A New Haftara for Sukkot from Hazzan Jack Kessler (text by poet David Rosenberg)

As described in the article about my work in this area, published in Kerem Magazine Volume 14: 2014-5775 (English Leyning: Bringing New Meaning to the Torah Service [pdf]), I have been setting English texts to haftara trop, including both poetic renditions of traditional Hebrew texts and the work of more contemporary prophetic voices.

This way, I am beginning to generate a corpus of what I feel are exciting, relevant and even stirring haftarot that amplify the themes of the Torah readings and the themes of the season, and engage the prophetic call to heightened historical consciousness, God-awareness, and justice in an idiom that is immediately accessible and inspiring to the American Jewish ear and heart.

Here is a text that I have been using for the haftara of Sukkot. This text, by poet David Rosenberg, is from his work A Literary Bible: An Original Translation (Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2009). Use this link for ordering the book at Amazon.com: “Rosenberg Literary Bible.” This text is used with permission. You can listen to the haftara below, and can download a pdf (annotated with trop markings) here: New Sukkot Haftara [pdf]