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Chapter 7 Thought Questions

1. Compare the kind of musical experience Jewish worshippers encountered  in the last years of the Jerusalem Temple with musical aspects of Jewish worship in the high middle ages.  What was the same, and what was different in their worship practice? To what would you attribute the differences?
   
2. Assume that you are chair of the "Committee on Gifts" for a large conservative synagogue in an urban community.  A wealthy congregant has offered to pay up to $500,000 for the sole purpose of installing a fine organ into the building “to beautify the services,” as the synagogue does not currently have one.  Your committee has met a number of times on this, and has carefully researched and argued the question of whether or not to accept this gift.  Write the final report to the congregation, with the committee’s decision and its justification.
   
3. A legitimate debate goes on in both synagogue and church over the place of  music in worship.  Outline the major points on both sides of that debate, citing authorities who held those positions where possible.
   
4. What were Salamone Rossi’s contributions to Jewish music?  What were the circumstances--social, political, religious--that allowed him to make those contributions? Do you think they were positive or negative?  Why?
   
5. What was the function of the synagogue “modes?”  Explain how—and why—they had that function. Are those modes still operative in Jewish music today? If so, in what music; if not, why not?