Celebrating Dance, Jewish and Otherwise
Celebrating Dance, Jewish and Otherwise.
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“We can determine that God’s heart was to create the dance. It was His chance and purpose to make it an acceptable, enjoyable, valuable, delightful thing, fulfilling His desire with the purpose of bringing Him pleasure according to His will.” (Dr. Ann Stevenson).
Old Movie Stars Dance to Uptown Funk – YouTube
DANCE: A physical art form that uses the body to perform an energetic and creative expression of an idea, a story, or an inner emotion; a movement of one’s body in a rhythmic way for the purposes of self-expression, aesthetic beauty, personal pleasure, joyful celebration, or religious worship. Dancing is expressed in a practically endless variety of movements to unending styles of music. Dance is a universal language that is an important part of every culture that we know about. This article includes a wide variety of forms of dancing. Enjoy!
Pharrell Williams – Happy (Video)
Holy Dancing. Despite the resurgence of dance worship in a variety of churches, the history of dancing with the Christians is a bit spotty. Physical worship has never had resistance in Judaism, however. The Israelites have enjoyed praise dancing in their worship seemingly forever, according to the Hebrew Bible. Holy dance has always been embraced in Hebrew worship as a physical expression of heartfelt praise for the Lord, joyful celebration and even reverence for God’s holiness. Psalm 149:1-3 is another biblical call to dance: “Hallelujah! Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the faithful’s assembly. Let Israel rejoice in its Maker, Zion’s children exult in their King! Let them praise His Name in dance, on the timbrel and lyre let them hymn to Him.” Two important examples of holy dancing in worship of Yahweh are:
אליחנה ״שירת הים״ (שמות פרק טו) Elihana “SONG OF THE SEA” Exodus 15 שיר חדש לפסח!!!!
- Miriam dancing at the Red Sea. “Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!’”(Acts 15:20-21, Exodus 15).
- David dancing before the Ark. “So David went and brought up the Ark of God to the city of David with rejoicing. And David danced before the Lord, whirling about with all his might, wearing a priestly loincloth, with shouting and with the sound of the horns… leaping and dancing before the Lord;and David said, ‘I was dancing before Yahweh, making merry out of pure enjoyment… And I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!” (2 Samuel 6).
Lord Of The Dance Hymn (Contemporary Worship Song) – YouTube
Jewish Roots of Holy Dance. Physical worship and celebration in the Jewish tradition would also include the Simchat Torah Dance, the torch dances of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the sheer joy of Jewish wedding dances…
1.Simchat Torah Dance. When the two Hebrew words “simchat” and “giyl” are used together in this celebration, they mean to spin around in joy in honor of the Torah; to dance with exuberant gladness as a celebration of Scripture; to rejoice together with ecstatic delight in corporate worship as the Torah scroll is literally held up high.
DANCING WITH THE TORAH🕺🏾🔥🕺🏾 – YouTube
“How I love your teaching (Torah), Lord! All day long it is my theme. Your commands, Lord, make me wiser than my enemies; I have understood more than all my teachers; I have gained more insight than the elders; how sweet to my tongue is your Word, more than honey to my mouth. From your directions I have gained discernment, therefore I have hated all the paths of lies and deceit… May your mercies fall on me, that I may live, for your instruction (Torah) is my delight!” (Ps. 119:97-109, 77).
WE WILL DANCE (Sing A Song Of Celebration) Lyrics
The Joy of God’s Word. The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (the Septuagint), commonly called the Old Testament, was the Bible of Jesus, the Scripture that He loved so much. It is full of references to how God’s Word, the Torah, was a source of delight for the Jews. The Hebrew Bible has been an invaluable source of joy for the Jews for thousands of years. Faithful Jews knew that the Torah was their way of discovering God’s will, God’s instructions for how they should live, their only true guidance in a confusing world. The longest chapter in all of Scriptures is Psalm 119, with its 176 verses. The entire psalm is dedicated to honoring the Torah, and it centers on how much joy and delight a believer takes in God’s word. The word Torah has been translated as the “Law” by most English translations for some reason, and that is unfortunate. Jews do not understand Torah to mean Law, but instead God’s teaching, instruction, guidance, direction. The Jews are so thankful that the Lord graciously didn’t leave them on their own to try to figure out life with God. They didn’t have to guess how to please their Lord, how to follow His direction for a blessed life. So, to the faithful Jews, Psalm 119 is a heartfelt celebration of the virtues of Torah, and its importance in their daily life with God. Rather than the straitjacket of the Law with its primary focus on rules and regulations, Torah was a life-giving, practical, tangible sign from God that He loved them and would be a faithful Lord for them through life.
Faithful Jews celebrate Scripture as a tangible sign of God’s mercy and wisdom. This ethic of celebration of Scripture has been wonderfully amplified since the early medieval era when the Simchat Torah became a valued tradition in Judaism. Simchat Torah is an ecstatic ceremony in the synagogue that celebrates their gratitude for Scripture and their love of God’s Word. The celebration is sheer joy and merriment. Some aspects of Simchat Torah:
- As is customary in the synagogue, Jewish worshippers read a portion of Torah each week from the first five books of the Bible, so that by the end of a religious year, the entire Torah would be read. It is time then to celebrate the Torah! The ceremony always brings an end to the High Holy Day season in Judaism, a joyous closure to all those feasts and festivals.
MercyMe – Happy Dance (Official Music Video)
- The ceremony occurs in the evening at the synagogue, when the rabbi takes the Torah scrolls out of their special holding place called the ark, and all the people form a single file line behind the rabbi as he holds the Torah up high for all to see. They then begin to raucously dance and sing as they complete seven circuits around the stage on which the pulpit rests. It’s similar to a long exuberant conga line as they continue to make their rounds in the boisterous celebration. During these seven circuits around the stage, they are whistling, singing, dancing, clapping hands, hoisting children onto the adults’ shoulders, and generally getting lost in the joy and mayhem. Men and women both participate, men with men, women with women, and young daughters with their fathers. Most participants in the Simchat Torah have said that, “You have never seen joy until you have seen the Simchat Torah!”
André Rieu – When The Saints Go Marching In
- The completely unbridled joy of the ceremony expects everyone to participate for as long as it takes, sometimes several hours. There is no need to be self-conscious, because no one is self-conscious! We are rejoicing in the Torah, they sing, God’s Word for us! Rabbi Solomon Schecter once said about the Simchat Torah: “Think of King David dancing before the ark! David praised God with every limb in his body, and with his head, his eyes, his mouth, his ears, his throat, his tongue, his lips, his heart, his hands, and with his feet!”(as told in Marvin Wilson’s great book, Exploring our Hebraic Heritage).
- It is commonly understood that the participants become the “feet” of the Torah as it is carried around the synagogue. Many a time the celebrants bring the Scrolls out into the street to continue the celebration in full public view, sharing their joy in God’s Word.
- Just before dancing begins, the end of Deuteronomy is read, and then the beginning of Genesis. There is much joy in completing the reading cycle each year, just as there is an exciting sense of anticipation as they begin a new year of reading the Torah once again. While dancing and singing the traditional chants, biblical prayers and even children’s songs, the participants have time to think about what they have learned in the past year as they rejoice at what new truths they can learn from Torah the next year. The participants have plenty of time to think, as the celebration often lasts into the early hours of the morning.
When The Spirit Of The Lord – Legacy Nashville (Live from Presence Night Vol. II)
- The energetic celebration of Simchat Torah is also an act of gratitude for the privilege of being given the Scripture from the holy God, and an act of faith that they will submit to God’s will as revealed in the Torah. This is known as “glorifying the Torah,” holding the Scripture high in honor of its glorious presence in the world. The Torah is considered the most important knowledge in all the earth, and the study of Torah is considered the highest act of worship. Scripture is a heavenly treasure brought to earth, and brings profound joy and fulfillment to those who believe it and digest and live it out. The faithful Jews are indeed the People of the Book.
James Brown Best Dance Moves Ever. He’s just – adorable. Isn’t it? – YouTube
- Torch Dancing at the Feast of the Tabernacles. This psalm specifically written for the Feast gives us a sense of the celebration: “Sing gladly to God our strength, shout out to the God of Jacob. Lift your voices in song and beat the drum, the lyre is sweet with the lute. Blast the ram’s horn on the new moon, when the moon starts to wax for our festival day.” (Psalm 81:1-3). This Hebrew “Feast of Joy” was celebrated once a year in Jerusalem, and it was by far the most festive of all the biblical feasts in Judaism. One exciting event that took place every night for six nights in the Temple Court was knowns as the “Fire Ceremony.” The Temple priests and elders put on an unforgettable light show of their own before all the thousands in attendance. Light was celebrated in two ways: the blessed memory of the pillar of fire during the wilderness journey; and the celebration of God’s Shekinah glory of light filling the Holy of Holies with His presence. Light was also an expectation as believing Jews anticipated the universal return of the Shekinah to all the believers in God in the fullness of time. During the Fire Ceremony, there would be four gigantic lampstands (menorahs) set up in the Temple court, each about 75 feet high! Each lampstand had four branches with huge wicks soaked in oil and were constantly burning through the night. There was so much light in the Temple that it was reported that every home in Jerusalem was lit with the Temple lights. Around the giant lampstands a group of elders with lit torches danced around the Temple courtyard, dancing and waving the torches, throwing them into the air and catching them again. While the Torch Dances were in full motion, there were a group of priests accompanying the dancers with harps, lyres, cymbals, trumpets, and other instruments. And then these priests positioned themselves on the top of the Temple’s famous Fifteen Steps leading downward. They would then sing one of the Hallel Psalms (Ps. 113-118 and other psalms that begin with Hallelujah) on each step, descending each step in unison, until they reached the bottom step and finished singing those psalms. This was all quite the spectacle, and it was said that, “Anyone who has not seen the rejoicing of the Fire Ceremony in his life has never truly seen rejoicing.” Astoundingly, it was the day following the Feast, when everyone still had their minds swimming with the images of light, that Jesus declared ,”I Am the Light of the World!” (John 8:12). This was an obvious claim to deity in this context of the Feast. It would have been equivalent to Jesus saying, ” I AM the pillar of fire!” or “I AM the Shekinah glory!” This took serious chutzpah on the part of Jesus, and don’t we love Him for that!
Fiddler on the Roof (10/10) Movie CLIP – The Bottle Dance (1971) HD – YouTube
- The Jewish Wedding Dances. The Jewish wedding was an important time to celebrate with dancing, not only for the blessing of enjoying another marriage, but also because every wedding ceremony was in memory of the spiritual wedding covenant on Mr. Sinai between Yahweh and His Chosen People. Thus, there was intense celebration at every wedding! Here are a couple of exhilarating examples… The one video is a clip from the classic dancing scene from the Fiddler on the Roof, and the other video is contemporary example of how the Jewish wedding has maintained that joy of dancing through the centuries.
Most epic Jewish wedding dance – YouTube
Jesus did nothing to discourage dancing during His ministry on earth. He undoubtedly continued participating in religious dances, since He was so fully Jewish in all His ways. His most famous parable, the Prodigal Son, ends with celebrating, singing and dancing at the feast given by the Father in the son’s honor. (Luke15). We know that to “rejoice” literally means to jump for joy, to leap with gladness of heart, and isn’t it wonderful that Luke spoke of Jesus “rejoicing greatly” in Luke 10:21. I like to imagine our Lord twirling and whirling and jumping for joy.
Gangstagrass – All For One (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)
The first five centuries of Christian worship more or less followed in their Judaic roots. There was dancing during worship and in festive processionals. They made distinctions between holy dancing in church and pagan dancing during their profane worship. In the mid-fourth century a church leader wrote this to his church members on Palm Sunday, “Rejoice in the highest, daughters of Zion! Rejoice and be glad! Leap boisterously! For behold, once again the King approaches. Once again perform choral dances, leap wildly, ye Heavens; sing hymns, ye Angels, and all you who dwell in Zion, and dance the ring dances.” The sainted Gregory of Nyssa (4th C.) even went so far as to describe Jesus as “the One and Only Choreographer, the leader of dances on earth and in heaven.” Look at the lyrics of this song, and the picture of Jesus dancing with children, and be happy that He is the Lord of the Dance.
Jon Batiste – FREEDOM – YouTube
When reading the quote above referring to the “choral dance” and the “ring dance,” it is referring to the most popular type of dancing in worship during the early days of the Christian Church. The name of the dance was the “Tripudium,” which means simply “Three.” Each dancer would put his/her hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them, and take three steps forward and one step back, symbolizing our walk with God as progressing a few steps and then inevitably making a mistake, and then progressing forward again. The dancers would use these steps as they danced in circles, whether around the churchyard, in the streets, or even around the altar in the church sanctuary. Many contemporary Christian churches have continued the dancing of the Tripudium in worship, including the church in this video clip. Watch this video to the end and you will see how it is done during worship in their church, which as it happens, is called St. Gregory of Nyssa.
Some early Church leaders, including Augustine and Chrysostom, began to frown on dancing in worship because it was starting to resemble the pagan forms of dancing in their worship. So for the most part until the Reformation, church worship dance was somewhat limited to festive and expressive processionals during the worship service. The Reformation put an end to that as well, and the result has been a tradition of Protestant churches frowning on dancing during worship.
Swing Kids (1993) – The Benny Goodman Orchestra – Sing, Sing, Sing
Those churches that hold square dance parties or special Prom nights know how enjoyable, and how much of a community-builder, dancing together can be. There remain though a few Christian churches that continue to express themselves physically during worship. The African American tradition is to enjoy physical worship as an expression of joy and celebration. This wonderful video of Rev. Charles Jenkins in a huge African American church reveals how much other churches are missing. Enjoy this!
Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago – War (Live) – YouTube
When we use our bodies to physically express ourselves honorably with excellence and joy, without anything irreverent or unholy, I believe we truly honor God with our bodies.
“Pas de Deux” from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (Rudolf Nureyev and Merle Park)
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness! My soul will sing praise to you and will not be silent! O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” (Psalm 30:11-12).
Song of Hope – We Will Dance Again | Jewish Soulful Music תשעה באב | עם ישראל חי Am Yisrael chai!