Sam Glaser
Issue No. 60
September 2014

The Latest from Glaser Musicworks!

 

I just finished a month-long binge of recording for a variety of artists.  At one point this summer I found myself knee deep in the production of eight album projects simultaneously!  Even when many days go by where I'm not seeing much daylight I remind myself that it is a tremendous gift to help my clients realize their musical dreams from inception to final master. 

 

Currently I am in the middle of a two and a half

week journey in the amazing state of Virginia.  What a gift to have the opportunity to enjoy an annual love affair with this beautiful place!   I led an uplifting, customized Shabbaton for Beth El in Norfolk and then on Saturday night helped a group of five synagogues usher in the Selichot week.  On Sunday I drove up to the Shenandoah National Park for three days of wilderness time before my family would fly in on Wednesday.  I enjoyed a day of crazed downhill mountain biking at Bryce Mountain, kayaked a seven-mile rapid-infused stretch of the Shenandoah river and then climbed notorious Old Rag Mountain with my buddy Michael Monheit.  I then returned to Norfolk to pick up my

family at the airport and entered the three-day Rosh Hashanah/Shabbat marathon where I serve as 

chazzan for Temple Emanuel in action-packed

Virginia Beach.  Rosh Hashana weekend coincided with the Neptune Festival, a three-day celebration of art and music (and junk food) spread over the impressive three-mile beachside boardwalk. Fun!

 

Now we are enjoying a friend's lakeside home for the week before Yom Kippur.  I'm only taking breaks from water and jet skiing to practice my Yom Kippur prayers and write this newsletter.  Internet is sketchy out here in the boons so please forgive this image-light newsletter.  I managed to crank out an article below that attempts to answer why there are so many appearances of the number seven in the Jewish faith.  I'm looking forward to amazing concerts in the upcoming months in MD, NJ, NY, CT and Toronto.  Yes, there are plenty of great dates left...now booking!

 

I hope that all of you are sealed into the Book of Life and enjoy the power and majesty of our Day of Atonement.  May we all dance in a sukkah together in Yerushalayim!

 

Sincerely, 

 

Sam
Towards the Dawn Tour 2014-2015
NOW BOOKING!
The Towards the Dawn Tour is rolling into over fifty cities around the world this year.  Sam is featuring the music from his new CDs plus all his classics in feel good, rockin' concerts for all ages. Please join us for guaranteed peak experiences for your community from one of the veteran performers of Jewish music.  Event programmers: use our know-how to help you make a Sam Glaser
SamJeans
program a win-win, profitable smash hit! Save by taking advantage of discounted shows when Sam is in your area:

Richmond, VA
Baltimore, MD
Rockville, MD
Southern NJ
Long Island, NY
Stamford, CT
Toronto, Ontario
Allentown, PA

Click here for a list of Sam's performance and workshop options and here for the full schedule.  Marcia is always available to make your dream event a reality.

Towards the Dawn  

New CD and Download! 

 

I'm happy to report that my classically inspired collaboration with concert pianist Sha-rone Kushnir is getting rave reviews!  Towards the Dawn picks up where the first Edge of Light album left off: over seventy minutes of powerful, spiritual renditions of my most meaningful songs in a simple, dramatic piano, violin and vocal setting.  Support new Jewish music!  Order yours today!   

 

"I just finished listening to your new CD. To say it is great is the understatement of the year. It is a collection of amazing renditions of your songs. It is pure delight. Every song is special, every song is moving, every song is uplifting. And then, to wrap it up, Blessings, with all the voices harmonizing together, is "goosebumping!"   -Sandra Lillienthal

 

"There are moments in this CD that are so awesome that they take my breath away. The juxtaposition of musical styles is so effortless, the improvisation virtuosic, and Sam's voice is once again a soothing companion in the soundtrack of my life." -Libby Berman

 

"Sam, you've done it again.  You are easily the most prolific and accomplished Jewish composer we have.  Thanks for the incredible music." -Shai Sternberg

Lucky Seven

by Sam Glaser

 

The matrix of the world is built on a system of "sevens." During lunch today I asked my kids to figure out all the times seven appears in Judaism.  We came up with over fifty!  And yes, my daughter did check Google at one point.  I started thinking about sevens recently at a neighborhood shiva call.  Shiva (from the root sheva, or seven) is the week of intense mourning for a loved one and is typically shared by the whole community.  Everyone gathers around the mourner for seven days of prayers, bringing them food and offering the solace of company and a listening ear.  In this case, my friend Jeff Mann didn't have much family...the community was his family and we all needed comforting.  Another reason that this shiva stood out is that I was going straight from these somber minyans to "sheva brachot" celebrations for a friend's raucous wedding that I had just played with my band. There's that number seven again!  At a wedding the bride circles the groom seven times and seven blessings are recited under the marital canopy.  Then the couple celebrates for seven days with family and friends.  During this strange week I danced a schizophrenic ballet from mourning and tears to table-pounding jubilation, nearly every night.  Part of the joy and responsibility of living in a Jewish community is sharing lifecycle events, from birth to death.  And all have that mysterious number seven at their core.

 

Judaism maintains that seven is the number associated with the natural world.  Modern physics counts seven basic qualities like length, mass and time that describe all known matter.  I recall the acronym ROY G. BIV from grade school science to describe the seven colors of the rainbow.  Any musician will concur that there are seven notes in a major scale.  Seven planets surround Earth.  I find it remarkable that the entire world is anchored to the seven-day week; although some societies have attempted to modify the length of this period we find it stubbornly remaining the universal standard of marking time.

 

Just beyond seven is the number eight, which for Jews signifies the realm of the supernatural.  That's why we invite our baby boys into the eternal Jewish covenant on the eight day of their lives.  That's why we celebrate the power of Jewish unity and survival in the form of the eight-day holiday of Chanukah.  Eight represents "one step beyond."  Science is here to address the realm of seven.  Your rabbi is here to help you grapple with eight.  Our body is seven, our soul, eight.  And Judaism is obsessed with dragging the number eight into the realm of seven; our task is to infuse our day-to-day "meat space" with spiritual intention such that we walk a tightrope between the physical world of seven and the metaphysical realm of eight.

 

So why would God use seven as the core construct material of the universe?  Among our discoveries at lunch today: the first sentence of the Torah has seven words and therein begins the description of the seven days of creation.  There are seven commandments associated with Noah, before Judaism upped the ante to 613.  The rabbis later codified another seven, like lighting Shabbat candles and making blessings.  Noah released the raven and then the dove for seven days each.  Our matriarch Leah had seven children.  Joseph was freed from prison only after interpreting Pharaoh's dream of seven fat and skinny ears of corn and cows.  Moses appeared on the scene seven generations after Abraham and was born and died on the seventh of Adar.  The menorah that he made had seven branches.  Joshua had to conquer seven nations in the ancient land of Canaan.  We have seven major holidays and two of them last for seven days each.  Shavuot (another "sheva" root sighting) is the anniversary of the receiving of Torah and is not given a biblical date but is instead celebrated seven weeks from Pesach.  We just entered the "shmittah" year where we let the land go fallow every seven years and count seven of these cycles to get to the Jubilee or Yovel year.  Are you seeing a pattern here?

 

My awareness of this magical number began when I attended Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem for my first time as a wide-eyed twenty-three-year-old traveler.  A week into the Jerusalem Fellowships we were given a five day course called Discovery.   Our small group journeyed to a mobile home caravan community in the wilderness of the West Bank and our minds were blown with a formative version of this now popular seminar.  The bottom line: modern computing has allowed mathematicians to analyze the entire text of the Five Books of Moses as a single string of letters (without the spaces in between.)  What did the researchers find?  An awe-inspiring system of sevens and forty-nines stretching from one length of the book to the other.  One example occurred in the description of the creation of fruit trees in the Garden of Eden.  By counting every seven letters starting from that sentence we found the names of the "seven species" that according to tradition flourish in the Land of Israel.  We learned about scores of these patterns...just enough information to pry an opening into our secular, science-fed minds that perhaps our Bible might actually have divine origins.  

 

We stand now in Tishrei, the seventh month of the biblical year and by far the most noteworthy and holiday-drenched.  It opens with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, then the day of forgiveness, Yom Kippur, followed immediately by our primary season of joy, seven days of partying called Sukkot.  So many holidays that you might as well call in sick for a month.  Rather than feel inundated by festive meals and overlong services, hopefully you can relish in the chance to unplug from the daily grind and reprioritize.  Think of Tishrei as an annual "shmittah month."  A chance to let our normal routine go "fallow," to live in the moment and come back to your source.

 

We remain anchored in God's original plan for the universe thanks to our weekly commemoration of the seventh day of creation, Shabbat.  It's as if God is saying: "My children, I created the world just for you in seven days and I am still here with you every moment." Perhaps that's why God orchestrated both the material and physical realms to continue to operate in this heptagonal matrix.  We see a beautiful natural world that on the surface may seem to be operating on its own but in fact the watchful eye of the grand designer winks every time we see that number seven throughout our lives.  Shabbat gives us a once-every-seven-days break to ponder the miracle of our universe and give God full credit for our gifts. Engaging in acts of creation on this sacred day quickly erodes the possibility of the establishment of this transformational beachhead of living with simple faith on a weekly basis.  I'll say it again: "more than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews."

 

Now it makes sense why our lifecycle events seem to gravitate to this number.  It's at these times of transitions that we are most likely to stop and reflect, to perceive the great gifts that God has bestowed upon us. In fact I think that even my ardently agnostic friends can look back at their precious lifecycle events and in their hearts feel the warmth of the smiling, loving face of God.  We all can remember attending a meaningful bris on the (seven plus one) eighth day of the child's life.  We recall how as Bar/Bat Mitzvah boys and girls we had to grapple with the seven aliyot of our own birthday's Torah portion.  Then to the chuppah where the beautiful bride surrounds the groom seven times with her innate spiritual essence and protection.  Another seven: well-informed couples wait for seven "clean days" each month before engaging in holy relations.  And then at the end of life we help to escort the departed to the next realm by comforting their loved ones for seven heartbreaking but intensely meaningful days.  

 

Yes, seven is our lucky number.  May we all make the most of this special seventh month, may we readily perceive the presence of God in our lives and be sealed in the Book of Life.



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Sam at the Piano
Sam with Kids
Sam with the Orchestra
September Videos
Sam Glaser - You're On Your Own
Sam Glaser - You're On Your Own

One Hand, One Heart - Sam Glaser
One Hand, One Heart - Sam Glaser
 
The Promise by Sam Glaser
The Promise by Sam Glaser
 
This Month at 
Recording Studio

 

Jocelyn Everett is a sweet, super talented eighteen-year-old singer songwriter who just recorded her first four song EP.  What fun to help her shape these quirky, upbeat and honest pieces into a radio-ready product.  I'm so proud of her and believe she will go far!

 

 

Praise for The Promise!
Promise CD
Sam's The Promise CD is a hit! This all new release is a celebration of the connection of the Jewish People with the Israel. Nearly two years in the making, these moving, rocking, inspiring songs feature Sam's amazing band and an array of guest vocalists. Features the hits Dancing in Jerusalem, Mezuza, Simple Song for Israel, Im Eshkacheich and the title track. Now available online for $9.99 and CDs only $14.99.  Support the cause!  You'll love it!
 
"Sam, I have all of your albums and keep them in heavy rotation on my Sunday SImcha show.  I think The Promise is the best yet.  Cutting edge and so powerful."
Kevin Frye, WMNF-88.5 FM Tampa, FL
 
"Yashar koach on the album - it's amazing!"
-Miriam Van Raalte
 

"I'm not sure how you do it. The Promise is a work of art. Every song touches my deepest feelings about Israel. There is so much wisdom in your lyrics. I know this sounds clich� but I am getting chills every time I listen."

-Fred Warner

 
"The Promise is awesome (as usual!)  It will make a perfect gift to just about everyone I know."
-Cantor Risa Askin
 
"I can't begin to find the words to express how much I totally enjoy your work.  Your voice, songs and arrangements are all just amazing. What a gift."
-Laurette Katz
The Possible You
is for YOU!  
Presented by 
Sam and Yom Tov Glaser this November in 
Brooklyn and Toronto!

 

The Possible You is a groundbreaking seminar that creates the space for participants to realize their unlimited potential. It is rapidly growing in popularity in Israel, the US, UK and Canada. There are now 2200 supercharged alumni worldwide that credit The Possible You with initiating brilliance in their lives.       

 

With an intensely paced delivery of profound insights coupled with music, visual aids and group sharing, a crucial set of life tools are communicated to the full spectrum of learners in all modalities. Originated by renown Jerusalem-based teacher Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser, The Possible You is an eighteen hour presentation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, Mussar and Tanach. While its message and mode of delivery is tailor-made for the Jewish soul, The Possible You is available for people of all backgrounds.

 

Sam Glaser has been working with his brother Yom Tov to customize the seminar for American students. He meticulously follows the established Possible You syllabus while giving the sessions his unique spin. Let us help you make arrangements in LA to attend. You can also bring The Possible You to your own city by signing up a minimum of only twenty paid participants. 

Register today!    

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Thank you!

Thank you for reading, for listening, for your support and friendship.

 

Glaser Musicworks
800-972-6694
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