Music
Music has always been an integral part of Jewish prayer.
We strive to craft a service in which the music draws the worshipper along an emotional/spiritual journey, uplifting the words of the liturgy while simultaneously going beyond what the words are able to convey. It should be possible to follow the essential arc of the service without understanding a word of the prayerbook, simply by engaging with the music.
We use an eclectic combination of familiar Ashkenazic tunes, melodies drawn from the widely varying traditions of world Jewry, traditional nusach (chanting), non-religious music adapted to the liturgy, and music written by our own Rabbi Michael Boino, an award-winning composer. Many of our most inspiring and beloved melodies are his.
Most of the service is sung in a way that makes it easy — indeed nearly irresistible — to sing along.
At Gesher | The Bridge Shul, we’re blessed to have two rabbis who can sing, together in harmony whenever possible, with Rabbi Boino often accompanying on the keyboard.
“When we sing the words of a prayer, we are actually expressing ourselves in two languages simultaneously — one of words with limits and definitions, and one with an immense power of its own. Alone, music can affect us emotionally, changing our happiness to introspection or sorrow to joy; it also affects us physically, actually raising or lowering our heart rate. So it is only natural that music would be a necessary tool to communicate with God, who addresses and moves us in ways both articulable and indefinable, and who is limited in the imagination of our minds but limitless as the object of the longing of our hearts.”
— Rabbi Michael Boino (in Siddur Lev Shalem).
Rabbi Michael Boino leading L’kha Dodi
Rabbi Michael Boino leads selections from our Kabbalat Shabbat service.
Listen to the playlist.
This bridge is under construction.
Check back later for more music!