I was invited to live-blog the event in addition to offering some thoughts afterwards, and while it was tempting for someone of my generation to withdraw from the experience that I was a part of and dispassionately describe it for those who could not be there, I felt like it was a really great opportunity for me to let my rational self rest, and see what ideas came to me. And these are the thoughts that I felt were most worthy of being shared.
Text is static. Text is quantifiable. Texts needs study and discussion, and can be assessed objectively. Music is fluid. Music is not quantifiable. Music, in my opinion, is best experienced subjectively. Attending the Masa Opening Event on Monday night was an interesting contrast to how I am spending the vast majority of my time here in Jerusalem. Attending a concert at an event meant to inspire in me the importance of what I am doing here for a semester, and spreading that same message to others who are not doing so, strikes me as entirely appropriate. Telling friends and family back home that I spend around fifty hours per week studying texts is hardly inspiring. However, if I could put into words the musical experience of the Idan Raichel concert, that would be inspiring.
Put more theoretically, I spend all my time at Pardes being immersed in a particular – and dominant – form of human expression: the written word. Remembering that it isn’t the only one is important, and the Idan Raichel concert helped to remind me of just that. Without that reminder, it would be hard to blame one who thinks that all that is meaningful in the world is discoverable through text. As a student of Western analytic philosophy, this is a very real temptation. It is therefore even more important to be reminded that not all human experiences are quantifiable, or reducible to theory.
Full Disclosure: Masa Israel paid for me to attend the Opening Event, and due to copyright issues I cannot use a picture of Idan Raichel for this post.
Benjamin Barer is studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, one of Masa Israel’s 180 programs.
