Nign Shabbos V'Yom Tov (Chabad)

You just get to be here now, dear one, dear one

We are always going forward
We are always coming home
In this spiral we call life
We remember we're not alone 

We are held, ooh, we are held, ooh

Dear One

Poem by Aurora Levins Morales
Music by Avra
Support her work here: http://www.auroralevinsmorales.com/support-aurora.html

Say these words when you lie down and when you rise up,
when you go out and when you return. In times of mourning
and in times of joy. Inscribe them on your doorposts,
embroider them on your garments, tattoo them on your shoulders,
teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies,
recite them in your sleep, here in the cruel shadow of empire:
Another world is possible.
 
Thus spoke the prophet Roque Dalton:
All together they have more death than we,
but all together, we have more life than they.
There is more bloody death in their hands
than we could ever wield, unless
we lay down our souls to become them,
and then we will lose everything.  So instead,
 
imagine winning.  This is your sacred task.
This is your power. Imagine
every detail of winning, the exact smell of the summer streets
in which no one has been shot, the muscles you have never
unclenched from worry, gone soft as newborn skin,
the sparkling taste of food when we know
that no one on earth is hungry, that the beggars are fed,
that the old man under the bridge and the woman
wrapping herself in thin sheets in the back seat of a car,
and the children who suck on stones,
nest under a flock of roofs that keep multiplying their shelter.
Lean with all your being towards that day
when the poor of the world shake down a rain of good fortune
out of the heavy clouds, and justice rolls down like waters.
 
Defend the world in which we win as if it were your child.
It is your child.
Defend it as if it were your lover.
It is your lover.
 
When you inhale and when you exhale
breathe the possibility of another world
into the 37.2 trillion cells of your body
until it shines with hope.
Then imagine more.  
 
Imagine rape is unimaginable. Imagine war is a scarcely credible rumor
That the crimes of our age, the grotesque inhumanities of greed,
the sheer and astounding shamelessness of it, the vast fortunes
made by stealing lives, the horrible normalcy it came to have,
is unimaginable to our heirs, the generations of the free.
 
Don’t waver. Don’t let despair sink its sharp teeth
Into the throat with which you sing.  Escalate your dreams.
Make them burn so fiercely that you can follow them down
any dark alleyway of history and not lose your way.
Make them burn clear as a starry drinking gourd
Over the grim fog of exhaustion, and keep walking.
 
Hold hands. Share water. Keep imagining.
So that we, and the children of our children’s children
may live

V'ahavta (poem by Aurora Levins Morales)

Ya'aleh Tachanuneinu (May Our Prayers Rise!) is a medeival piyyut for the High Holy Days that we sing during Selichot services. This musical poem sends out our pleas that over the Yamim Noarim, our prayers may ascend to G!d in the evening, arrive (at G!d's 'front desk' as it were) in the early morning, and be answered/revealed by the time the day closes.

This melody is by Rabbi Julia Andelman, and at KT this year we'll sing it for the last 4 verses of the piyyut, shown below. 

May our voices arise and may our prayers be received!
 
יַעֲלֶה יִשְׁעֵֽנוּ מֵעֶֽרֶב.
וְיָבֹא טָהֳרֵֽנוּ מִבֹּֽקֶר.
וְיֵרָאֶה חִנּוּנֵֽנוּ עַד עָֽרֶב:
 
יַעֲלֶה זִכְרוֹנֵֽנוּ מֵעֶֽרֶב.
וְיָבֹא וִעוּדֵֽנוּ מִבֹּֽקֶר.
וְיֵרָאֶה הַדְרָתֵֽנוּ עַד עָֽרֶב:
 
יַעֲלֶה דָפְקֵֽנוּ מֵעֶֽרֶב.
וְיָבֹא גִילֵֽנוּ מִבֹּֽקֶר.
וְיֵרָאֶה בַקָּשָׁתֵֽנוּ עַד עָֽרֶב:
 
יַעֲלֶה אֶנְקָתֵֽנוּ מֵעֶֽרֶב.
וְיָבֹא אֵלֶֽיךָ מִבֹּֽקֶר.
וְיֵרָאֶה אֵלֵֽינוּ עַד עָֽרֶב
 
Ya'aleh yishenu me'erev, 
v'yavo taharenu miboker,
v'y'raeh chinuneinu ad arev.
 
Ya'aleh zichroneinu me'erev, 
v'yavo videnu miboker, 
v'y'raeh hadarateinu ad arev.
 
Ya'aleh dofkenu me'erev, 
v'yavo gilenu miboker,
v'y'raeh bakashateinu ad arev.
 
Ya'aleh enkatenu me'erev, 
v'yavo eylecha miboker, 
v'y'raeh eilenu ad arev
 
May our journey to salvation arise this evening, 
May our purest selves come by tomorrow morning, 
May our grace arise within us by next nightfall.
 
May our memory arise this evening, 
May our community unite by tomorrow morning, 
May we see Your splendor by next nightfall.
 
May our knocking upon Your gates arise this evening, 
May our joyfulness come by tomorrow morning,
May our search for You be crowned by next nightfall.
 
May our weeping arise this evening, 
May it reach You by tomorrow morning. 
May You answer us by next nightfall.

Ya'aleh Tachanuneinu - Andelman Melody, sung by Aly, Koach, & Rabbi Mó

This song was created as a love song for friends and queer chosen family, inspired by my dear pals Scout Bratt & Grace Gleason <3 

From Ruth 1:16

אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעׇזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ כִּ֠י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר תֵּלְכִ֜י אֵלֵ֗ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּלִ֙ינִי֙ אָלִ֔ין עַמֵּ֣ךְ עַמִּ֔י וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ אֱלֹהָֽי׃

Al tif’gi’i vi l’azvech lashuv me’acharayich (x2)
ki el asher telchi elech uv’asher talini alin amech ami ve’elohayich elohai (x2)

Do not urge me to push you away
For wherever you go I shall go
Where you I will lie
Your people are my mine
Your Divine my Divine
(x2)

Composition: Avra Shapiro
Vocals: Avra Shapiro & Aly Halpert 
Guitar: Aly Halpert 

Produced by Aly Halpert & Lisa Stein, from the album "Derekh Eretz: Land, Love, & Liberation," created by Eden Village Camp Staffers 
Mixed and Mastered by Rafael Gell
Album Artwork by Karen Cheirif, Liad Hasson, Léah Miller, & Denean Ritchie

Derekh Eretz: Land, Love, & Liberation

Asher Telchi/Where You Go

All Music by Micah Shapiro
Words from Kabbalat Shabbat
Micah Shapiro (Guitar, Vocals), Rebecca Schatz (Vocals), Myra Meskin (Vocals), Shira Gluck (Vocals), Sam Blustin (Vocals), Jenn Queen (Vocals), Geo Poor (Vocals)

Psalms 92:6; 93:4 - Mah Gadlu/Mikolot Mayim מה גדלו/מקולות מים

Havdallah

Nachamu by Shefa Gold
recorded by the Let My People Sing! Core Team: Mónica Gomery, Ilana Lerman, Nom Lerman, Batya Levine & Margot Seigle.

Nachamu
Nachamu Ami X2
Nachamu, nachamu
Nachamu nachamu ami

Comfort, comfort my people

Nachamu

This song was born while contending with stories of sexual assault and survival, from generation to generation— from grandma to me— holding the awe and weight of still being here. The English was completed when the US announced its war on  brilliant and bold  transgender and transsexual bodies-souls—minds—humans.

photo by Micah Bazant.

Chords (with capo)
Am Am Dm Dm G  G Am Am

Am Am Dm Dm C E Am Am 

Am Am Dm Dm C E Am Am

Am Am Dm Dm C E Am Am 

Am (fingerpick directly into) C G Dm Am

Am (fingerpick) C G Am Am 

Am (fingerpick) C G Dm Am 

Am (fingerpick) C G Am Am

V'ahavta (poem by Aurora Levins Morales)

Avra K'Davra

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