Torah Blog

 

A blog of Torah thoughts, poems and other random odds 'n' sods. For tag cloud click here.
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Entries in Carlebach (1)

Wednesday
Sep262012

The Two Towers and Carlebach

There is a musical refrain appearing throughout Peter Jackson's film "The Two Towers" (the second in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) that is extremely similar to a melody by R Shlomo Carlebach.  Compare the melody that appears in the film at 1 hr 32 mins, with

http://www.mostlymusic.com/in-the-palace-of-the-king.html (click mikdash melech, at 14 seconds).

 

Oddly enough, the Two Towers tells of kings who rise "mitoch hahafecha" to fight evil. I find the Lord of the Rings full of inspiring moral motifs, such as the need to stop fleeing and join to fight evil, the nature of true nobility and the importance of the courage of one small individual.

 

Mikdash melech is a verse from Lecha Dodi, one of the most beautiful Jewish liturgical pieces ever composed. I find Lecha Dodi, too, replete with noble and mythic elements and images, of blessing, kingdom, Messiah, awakening, rebuilding. The lines   
קומי צאי מתוך ההפכה

רב לך שבת בעמק הבכה

and

לבשי בגדי תפארתך עמי
have reflected my own feelings about my personal and the national situation on many an occasion when things were low.  What a privilege and joy to sing it every week, and even at times to the Carlebach tune (when I daven at Yakar).

 

And Frodo's lonely journey into Mordor, has inspired me whenever I feel as if life is one, long, huge mountain to climb...