This ancient song with a Turkish melody, written in the Judeo-Spanish language, Ladino, and arranged by Eleanor Epstein, celebrates the quiet but indispensable role that women played in the redemption of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. 

PAR'O ERA ESTRELLERO
Pharaoh was a stargazer. He went out one night to look at the moon. He saw a divine star foretelling that Moses would be born. He commanded that the midwives be called - all that were in Egypt. To all of them he warned - Don't catch a Jewish baby! The midwives were Jewish, beloved by God. They caught the babies and fled, and so Moses was born. His sister, the Levite, made him a basket. She covered it with pitch and placed it in the Nile. 

Music published by Transcontinental Music Publications (1999).
Recorded in March 2021 by the Cantorial class ordained in 2013 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music.

SOPRANO I
Cantors Lauren Furman Adesnik, Andrea Rae Markowicz, Lauren Phillips
SOPRANO II
Cantors Aviva Marer, Leslie Niren, Faryn Kates Rudnick
ALTO
Cantors Amanda Winter Edmondson, Sarah Silverberg, Alicia Stillman

Par'o Era Estrellero (Pharaoh Was A Stargazer)

This sample track is from Hebrew College rabbinical student Naomi Gurt Lind's upcoming podcast Chants Encounters: A Podcast at the Corner of Music and Spirituality. The project grew out of her work in the Hebrew College Innovation Lab with Rabbi Jeffrey Summit. https://hebrewcollege.edu/graduate-leadership-programs/innovation-lab/

Singers: Reverend Adele Crawford, Cantor Andrea Rae Markowicz, and Naomi Gurt Lind

Chants Encounters: Lift Thine Eyes (Felix Mendelssohn) Mix 2

Sh’mot 5782, Exodus 1:1−6:1
How Filled With Awe Is This Place

In our Torah portion this week, Sh’mot (Exodus 1:1−6:1), we read about the growing troubles of the Israelites in Egypt as they are enslaved by a new Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph.”  We then are presented with the amazing origin story of the Torah’s main protagonist, Moses.  From his birth, river rescue, upbringing, and initial exile to his new life in the desert, the parshah covers a lot of ground in only a few short verses.  For this week, I was drawn to the famous moment when Moses, watching his flock, comes across the burning bush and speaks with God for the first time, Exodus 3:2-4.

This passage got me thinking about just how easy it might be for us to miss a miracle in our own lives.  What if Moses had dismissed God’s revelation as just another shrub fire in the desert?  In fact, the “bush” that God chooses to reveal Godself in uses the Hebrew word “sneh,” which is less like a bush and perhaps more like a scrawny shrub.  It is so interesting to me that God chose such a humble symbol for an introduction to Moses and by proxy, the Isrealites.  

Rather than set the Hebrew text from our Torah portion, I almost by accident stumbled upon a beautiful prayer by Rabbi Chaim Stern in our prayer book, Mishkan T’filah.  Sitting opposite the evening prayer extolling the holiness of God’s name (the Ma’ariv K’dushat Hashem, page 52 [170]) is Rabbi Stern’s prayer, so perfectly expressing the challenge of seeing and experiencing the Holy in our lives:

Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. 
God, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing;
let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning,
illumines the darkness in which we walk.
Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed.
And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder: 
How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know it!

My musical setting starts off with a busy but repetitive backdrop, not unlike the hustle of our daily lives.  The first verse sits slightly off center harmonically, pretty enough in its simplicity but not quite locking in with the tonal center of accompaniment - the intention is for it to sound a little unsettled, a little constrained.  Moving out of the verse with the words, “How filled with awe is this place and we did not know,” the melodic texture changes and begins to reach upward into the chorus for which I drew lyrics directly from the K’dushah liturgy in both Hebrew and English, “You are Holy, Your Name is holy, and those who are holy praise you every day.” The melody in the chorus is far more grounded, connected with both the musical key and the main beats of each bar.  To me, this section feels like finally connecting with the Holiness around us - there is clarity, there is confidence, there is the possibility for seeing the beauty and grandeur around us and so the melody soars.  

I consider this to be a composition in progress but then again, aren’t we all works in progress?  Even God, when Moses asks what name he should use, refers to Godself in terms of becoming, in terms of possibility; God replies, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh,” or as Robert Alter puts it, “I-Will-Be-Who-I-Will-Be” (Exodus 3:14).  It is an honor to share music together and, as always, I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.  Sending my best wishes to everyone for a safe and healthy shabbat and new year.

Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Ben Ellerin

Atah Kadosh by Cantor Ben Ellerin (Ma'ariv K'dushah)- How Filled With Awe Is This Place

www.facebook.com/mendyspiano

mendyportnoy1@gmail.com

Havdala - Arranged and Performed by Mendy Portnoy

Lo Yisa Goi

More Love

Va'ani T'filati by Noah Aronson and Coleen Dieker

A song written by Diane Rose and Neil Comess-Daniels as an English interpretation of the V'ahavta -  a nugget of Torah found in the Jewish prayer service that is usually chanted as we commit to sharing love with the world.

Love Only Love (written by Diane Rose and Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels)

I arranged a version of How Far I’ll Go including the text of Mi Chamocha, because Miriam also stood at the edge of the waters, wondering why. Happy to have my friends and colleagues, Emily Hoolihan and Becky Mann sing this with me! Matt Teitelman, who is part of this Nava Tehilah season, is playing percussion, and I’m on the ukulele. This was used in Thursday morning Shacharit April 4, 2019, on the HUC Jerusalem campus.

How Far I'll Go/Mi Chamocha

Mi Sheberach

STREAM is a ten minute self-guided audio tashlich meditation for the Jewish High Holidays, created in 2020 by Deanna Neil. This can be a spoken guide for your own physical ritual, or a quiet mental exercise. 
www.innovativejudaism.com
https://www.facebook.com/PopUpShul/

Par'o Era Estrellero (Pharaoh Was A Stargazer)

Andrea Rae Markowicz

Related tracks