Loving ‘This’: Zeh Dodi

09/26/2005 Alia Meira

Zeh Dodi v’zeh ray-ee

This is my Beloved; this is my Friend. (Song of Songs 5:16)

Meditation is the practice of opening to “this” — this very moment, this very place. Ordinarily I may have my judgements — things about this that I like or not. But in meditation I just say yes to whatever is before me. I accept it fully. I may not like it, but I surrender to “this” whatever it is. I fall in love, each moment, again and again. I make this moment my friend.

My friend and teacher Sylvia Boorstein has taught me a phrase of intention, “I greet this moment in friendship with an undefended heart.”

This phrase from the Song of Songs helps me to enter into meditation with a clear and vital intention of making each moment my Beloved.

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

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

Loving ‘This’

For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 258.

Chants, Psalms

Preparation for Healing: Atah Ozi

09/26/2005 Alia Meira

Atah Ozi
Atah Chayai
Atah Ori
Atah L’fanai

You are my Strength
You are my Life
You are my Light
Ever before me. (inspired by Psalm 27)

In the practice of healing we leave the “small-mind” place of fear and separation, and enter into the “big mind” place of infinite possibility, and gratefulness for the blessing that is already flowing. We take the journey from “small-mind” to “big mind” by addressing God as YOU. We must become calm enough and spacious enough to receive God’s presence in response to our invocation. When we are filled with that presence, then we can open to the healing power that flows through us.

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

Preparation for Healing

For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 282.

Chants, Psalms

Aging and Saging: Od y’nuvun

09/26/2005 Alia Meira

Od y’nuvun b’sayva
D’shaynim v’rananim y’hi’yu

They will be fruitful, even in old age
They will be juicy and luxuriant. (Psalm 92)

I wrote this double-round chant in honor of Reb Zalman Shachter-Shalomi z”l and in honor of his 80th birthday. The intention that I bring to this double-round chant is to get in touch with the kind of fruitfulness, luxuriance and juiciness that emerges from my depths after many years of experience. This is a fruitfulness of wisdom and subtlety and it’s not always obvious if you’re only attuned to the surface of things. Even as our outer skin dries and wrinkles, there is an inner softness that can be cultivated from years of rubbing up against the Mystery. Even as outer sight dims and hearing falters, there are inner senses that can become fine-tuned as we age.

As I chant these words, I bless the elders who have been models of aging and saging for me as they continue to blossom, burgeon and flourish in full-hearted glory.

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

NOTE: Re-recorded in November, 2024.

Chants, Scripture

Opening to the Source of Flow: V’nahar yotzei

09/26/2005 Alia Meira

V’nahar yotzei me’eden, l’hashkot et haGan.

A river comes forth from Eden to water the garden. (Genesis 2:10)

My friend and teacher Melila Hellner told me that this line from Genesis was the most quoted sacred phrase in the Zohar, one of the central texts of Kabbalah. I was intrigued and began chanting this phrase with the intention of opening to the Source of Flow. Chant these words until the chant begins to chant itself. In the silence after the chant, open to the Flow.

As we delight in the garden of this moment, let us attune to the source of its vitality and beauty.

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

Opening to the Source of Flow

For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 255.

Chants, Psalms

Preparation for Re-connecting: Chaneyni Yah

09/21/2005 Alia Meira

Chaneyni Yah ki oomlal ani

Grace me, Yah, for I am withered [disconnected]. (Psalm 6:3)

In order to connect with God, our Source, we have to acknowledge how disconnected we sometimes get. That disconnection manifests as weariness, irritability, loneliness, emptiness, or a feeling of being scattered or lost.

Reconnecting requires that we acknowledge the price of that disconnection and then open in yearning and hopefulness to the mystery of God’s Grace.

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

Preparation for Re-connecting

For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 267.