Koolulam!

Singing is Israel!

In church Sunday morning our pastor treated us to a video from Israel.  The pastor felt it appropriate for the message that day. And it was. The video was a music video from a movement that’s been growing in Israel.  Had the pastor not received the video or shared it with our congregation, we would not have known about it.  Even with the internet, we miss a lot of news because of the daily dissemination of the sheer volume of information.  But I’m so glad our pastor chose this video to share.

Every other year, our church takes a trip to Israel to visit the Holy Land.  We were fortunate to have been able to travel to Israel with our other church before we moved to our current city. (It’s one of our many adventures and I’ll have a story or two on my Adventure page…but not right now.) But what I find amazing is how God puts certain things in our path right when we need them.  It’s interesting this video came to our pastor via email from the tour guide he used back in 2016 and it came the day he was preparing the message for Sunday morning.  It fit with the message that he used it to serve as an object lesson for Sunday’s message.

Koolulam is a movement that started in Israel 2017.  The founders, three young people, wanted to develop connections with strangers. Singing in unison at the Western wall birthed the Koolulam idea. People from all walks of life and all ages get together to sing and has worked to change Israel’s fractured society. The attendees meet new people at every event.

The word itself is a mashup of the English word “cool”, the Hebrew word “kulam” (everyone), the Hebrew word “kol” (voice), and “kululu,” the ululation sound of joy some North African and Middle Eastern Israelis make at happy occasions like bar mitzvahs and weddings.

For an hour, the organizers teach a song, usually in three parts.  The magnitude of teaching and learning a song in parts is incredible. Sometimes there are tens of thousands gathering to sing.  It’s awe-inspiring that they could teach the song and then sing it.

Enthralled is the only word that comes to mind when describing how I felt watching the short clip.  We didn’t get to see the whole four-minute video at church but when I got home, I looked it up and couldn’t find it.  Thankfully, I’m friends with my pastor on Facebook and he sent me the link.  I listened to it again, sent it along to family with a brief explanation and an article about it. I listened to it again. And again. And again…until finally I bookmarked the video and listen to it sometimes two and three times a day.  I’m not sure why I listen to it other than to say that it touched the deepest part of my spirit and soul.  Or maybe it’s seeing the faces of people who are truly enjoying the singing.

Below is the link so you can listen to it yourself. I hope it touches your soul as it did mine.

Koolulam: Singing is Believing

Share what your impressions are about this lovely video.

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