Shabbat with Congregation P'nai Or and PDX Nigun Circle

Part of The Portland Jewish Music Festival!

Join congregation P’nai Or's Kabbalat Shabbat Service along with Portland Nigun Circle to celebrate Shabbat with chanting, singing, live music, movement, meditation, storytelling and more. Registration required as space is limited!

Free/All Ages

P’nai Or (Faces of Light) celebrates the Divine reflected in everyone – LGBTQ+, interfaith, Jews by birth, Jews by choice. We are a vibrant, egalitarian congregation founded in 1991 by Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield, z"l. Our inspiration comes from Torah, Kabbalah, the teachings of the Chassidic masters, and Jewish and non-Jewish contemporary sources.

PDX Nigun Circle is a monthly gathering where we sing, socialize, and learn the beautiful history of Jewish mysticism as communicated through the art of the nigun. Participants are encouraged to bring a nigun to share if they know one.

PDX Nigun Circle is open to all! No Jew is too young, old, religious or secular to attend. While the art of nigun was started by and is kept alive by Hasidim, all can find strength and meaning through the practice. Most importantly, you do not need to consider yourself a good singer, let alone a singer at all! The nigun is an act of vocalizing the needs of the soul, so quality is not a factor in having a meaningful experience.

What is a nigun?

A nigun is a primarily wordless melody. Emerging out of the 18th century Ashkenazic mystical revival movement called Ḥasidut (Chassidism), nigunim (plural) have been passed down to us today through a long oral tradition. Nigunim are vocal outpourings of all the ranges of human emotion: joy, suffering, piety and yearning, and have carried the spirit of the Jewish people though generations of exile.

The nigun has the potential to uplift and transform the individual and communal experience of spirituality and the Jewish tradition. Nigunim are said to carry and evoke the spirit of their composers. While a nigun might emerge as a cry from the lonely heart, when we gather in song, we cultivate a sense of unity and belonging that feels ecstatic, vulnerable, nourishing and decidedly rebellious.