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Why do the Orthodox not use instruments in worship? Part 02

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I am happy to say that someone from the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese made a comment on the part 01 post on instruments in worship. This is a very important post because it mentions that the Western Rite Vicariate is allowed to use the organ as part of their worship service. And, it helps me to state a principle of the Church Catholic. If it was acceptable to the Fathers of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (before the Great Schism), then it is acceptable to the whole Church. Having said that, I must comment that acceptable simply means that it is acceptable to use it in the same context as the usage before the Great Schism. So, the West had a very limited use of instruments (very very very limited) before the Great Schism, and that same limited use is still with us today.

So, because the organ was acceptable “Catholic” usage, it is acceptable Church usage. But, wait, were not the Early Church Fathers uniformly against the use of instruments in Church worship? Well, not only them, but also the Pharisees in their synagogue worship and their descendants. The following long quote comes from another blog:

In the years following the creation of the Kabbalat Shabbat service by Rav Moshe Cordovero of Tzfat and his brother-in-law Rav Shlomo Alkabetz (author of our L’Cho Dodi text in 1529), the new introduction to Shabbat quickly spread from Israel to Europe. There, communities debated how (or if) they would incorporate this new innovation.

Some, in Germany for instance, insisted that it be visibly seen as “outside the tefilla”, and therefore to this day in some German communities, the Chazzan does not wear a talis for Kabbalat Shabbat. The general custom has also evolved to conduct it from the Torah reader’s table in shuls where the service is normally read in the front of the shul.

Some communities invited their congregants to come earlier to the shul, where instruments were played during the singing of the service! In fact, an organ was installed in Prague’s famed Altneu Shul just for this purpose, where between 1594 and 1716, Kabbalat Shabbat was a festive musicale. The musicians had to stop their playing before sunset, and in some communities, it was done early enough so that the congregants had time to go home, dress for Shabbat, and return for the recitation of the “real” Kabbalat Shabbat hymn, Psalm 92, Mizmor Shir L’Yom HaShabbat.

Today, all of the Jewish world has accepted Kabbalat Shabbat as an integral part of the Siddur and our Tefilla. The musical instruments, at least for us in the Orthodox world, have alas, been abandoned for fear of losing track of the time and thereby desecrating the Shabbat. It is up to all of us to make up for their loss by singing even stronger when the Chazzan reaches L’Cha Dodi. “Uri, Uri, Shir Daberi” – “Awake, Awake, Utter A Song…!”

Synagogue worship was non-instrumental. And, up until the middle 1800′s synagogue worship remained non-instrumental. There are now synagogues where instruments are used, though, as you can see from the reading above many remain non-instrumental. This is why our Orthodox worship is generally non-instrumental. It is non-instrumental because the synagogue worship was non-instrumental. And, as many of you know, we got our worship pattern from the synagogue. But, wait, what about Psalm 150?

Related posts:

1. Why do the Orthodox not use instruments in worship? Part 04
2. Why do the Orthodox not use instruments in worship? Part 01
3. Why do the Orthodox not use instruments in worship? Part 03
4. Why do the Orthodox not use instruments in worship? Part 05
5. A Baptist view of Orthodox worship

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