More music to support your Jewish anxiety.
Music and lyrics by Aly Halpert, written winter 2021/5781

Lyrics:

On the do-it-right road, there is only one way
You can take the train there, but there's only one train
if you miss it, which you will
watch the colors fly by
at the end of the day, 
we're all under the same sky

Do It Right Road

Setting of psalm 27

dedicated to all of us yearning for more life!

Lyrics:
Achat sha'alti me'eit Hashem, otah avakesh:
shivti b'veit Hashem, kol y'mei chayai, lachazot b'noam Hashem, u'l'vaker b'heikhalo.

One thing I ask from the creator, one thing I desire
That I might dwell in Your house all the days of my life
To behold the graciousn​ess of the creator, and to enter Their sanctuary​.

Achat Sha'alti

Ayeka is a song based on the story of Cain and Abel, the first story of murder in our ancient texts, between the first brothers.

And Gd says to Cain after he has taken Abel’s life, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

Hashem hears the ground shaking, hears the cries of every child, every world of a human who has been taken from us in the last 132 days.

Ayeka asks us to look at ourselves, at everything. At every Palestinian and Israeli death that is the result of occupation, apartheid, and colonization, because these systems keep no one safe. At how the world is expected to grind on, to look away from what’s happening in Gaza and the tens of thousands of people who no longer get to have their one wild and absolutely precious life. All for profit, for war, for oil, lining the pockets of Western powers who have never cared about using Jews and don’t mind making Palestinians disposable. Ayeka asks, where are we? And how do we find our humanity again?

meh asita
kol d’mei achicha
tzo’akim eylai min ha’adamah

מֶ֣ה עָשִׂ֑יתָ ק֚וֹל דְּמֵ֣י אָחִ֔יךָ צֹעֲקִ֥ים אֵלַ֖י מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָֽה

(what have you done?
the voice of your brothers blood cries out to me from the ground)

ayeka,
ayeh achicha
ayeka

אַיֶּֽכָּה
אֵ֖י אָחִ֑יךָ
אַיֶּֽכָּה

(where are you? where is your brother? where are you?)

from the ground I
hear them calling
your brother’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?

from the soil I
hear them crying
your sister’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?

from the ground I
hear them calling
your sibling’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?

from the soil I
hear them crying
our family’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?
credits
released February 21, 2024
Music and English lyrics composed by Aly Halpert
Hebrew text from Tanakh
Music direction by Aly Halpert
Produced by Aly Halpert
Recorded at Tonal Park Studios on Piscataway land (Takoma Park, MD), January 3, 2024 / 22 Tevet 5784
Engineered, mixed & mastered by Don Godwin
Artwork by Jay Smith
Text chosen in consultation with Chana Rusanov

Singers and Musicians:
Aly Halpert - lead vocals, guitar, piano
Maia Kamil - vocals
Yoni Battat - vocals, viola
Jessie Reagan - cello
Sam Weisenberg - percussion

Ayeka

Song/prayer/meditation to heal personal and societal grief. For ordinary grief, extraordinary grief, the unbearable kind and the unseen kind and the enduring kind, in service of exhales and letting go of what is ours and not ours, of compassion, lightness, & becoming who we are after and through it all.

Aly Halpert's Album

Loosen Loosen

Written on a summer morning at Eden Village Camp, sung by Aly Halpert, Anat Hochberg, Ilan Korman, & Leah Shoshana Cowen, recorded on an iphone voice memo.

original text:
modah/modeh ani l'fanecha, ruach chai v'kayam 
(I am grateful before you, eternal living spirit)

additional english lyrics:
I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life inside me is a gift
so we may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life around me is a gift
so I may heal

Modah Ani (Voice Memo Recording)

For Pittsburgh and Squirrel Hill. In service of our healing and collective freedom in the midst of intense white nationalist violence in the form of transphobia, racism, sexism, and anti-semitism.  As a reminder that more police and "security" do not make us safer, especially for those of us who hold multiple targeted identities.  We will only win when we are all together.

Lyrics:
we are a beautiful people
though our hearts are broken
we sing for justice, and wholeness

we are a beautiful people
though our hearts are broken
we know that we are not alone
right here we are home

you have taken a universe
you have taken a mountain
our voices echo in the hills

they will not divide us
we will not abide this
we know that together we'll be free
mourning tragedy
our safety is with each other

we are a beautiful people
though our hearts are broken
we sing for justice, and wholeness

we are a beautiful people
though our hearts are broken
we know that we are not alone
right here we are home

toch emunei am segulah (repeated)

hebrew translation: 
from lecha dodi, a prayer greeting shabbes:
among those who hold faith, a treasured nation

gratitude to Chana Rusanov for hebrew lyrics and translation.
gratitude for Rachel Beck for leading me on my own journey against anti-semitism for seven years now
gratitude for Dove Kent, JFREJ, and so so many other brilliant teachers leading us towards solidarity
gratitude for our allies who take the time and effort to see the realities of systemic anti-semitism
gratitude for life, for existence, and the capacity to heal.

Beautiful People (Toch Emunei)

Daily praise song that celebrates all who live in the home of the divine (our sacred planet). Words from tradition, music by Aly Halpert. Creative consultation from Batya Levine.

Written for Linke Fligl, a queer Jewish chicken farm and cultural project in Millerton, NY, for their Sukkot gathering, 5779. (linkefligl.com)

Lyrics 
Hebrew(from traditional Jewish services)
Ashrei yoshvei veitecha, od y'hallelucha, selah!

English (by Aly Halpert)
I sing for you
I sing for what is holy and is true
I sing for all creation, for life and liberation
Everyday anew

Ashrei

Written by Aly Halpert on a summer morning 5778 at Eden Village Camp
Recorded on garageband spring 5779

original text:
modah/modet/modeh ani l'fanecha, ruach chai v'kayam 
(I am grateful before you, eternal living spirit)

english lyrics by aly halpert:
I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life inside me is a gift
so we may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life around me is a gift
so I may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life inside me is a gift
so I may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life around me is a gift
so we may heal

Modah Ani (morning prayer)

Moses' prayer for his sister Miriam when she is sick -- Ana el na refa na la - "please Gd, heal her." 

Ancient Jewish words from Numbers 12:13. Music written and recorded in 2016 by Aly Halpert for a friend who was in need of healing.

Songs for Healing

Ana El Na

This is a teaching recording for a four-part (advanced level) round about the birthday of the trees, the holiday of Tu B'Shevat.

This song has four parts to honor the four levels of fruit and their symbolism present at the seder.

Written in 2018, at the Round House bath tub Tu B'Shevat seder. 

Lyrics
Part I:
The birthday of the trees, of the life that fills our needs
No matter where we are, we are breathing
The birthday of the trees, of the life that fills our needs
No matter where we are, the branches swinging

Part II:

We are hard, we are soft.
Our cores are strong, our hearts aloft

Part III:

Oh the land, what a gift!
community, we fight for this
With roots in ground, and hearts in sky
the seasons turn, we try and try

Part IV:
There is something we don't know
We use this to feed our souls

Tu B'Shevat Song(Teaching Recording)

Channeled as a human baby, so-called "baby bird" in the womb, began her journey from inside to outside.

Sung joyously at Rena Branson's "Queer Nigun Circle" in a living room in Philadelphia, PA, Winter 2020 before we all couldn't sing together anymore. Recorded with no edits, some silence, giggles, and tweets.

Music by Aly Halpert

Baby Bird Nigun

"Loosen" album: https://alyhalpert.bandcamp.com/album/loosen
For more: https://alyhalpert.com

Aly writes songs for community, collective liberation, & visioning different worlds. 

For contact, email akhalpert @ gmail.com

Aly Halpert

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