Debbie Friedman: Passionate Prayer
Debbie Friedman: Passionate Prayer

By Yaffa Klugerman

 

Debbie Friedman's music speaks to the soul. Perhaps it's the sound of her voice, pure and clear as a bell, and her ability to effortlessly reach high notes. Maybe it's the words of the countless songs she composed, with many taken from traditional Jewish liturgy and set to contemporary melodies. Or perhaps it's because of the tangible passion for Judaism that is felt and communicated in each song as she strums her guitar.

 

Whatever the reason, Debbie's music is used today in hundreds of synagogues, camps and schools, and has impacted generations of Jews. During the concerts she gave throughout the world, her well-known compositions such as "Mi Shebeirach," "The Alef Bet Song," and "Miriam's Song" brought audiences to their feet. So her untimely and tragic death on January 9, 2011, at the age of 59, was a tremendous blow to the Jewish world.

 

In 2008, BabagaNewz chatted with Debbie about her then soon-to-be-released CD, "As You Go On Your Way: Shacharit—The Morning Prayers." The interview was never published, and that album, which would be her 22nd and her last, was released soon afterwards.

 

To commemorate Debbie's second yahrtzeit, we thought it would be fitting to run the interview. Even though Debbie is unfortunately no longer with us, her words about prayer are still relevant--and her music still lives on.

 

BABA: Hi, Debbie. Why did you decide to create a CD with songs from the shah.arit service?

DEBBIE: I have had this fantasy of doing this for ages. I wanted to make it possible for people who did not have access to tefillah or did not know tefillah to be able to have tefillah. If they have no other way to learn it, they can learn it like this. They can listen to it on their headphones while exercising, or going to work, and that's the way they can start their day. Anyone should be able to use it. The idea was to go after everyone, including those who are turned off to prayer, who find no use for it, and who cannot relate to it.

 

BABA: How does tefillah help connect us to each other?

DEBBIE: I think tefillah is love poetry. It's the most intimate kind of connection, because the most personal thing a human being can do is to stand in a community and divulge their most inner secrets. This CD can allow people to get in touch with those most personal parts of themselves that maybe they're not so comfortable with.

I think we keep our feelings and lives very controlled, and tefillah is a way in which we can become explosive with our good feelings, our sad feelings, and our angry feelings. It allows us to become really vulnerable to ourselves. It opens the door to our hearts and souls so we can look at the part of ourselves that is capable of anything good, anything bad, and anything in-between.

 

BABA: How do you think tefillah connects us to God?

DEBBIE: There's the horizontal and the vertical. I think that by connecting to one another with what goes on here in the world, that really affects what goes on in the heavens. The way in which we act toward one another, the kindnesses that we see and experience are little tastes, little nuggets, of what's going on vertically. I think that what we do affects what goes on in the heavens, and then it comes down to us and we're affected. Everything is circular.

But I also think that there's something Divine within each one of us, and one of our problems is that we live in a world that doesn't help us to see the Divine. That is where tefillah comes into play, because it helps us find that essential goodness. When you start the morning and say elohai neshama shenatata bee tehora hee, you are saying, "Thank you, God, that the soul you gave me is pure." Even though I may get caught up in nonsense throughout the day, every morning I have the opportunity to begin again and start fresh.

 

BABA: What role does music play in tefillah?

DEBBIE: Huge. I don't know the science of it, but if you think about it, it's much easier to remember a song than plain old words. If the song reflects the text, then you can teach the text through music. That way, even if people don't understand Hebrew, they can understand the text through the melody.

 

BABA: Why did you choose to compose Jewish songs?

DEBBIE: Because the very first song I wrote was "V'ahavta" in 1971, and I saw the way people responded to it. I taught it to a group of high school kids, and they stood with their arms around each other and they were just in tears. And these were the same kids who had just finished singing James Taylor, Carly Simon and Judy Collins. That song just took the country by storm. I made 1,000 records and had them sent to camp, and we sold those and had to order another 1,000. I was about 20 years old at the time, and it was completely a fluke.

 

BABA: How does prayer help you personally?

DEBBIE: It forces me to be in a community. It brings me out, when normally I would be more withdrawn.

Some people think that the shofar is a wake-up call, but I think that tefillah is a wake-up call. When we thank God for being able to bend our knees, it's a wake-up call to notice if our bodies are moving or not. Tefillah makes us see everything around us. It drives home the concept of the sun setting and the sun rising, and that another day has slipped by. It makes us think: What did we do today? How did we live this day to make a difference?

 

BABA: Your "Mi Shebeirach" song, a prayer that is traditionally said for someone who is ill, is extremely popular. Why do you think it speaks to so many people?

DEBBIE: Because you are publicly saying: I feel horrible. I'm terrified I'm going to die. I'm terrified of the way my body feels. I'm terrified of the way my body is failing me, and I have no control over it. How easy is it to say that? It's not easy to admit it. But people can relate to it.

 

BABA: You have also struggled with illness. How has that influenced your music?

DEBBIE: To be clear, I wrote "Mi Shebeirach" about three years before I got sick, so that song had nothing to do with my own struggle. But I'm sure my illness has had some impact on my music. If nothing else, I've experienced the frustration of not being able to get better. Or to get better some but not be completely out of the woods. Or to be completely dependent on medication in order to be able to function. That's very frustrating, but I go ahead like a bulldozer. I can't let it get in the way.

 

BABA: Prayer can be especially challenging for kids. How can kids learn to pray better?

DEBBIE: First, we have to be real with them, and talk to them about the world in which they are living, which is really a difficult and scary world. We have to talk to them about what's real, and then we can talk to them about the things they want to do that would make the world different. We divide them into groups to draw up a plan, and that plan is ultimately a prayer, because it has the right ingredients that a prayer needs. Then we tell them to write a prayer, and we let them use their own language, because we can't shove something down their throat.

 

BABA: Do you have a favorite song from those you've written?

DEBBIE: No, I don't really think about them that way. These are not just songs; they are truly prayers for me. And they are not mine. Anyone who writes songs for prayer and thinks that the songs belong to them is really on the wrong track. These don't belong to me. This was a gift that was given to me, and I got to be the vessel, but they're not mine.

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