TRIBUTE for Metuka Benjamin

By Russell Steinberg

“Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn her seven pillars,
She has prepared the feast,
Mixed the wine,
And also set the table…

Give up simpleness and live,
Walk in the way of understanding.”

From Proverbs 9

Written in honor of educator Metuka Benjamin, a visionary who together with Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin and Rabbi Eli Herscher built a set of schools along the Mulholland corridor that are the pride of the entire Jewish community worldwide and recognized for excellence alongside the finest secondary schools nationally.

The text for the piece comes from Proverbs No. 9. It is a simple, but profound allegory that imagines wisdom as both an architect and host. She creates a magnificent space and does everything in her power to prepare for a great feast. But it is up to us to understand her message fully, to let go of simpleness—the lust for material things— and embrace wisdom’s knowledge, discipline, and prudence to experience this moment on a deeper spiritual level.

A melodic niggun introduces the choral treatment of these verses.