A Witness to the Existence of God: Music in the Work of Abraham J. Heschel

Judaism, Fall, 2000 by Michael Heymel

ABRAHAM HESCHEL [1] BEGAN TEACHING AT NEW YORK'S Jewish Theological Seminary in 1945. A short time later he married Sylvia Straus, a pianist whom he had already met in Cincinnati. Sylvia Straus, "a sensible, religious woman," had studied philosophy and literature. On the recommendation of Arthur Rubinstein she had become a master student of Eduard Steuermann (1892-1964), a Jew of Polish descent who had studied piano with Busoni, composition with Schoenberg and was affiliated with the New Vienna School. [2] Heschel began to write theological texts only after his marriage to Sylvia. His daughter Susannah describes the influence Sylvia Straus had on her husband's relationship to music: "My mother was a wonderful partner for him.... She brought music to him, which clearly influenced him deeply. He suddenly began to use musical metaphors for the religious life; they are to be found everywhere in God in Search of Man.' [8]

Heschel's introduction to music was essentially mediated through his wife--at the very least, she inspired his strong passion for music. [4] This, together with Eastern Judaism and Hasidism, created a formative backdrop for Heschel. He once remarked that he "grew up in a house of worship, where the spiritual was real (Vocation of the Cantor [VC],243). This background influenced not only how the music of the synagogue mattered to him, but also his entire understanding of music. Music in the synagogue is for Heschel "not an end in itself but a means of religious experience" (VC 244). Whenever music is separated from spiritual insight, it cannot be fully understood, whether in or outside of the synagogue.

To begin, I would like to present how Heschel understands music in his essay "The Vocation of the Cantor," and how he understands the uniqueness of cantorial music in the synagogue. In a later section I will present the musical metaphors Heschel uses for the religious life of Judaism. In doing this I draw most significantly on his major work, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism.

Music as the Language of Mystery and the Medium of Religious Experience

Originally a lecture given in 1957, the essay The Vocation of the Cantor documents first how Heschel understands music in the synagogue. Prayer requires a particular atmosphere, a certain sensitivity for the spirit. From this arises the special task of the cantor: he must "create the liturgical community" (VC 243), and through his art "lead [the] people in prayer" (VC 243). In order to do this, he must identify himself with the community.

Heschel writes that the function of music "is to help us to live through a moment of confrontation with the presence of God" (VC 244). The human being gives expression to the relationship of all creatures with God. His responsibility is "to be the voice of the glory, to sing its silence" (VC 244). The cantor who leads the community in prayer mirrors the responsibility of humanity to the cosmos: "The cosmos is a congregation in need of a cantor" (VC 245).

Here it is evident how the liturgical event in the synagogue quickly becomes for Heschel a metaphor for the universal liturgy. All of life is in the process of adoration, and music is understood entirely as worship. I quote a longer passage which describes this connection:

We are not alone in our acts of praise. Wherever there is life, there is silent worship. The world is always on the verge of becoming one in adoration. It is man who is the Cantor of the universe, and in whose life the secret of cosmic prayer is disclosed. To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present. In singing we perceive what is otherwise beyond perceiving. Song, and particularly liturgical song, is not only an act of expression but also a way of bringing down the spirit from heaven to earth. (VC 245)

A singing person perceives the praise of the world. All life praises the Creator, and the human being is here to discover this secret. When the cantor sings, it is more than an artistic endeavor, assessed according to aesthetic and technical standards. Singing is a spiritual process through which God's splendor in the world is revealed. Song is the specific human means of preparing for glory. It is through the process of singing that the unknown becomes known. For Heschel, that means there are insights which are only to be gained through singing.

"Prayer is song" (VC 245). Or: "True prayer is a song" (Man's Quest [MG], 44). Because the mystery of God is beyond our power of expression, the only speech appropriate to the mystery is the speech of music. The 'sense of the ineffable' is, according to Heschel, critically important to both religion and art. It is also the fundamental basis for his understanding of music.

Heschel writes: "Music is more than just expressiveness. It is rather a reaching out toward a realm that lies the of verbal propositions....While other forces in society combine to dull our mind, music endows us with moments in which the sense of the ineffable becomes alive" (VC 245--246).