Echoes of Sinai: Rabbi Avi Hill

Every Jewish soul that would ever be was there, under the mountain, hearing the lightning and seeing the thunder — but over the centuries, some of those neshamos lost their way. Yet sometimes all it takes is a niggun to light up the path back home. We asked a selection of kiruv mentors: What’s the music that accompanies the message?    

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ABBI AVI HILL is the spiritual guide at Inspired Tel Aviv, an organization that provides Shabbos meals and educational programming for young professionals

HOW MUSIC AWAKENS JEWISH HEARTS

Music plays a greater role in kiruv now more than ever, as people today tend to be more in search of experiences which touch the soul and the heart, rather than seeking intellectual answers.

We weave music and singing through all our programming, from Friday night tish-style gatherings, to taking music along to the kever of a tzaddik at night, to singing at the death camps in Poland, to concerts overlooking Har Habayis and at Masada. I play the keyboard and drums, and we’ll take a guitarist and a singer along when we want to make it special.

For example, when we go to Amukah (the burial place of Rav Yonatan ben Uziel, and a segulah for finding one’s zivug) on a Motzaei Shabbos, we use music to create the atmosphere of a chuppah. We describe the holy majesty of a Jewish wedding and re-enact it musically, from the song welcoming the kallah to “Bo’ee Beshalom” and “Eishes Chayil” and dancing. It helps the young people imagine and pray for their own Jewish wedding.