Et Shaarei Ratzon (The Gates of God’s Will)

Written by Joshua Breitzer

Cantor

In category: Song of the Day

Published October 4, 2016

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we recount how Abraham bound Isaac to an altar and nearly sacrificed him. Sephardic Jews precede the Biblical chanting of the story with this 12th century piyyut (liturgical poem) expressing the same story through dramatic imagery and cantorial/choral call and response. Each stanza ends with the refrain oked v’ne’ekad v’hamizbei’ach, “the binder, the bound, and the sacrifice.”

“Et Shaarei Ratzon” (“The Gates of God’s Will”)

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Joshua Breitzer is cantor and music director of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. Considered one of his generation’s leading talents, Cantor Breitzer has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Concert Hall. For the past several years, he has appeared with NYFOS in our annual “A Goyishe Christmas to You!” program, and has coached several NYFOS’s Emerging Artists on Jewish repertoire.

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