Catch Us the Foxes: Echezu-lanu

Echezu-lanu shu’alim,
shu’alim k’tanim m’chablim k’ramim uchramaynu smadar.

Catch us the foxes,
The little foxes that raid our vineyard
Just when the vines are in bloom. (Song of Songs 2:15)

If the vineyard is the place of our love and the place where the power of prophecy is cultivated, then those pesky foxes are the doubts that creep into the mind just when I am opening with some new insight or realization. If I can catch myself right at the moment when the doubt is beginning to take hold, I can release that thought and return to nurture the fragile blossoming of wisdom. When I know I am having a “doubt attack,” with this awareness, I am “catching the foxes.” With this awareness, I open in self- compassion, gently releasing the interrupting and destructive thoughts, and return to the vineyard, to the blossoming of love.

With this practice, I acknowledge the reality of foxes, (doubts, fears, cynicism, distrust, worry that run through the mind) and resolve to catch them before they do too much damage.

To view context from Shir HaShirim through the Love at the Center project, click Shir HaShirm (Bo).

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To download the PDF file for this chant, click Catch Us the Foxes PDF. For the musical notation, click Catch Us the Foxes notation PDF.