08/05/2025
Death and mourning
As at all stages of Jewish life, the end of life and the mourning that follows are accompanied by rituals combining liturgical texts, symbolic gestures and sometimes, but more rarely, music …
07/05/2025
Religious Initiation (Bat and Bar Mitzvah)
The Bat or Bar Mitzvah marks the entry of boys and girls into religious adulthood. This religious initiation ceremony is marked by many liturgical and musical moments …
06/05/2025
Circumcision (Brit-Milah)
On the eighth day of life, the boys' circumcision is accompanied by poetic songs celebrating their entry into the Abrahamic Covenant …
19/11/2024
The wedding
The Jewish wedding is celebrated according to numerous customs and laws designed to bring out its full spiritual and material significance. In this article, we listen to the recitation of the 7 blessings in the Ashkenazi rite, taken from an historic recording made in 1933 …
14/04/2024
THE PASSOVER SEDER IN THE MOROCCAN RITE
In this article, we present the main songs and prayers of the Passover Seder evening, in the Moroccan rite …
10/12/2022
The songs of Chanukah
Discover the most important songs of Chanukah that punctuate the eight days of this Festival of Lights in the very heart of winter …
14/11/2022
Prayers to the tune of La Marseillaise!
The Jewish liturgy is full of surprises! In 1993, while I was coordinating the activities of the Yuval Association for the preservation of Jewish musical traditions, under the direction of …
13/09/2022
Rosh Hashanah Seder among North African Jews
The Rosh Hashanah Night Seder consists of the consumption of symbolic foods - known as simanim (signs) - and the recitation of prayers. This tradition dates back at least 2,000 years and was first celebrated in the communities of the Mediterranean Area …
17/02/2021
The Judeo-Portuguese rites in France : Bordeaux, Bayonne, Paris
Engaged in a PhD research work, Hervé Roten studied during seven years the music of the Judeo-Portuguese communities from all sides. He collected precious information, and his thesis that was defended in 1997 gives us the core of it. This work was rewarded by the Zadoc-Kahn Association Award in 1998. …
13/01/2021
Shabbat songs
The Shabbat, the day of rest, is a very important event of Jewish life. And the songs that rhythm this particular day hold a major place, at the synagogue as …
