Zoom Kippur

Daniela Gesundheit's Alphabet of Wrongdoing was a highlight show for me 2 years ago. This album of reworked liturgical Jewish chants (usually only sung on the High Holy Days) is on my regular rotation. I was disappointed that another show in 2020 had to be canceled because of the lock-downs.

So I was excited to see a show sponsored by Nefesh on Sunday. It was live but in L.A. so I had to follow via a Zoom broadcast. I had hoped that it would be a high-quality production similar to the O'Pears Christmas concert. But given that this was a community event, I wasn't surprised that it was a basic laptop setup pointing at the stage. So there was plenty of audio-visual glitches and jitters during the show for me.

But the power of the songs/arrangements and Gesundheit's voice were such that much of the transcendent beauty still shone through. This took place on the altar at St. Paul's Common so there were Christian symbols in the background. But with today's setup, this definitely felt more religious than the show at the Canadian Music Centre. As a non-Jew who doesn't visit synagogues, I appreciated the communal feeling.

It seemed that only women (or a clear majority) were in attendance. All Zoom viewers had female names. And when Daniela encouraged the audience during one of her songs to recite snippets of quotes she had passed out beforehand, only women voices rang out. It was an interesting feeling to experience a (possibly) all-women religious gathering. Certainly for myself, I can't think of other such scenarios except perhaps some Sound of Music cliché.

On a related note, Gesundheit couldn't wear her custom-made coat of Jewish prayer shawls today because she was pregnant with twins. But she did bring it out to the admiration of the audience after the show. She also expanded upon its meaning: not only does it speak to the issue of women wearing religious garment, but the fact that these tallit had to be cut (which they never are) for the tailoring was also symbolic of her re-interpretation of these religious songs.