Shofar Libretto – Catherine Madsen

Shofar – Libretto by Catherine Madsen

Shofar

An oratorio for soprano, tenor, two bass-baritones, chorus and orchestra

Libretto by Catherine Madsen

Music by Robert Stern

Tekiah: Whole

The chaos of creation resolves into the order of God’s name and the revelation at Sinai

Orchestral prelude

Men’s Chorus, first in disjointed syllables, then in phrases: EHYEH ASHER EHYEH I AM THAT I AM [Exod. 3:14]

Bayom hahu yihyeh Adonai echad ushmo echad [Zech. 14:9: On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.]

Chorus: Restore to us the Torah as it was:

no more illusion, no more trade in lies,

the heart not turning from a rapt restraint,

the heavy ear not turning from God’s voice.

Restore to us the Torah as it was

when the commands at Sinai made us faint. [Jose ben Jose/cm]

Tenor Solo: That there were signs and wonders

the sullen cloud of smoke and thunder

the horn to cry exceeding loud

the God of deliverance and terror

this we always knew

But not this: that when the law was given

no bird sang or flew

no ox cried out, no creature spoke

no wind blew

the seraphs’ Holy, holy

fell silent at the glory

Women’s Chorus, the sea swung calm, the mountain stood

concurrently: the silence spread;

We saw the sound the thunder driven inward

we heard the sight the unvoiced aleph uttered

of spoken light where it could not be altered

I am the Lord your God. [cm, after Exodus Rabbah 29:9]

Orchestral interlude

Chorus: Awake, awake,

for your light has come; rise, shine,

awake, awake, make a song,

for the Lord’s glory is revealed in you. [Isa. 51:17, 60:1, Judges 5:12]

God: For this commandment that I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say:

Women’s Chorus: Who will go up for us into heaven and fetch it us, that we may hear and do?

God: Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say:

Men’s Chorus: Who will go over the sea for us and fetch it us, that we may hear and do?

God: But the word is very nigh unto you, in your mouth and your heart, that you may do it.

Tenor: And all the people answered together, and said:

Chorus: All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. [Deut. 30:11-14]

Duet: Ani l’dodi v’dodi li [Song of Songs 6:3: I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.]

The duet is interrupted.

Shevarim: Broken

The making of the golden calf and the breaking of the tablets; the people’s faithlessness to God

Tenor: And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, they gathered and came to Aaron and said to him: Up and make us a god to go before us: for this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him. [Exod. 32:1]

Chorus: This unknown God

who sends us unknown food

this insubstantial manna

we cannot store or plant:

Is this our father?

Is this our comfort?

what comfort can we take from no-one’s hand?

We wander without land

and have no altar for a god to stand

and have no worship we can comprehend. [cm]

Tenor: And the people plucked the earrings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took them from their hands and worked it and made it into a calf of molten metal. And they said:

Chorus: This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. [Exod. 32:3-4]

Orchestral interlude

Chorus: Sit down to eat and drink

rise up to sing and dance [Exod. 32:6]

Soprano: O the image

behold the graven image

the image and the likeness

bow down to it and serve it

The dance is interrupted.

Moses: Alone between earth and sky
I speak with God
who heard your cry in bondage, and brought you here
You feel the fear
of freedom, the vacancy of time
the burden of your debt
to a new and unknown master
His word may do you injury
as it did me
he will remake you
into some unknown thing
your heart, your soul, your might
as he did me
to lift me to this height
and bring me here
where all of heaven is a sounding ear
I feel no fear [cm]

Tenor: And Moses turned his back and went down from Sinai, the two tablets of witness in his hand. And the tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, graven on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the voice of the people in its clamor, he said to Moses: There is a noise of war in the camp. And Moses said: It is not the sound of victory nor of defeat, but the sound of singing. [Exod. 32:15-18]

Orchestral interlude

And as soon as he came near the host and saw the calf and the dancing, his wrath waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hand, and broke them at the hill foot. And he took the calf they had made and burned it with fire, and stamped it into powder and strewed it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it. [Exod. 32:19-20]

God: The misery of love

as a father weeps a child he cannot love

I weep your turning

I offered freedom

you received it as constraint

you bring with you the taint

of servitude and scorning

Unlovable people, love me

O be my good child

may these broken tablets break your hearts

your lovelessness breaks mine [cm]

III

Teruah: Smashed

God’s faithlessness to the people

God: As a father rages

unreasoning and wild

I will pursue you

through all the bitter ages

accusing my bad child

That first confirmed suspicion

shall work like poison

and all your days I will declare your shame

To your father Abraham I promised

and it shall be fulfilled

I swear it in my name: [cm]

I will make your seed as the dust of the earth. [Gen. 13:16]

Tenor: They have made them molten images of their silver, according to their own cunning; they appoint men to sacrifice to them, they kiss calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, as the early dew that passes, as the chaff whirled away from the threshing floor, as the smoke out of the chimney. [Hos. 13:2-3]

Orchestral interlude

Chorus: We received the Torah on Sinai

and in Lublin we gave it back.

Dead men don’t praise God,

the Torah was given to the living. [Jacob Glatstein]

Soprano: Breath, against our will, is praise –

a shriek is vital sign –

the mouth that opens on a curse

takes blessing halfway in –

the air insinuates its gift –

the lungs, compulsive, hoard –

and blood – the traitor in our veins –

Soprano and Chorus: rejoices in the Lord – [cm]

the Lord’s glory is revealed in you

Men’s and Women’s Choruses, alternating:

Do not defend the ways of men

to God and not the ways of God

to men for each of them has turned

aside and each has found it hard

to listen when the other was

the one who was in question and

for each the one atonement is:

begin again. [Allen Mandelbaum, Chelmaxioms]

Tekiah g’dolah: Whole

The renegotiation

Tenor: And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And Moses said to the Lord:

Moses: Consider that this nation is your people.

God: My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.

Moses: If your presence go not with us, do not make us leave this place.

God: I will do as you have spoken; for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.

Moses: O show me your glory!

God: I will make all my good go before you; I will cry my name before you, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and cover you with my hand as I pass by. And then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen. [Exod. 33:13-23, selections]

Sopranos and Tenors: O my dove, who hides in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see your face, let me hear your voice. [Song of Songs 2:14]

Tenor: And Moses hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Sinai. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and stood with him there. And when the Lord walked before him, he cried:

God: Adonai, Adonai, el rachum v’chanun, erech apayim, v’rav chesed v’emet, notzer chesed l’alafim, noseh avon va’feshah, v’chatah v’nakeh.

Moses: God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, full of kindness and truth, keeping kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, error and sin, and restoring innocence. [Exod. 34:4-7]

Chorus: All things turn toward their center

where mercy waits forever

all vows are here unspoken

both yours and ours are broken

You hover at the center

our lover not our master

whose love is everlasting

who hangs the earth on nothing

Each craved a kinder lover

we only have each other

we make the world together

there is no other labor [cm]

Duet [soprano and tenor] with chorus: Ani l’dodi v’dodi li

Notes

In translating the biblical verses I have relied on a mixture of William Tyndale’s 1630 translation, the King James Version, the Jewish Publication Society’s recent translation, and my own sense of what is singable. I have trimmed syllables where I could do so without altering the meaning. – cm

“Restore to us the Torah as it was…” After Jose ben Jose, ca. 6th century C.E. In Liturgical and Secular Poetry of the Foremost Mediaeval Poets, ed. Joseph Marcus [New York: Anglo-Hebrew Publishing Co., 1933, 116].

“Ani l’dodi…” There is a tradition that the Song of Songs was given at the foot of Sinai. Rabbi Akiva: “Had the Torah not been given to Israel, the Song of Songs would have sufficed for the conduct of the world.”

“The misery of love…” After Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, lecture on the Golden Calf narrative, Smith College, 22 October 1998.

“We received the Torah on Sinai…” From “Dead Men Don’t Praise God,” in The Complete Poems of Jacob Glatstein, translated from the Yiddish by Ruth Whitman [New York: October House, 1972]. Used by permission of Ruth Whitman’s estate.