The adult choir and guests cross the threshold into our new worship theme with Van Morrison’s “Dweller on the Threshold.”

In the liner notes, Van Morrison describes the inspiration for the lyrics as coming from the 1950 publication Glamour—A World Problem by Alice Bailey and the Tibetan master Djwhal Khul. According to the teachings of Bailey, there are a series of what she calls “glamours,” which are mental illusions creating a fog that veils the spiritual wanderer from seeing the world as it truly is. He becomes illuminated as a “dweller on the threshold” when the Angel of Presence purifies the soul with light.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most holy day of the Jewish year, occurring from sunset this Friday to sunset Saturday. It’s considered the most important holiday, the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” in Judaism.

In honor of Yom Kippur, the adult choir is singing the beautiful setting of “Yih’yu l’ratson” by Stanley Hoffman in English and Hebrew. Stanley Hoffman is a Massachusetts-based composer. I love this setting for its suspensions between the soprano and alto parts in addition to its lovely long-lined minor modality and mood.

May Erlewine wrote the lyrics for “Sweet By and By” imagining a letter to a recently deceased friend letting them know the good news of her recent pregnancy. Of the song, May says: “The veil between joy and sorrow is very thin. We don’t have to be one or the other, we can waver back and forth and allow that to happen. Some of both is OK and it’s more the natural state of things. There’s a tender place where you can go in between. It isn’t just sadness, it isn’t just happiness. It’s both. It’s not one or the other, it’s just where we are.”

 

—Chris E.