Once a year, the Torah pauses its forward motion to sing.
Shabbat Shira—named for the Song at the Sea—reminds us that liberation was crossed on dry land and voiced in melody. Before there were words of law, there was song. Before theology, there was breath and rhythm and a people discovering their voices together.
Shabbat Shira has long been associated with the power of music to express faith, gratitude, and transformation. This Shabbaton leans fully into that spirit, exploring how song can open new pathways into prayer and shared Jewish experience.
On Jan. 30–31, Walnut Street Minyan in Newton will mark Shabbat Shira with a special Shabbaton led by Noah Weinberg, devoted to the power of communal singing and the renewal of prayer through music.
Weinberg is known for his work in contemporary Jewish prayer communities that blend ancient liturgy with living sound. Drawing on traditions shaped by Nava Tehila in Jerusalem and teachers such as Joey Weisenberg, his approach is not about performance, but about participation—about prayer that happens with the community, not to it.
Over Shabbat morning, Weinberg will lead Pesukei Dezimra and Shacharit, teaching new melodies and guiding the minyan into prayer that is felt as much as recited. Voices will learn together, circle back, try again. Familiar words may sound different when carried by new tunes—and familiar prayers may open in unexpected ways.
Saturday night will continue the journey with a participatory musical session, including instruments, offering space to reflect, to sing, and to carry Shabbat’s music a little farther into the week.
Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, an ethnomusicologist involved in planning the weekend, describes the goal as helping participants wake up to the possibilities already present in Jewish prayer. Music, he notes, has the power to make prayer more accessible, especially through nigunim—wordless melodies that transcend language and invite emotional connection.
Music, especially shared music, can loosen what has grown rigid. A nigun can bypass explanation and reach something older and truer. In a community that values tradition, music can be a way not of leaving it behind, but of entering it more fully. In that sense, the Shabbaton is not about novelty, but about rediscovering depth: kavana, intention, and the feeling that prayer can still surprise us.
Shabbat Shira at Walnut Street Minyan is an invitation—to sing, to listen, and to remember that prayer was never meant to be silent.
Join us.
All are welcome to join us for services. Please register for Saturday evening participatory Jewish folk song with Noah Weinberg.
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