| Indian chant,
with its undulating percussion and hypnotic call-and-response
choruses, is the quintessential trance music. As Hindus have
brought the devotional music to the West, world music fans,
New Age seekers, and others have tuned in. One is Susan Deikman,
a Jewish Renewal musician and composer in West Mount Airy.
Deikman, 42, a California native, has combined the ecstatic
Hindu music, known as kirtan, with Jewish mystical lyrics
- calling the fusion "kabbalistic kirtan." She and
her band of musician-friends on tabla, harmonium and the like
have gathered with a growing number of enthusiasts for several
evenings of participatory kirtan chant at the Yoga on Main
studio in Manayunk.
Deikman also has been invited to lead kirtan
programs at synagogues in Arizona and California, as well
as at the Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood and the 14th Street Y
in Manhattan.
Kirtan music is all directed upward in offerings
to the divine, with a single chant lasting as long as 10 minutes.
"By chanting the Names of God and devotional phrases"
or Hebrew mantras, Deikman says, "we enter into a vibrational
union with God."
One chant in Hebrew, for instance, is dodi li va'ani lo/ haroeh
ba-shoshanim ("I am my beloved's and you are mine; you
shepherd me among the roses"). Another is Ha-rakhaman,
hare hare! - Ha-rakhaman meaning "the merciful one."
Hare means "I see" in Aramaic, but the resemblance
to Hare Krishna chants is lost on no one.
"There is a co-creation that happens,"
she says. "I lead but am being fed by the group, so it
becomes unified. I always say a prayer at the beginning, to
myself: 'Adonai, open my lips, let me be a channel. Come to
me and let me serve the group and be open and aware,' because
it's like doing a worship service every time."
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Contact Faith Life editor Jim Remsen at 215-854-5621 or jremsen@phillynews.com.
Yoga on Main, 4363 Main St., will host kabbalistic kirtan
evenings once a month this fall. The next one is Friday, Aug.
13. Admission is $10. For information, call 215-482-7877.
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