Star Trek...The Next Generation

While I have never watched the show in my life, I am certainly aware of its fame and popularity.  Star Trek first aired from 1966-1969. The Next Generation ran for seven seasons from 1987-1994, and is set nearly a century later featuring a new starship and a new crew.  Its popularity led to a line of spin-off television series that would continue without interruption until 2005.  So what has “Star Trek” and “The Next Generation” to do with me? 

I was trained by the last generations of great Cantors – most of my teachers were Holocaust survivors and grew up in a far different world than mine.  Yet, I was thirsty for the knowledge that they imparted to me.  I wanted to learn Hazzanut the “old fashioned way” and I wanted to be an old time cantor.  However, I am young enough to say that I am here for the next generation – to perpetuate the legacy of those who trained me and still to find a way to attract my contemporaries.   

I was born in 1970 and I studied about the Holocaust from a history book.  During my school years, Eastern Europe was a desolate place uninhabited by Jews and afflicted by the cold war.  Those who trained me to be a Hazzan lived in the glory days of Eastern European Jewry and shared those traditions with me.  They also experienced the horrors of the Nazis which I only read about. 

The music from the golden age of Cantors is based on a plaintiff cry that rings true of a time long ago.  This is the music I craved for as a student -- the music of my mentors, the music of my Zaidy.  In the first five years of my career, I served a shul in Montreal.  I succeeded a Cantor who retired after a forty-five year tenure.  Needless to say, I had big shoes to fill and I had to tread carefully not to be too progressive with changes.  I have now completed the first decade of my career by spending the subsequent five years at Beth Sholom – another synagogue steeped in the traditions set out by numerous world class Hazzanim. 

I am now at a crossroad – trying to strike a new balance between what will attract my generation back into the synagogue, while still being true to my craft, my mentors and the elders of my shul.  I have been on a quest to find music that would bring meaning to those who didn’t grow up in Eastern Europe – to those whose fathers didn’t sit in a rocking chair humming chassidishe niggunim to themselves at night.  This is a different era – Jews are more prosperous now than ever in history.  The state of Israel is here to stay, Jewish institutions are flourishing and the feeling of sadness or despair amongst our people is fortunately a thing of the past. 

The music I am trained to sing is sad and pleading.  Hazzanus without the “kvetch” and the “drey” and the occasional “shrei” is not authentic.  However, I am now looking more than ever before to add the joy of 2006 to even out this musical imbalance.  To that end, we now have the ever popular Friday Night Live service.  While I at first resisted the temptations to go “to the dark side,” it is largely thanks to the encouragement of our synagogue president, Howard Orfus, that I have embraced (tastefully, I believe) the neo-American way of worship. 

Lately, when I have had the opportunity to pick my son up at school, many mothers have approached me and asked about the “Friday Night Live” buzz at Beth Sholom.  What is it and how can they be a part of it… We are making an impact and getting through to younger families who want Judaism for their children.  My vehicle of delivering my message is through music.  To that end, I am busy looking for new music that is more engaging and participatory on Shabbos mornings, a time to truly rejoice.  I have even recently found a new musical setting for the wedding service that may fit in more with the bride and groom of today. 

Since I am not a Star Trek fan or a “trekky” as they are commonly referred to, I am not able to judge whether “Stark Trek” or “The Next Generation” was a better show.  In my role as your Hazzan, I am very determined to combine the best of both – to preserve the music of the golden age of Cantors and also to enrich your davening with the music of a contemporary North American Jew.  It will be my constant struggle to perfect the balance and continue to acknowledge our changing demographic population.  I am committed to devoting my energy to continue to make Beth Sholom the best shul in Toronto. 

Cantor Eric Moses