Marty and Wendy Smith; daughters Amy and Caitlin; their respective spouses, Gabe and Pete; their respective children, Josie and Rosalie; and George and Otis.
Long-time Micah member and Torah chanter Marty Smith recently moved to Boston with his wife, Wendy, to be with their daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, and wrote to other High Holyday Torah chanters and Rabbi Mo that he would not be here to chant Torah on Rosh Hashanah. Fellow Torah chanter Mark Nassi wrote to Marty telling him that he will be missed. The following is Marty’s response to Mark…
Mark, thank you so much for your touching words. It’s hard to put into words the loss for me of chanting those particular lines, Genesis 22:9-11, on Rosh Hashanah at Temple Micah. 28 years ago, Sandy Cohen asked who wanted to chant Torah on Rosh Hashanah, I said, “I do!,” and she assigned me Genesis 22: 9-11 as my lines to chant. I love those particular lines.
At first I worked on the wonderful and haunting musicality of the lines, but over time I became increasingly interested in the text. I learned exactly what I was chanting so that its meaning ran through my head while I was chanting, and the meaning went from my head into the notes as I sang them. I read commentary on the parsha and on the actual binding of Isaac, including Hasidic, mystical commentary and I metabolized this into my own thinking about the parsha and what I was chanting.
From the very beginning, I loved the idea of the Torah being black fire on white fire; and chanting from this seemingly timeless, mystical scroll with a sense of its being connected to eternity, moved me to a very special place, zone if you will. And chanting this wonderful, existential text with its haunting melody, its notes seemingly soaring to the heavens, to the Angel calling to Abraham, chanting this at Temple Micah on the bimah with people I love in front of a congregation peopled with people I love, has always been a highlight, an anchoring point, in the seasons of my year and my life.
Thank you for being a part of this with me. I will very much miss being at Micah this September, but I will be there in spirit, and I will be chanting Genesis 22: 9-11 here in Boston in the shower, on my NordicTrack with my eyes closed, and from the text using the yad my woodworking neighbor in Denver gifted to me.
Thank you so much for the work of love at Micah that you’re doing, and warmest and best to you and your wonderful family.
-Marty
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