The Cantor: From the Mishnah to Modernity

by Wayne Allen, Charles Heller (Foreword by)

Overview

Wayne Allen traces the evolution of the office of synagogue cantor as reflected in the primary sources of Jewish law as well as in Jewish lore from the third century to the present day. Allen explores the ambivalence of both Jewish authorities and the Jewish public toward the cantor and speculates on the future of the position.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532658327
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	05/10/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	302
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rabbi Wayne Allen is the author of three previous books and has taught at California State University Long Beach, the American Jewish University, and the University of Waterloo. He earned his doctoral degree from York University.

Wayne Allen, PhD, has taught at the American Jewish University, California State University Long Beach, and the University of Waterloo. He is also an ordained rabbi and author of Perspectives on Jewish Law and Contemporary Issues (2009) and Further Perspectives on Jewish Law and Contemporary Issues (2011).
Charles Heller is the award-winning author of What to Listen for in Jewish Music (www.ecanthuspress.com). He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Synagogue Music and has fifty years of experience as a composer and synagogue music director, working alongside the world’s leading cantors.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Rabbi Allen is clearly a proponent and supporter of cantors. He has been positively influenced and spiritually moved by them throughout his life and is convinced that the cantor is indispensable to Jewish worship specifically and to Jewish life in general. He regards many of the rules restricting cantors as ‘concessions to custom,’ and wrote this exposition of the cantor's role during the past 1900 years to help readers understand why it was always surrounded by controversy. He intends that this history of a most important position in synagogue life will ‘serve as a tool for accessing the past’ and assessing the future of what has emerged as the profession of cantor.”

—Journal of Synagogue Music

Editorial Reviews

Rabbi Allen is clearly a proponent and supporter of cantors. He has been positively influenced and spiritually moved by them throughout his life and is convinced that the cantor is indispensable to Jewish worship specifically and to Jewish life in general. He regards many of the rules restricting cantors as ‘concessions to custom,’ and wrote this exposition of the cantor's role during the past 1900 years to help readers understand why it was always surrounded by controversy. He intends that this history of a most important position in synagogue life will ‘serve as a tool for accessing the past’ and assessing the future of what has emerged as the profession of cantor.”

—Journal of Synagogue Music

From the Publisher