As we approach the High Holidays, I plan to write a few columns about chazzanut. One of the highlights of the High Holidays are the tefillot, and these special tefillot are a great opportunity for chazzanim (cantors) to bring their full skills into expression.
But chazzanut is not only for the Yamim Noraim. Some synagogues have a cantor on a regular basis during the year. To be honest, such shuls are my favorites. These are the shuls I enjoyed most when I lived in Manhattan. Though many shuls in Manhattan have cantors, today having a cantor has become less common in many communities.
I’m a big fan of chazzanut – I think it’s one of the most beautiful things. Every time I have a chance to daven in a synagogue with a professional chazzan, even better with a choir, I enjoy it so much.
In Israel, perhaps the best-known synagogue with a regular chazzan and a choir is the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. When I was growing up, we used to go to Jerusalem for the High Holidays. It was such a magnificent experience to hear the cantor with the choir.
For many years, the legendary chief cantor at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem was Naftali Hershtik, z”l. Hershtik died on Kaf-Tet Av (Rosh Chodesh Elul) last year. Over his 30 years in the position, he raised a generation of cantors. Many of the most popular cantors today were his students. He was the 14th generation in a family of cantors. His family came from Hungary.
So to open this chazzanut series, I spoke with Netanel Hershtik, Naftali’s son, who serves as the chief cantor of the Hampton Synagogue, to learn about his father’s story.
You’ll be surprised to hear that Netanel was not “pushed” by his father to be chazzan – it was all his choice. But chazzanut was a big part of his childhood. Growing up in Naftali Hershtik’s house, Netanel saw all the big names in the cantorial world stopping by to consult and sing with his father. He was exposed to all the stories and saw all the great cantors come and go – Moshe Stern, Benzion Miller, Yaakov Motzen, and Yitzchak Meir Helfgot were frequent guests at the house. Coming often for Shabbos meals, preparing for a concert or practicing together, or just visiting his father.
Netanel’s grandfather was a cantor in Tel Aviv. His father and his uncle, Chaim Eliezer Herstik, started to sing as kids. They were considered wonder kids in the cantorial world. Netanel’s brother Shraga is the cantor at Machane Chodosh synagogue in Queens.
Shabbat at the Hershtiks was a show. All the siblings sang together around the table. The neighbors used to listen and enjoy the singing that came out of the Hershtik home.
As a kid, Netanel was a soloist at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem until his bar mitzvah – not as a professional gig, more as a result of being the son of the chief cantor. When he was in high school at the famous Yeshivat Chorev in Jerusalem, he played guitar as a hobby like many teenagers and was even part of the school’s band. (Here I must add my comment that when I was in high school, there was a big competition between the students to make it into the yeshiva’s band. While I didn’t make it in – I must admit, my friend was a better keyboardist than me – I performed a few times at parties in the yeshiva as a one-man band, which was also a big honor.)
When Netanel was in yeshiva after high school, he always wanted to go back home to the Great Synagogue for Shabbat. Almost everyone who has learned in yeshiva knows that most of the guys actually love to stay for Shabbat and holidays in the yeshiva. But Netanel missed davening in the Great Synagogue. He wanted to experience the chazzanut of his father that he was used to since he was kid. For him it was a very special, spiritual experience.
Until his twenties, besides singing in the synagogue as a child, Netanel didn’t really practice chazzanut professionally. But all these years he learned, informally, from his father what it means to be a cantor.
When Netanel was studying law in college, he formed a wedding band so he could pay his tuition and the rent on the apartment he rented in Givat Shmuel. He was the guitarist and the singer. In parallel, he started a chazzanut choir together with his friend Azi Schwartz (who today serves as the senior cantor at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York), the Or Chadash choir. The choir mostly accompanied the big cantors. This is how Netanel discovered his cantorial talent.
Sometimes at Mussaf, the cantor’s voice weakened and he needed a replacement. So they used to ask Netanel if he could replace them and do Mussaf. Slowly he got into the cantorial world. His choir started to do cantorial Shabbatot by themselves. People liked him and he got a lot of positive feedback.
Netanel then decided to study cantorial music professionally for one year at TACI – Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute, where his father was the manager. While that was only for one year, Netanel learned from his father throughout his life and his inspiration comes from his father.
In 2005, after getting married, he followed his wife to the U.S. and started law graduate studies at the University of Miami. He didn’t really plan to be a cantor. However, he used to daven occasionally at Park East Synagogue. Once he had a concert at Park East with a choir which was visiting from Moscow. The rumor about the new young, talented cantor started to spread. At the same time, the Hampton Synagogue was looking for a new cantor and someone suggested to Rabbi Marc Schneier to hire him. And this is how he started there.
Rabbi Schneier loves music and believes in the use of music as a spiritual tool to empower the community’s davening. It’s very important to Rabbi Schneier to promote chazzanut. At the beginning, the famous singer Dudu Fisher used to be the cantor at the Hampton Synagogue for ten weeks a year and Netanel during the rest of the year. Later Netanel became the chief cantor. Since 2005, he has served as their chief cantor; this year he celebrates his 20th anniversary there.
Netanel says he is always on a learning journey and still taking vocal pedagogy classes as well as music classes. He’s always learning. In parallel he also performs. During the week he’s a real estate lawyer, and on weekends and holidays he’s a cantor.
He likes to combine old and new. But all in the right mix. While he makes sure to stick to the traditional tunes, at the same time he likes to combine them with new tunes. For example, occasionally for “Lecha Dodi” he’ll draw on the Beatles, Billy Joel, or even Chanan Ben Ari tunes. Sometimes he’ll do the “Lo Tevoshi” stanza to the tune of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen.
I ask him why chazzanut is no longer considered a “cool” thing, rather something “archaic.” He says that already in the 80s, chazzanut was not considered cool. It’s a matter of money, he explains. Chazzanut requires a budget. To employ a regular cantor in a synagogue can be expensive. Today, mostly only rich communities can afford a cantor on a regular basis.
In addition, chazzanut by its nature is old music. But Netanel sees in the Hamptons many young people who get connected to chazzanut. If there’s the right balance between fast and slow, not burdening the congregation, mixing a little bit of pop music, something that talks to the younger generation, it brings young people in.
There are people who tell him that they love classical chazzanut (like me) and love listening to him. But he likes it much more when young people who are not really connected to chazzanut come and tell him that although they do not generally like chazzanut, they like to listen to him and enjoy his davening. Then he knows that he was able to connect them to the cantorial world. He’s able to provide the chazzanut tradition for the next generation.
In general, there isn’t a “regular” Shabbat in the Hamptons. There’s always something special happening. A good cantor sometimes needs to surprise, to bring something new. But he always has to go back to the old and the familiar. A cantor needs to feel the vibe of the congregation. And he should not make things too long.
I ask him what people want for the High Holidays. On Rosh Hashana, he says, they want the known tunes. The familiar. Not new things. But they have a slogan in the Hamptons: Making the ordinary extraordinary.
And even when dressing different tunes on the words, you have to be careful. It’s like a spice. You should not put too much. Put a little – very little. If you add too much, you get an aftertaste. The cantor should find the right mix. The right balance.
You can listen to Netanel Hershtik’s music on Apple Music and on his YouTube channel, as well as on the Hampton Synagogue’s YouTube channel and website.
