Chants, Shir HaShirim

Kiss Me: Yishakayni

Yishakayni minshikot piyhu!
Kiss Me Hebrew
Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! (Song of Songs 1:2)

The Song of Songs begins with this request. We invite God – Reality – the World-as-it-is – Existence-itself… to an intimate direct encounter. That Divine kiss in turn invites us into our passion. Our practice is to release all passivity, pucker up and engage with Life. To receive the Divine kiss is to die to this moment and be reborn in love. Can we receive it in the color of the sky? In this breath? With this step? Can we open to the gift that God is giving us in “this?”

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

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 Kiss Me PDF.

Chants, Liturgy, Scripture

Keep the Faith: Raba Emunatecha

Raba Emunatecha
Raba Emunatech Hebrew
How great is Your Faithfulness. (Morning liturgy, Lamentations 3:23)

This practice came to me during a time of turmoil in the world. I was searching for a practice that might acknowledge my grief yet keep me from despair. I needed a practice that would connect me to resources of strength and resilience as I walked through the shadows of fear, rage and devastation. The Book of Lamentations describes a time like this, and one particular phrase from that painful text found its way into the light of our morning liturgy.

God’s faithfulness comes to me as a glimpse of the widest, longest perspective. In that glimpse I am calmed; I relax my frantic grip; I stop trying to figure it out; I begin to trust the flow of inexorable change. As God sees me, I surrender to that faithful gaze. This Divine faith in me, is what grows my own fragile faith. When I am known, seen and loved completely through this Divine faith, I can risk and dare to rise to the challenge of loving this world with all that I am and everything I’ve got.

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 Keep the Faith PDF.

Chants, Shir HaShirim

Let Me Hear Your Voice: Chaverim Makshivim

Chaverim Makshivim l’kolaych, Hashmi’ini, hashmi’ini
Let Me Hear Your Voice (Hebrew)
Oh Woman in the garden,
this garden of Love,
let me hear Your Voice! (Song of Songs 8:13)

We aspire to be “the Listening Friends” who loyally listen for the voice of Shechinah. She is whispering always, gifting Her Wisdom and Love to all who enter the Garden of this life with the requisite attention, receptivity, strength of purpose, longing and open-hearted expectancy. In listening, we surrender to the widest embrace.

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

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 Let Me Hear Your Voice PDF. To download the musical notation, click Let Me Hear Your Voice Notation PDF.

Chants, Scripture

Rise Up, Oh Well: Ali v’er

Ali v’er ehnu-lah
Hebrew: Rise Up, Oh Well
Rise up, Oh Well,
Chant Her up. (Bamidbar 21:17)

After the prophet Miriam dies, the people are thirsty. She represents our connection to the deep source of Divine Feminine Flow. When we are cut off from that flow, we become profoundly irritable. Our thirst for Shechinah manifests as bitter complaint, negativity and the death of joy. And then we call to the well, the well of living waters that is hidden within.

This is a practice of calling, chanting up the flow of living waters that has been stopped up, and is now ready to rise up and nurture the world.

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 Rise Up, Oh Well PDF.

Chants, Liturgy, Psalms

Celebration in Praise: Kol Ha’n’shama

Hilulah, hilulah, hilulah, Halleluyah!
Hilulah, hilulah, hilulah, Halleluyah!
Kol Ha’n’shama t’hallelyah,
Kol Ha’n’shama t’hallelyah
Hebrew for Celebration In Praise
It’s a Celebration of Praise;
Let all souls praise Yah! (Psalm 150:6)
 
The word Hilulah in modern Hebrew, means celebration. In the Chasidic world, the term has come to mean a celebration in praise and honor of some great sage on the anniversary of their death. We celebrate not only to have a good time, but to honor that teacher and connect with the flow, wisdom and love of a life-well-lived. Through our celebration, we enter that flow, receive that wisdom and open to the possibility of living in the light of that love.

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 Celebration in Praise PDF. To download the musical notation, click Celebration in Praise Notation PDF.