JEWISH DANCE –ANDY RAINE

Jewish dance may be important to us as Christians for a number of reasons. I wish to point out some of these, and add some additional material from the encyclopedia Britannica.
The first and greatest commandment God gave His people, that even today, Jewish people have written on tiny scrolls and fixed on their doorposts in little covers about 2” long (these are called mezuzahs) is this:

“Hear O Israel. The Lord your God is one Lord.
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with All thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
(Deut. 64-5. Matthew 22, 36 etc.)

The most whole hearted general response to this commandment by the Jewish people was in the days of King David, and, as part of this, dance was a notable f?, not only of David’s own personal worship, but of the priestly, Levitical, and popular worship of David’s tabernacle and Kingdom.

Why could Jewish dance be important to today’s Christians?

1. This God is our God
Much traditional dance is worship or praise to the God the people serve. Also particular beliefs and attitudes concerning life, relationship, work, sex, death, and soon are often expressed in the folk-dance of different peoples. We would obviously hesitate to adopt or adapt Hindu dancing for Christian purposes. Much other dance is also off-limits or inappropriate. Jewish folk dance however, almost universally expresses values and beliefs held also by Christian believers. No wonder. For Jewish God is our God.

2. The Male Dancer
In our time, the male dancer is often thought of as effeminate, (Especially ballet dancers!) and where that is not the case, the man who dances will often appear violent, or overtly sensual by contrast. In much partner dancing, the woman is the focus of attention, and the man at best, an also-ran. Consider in contrast to this, Jewish dancing. Here we find a vibrant, joyful, thoroughly masculine form of dance, without the need for the man to project an artificial aggressiveness such as we see in much disco dancing etc. today. Not uniquely, but certainly characteristically, Jewish dance has a positive attitude to male sexuality, that is wholesome, not obsessive. The dance for a Jewish man is an expression of his whole male person. It is the same whole person who laughs, who loves, who works, who worships. This vision of the wholeness of life and man should make our whole live a prayer, and allow us to bring our whole self to the dance. The world’s image of the Christian man is also of someone weak, effeminate, irrelevant, or ineffective, or of a religious maniac, “do gooder” or con man. For an interesting study, watch how many tames in TV dramas, soap operas etc. folk are presented as Christians, and see how rarely these are positive presentations.) Christian men in dance, must portray the wholeness of life Christ gives us- rather than falling into feminine forms of expression. Let male Jewish dancing be an example to us….

3. Respectable attitude to women.
Just as a man is more than just a sexual object, so as ? is a woman! Yet many forms of dance focus blatantly on the woman as no more than this. Jewish dance is almost universally free of this tendency. Hallujah!

4. Men & Women
Most Jewish dancing is circular, and can be mixed or for either sex. A lot of Jewish dancing is for Jewish men or for groups of Jewish women. Even when men & women do dance together, the respect accorded to the women is reflected in the patterns of the dance. This is becoming true now of much new Christian dance. In contrast, the underlying assumptions of much country dancing, modern dance etc. when we examine them, would seem to be a norm of promiscuity or of flaunting the lady in such a way as to make other men covetous! A Jewish/ Christian view would 1) question the validity of progressing from one partner to another in any dance suggesting intimacy between partners, and, 2) accept the expression of tenderness as perhaps appropriate for couples, but question the appropriateness of dance expressing the specifically sexual or too intimate in public.

5. Adoption
The apostle Paul tells us, that we, as Christians, are grafted into the Jewish olive. We are becoming brothers of Jesus. We serve a Jewish Jesus, share the same Father. We are Jews by adoption. Our new birth is into a essential Jewish family, the Zion of God. Now, nobody can tell us we have to absorb Jewish culture. But if we wish to it is part of our birth right. Jewish dance is more truly the cultural heritage of the Christian than the national folk dance of his original country.

6. His People
The Jews have been a people among many peoples, and this is reflected in their dancing, which has slowly adsorbed cultural influence of many sorts (e.g. Polish, Russian, Greek.)
We are in a similar situation, needing the Spirit of God, to filter what cultural we absorb from the world, to show us what is legitimate for us, and what is not. What are the criteria? Paul said: Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good report, if there be any virtue, and if these be any praise, think these things.”

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From Encyclopedia Britannica
There was no Jewish theatre as such, until the Yiddish Theatre Co., in 1876. Until then, only the pageantry of song, dance and processional of the traditional holidays. Autumn harvest festival, Sukkot, there were dance processions around the altar on the first day, a torch procession, the next. The water drawing Festival of Sukkot, was a traditional occasion for dances and acrobatics through the night. “Maidens were allowed to dance the vineyard dance.” (To woo prospective grooms) Men danced to praise God. Jewish brides, until the middle ages would dance, brandishing a sword, to symbolize warding something off. (We don’t know which – evil spirits, or other suitors!) There was no mixed partner dancing except with close relatives, even at weddings. In fact, a handkerchief dance developed, whereby couples could dance holding the ends of the same handkerchief but never actual touching.

Purim
The festival of commemorating the deliverance of the Jewish people from an evil plot, the entire story of which comprises the book of Esther, was a time of costume, pageantry, song and dance. (Some times the fire dance was considered a hazard and banned by non-Jewish local authorities.)
“The Palestinian hora resembles the early harvest dances. It blends peasant vigor, with Hasidic ecstasy and abandon. It has become popular dance with Jewish young people the world over.”

Hasidic Dance
“The Hasidic cult (devoted to mysticism and opposed to secular study and Jewish rationalism) which became popular among the Ashkenazi (Eastern European Yiddish- speaking) Jews in the early 18th century, was distinguished by the religious fervor and joy of its adherents. Their devotion and exaltation was expressed in a spontaneous dance wherein each individual sought “Devekut” (a unity with God.) The Hasid sways in prayer, or dances either alone or in a circle, with his brethren, as they hold each others shoulders or waists: the Rabbi often dances alone, or leads the others. The height of Hasidic dancing occurs in their synagogues on Simhat Torah (“Rejoicing the Law”) when the Rabbi leads his followers in a dance whilst he embraces the Torah, (the first five books of the Old Testament) close to his heart.”