It has always been a pleasure to hear the lilting speech of people from Jamaica and other Caribbean Islands. This week, I was on a railroad journey, heading from the Hamptons, to the city in a fairly empty train car. A group of college-aged people were spread out in the two aisles of rows behind me. Apparently, they were Jamaicans on vacation heading to NYC for more fun. Mostly they seemed to be making plans and discussing their adventures. They were speaking joyously, loudly back and forth to each other, sometimes overlapping and also speaking occasionally on cell phones, even while other conversations continued.

It wasn't what they were saying, but how they were saying it that fascinated me. With their lilting speech sprinkled Patois, it was as if they were singing accapella. [Accapella means unaccompanied by musical instruments.]

As they were speaking I focused on reading a book about the writing of the Hebrew Bible, focusing on the language and poetry of certain psalms and texts. I was rereading certain specific psalms with new understandings and thinking about how to apply them in paintings, since the texts chosen for each painting's strokes have relevance to the theme of that work.

The happy conversation behind continued on like music playing in the background. It was a lilting rap of sorts, a chorus of rappers, although the “lyrics” were a simple, joyous conversation. I thought about some of the rap and hip hop I have enjoyed with fun or even uplifting lyrics, by artists like Will Smith and Matisyahu.

When the Hebrew Torah (first five books of the Bible, also known as the Pentateuch written on a sacred scroll) is read aloud portion of a service in synagogues, it is said to be chanted, which means that it is sung accapella.

After the Torah portions for the day, another reading called, Haftorah is also chanted. This biblical portion is often from the books of the major and minor prophets: I and II Samuel, Malachi, Micah, Amos, Isaiah, Hosea, etc.

The music for the chanted readings is indicated through notations above the letters in printed materials, so they can be learned but these are never indicated in the Torah scroll itself. Rabbis and other learned people can chant from the Torah easily, the way that most Americans can sing our National Anthem when given a paper printed with just the words. We have learned the musical sounds of those words; the tune seems inherent.

In Jewish Orthodox and Conservative synagogue services, all the chanting and singing is done accapella, including hymns and prayers sung by the whole congregation. Just as the words of the Torah are ancient, the chanting is ancient. Assuming an equivalent level of proficiency, on any given shabbat the Torah chanting is the same in all the synagogues in the world.

While I pondered these ideas on the train ride, the young Jamaicans continued their musical conversations behind me. I wondered if the ancient Hebrew people “sang” their conversations with the chanted songs and rhythms that have come down to us through the Torah service. When they were in their homes, in the marketplace or conversing in city gates, were they speaking as we do now or did their words have the lilting quality of a song?

Today, does God hear our everyday conversations as uplifting songs and hymns or are we singing tunes of discord?

We know the psalms were meant to be sung. When the first chapter of Genesis is read in synagogue, it is chanted. I would seem that it has always been chanted in the same way, since the words themselves remain basically unchanged according to ancient scrolls.

Did God sing the universe into existence?

It is said that we are walking in the words of God; that we are surrounded by the words of God, which create our physical universe. Are we walking in the song of God?

Are we surrounded by a holy love song of creation? Is that why acts like murder, rape, theft and cheating seem so out of harmony while acts of charity, peacemaking and kindness seem to flow with heavenly accord?

Psalm 19, my favorite, includes the prayer,"May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord…” It is interesting that the words and meditations are to be acceptable in God's sight (vision) not hearing, which is how we recognize spoken or sung words.

When I paint with the words (letters) of a text in Genesis, for instance, I am symbolically painting a sound as all the letters but Aleph have a sound, just as letters in English have a phonetic basis. But, am I also symbolically painting music, the chanted songs of the Torah?

Are UnGraven Image paintings visual songs of the Bible?

What do you think about all of my questions?

Write me an email with your ideas!

May 23, 2006