Title: My Strength and My Song are for the Lord

Medium: Water Color and Graphite on Paper

Size: 19" x 26" unframed

Available Framed or Unframed

© Drew Kopf 2016

Signed: Drew Kopf 2016 (lower left) and Dov Baer in Hebrew 5776 (lower right)

Created: April 2016

Original: Gift of the artist to his sister, Cantor Lois Kittner on the occasion of her being ordained as a Cantor by the Academy of Jewish Religion.

There are nine songs referred to in the Bible; the Old Testament, which can serve as a guide to the use of song from that time straight on through to today.

The Cantor in Our Community

The phrase, "Awake and Sing oh ye who sleep (dwell) with the dust" (Isaiah 16:19) is discussed by Biblical commentators who point out that those who sleep "in" the dust are to be there forever since they were among those who did not lead a life that merited being resurrected at the time of the final redemption, where those who sleep "with" the dust had lead meritorious lives and, therefore, will be redeemed at that time.

The Medrash sited in the painting is included almost verbatim: "Redemption will be global and absolute; the end of all suffering, ignorance, jealousy and hate, and will cause a yearning and joy that will require a complete new musical vocabulary; a New Song; a Shir Chadash, to capture the voice of Creation's Ultimate Striving."

Our Cantor is our community's representative and can be instrumental in helping to bring us all closer to that time; to the final redemption; to Gaulah, and so, we pray that our Cantor's strength and song continue to be for the Lord until it is time for the learning and singing of the New Song told of in the Medrash, the Shir Chadash, to finally and joyously arrive.

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There are also Cantors in the Catholic Church. The training for those who go into that area of Church service is much different than that of the training that Cantors receive in the Jewish religion. But, as was noted by Rev. Kevin Thompson, of the Sacred Heart Parish on Long Island in New York State, there is a kind of "fellowship" that one feels none the less. When a parishoner of Rev. Thompson presented him with a Giclee copy of Mr. Kopf's painting My Strength and My Song are for the Lord, Rev. Thompson shared the following photograph with the phrase: "This is me thrilled to pieces!"

Rev. Kevin Thompson

Sacred Heart Parish on Long Island in New York State

Toll-Free Phone: (800)839-2929

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