Jewish concepts & customs – Alexander Massey

Burning bush & brachot (blessings) – D’var on Parshat Sh’mot

Jewish concepts & customs, Torah / admin

Exodus 3:1-15 Because my commentary links the Torah reading about Moses and the burning bush to the idea of making a blessing, I have included an English interpretation after the Hebrew Torah blessings. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר בָּֽחַר בָּֽנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים וְנָֽתַן לָֽנוּ אֶת־תּוֹרָתוֹ: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה נוֹתֵן הַתּוֹרָה: “Blessed are You, […]

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Scriptural Reasoning – with a difference …

Interfaith, Jewish concepts & customs / admin

I am enormously lucky to be part of a small group of Muslims, Christians and Jews who meet at least once a month to share conversation and friendship. Each meeting has an interesting theme as a starting point, and each faith tradition brings one side of A4 with related texts from its tradition. The sessions

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Transcendence, Immanence, I-Thou, I-It

Jewish concepts & customs / admin

Exploring God as Transcendent and God as Immanent, I began to wonder how this might relate to Buber’s formulation of I-Thou and I-It. Having decided that I don’t think they map on top of each other, I’m experimenting with a matrix like this: I’ve called it the T2-I2 matrix—Transcendence-Thou-Immanence-It. The T2-I2 matrix stimulated some interesting

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Shalom Aleichem, Aleichem Shalom (Greeting)

Interfaith, Jewish concepts & customs / admin

Music and recording © Alexander Massey 26 March 2017 Download the free sheet music (voice & guitar with optional descant) Composed for the ‘United for Peace – United Through Poetry’ event 10 May 2017, an initative of The Oxford Foundation delivered in partnership with the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at

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Im Ein Ani Li (Who Am I For?)

Interfaith, Jewish concepts & customs / admin

Music and recording © Alexander Massey 2012 Download the free sheet music (voice & piano or guitar) אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not

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Nigun, kavanah and Chassidism

Jewish concepts & customs, Notes on books / admin

Here is a collection of quotations and teachings from various sources that hopefully give an insight into a Chassidic perspective on music; there is a fluidity in the teachings between song, melody, melody with words and melody without words, and instrumental music. There are also a few references and thoughts outside the Chassidic world, that

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Outline for Shabbat morning davenen

3 Comments / Jewish concepts & customs, Liturgy / Siddur, Prayer / T'fillah / admin

Introduction This is my own personal take on the sequence of the Shabbat morning service. I have drawn from several siddurim (prayerbooks), from Orthodox, through Jewish Renewal to UK Reform and Liberal. I have included most of the big ‘set pieces’ of what happens in a service, as well as some of the more minor

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Tashlich (song/round & circle dance)

Festivals, Jewish concepts & customs / admin

Composition and audio © Alexander Massey Sept 2014 Download the free sheet music (round for 2 voices & piano or guitar), with movements for accompanying circle dance I think of this chant as ‘sing as you fling’! At Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the new year, the whole community is encouraged to a place of

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Bikur cholim – visiting the sick

Healing, Jewish concepts & customs, Prayer / T'fillah / admin

The bonds of community and mutual care are given very high value within Judaism. The importance of a Jew extending themselves on behalf of another includes offering the same practical, emotional and spiritual concern for those beyond the Jewish community. One of the key ways that this can be expressed is through bikur cholim, visiting

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Music, Copyright and Jewish Ethics (or “Is it ok to steal from musicians?”)

Jewish concepts & customs / admin

Copyright law is internationally upheld as a fundamental right for composers, lyricists, librettists and writers (referred to collectively in this article as ‘creators’, and publishers for good reasons. However, these creators and copyright holders typically lose out financially to the practice of people copying or distributing (e.g. emailing) unpaid-for copies of the music instead of

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