Rising Song Community Spotlight: Miriam Blau

Interview with Miriam Blau by Liz Feldman, November 2021

Tell us a little about you and your background...

Even my name does not have a simple answer! I have been going by Miriam for a long time, but my legal name is Ellen Blau.

Miriam was the Hebrew name given to me at birth but I officially took it as my every day name at the Torah on one Rosh HaShanah. There has been an ongoing process of claiming my "Miriamship." It’s a part of my leadership in Jewish contexts.

I’m a psychologist and have been in private practice for over 30 years in Seattle.

Let’s talk a little about your Jewish background, and how you got involved with Jewish music.

I’m very culturally Jewish; I went to Hebrew school when I was young, in a Reform congregation in New Jersey. As an adult, I had not been involved in Jewish religious practices for many years. But when my daughter was about four, I looked for a way to start immersing her in Jewish community. I found out that Rabbi David Wolfe-Blank (z”l) was coming to lead a local Jewish renewal congregation, Congregation Eitz Or, and that completely launched me back into Judaism and Torah. It is a small, connected Jewish community. David heard that I was a musician and a singer, and even though I really hadn't been in synagogue for 30 years he asked me to come up on the bimah and learn to lead. It was in 1996 that I started appearing “up front.” However, the first service I ended up actually leading was a Selichot service in 1998, right after David died in a terrible car accident. The last time I saw him he had been teaching me the Selichot melodies and prayers so I could co-lead services. So it’s been a pretty intense journey into Jewish leadership. I’ve been a singer-musician my whole life, and as soon as I re-discovered Judaism I was called into musical leadership. I created and started leading a Shabbat song circle, singing at services and holiday observances,  and teaching music at our little Sunday school. I became the “Music Shomeret” on the Board. There was a need, and I feel there's been literally a clear calling for me all the way along.

So although I was launched somewhat reluctantly at first on this journey, it’s been a wondrous journey! I was incredibly blessed to be able to apprentice with many amazing rabbis and cantors who filled in after David died. I was the recipient of all this loving guidance! I got asked to do things here and there gradually. Oftentimes I felt like I wasn’t ready. But it chose me; I didn’t choose it. By 1998, I became the "music shomeret" [keeper of music] and then I started leading music at High Holiday services. Now I’ve been on the bimah nearly every High Holy Day cycle since then.

Another influence on me was Rabbi Shefa Gold. She asked me to lead services with her; she's who made my Hebrew name my official name at the Torah. I learned from Shefa and others that you’re not up there for you—you are there to serve, not to show what a beautiful voice you have, not to perform. Chant is a very powerful gateway and we get to some threshold together. My voice is my gift, but this gift isn’t for me; it’s to share. Our gifts are blessings meant to be shared. My voice invites others into a pathway to the divine. 

Wow, that’s quite a story. Can you talk a little bit about your preparation - about how you choose melodies and how you create the experience that you are sharing?

Great question. It's evolved; I’ve been providing musical support with different leaders for years, various rabbis, and if they want to do it a certain way, I defer to them. Then for the past 12 or 13 years, I have been on the bimah for High Holidays. ​​I had learned mostly Jewish renewal style melodies, and I try to pick things that are singable and familiar. If you have enough time it turns out it’s the preparation that becomes my teshuvah process every year. I love the immersion in the process. I started chanting Kol Nidrei five or six years ago. Of course, preparation this year and last was very different because of Zoom services, so I actually did some pre-recording of music and harmony, harmonized with myself. I couldn’t stand to do Avinu Malkeinu and not hear the gorgeous harmonies. It was a lot of preparation. We all felt this year that Zoom, while it has its limitations, created kind of an intimacy, and an ability for us to be together.

How did you find your way to Rising Song and Joey Weisenberg?

I was working with a rabbi here who had been to Hadar’s Rising Song Intensive in person, and I wasn’t at that time that interested in learning new melodies, actually. And then we started singing some of Joey’s melodies at Eitz Or, my congregation. And oh, the experience of singing "Ya’aleh"—with clarinet, drumming, guitar, harmonies—it was incredible! So we were singing Joey’s songs, and then,during the pandemic, somehow Joey kept showing up everywhere - on Facebook Live, etc. I found Joey first, and then Rising Song Institute, and I just started participating - it’s one of those pandemic silver lining opportunities because they started doing a lot more online. I discovered Hadar’s Project Zug, and the Torah of Music was offered through that.

Prior to this, Rebekka Goldsmith was a music leader at Eitz Or. She is incredible!

For her application to be a Rising Song Resident, she had a few of us over to be recorded doing her improvisational toning and singing. I was very excited about it, and then she told me about Joey's book, The Torah of Music. You didn't want a simple answer, right?! Many roads led me…

That's what's so interesting! Everyone's journeys are nonlinear. Life is nonlinear. So you're describing a process that is rich, full, circular or spiral.

My process is that I sit and tune into people, and tune into the energy in the room; I work very hard on making the energetic connection with my voice. I might close my eyes; it's very meditative for me. My rabbi, David, used to say that it's important for the rabbi or cantor to hold the leadership baton - you are holding the focus on the energy, and then you hand it off very consciously to the next leader. When you watch Joey or Deborah Sacks Mintz lead, they’re not conducting—they lead by gathering the energy and the focus in the room. Look at some of their music videos. To me, musical leadership is just this intense focus: There is one leader, they are connected to each other, they will feel her rhythm.

Let’s close with any questions you have for other folks in Joey’s Master Classes?

I have a question about striking a balance between teaching a melody in a directive way, versus entering into a prayer service. It partly depends on how complex the nigun is; I remember Joey talking about this several times. I think it is OK to actually teach a song or a chant in a service. This is a disagreement that I've had with leaders who don't think it's right to teach a melody on Shabbat. And so the dilemma is: How you introduce something new, but you don't want it to be a classroom?

Also, I wanted to thank you for this opportunity - I’m happy to have talked about this wondrous journey!