Long-time choir member and music lover Jerry Rutherford recently sent me a clipping of an article about a UCC Annual Meeting in which I learned about the "four-fold song," which may have originated with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935). An online search provided amplification*, here adapted:
"The song of our self - There is that place in which we sing the song of our own soul; there, in our selves, we find our full spiritual satisfaction.
"The song of our people - There is that place in which we sing the song of our people. We leave the circle of our own individual self because we find it without sufficient breadth, without an idealistic basis. We aspire towards the heights and attach ourselves with a gentle love to the whole community.
"The song of humankind - There is that place in which our spirit expands and reaches beyond the boundary of place to sing the song of humanity. Our spirit extends and broadens to the genius of all humanity and its noble essence. We aspire towards humankind's general goal of our collective higher perfection.
"The song of creation - Then there is that place in which we rise toward wider horizons until we link our selves with all existence, with all God's creation."
Together we sing our songs with beauty, each one lending vitality and life to the other. They are songs of joy and gladness, songs of jubilation and celebration, songs of humor and sorrow, loneliness and holiness, many kinds of songs.
Christian churches today are branching out in many disparate directions. As Carl Daw, Executive Director of The Hymn Society, says in the Society's latest journal, "hymns are among the treasure that people of faith have in common." I encourage you to consider this four-fold concept when you sing a hymn and think about which fold it represents!
* from Lights of Holiness, Vol. 2: 444-445, translated from the original and adapting from Ben Zion Bokser's translation, p. 228-229.
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