Rise And Be Seated

While other books targeted at an interdenominational audience have discussed holy space-and-time where words and music come together via transformative ritualized chant, Rise and Be Seated is the first to locate that approach exclusively within Jewish worship, traditionally free-flowing and democratic rather than pulpit-directed and elitist. It advocates a return to the historic synagogue practice of purposeful dialogue between a congregation and its 'surrogate in prayer'—often a layperson—as opposed to the current extremes of non-stop rote reading or rote singing activated only on command. Its message: In order to help ensure Jewish continuity on this continent, we had best retain enough of the received liturgy along with its normative modes of performance so that tomorrow's worshippers may inherit something sufficiently viable with which to experiment on their own.

The author empowers concerned synagogue goers who, until now, have held back from being the first in their community to broach the same thoughts openly. By means of implementing the book's many workable solutions, the readers will tap into something permanently embedded in Jewish consciousness and discover more modern ways of retrieving its practice.

Dr. Joseph A. Levine, lectures extensively on the aesthetic dimension of synagogue life. His standard text Synagogue Song in America, republished by Jason Aronson, Inc., was termed "the most important study of Jewish music to appear in English in the past fifty years." He has published many articles on the subject and has also written monographs on the life and times of cantors such as David Kusevitzky and Yosef Weisgal. An active cantor himself, for thirty-five years, he taught sacred music at the Jewish Theological Seminary and is currently a faculty member at the Academy for Jewish religion. Dr. Levine serves on the Cantors Assembly editorial board as well as on the United Synagogue Commission.