About

Commissioned by Hazamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir.
Premiere at Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, March 19, 2023

Lo Alecha Ham’lacha Ligmor was commissioned by Rabbi Beth Naditch for HaZamir through the Mandell Rosen Fund for New Music, a program of the Zamir Choral Foundation, in honor of the health care workers, educators, clergy, and others who have given their all during the years of the Covid-19 pandemic. The text is one of the most famous quotes from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Sages). It speaks of the need to do the important work needed on oneself, in one’s community and the world— even as one knows that one can never fully accomplish the task at hand. As Rabbi Naditch, a pastoral educator, says, “I regularly use it when teaching front-line health care workers and chaplains, as it so powerfully speaks to the double-edged sword of excellence, commitment, caring, loyalty without burning out or taking on the weight of the world all on one’s own.” 

In setting this text, I chose to set both the original Hebrew and an English translation, with the Hebrew and English each having its own distinctive musical motifs and characters. These sections are joined by the word “ham’lacha”, meaning “the work”—as “the work” and our relation to it is the key idea of the whole piece. That word “ham’lacha”, also ends the piece with a sense of urgency.

Lo Alecha Ham’lacha Ligmor will have its premiere performed by HaZamir, the International Jewish Teen Choir, at Rose Theater-Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, March 2023. 

—Gerald Cohen

Score

Text

You are not required to finish the work, nor are you free to abandon it.

Lo alecha ham’lacha ligmor, v’lo ata ven chorin libatel mimena.

—Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Sages), Chapter 2

Performances

Premiere: HaZamir, the International Jewish Teen Choir, at Rose Theater-Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, March 2023.

North American Jewish Choral Festival, Matthew Lazar conducting the NAJCF Chorus, July 13, 2023