Chants, Liturgy

Ahava Rabah

Ahavah Rabah Ahavtanu
Ahava Rabah in Hebrew
With such a great love You have loved us (Liturgy)

I open to your blessing
I open to your love,
I open to your blessing
I open to your love,
I receive your firm support
and lean into your wide embrace,
When I walk through your open door
I know the whole world as your face.
Ahavah Rabah Ahavtanu

I composed this at a moment when I was feeling very tired, sad, needy and constricted. I saw clearly, an old pattern of trying to get love, reassurance and validation from others when I felt this way…. But it never really worked. In some corner of my heart I knew that there was a great love—flowing, but I would need to open to it. So, I began to sing these words as a magical incantation to open. After a while, something in me shifted, and I knew that I had located and opened a door within that would always be available to me.

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

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

Chants, Scripture, Shir HaShirim

Love/Death

Ki aza kamavet ahavah
Love/Death in Hebrew
For Love is as strong as Death. (Song of Songs 8:6)

Death is both the greatest challenge to Love and her greatest teacher.

In the face of Death, it is possible to close our hearts, constrict the contours of identity and defend the small self, out of that terror of not-being. And yet, death teaches us to treasure each moment, value each breath and come into a heightened awareness of the preciousness of this moment of love.

In the awareness of Death, the fullness of love blossoms. We surrender all that we are. It is a kind of ego-death. We are consumed by the passion of loving. We die to the past, invite in the unknowable Mystery of Love, open to the possibility of ego-annihilation, knowing that Love is as strong or stronger than any ambition, idea, conception or self-image.

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

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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Love/Death PDF.

Chants, Scripture

After the Fire

V’achar ha’aysh, Kol D’mama Dakah
Hebrew for After the fire
And after the fire, a soft murmuring sound (1st Kings 19:12)

With the prophet Elijah we enter the storm. Through the wind, and the earthquake and the fire, we journey and are awakened to full aliveness. We are broken open. And then, in the silence we listen.

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

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

Chants, Shir HaShirim

I Was Asleep

Ani y’shaynah v’libi ayr
I Was Asleep in Hebrew
I was asleep, but my heart stayed awake. (Song of Songs 5:2)

I was asleep,
nearly unconscious,
I couldn’t see; I couldn’t hear;
I couldn’t know the love within me,
I was lost in all my parts,
Until my heart awakened me to wholeness.
Ani y’shaynah v’libi ayr.

Even when just a small place in my heart is awake, it can save me from going completely unconscious or from being completely lost in my stories and patterns. I want to pay attention to and encourage that tiny place of awakeness in my heart, honoring its aliveness, curiosity, humor and steadfast resilience. With that steady attention I give to the awakened heart, I encourage its influence on my whole being. That influence can lead me to joy, integration, healing and wholeness.

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

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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click I Was Asleep PDF. For the musical notation, click I Was Asleep notation PDF.

Chants

A Narrow Bridge

Kol ha’olam kulo gesher tzar m’od
V’ha’ikar lo l’fachayd klal
graphic of Hebrew for A Narrow Bridge
All the world is a narrow bridge;
the main thing is not to fear. (R. Nachman of Bratzlav)

In calling all the world, a narrow bridge, I think Reb Nachman is reminding of us how treacherous it feels to walk this path of love. How easy it is to lose our way or stumble. So often we are pulled off-course by doubt, pain, trauma, distraction, boredom, numbness, cravings, restlessness or reactivity. In those dangerous moments of imbalance, the important thing to remember is not to fear.

I believe that this bridge is what connects the finite with the infinite. We are walking this path of love with keen awareness of the dangers. We are supporting each other in that steadfast purposeful love; strengthening each other in our resolve to stay true to love, and not let fear move us off the path.

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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click A Narrow Bridge PDF. For the musical notation, click A Narrow Bridge notation PDF.