratslav (Breslov), Ḥasidic, Musaf Rosh Hashanah, Public Amidah, קדושה Qedushah

During the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, we change the third blessing of the Amidah from “Blessed be You, the Holy God” ha’el hakadosh to “Blessed be You, the Holy King” hamelekh hakadosh. In Uman, Ukraine (and in the Breslov community in general) during the repetition of Rosh Hashanah Musaf, when the ḥazan gets to the special brokha in the Amidah for Yamim Nora’im [the Days of Awe]: Barukh Atah Adonai Hamelekh Hakadosh, something beautiful happens. Everyone begins clapping for the King, and it continues for minutes on end. It sounds corny, but in a shul of 3,000, it’s awesome. Not only awesome, but truly joyful.

This is something anyone, any minyan, can do —- no Hebrew knowledge necessary. It works best when most of the people do it, and it is truly wonderful. I can’t think of a more playful way to take what we say in prayer seriously.

Clapping for God – try it in Long Island and Iowa. It’s not just for Uman!

This work was originally published by Rabbi David Seidenberg, on neohasid.org here.

David Seidenberg

Rabbi David Seidenberg, founder of NeoHasid.org, teaches text and music, Jewish thought and spirituality, in their own right and in relation to ecology and the environment. With smikhah (ordination) from the Jewish Theological Seminary and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, he has taught at over 100 synagogues, communities, retreats and conferences across North America (and a few in Europe and Israel). Rabbi Seidenberg's teaching empowers learners to become creators of Judaism through deep study and communion with texts and tradition. Areas of specialty include Kabbalah and Ḥasidut, Talmud, davenning, evolution and cosmology, sustainability, Maimonides, Buber, and more. Rabbi Seidenberg has published widely on ecology and Judaism and is the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Neohasid·org

NeoHasid.org, founded October 2005, was first created by Rabbi David Seidenberg to help folks integrate ḥasidic song, learning, and nusaḥ into their davenning and communities and to explore embodied Torah. It evolved to focus on eco-Torah and to share liturgy that honors our relationship with the Earth and/or expresses gender parity.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)