Dodi tzach v’adom dagul may’r’vava

My beloved is radiant and earthy
He towers above ten thousand. (Song of Songs 5:10)

To love God is to embrace the paradox of opposites. Tzach can mean pure, milk, scorching, white, dazzling, radiant. Adom can mean ruddy, red, wine, earthy. When I can know my Beloved with my expanded heart capacities, expanding beyond mere mental faculties of the rational, then I can embrace the contradictions of my life. Then the Divine rises up (above ten thousand) and takes priority. Then I can see, with God, that apparent contradictions all belong to the One.

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

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

• Radiant and Earthy (melody)  
• Radiant and Earthy (harmony)  
• Radiant and Earthy (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Radiant and Earthy PDF.  For the musical notation, click Radiant and Earthy notation PDF.

Im tim’tz’u et dodi mah-tagidu lo she’cholat ahavah ani

If you find my beloved,
You must tell him
That I am in the fever of Love. (Song of Songs 5:8)

With this practice, we connect with our companions on the Path of Love, asking for their understanding, support, reality checks, anchoring, as we fall in love. Being in love requires us to surrender deeply.

Being in love feels like a kind of madness, in that it sometimes requires me to ignore the outer shape of things in order to embrace the inner essence. It tells me that all is well, even in the midst of apparent disaster. Living from that inner essence feels risky; I don’t want to do it alone. That’s why I’m always reaching out to kindred souls, so we can affirm each other’s glimpses, sharing our fragile impressions of the fragrance that love imbues.

When I chant the words she’cholat ahavah ani (that I am in the fever of Love), I am swooning, languorous, dreamy…. As I enter into the state of being in love. Knowing my companions are there for me, without judgment allows me to surrender even further.

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

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

• In the Fever of Love (melody)  
• In the Fever of Love (harmony)  
• In the Fever of Love (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click In the Fever of Love PDF.  For the musical notation, click In the Fever of Love notation PDF.

Kamti ani liftoach l’dodi

I will open to you my beloved; will you open, open to me?
I rose to open to my love. (Song of Songs 5:5)

The moment has come. We rise in order to open to the blessings and challenges of this moment. The inner gesture of rising to this moment is absolutely necessary if we are to open to what life is offering.

The English part that I added to this verse, expresses both my commitment and a sense of vulnerability. I ask for a Divine reciprocity in this opening. With each repetition of the chant I strengthen my commitment to open, and also become more receptive to the Divine response (through the world) that is opening to me.

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

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

• Rising To Open: Kamti  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Rising To Open PDF.

Chanscendence ©1997 Rabbi Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.

Ichlu ray’im sh’tu v’shichru dodim

Feast, friends, and drink till you are drunk with love! (Song of Songs 5:1)

We open to the abundance and the pleasure that is laid out before us as the banquet of our lives. This is a practice of diving in to the riches before us with gusto. Those riches are not just sense pleasures; there are also soul pleasures to be enjoyed. Can we really take in the simple pleasures of breath, sound, light, connection, imagination, humor… and delight in this moment as a gift to be unwrapped with our enjoyment, passion and enthusiasm? Then we can pause and savor and be nurtured and intoxicated with the possibilities that open up before us in each moment.

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

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

• Feast, Friends  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Feast, Friends PDF.

Hikuni f’tza’uni nasu
et r’didi me’alai shomray hachomot

They beat me, they bruised me
The watchmen of the walls
tore the shawl from my shoulders. (Song of Songs 5:7)

On this path of love, we become more and more vulnerable, which means that we have made a commitment to feel our pain rather than numb ourselves or erect defenses. Those “watchmen of the walls,” are the forces that stand between us and the pain we have tried to avoid. They strip us of our artifice, take away our well-built strategies of fortifications. We stand beaten and bruised by the vicissitudes of Life: by sorrows (named and unnamable), by losses, by suffering that feels both personal and universal.

This practice allows us to feel bruised, beaten and exposed. We do this practice when we are ready, layer by layer for our egoic defenses to be stripped away. When we are ready to feel in the places that have gone numb, then love can find us. And then love emerges from the depths of our being, to permeate, heal and transform the places of trauma and pain we have carried.

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

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

• Beaten and Bruised (melody)  
• Beaten and Bruised (harmony)  
• Beaten and Bruised (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Beaten and Bruised PDF.  For the musical notation, click Beaten and Bruised notation PDF.