Rating: 6/5 — By far the best Friday Night service I’ve been to in my life. Lively, musical, spiritual.
Nava Tehila represents an idealized fusion of prayer and instrumentation creating joyful spiritual experience. Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan established that ‘there would be absolutely no talking between prayers, but only singing and silence.’
The congregation featured primarily young attendees, including students from Conservative Yeshiva and Pardes. Seating arranged in concentric circles, with the inner circle hosting band members who provided guitars, upright bass, flute, saxophone, cajon, and bongo accompaniment.
During Kabbalat Shabbat, selected psalm lines received original melodies presented meditatively and repetitively, encouraging collective singing and harmonizing. Individual pieces lasted 5-10 minutes with intentional silence between prayers.
Following Kabbalat Shabbat around 7:30, attendees could leave or remain for Ma’ariv. Instruments were set aside for this service but reintroduced for the closing song.
Location: Kol Haneshama at 1 Asher Street, Jerusalem, in Speitzer Hall