Pilgrimage Practice: L’yerushalayim Ircha

L’yerushalayim Ircha B’rachamim Tashuv

To Jerusalem Your city with compassion You will return.
(from the Daily Amida)

I composed this chant in preparation for a trip to Israel. I use this sacred phrase to open me to the call of Pilgrimage.

Richard Niebuhr (quoted in The Art Of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau p.14) says, “Pilgrims are persons in motion, passing through territories not their own, seeking something we might call completion, or perhaps the word clarity will do as well, a goal to which only the spirit’s compass points the way.”

Every pilgrimage is a journey inward, even if we travel clear across the world. We can use this chant, which is a “double round,” to prepare ourselves for pilgrimage, for journeying inward towards the Center of Awareness.

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 Pilgrimage Practice PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 242.