Two outstanding musical events in the life of our community occur this month. On Feb. 11, all the musical forces of Micah will combine for our annual Shabbat Shira service. The Temple Micah choirs join the Temple Micah Pickup Orchestra and Meryl Weiner to observe the Shabbat when we read the "Song of the Sea" from Exodus, including the famous Mi Chamocha passage. Throughout the service, some dozen settings of the Mi Chamocha text are heard. The apex of the service is "When You Believe," from the movie, The Prince of Egypt. The service is the musical highlight of our liturgical year.

On Sunday, Feb. 26, the fabulous Temple Micah Youth Choir will join with youth choirs from 11 other local synagogues for the 16th annual Washington Area Jewish Youth Choir Festival at Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria. This year's theme is tikkun olam (repair of the world). I am proud that Micah is one of only two congregations that have participated since the festival's inception.

Each choir sings a few selections on its own, in a non-competitive fashion, and all the groups combine for a grand finale. Our choir will sing three favorites: Craig Taubman's Dixieland version of "L'cha Dodi," Meir Finkelstein's "Mi Chamocha" from the Shabbat Shira service and Flory Jagoda's "Una Kandlika," which we learned this past Hanukkah.

All the choirs will sing Rick Recht's "Hinei Ma Tov," Jeff Klepper's "Lo Alecha" and "Song of Peace," sung in Hebrew with an English countermelody. The entire community is invited to hear this extraordinary concert with some extraordinary singers --the leaders of tomorrow.