On Friday, Aug. 19, Stephen Wise Temple welcomed musical duo Lapidus & Myles to the hilltop for a special Gospel Shabbat. The evening featured music from our own musical team, as well as from Rabbi Micah Lapidus—the composer-in-residence of The Temple in Atlanta who grew up at Wise—and Baptist gospel singer Melvyn Myles from Historic Ebenzer Baptist Church, the former pulpit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Below are videos of particularly inspiring musical moments from the evening, picked by our own Cantor Emma Lutz.
The first, “To the Mountaintop,” features Lapidus & Myles, along with the Stephen Wise Temple Band.
The second video, “Kaveh el Adonai,” is a brand new composition, performed by Stephen Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback and Rabbi Micah, featuring Cantor Emma and Melvin Myles. It centers around the theme for this coming school year at Wise School: Ha’tikvah, or “hope.” Taking its words from Psalm 27, it urges us to hope in God. “If we hope in God,” Rabbi Yoshi says, “we can get through the hardest times.”
The third is a moving rendition of the Sh’ma and V’ahavta, performed by Lapidus & Myles, featuring Cantor Emma in our beautiful outdoor Casden Chapel, overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains.