Mi Shebeirach in Alex Berko’s Sacred Place

Mi Shebeirach in Alex Berko’s Sacred Place

I am grateful that Alex Berko’s Sacred Place has recently come to my attention due to a recent performance in Denver. I was unable to attend the performance, however, and this comment is not meant to reflect at all on the piece as a whole or on the musical aspect—just on the text and credit for Part IV and the background of the text used in this section. The text set by Berko as well as background information is found here: https://www.alexberko.com/sacred-place

Alex Berko credits the text of Part IV of his Sacred Place “Mi Shebeirach” (“May the One who blessed”) as coming from the Old Testament. However, the words of this movement are not Biblical at all, but rather adapted from a song by the late Debbie Friedman (1951-2011), with words by Debbie Friedman and Drora Setel.

Mi Shebeirach is the name of a prayer for health and healing found in most traditional prayerbooks as part of the Torah Reading section of the Jewish Sabbath morning services, that begnes with these two words. In less traditional congregations, this may be the only use of this formula; in the traditional Jewish prayer book, the words Mi Shebeirach begin a number prayers for other contexts as well: to seek blessings for the congregation as a whole (possibly the original usage of this formula), for someone called to the Torah and more. In practice, some versions of the Mi Shebeirach liturgy embody the expectation that the beneficiary or those praying on her or his behalf make gifts of charity.

In the American Reform movement, however, the prayerbook introduced in the 1970s and used in the 1980s and beyond (Gates of Prayer) had no Mi Shebeirach for healing, or any other version of this liturgy.

Friedman and Setel wrote the lyrics for Mi Shebeirach in 1987. Rabbi Setel recounted the story behind the lyrics in the Forward in 2011. The idea was to create a song that would resonate with the traditional Mi Shebeirach but reflect on what might be an appropriate prayer for someone who was not going to survive their illness, and to create gender balance. An important impetus for crafting this prayer was the AIDS crisis; at that time the first treatments were only beginning to emerge and the disease was almost always a death sentence. Rabbi Setel’s essay is worth reading: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/58727?lang=bi. and here: https://forward.com/opinion/134774/debbie-friedman-s-healing-prayer/

Friedman’s Mi Shebeirach quickly became popular in many Jewish circles, often replacing or supplementing the traditional Mi Shebeirach text in synagogues which recited it, and leading to its introduction in synagogues that had not had the practice for decades, if ever.

As noted, the text is not from the Hebrew Bible, indeed, no part of the text is a reworking of a Biblical text. Some of the language is found in the Talmud, the Prayer Book, or other post-biblical sources. The phrase Refu’ah Sheleimah “complete healing,” found in the Friedman song, is preserved in the wording of Sacred Place, indeed, repeated several times. This phrase occurs in one of the paragraphs of the traditional weekday Amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish worship service (Amidah means “standing”), which is recited three times a day in traditional Judaism. The prayer for health in the Amida precedes the Mi Shebeirach by centuries. Moreover, Refu’ah shelemah is often said to a person suffering from an illness even outside the liturgical context.

The Friedman/Setel text begins with Mi Shebeirach Avoteinu “May the One who blessed our ancestors;” as in the traditional text. Avoteinu is often used as inclusive-gendered “ancestors” but the literal meaning of avoteinu is “fathers” so they added Mekor ha-beracha le’imoteinu “The Source of blessing for our Mothers.” They switched the Divine referents in the second half of the prayer (Translation: “May the One who blessed our Mothers, Source of Blessings for our Fathers”). This original Hebrew wording is not included in Sacred Place; the English wording “Source of Strength,” which begins this Part in Sacred Place is a rough translation. Rabbi Setel relates that the wording Mekor ha-beracha “Source of Blessing” was specifically taken from the Sabbath hymn Lecha Dodi (16th century), where the source of blessing refers to the Sabbath itself, not to the Deity. Lecha Dodi was written in a Kabbalistic environment; clearly the Sabbath is a source of blessing to the other days of the week, but I am not sure I fully understand the Kabbalistic notions involved.

Kudos to Berko for using the Jewish prayer service as the inspiration and ordering principle for his composition. Berko, who grew up in a Jewish setting, has also adapted a verse from Exodus well known in Jewish prayer services in his composition Exodus. The other sections of Sacred Place do not use materials from the Jewish tradition although two of them are named for sections of the Jewish morning and evening services. Interestingly, in Sacred Place the “Amida” section precedes the “Shema” section. In Jewish morning and evening services in synagogues, even the most Reform or non-traditional, the Amidah (“Standing”) almost always comes after the Shema (Hear!), as it does, for example in the Bloch Sacred Service. I am not sure that any analogy makes sense, but it strikes me as akin to having the Sanctus or Credo precede the Gloria, which certainly might be acceptable in a work not meant for a divine service, or even based on the traditional text of the Mass, but would nevertheless appear to be strange to those familiar with the traditional Mass even if it might not be recognized as such by those with only a passing knowledge of it–of course a consideration irrelevant to the current context.

I wonder whether Berko’s Mi Shebeirach may be used in synagogues (or in worship for other faith communities) as a prayer for health and healing, or as a stand alone concert piece. I wonder whether Mr. Berko could adapt the piece to add the Hebrew!

My musings should be understood within the context of congratulations to Berko for his piece, and enthusiasm for ecological framework. I also believe that some who perform or hear the piece may find the additional background about the text set in Part IV to be of critical interest.

Seth Ward