Chants, Psalms

Resilience: Im aylech

Im aylech b’kerev tzarah, t’chayayni
Resilience text in Hebrew
Even when I walk in the midst of trouble,
you are giving me Life. (Psalm 138:7)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 138 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

As I cultivate resilience, I meet the obstacles of reactivity, overwhelm, alienation, despair and feeling cut off from my Source. With this practice, I first acknowledge, with compassion, the difficulties of Life. Then I open to the help that is available in each moment — the unseen possibilities of renewal. When I activate my imagination, the possibilities of joy, curiosity, insight, and a wider perspective are revealed moment by moment and then I simply open to them. In that moment of opening, I let go of my story; I become curious; I connect with inner and outer resources that were always there; I reignite my enthusiasm for the journey.

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 Resilience PDF.

Chants, Liturgy

All Love: Kulam Ahuvim

Kulam Ahuvim, Kulam B’rurim, Kulam Giborim
Hebrew text for All Love chant
All Love, All Clarity, All Power
(from the Kedusha of Yotzer in our Shachrit liturgy)

The Kedusha is a prayer recited three times in three variations in our morning liturgy. It was created by the Merkava mystics to help us ascend to the angelic realms and remember our own true identity as chariots of the Divine Presence. The Kedusha describes and invokes the angels who are calling to each other. With this practice, we become those angels as we rise above the illusions of limited perspective and enter the truth of our love, clarity and power.

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 All Love PDF. To download a PDF file with the musical notation, click All Love music.

Chants, Psalms

Healer to the Broken-Hearted: Harofay

Harofay Lish’vuray Lev, u’m’chabaysh l’atzvotam
Hebrew for Healer chant
Oh Healer to the Broken-hearted, you bind up our wounds. (Psalm 147:3)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 147 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

With this practice, we invoke the Divine Force of wholeness and allow our own broken hearts and the broken heart of the world to be held within that loving, accepting and healing embrace.

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 Healer to the Broken-Hearted PDF.

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.