Category Archives: Chants

Chants, Psalms

Please God!: Ana Yah hoshiyah

Ana Yah hoshiyah na, Ana Yah hatzliycha na
Please God in Hebrew
Please God, grant us new Life; please God, make us successful! (Psalm 118:25)

Psalm 118, the concluding Psalm of Hallel, overflowing with extravagant praise and gratefulness, sends us our own strength. From here we call to God. Our calling is from a stance of fullness, calm confidence and the celebration of the ongoing Divine flow of abundance, justice and truth.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch translates “hoshiyah” not as save us, or deliver us… but grant new Life. “Y’shuah,” he says, is “undimmed vigor of one’s own life and existence; Yud-Shin-Ayin is the true, genuine YESH.” (is-ness) So, from the fullness of celebration we ask that this joy might invigorate our existence and then open us to the source of prosperity. As we receive the force of new life, we ask that it be channeled in ways that help us succeed, manifesting our highest dreams and most passionate purpose.

To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Please God! PDF.

Chants, Scripture

Promise of Connection: V’hit’halachti

V’hit’halachti b’tochachem, v’hayiti lachem Lelohim
PromiseOfConnection_Hebrew
And then, I will walk within/among you, and I will be your God
(… and you will be my people). (Leviticus 26:12)

The Book of Leviticus tells us that when we walk in connection, listen well and act in accordance with that interconnection, then the Divine Spirit moves within and between us. We come into relationship not just with the parts, but with the Whole of Creation. This is the promise of connection.

By doing this practice, we are receiving that promise and opening ourselves up to the web of Creation.

To hear the various parts of the chant, use the audio players. To download a part, right-click a note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Promise of Connection PDF. For the musical notation, click Promise of Connection Music.

Chants, Shir HaShirim

God-Window Practice: Dodi Tzafanti Lach

Dodi Tzafanti Lach
Hebrew text for God-Window practice
My hidden (treasure) is Yours, My Beloved. (Song of Songs 7:14)

This is a practice of release. Whatever is hidden inside us, we give over to God, The Beloved, who lovingly relieves us of our burden of shame, pride or secret, transforming that encumbrance, leaving us lighter, and more open to receive the gift of this moment.

I call this a God-Window practice, because every time I chant the word, Lach (It’s Yours) I send my hidden material through a soul window to God. A powerful way to do this practice is with a partner who can be that God-Window, who can get out of the way yet still remain present and open. As I chant through the eyes of my partner, their strong presence becomes a God-Window, allowing my hiddenness to flow through their transparent presence to the great Divine beyond.

Every time I say Lach, I add a physical gesture (moving my hand from my heart outwards to God) to amplify the force of release. In the silence after the chant, I open to receive God’s mysterious presence into the place that has been emptied.

To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click God-Window Practice PDF.

Chants

For the Good: Gam zeh l’tovah

Gam zeh l’tovah
This is also for the good. (Talmud, Taanit 21a)

Nachum, a great sage who was Rabbi Akiva’s teacher was nicknamed Ish Gamzu, the Gamzu man, because no matter what happened, he would say about it, “This is also for the good.” He experienced a lot of what looked to other as very bad things- illness, misfortune, suffering.

I don’t think that he was saying that even those terrible things were good. Nachum Ish Gamzu was doing a very advanced practice of dedication to the larger Good. This larger Good holds inside of it everything we think of as good and bad. And he was stepping inside a vast and radical place of Not-Knowing.

My version of his practice lets me point to all the countless events, situations, fates, adventures and misadventures of my life, as I vow to use everything, yes everything in service to the greater good of awakening through it all.

To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click For the Good PDF. For the musical notation, click For the Good Music.

Chants, Liturgy, Psalms

Surrendering: B’yad’cha afkid ruchi

B’yad’cha afkid ruchi padita oti Yah Ayl Emet
Surrendering Hebrew text
Into Your Hand I entrust my spirit; You redeem me Yah, God of Truth. (Psalm 31:6) (Bedtime liturgy)

In the Talmud (Brachot 4a-5b) Rav Abaye suggests that we chant these words from Psalm 31, to amplify the power of the Bedtime Sh’ma. They help us surrender into God’s loving embrace at the moment when we are about to give ourselves to sleep. Trusting in that embrace, freeing ourselves from the worries of the day, and committing our lives to the Truth of a wider perspective.

I created this practice for a young man who was dying. The chant gave everyone who loved this courageous soul an opportunity to pour that love into a vehicle of transformation as he made the journey through the portal of Death into Greater Life. At the moment of his Death, I felt his soul expand and be taken into the wide embrace.

We can experience that expansion and that embrace each night, as we surrender the illusion of control and give ourselves over to the greater Truth that has been holding us all along.

To hear the various parts of the chant, use the audio players. To download a part, right-click a note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Surrendering PDF. For the musical notation, click Surrendering Music.