CARR 230-232

CCAR RESPONSA

Contemporary American Reform Responsa

153. Cantillation of the Torah

QUESTION: May the chanting of the Torah on the High Holidays be introduced to my synagogue? What is the reason for the Reform practice of not chanting the Torah? (Rabbi R. Lehman, New York, NY)

ANSWER: The question which you have asked really touches upon the entire matter of cantillation and its background. The origin of this custom is obscure. It is first mentioned in the Talmud (Meg. 32a) with the statement: “Rabbi Yohanan said, anyone who does not read Scripture with a pleasant voice or teach with song, to him applies the Biblical verse, “I have given you statutes and you have not done well with them” (Ez. 20:25). This statement was made in conjunction with a number of others that dealt with the reading of Scripture. All of them have the appearance of having dealt with widespread customs. In the Talmudic and Medieval periods the cantillation was taken for granted although the name under which it is known, “tropp,” was borrowed from the Greek term tropos, meaning melody or mode. The cantillation both for special holidays and the ordinary Sabbath began to vary in different parts of the world as they were influenced by local music.

The only Medieval opponent to chanting the Torah was Maimonides, who was unfavorably disposed toward all music, and only grudgingly permitted it in the service of God (Responsa #224, ed., J. Blau). Rashi, in his comments to Berakhot (62a), provided some insight into the cantillation of the Torah and the prophetic portion in France in the tenth century, which was accompanied by appropriate hand motions (cheironomy).

During the Middle Ages, not only the Scriptural reading but also the Mishnah and the Torah were chanted. The oldest fragment of the Talmud displays cantillation marks; a Mishnah, printed as late as 1553, also contains such marks.

In ancient and medieval times, without doubt, cantillation was used an an educational device as well as a way of rendering the service more beautiful. The cantillation marks for the Torah readings are, of course, of even greater importance as punctuation and accent marks. They have been closely studied in that sense. Musicological studies by Idelsohn and Werner show that the music used both for the Sabbath and the holidays follows old oriental modes.

Israel Jacobson, the founder of the Reform Movement, sought to remove the cantillation along with other forms of music which had become distasteful, as for example, the singing of the cantor accompanied by a bass and a soprano, one standing on each side and harmonizing. As the musical education of cantors in the eighteenth century seems to have been poor in many places synagogue music needed reform, and there was movement in this direction in Cassel, Seesen and Berlin. However, the synagogues in Seesen and Berlin soon had cantors again and presumably began the cantillation of the Torahonce more.

In the American Reform congregations, the cantillation lapsed principally due to the fact that most congregations did not employ a cantor and relied on the rabbi or laymen to read the entire service. In those congregations which have had a cantorical tradition Biblical selections have often continued to be chanted, and there is a growing interest in returning to the cantillation in our time. We should also note a Talmudic discussion which treated both the role and the payment of a cantor. In the Talmud (Ned. 37a) there is a discussion about the permissibility of paying a Hebrew teacher since the teaching of the Torah is a mandate incumbent upon him and all of us. The Talmud comments (God speaking to Moses): “Just as I have a taught you without pay, so you teach without pay.” In that case how can a melamed accept payment? Two answers are given by the Talmud. One stipulates that he receive pay for guarding the children. The other explanation states that he is not paid for the actual teaching of the Torah but for teaching the punctuation and the cantillation (pisuk hata’amim). Clearly this placed cantillation into a secondary rank considerably less important than the Torahitself. One could dispense with it.

There would, therefore, be nothing in the Reform tradition to prevent the use of cantillation for the Torah reading. If it is done on the holidays it should also be done on shabbat. There should be some consistency in the pattern which is developed by the congregation.

January 1975

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