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Correspondence

Apr. 14, 1970

Letter from Michael Tabor about Synthesizing Educational Disciplines and Music (1970)

General Jewish Thought
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Letter from Michael Tabor about Music and Jewish Thought in England (1969)

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I was eagerly awaiting your reply and hoped that for once a question of mine would be understood and answered with some depth. I was not disappointed by your prompt reply. You satisfied me completely with your usual articulate presentation. I am truly grateful. As you point out, this particular issue of integrating one’s cultural activities into Avodas Hashem is not really fundamental to my basic religious quest. I would like to mention that I am not the conductor of the L.S.E. orchestra. To have this position one must be able to play several instruments and have a deep knowledge of music, both theoretical and practical. I have a more humble position: as first violin I am consequently called the leader. This involves leading the string section if they get in trouble — they are meant to follow me if they sometimes get lost when, for example, they forget when to come in after a few bars’ rest. This keeps me on my toes throughout the performance of a work. For my efforts I get paid 15 shillings a rehearsal, which happens to pay for my weekly bus fares.As I said in my letter, I get a tremendous kick out of playing and listening to music. Although I can listen for hours to Beethoven’s later string quartets, especially the penultimate one in A minor, I am more spiritually moved by some of the *devekus niggunim* of the Chabad Chassidim. Even though they are badly reproduced on the records that Lubavitch have brought out, I can appreciate the *penimus*, the mystic yearning and spiritual longing that especially characterizes the 10 *niggunim* the *Alte Rebbe* composed. They penetrate into my very being. This is something my father, who is quite musically knowledgeable, can’t see. I answer him that he does just not understand. I look forward to the day when I can attend a *farbrengen* at 770 Eastern Parkway where the singing on festive occasions, so my Chabad friends tell me, is really spiritually inspiring and satisfying.You say that I have experienced a sp…
General Jewish Thought

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Letter from Michael Tabor about Seminar on Traditional Jewish Values and the Message of the Torah (1970)

It was an unexpected surprise to be invited to join the J.F.S seminar at Carmel College. Nearing the end of my second term at L.S.E. it came as a welcome and pleasant break from my local studies to spend Shabbat in the company of a friendly and intelligent group of sixth formers. The food excellent, the accommodation good, the singing and davening was inspiring. Above all, the atmosphere that fevered the seminar was a most enjoyable experience that I shall always remember.I don’t know how learned one can be as a Jewess today. This is the real challenge—detached from the problems of culture and science. Whether … I do believe, and such views will have their place.As for the question of education’s greatness—it is concerned with the lives impacted, not just presentation.The students in this session were stimulated, compelled in their own minds to explore, and I personally hope that this vital topic will come alive. It is not enough to live by rote or by custom. There was not real opportunity to communicate all the points raised—nevertheless I feel that the core was achieved.I would like to think further, but for now Torch also refers to how one absorbs the biblical sources that shape vital identity in our age.---A gleam of light follows:Perfecting the condition of the physical world is of utmost importance. God is acutely concerned with the human situation in society, as a brief perusal of the prophets will reveal. Life is full of contradictions, paradoxes and tensions. Any thinking person faces conflicts—between the demands of one’s inner and outer life. If one concentrates on the former, one may lead a stunted, ghetto-like existence. If one follows the latter to extremes, one loses all sense of identity with one’s Jewish spiritual heritage. The ideal is the synthesis—but this requires the maturity to see the forest and the trees on both sides, a perennial challenge.Thus, as to the Torah’s message to the world: we must first understand what it means to us—in the tot…
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Letter from Michael Tabor about Yarmulkes in Public, Language, Intellectual Growth, and Music (1973)

My dear Reb Lamm, Shalom! Greetings from London! I have been home for 3 weeks and back north to Sheffield on the seventh, for another 12 week stint. My first teaching practice was, according to my tutor, a baptism of fire! My school (10-11 yr) was in an Education Priority area with 40% immigrants... Many are the tales I could tell you: my experience of what the anthropologists call culture shock – Kfar Chabad then Sheffield!! Suffice, however, one incident which for me is one of the stories of my T.P.Compromise is an inevitable reality that we, as human beings, living as we do in an as yet unredeemed world, are vulnerable to. Well being the sort of Tzaddik that I am(!) I decided that I would wear my kippa at school even though I was warned by well wishers, as well as members of staff, that I was looking for trouble; did I realize the class I was going to take ect ect,.Anyway an the first day, before I took the register I told the class that I would explain why I wear this little black hat at all times. They all accepted it and then one Jamaican girl put up her hand and asked most innocently 'Does that mean Mr Tabor, you are not a catholic!? I had plenty of other problems but none on this score. It was, in retrospect, more an education for me than them and really a wonderful exercise in coming down to earth, to metzamzam my thought and speech. I only hope that my next school stint of 8 weeks in an industrial steel area is o.k. I enclose a copy of a letter sent to me by one of the girls in my class. She was a real richtige.....! I think it is worth more than a long tutor’s recommendation. Intellectually I have been very stimulated by the academic side of the course. It has given me an opportunity to read about what interests me. I am absolutely fascinated by Piaget's research into the growth of concepts within the child's mind and the vital importance of language both as a means of communication and a tool for intellectual growth. Often I wait to shout out: yes, of c…
General Jewish Thought