Category Archives: Psalms

My Prayer as Incense: Tikon t’filati

08/14/2012 Alia Meira

Tikon t’filati k’toret l’fanecha

Let my prayer be incense before You. (Psalm 141:2)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 141 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

Our ancestors knew the secrets of fragrance. They carefully mixed balsam, frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, cinnamon and other precious spices with secret ingredients that would help the smoke ascend. This powerful practice of incense helped to focus our intentions and create an atmosphere of holiness. The complex and beautiful fragrance penetrated our consciousness directly and lifted us up into mystery.

Our prayer can have this same power, lifting us up in beauty, bringing us into an awareness of the Divine Presence.

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

My Prayer as Incense

To download the PDF file for this chant, click My Prayer as Incense PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 295.

Chants, Psalms

Pure: Kol mish’barecha

05/17/2012 Alia Meira

Kol mish’barecha v’galecha Alai avaru
Tahor Hu, T’horah Hi
Pure Hebrew text
All of Your breakers and Your waves have swept over me.
He is pure; she is pure. (Psalm 42:8)

Every moment can be received as a point of transition and an opening into whole new world. As I step into who I am becoming, I need to be washed clean of prejudice, expectation, disappointment and limited perspective.

This chant was written for Taharah, specifically the part of the ritual where water is poured over the body. It is also a wonderful chant for the practice of Mikvah — ritual immersion, or any ritual of purification.

The breakers and waves that cleanse us can also be understood as our life-experience. Through living and learning we are returned to our essential purity.

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 Pure PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 293.

Chants, Psalms

Whose Face? Al tastayr

04/24/2012 Alia Meira

Al tastayr panecha mimeni

Do not hide Your Face from me. (Psalm 27:9)

I begin chanting this prayer with insistence and passion because I long to see and know The Face of God in all things, in all people, in all places, in all blessings, in all predicaments. After a while it feels as if God is chanting these words to me, saying, “I have been here all along; it is you who have been hiding. Show your face to Me. “ And then I enter the subtle state that I call “The Holy Confusion.” Whose Face? Mine? God’s? Both? Neither? Or does God look out from my face? Or do I look out from God’s face?

If I chant long enough I may be able to rest in this holy confusion, and bathe in its questions and come to the state of Un-knowing that leads to Wisdom.

This is a 3-part round.

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 Whose Face? PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 291.

Chants, Psalms

Heart Walk: Et-halaych

01/06/2012 Alia Meira

Et-halaych b’tam l’vavi, b’kerev bayti
Heart Walk Hebrew text
I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. (Psalm 101:2)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 101 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

To ﬁnd the integrity of my heart is to return to its innocence, simplicity, and wholeness, and then live my life from that place. When Life gets complicated, tangled up and overwhelming, it’s time to “go for a walk.”

Et-halaych is a reﬂexive verb (to take yourself for a walk) that describes a way of living that is self-aware. I must take this walk within my own house, ﬁrst, if I am to manifest that integrity in the world. My own house might mean the workings of my inner life or the life of my family and intimate relationships, or the sacred realm of “HOME.”

This practice is a walking meditation.

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 Heart Walk PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 288.

Chants, Psalms

Min HaMetzar

09/28/2011 Alia Meira

Min HaMetzar karati Yah,
Anani vamerchavYah

From the Narrow place I called out to God
who answered me with the Divine Expanse. (Psalm 118:5)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 118 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

A High Holy Days Practice

With this chant, we can dedicate our own narrow places — the places of struggle, difficulty, suffering or challenge in our lives… . We can know and accept those narrow places as that which will make our “Call” beautiful and compelling. When we can allow the force of our call to move through our narrow places, through what makes us all-too-human, then our call will be answered by God’s Divine Expanse — a sense of spaciousness in which transformation can happen.

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.