25 September 2024 – by Richard Olswang
As part of the community’s pre-Rosh Hashanah programme, we were entertained with a wonderful evening of song and inspiration led by Rabbi Dov Cowan. Dov, accompanied by his guitar, led the singing of many favourite songs from Rosh Hashanah and year-round, such as L’Maan Achay V’Rey-Ay, Moichel Avonos Amo and Oseh Shalom Bimramov. The evening ended with a moving rendition of Hatikvah.
The singing was interspersed with inspirational stories and spiritual insights from Dov. We learned that Yom Kippur should be considered a happy rather than a sad day and how this is reflected in songs with melodies in major keys, rather than minor keys that are typically used on sadder occasions.
The event took place at the home of Aviva and John Wilford and over 30 people attended. Many thanks to Dov for the music, stories and spiritual insights, to Ingrid Segal and Rabbi Green for arranging the event and to Aviva and John for their hospitality.