Eicha yashva vadad

How she sits alone! (Lamentations 1:1)

How my heart has been broken by the cruelty of this world
How my heart has been broken by the beauty of this world
Eicha yashva vadad

On the 9th of Av, the day that commemorates the destruction of the Temple, we let our hearts break, and journey through that fissure into love. The Holy Ari teaches that on the afternoon of Tishab’Av, the Messiah is born. Out of the ashes of our grief, Messianic consciousness emerges to inspire us onward to wholeness.

I composed this chant for a Tishab’Av ritual. Between every repetition, each one in the sacred circle cried out a lament. We named our heartbreaks, both personal and communal: Suffering, inequality, cynicism, meanness, violence, poverty, injustice, abuse, apathy, hatred…

And then as the High Priest I dedicated it all, saying,
“And yet…. ALL OF THIS sends me
To kindness
To connection
To Compassion
and to the knowing of the preciousness of ALL LIFE.”

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

• Lament (melody)  
• Lament (harmony)  
• Lament (mix with round)  

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