Jewish Forums
Beautiful chant of Psalm 118,5 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Printable Version

+- Jewish Forums (https://www.thehebrewcafe.com/forum)
+-- Forum: Main Forums (https://www.thehebrewcafe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Hebrew Language Forum (https://www.thehebrewcafe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=6)
+--- Thread: Beautiful chant of Psalm 118,5 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (/showthread.php?tid=511)



Beautiful chant of Psalm 118,5 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - robrecht - 09-26-2020

מִֽן־הַ֭מֵּצַ֥ר קָרָ֣אתִי יָּ֑הּ עָנָ֖נִי בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב יָֽהּ׃ יְהוָ֣ה לִ֭י לֹ֣א אִירָ֑א מַה־יַּעֲשֶׂ֖ה לִ֣י אָדָֽם׃

Hi!

In a memorial service for wonderful Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the US Capital yesterday, Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt did a beautiful chant of Psalm 118,5. After chanting this verse, she continued to chant something that is not from the psalm that I could not recognize (beginning at 1:12 in the video below). It sounded something like this: tida hiayai (3x) yedai dedai dedai

Here's the video of Rabbi Holtzblatt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs7GwNfX-9U

I tried to figure out the Hebrew for a while yesterday, but after listening to other versions of this today, I'm beginning to realize that this may just be musical melody chanting not intended as intelligible Hebrew words. Is that correct? If so, is there a word for this kind of nonverbal chanting?

With a little bit of research, I've found that this comes from an arrangement of Psalm 118,5-6 by Joey Weisenberg. 

Here's a really beautiful full version of "Min Hameitzar" sung by Deborah Sacks Mintz with the Hadar Ensemble:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMe4-ggSkdY


RE: Beautiful chant of Psalm 118,5 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Jason - 09-26-2020

That's just a ניגון niggun. It isn't words.


RE: Beautiful chant of Psalm 118,5 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - robrecht - 09-26-2020

Thanks, Jason! This is really cool. Sort of like slow spiritual scat singing, if I can borrow a metaphor from American jazz.