Avi likes these songs

Cantor Josh and I recorded this outside at Hava Nashira 2022 in Rena Branson's session, where we recorded music to send to folks who are currently incarcerated. This tune is an original composed by Marni Loffman in late 2021, as a form of music medicine during a period of difficult emotions. This song is a prayer, a reminder, an affirmation and a protest. We remember that we are not solely defined by our external circumstances, that are context does not have the power to take our ability to heal from us, or our ability to find wholeness. A reminder that we have agency, power and the strength for healing, even in the simple act of getting through a single moment.

Thank you to Cantor Josh Breitzman from Beth Elohim for the harmonies, beautiful vocals and encouragement!

You Are Strong Enough Ft. Cantor Josh Breitzer

Greif and Love by Sarina Partidge
Grief moving through me
Let my body
Feel the waves of love and grief

Grief, grief and love
Let me feel it all

Purchase this track & hear more music from Sarina: https://sarinapartridge.bandcamp.com/  
Support Sarina's work: Patreon.com/sarinapartridge 
Sarina's Website: https://sarinapartridge.com/

Photo by Jess Benjamin, taken at Let My People Sing! Summer Retreat 2023

Grief and Love - Sarina Partridge

Inspired by nomadic years, the wisdom of the body and nervous system, change, Somatic Reality: Bodily Experience and Emotional Truth by Stanley Kelemen, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess community, and the Judaism of my ancestors. Received to the tune of Avinu Malkeinu, a traditional Jewish High Holidays prayer.

Deep gratitude to my teachers, community and bright and well ancestors: Taya Shere, Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ibrahim Baba, my parents, Zaide, Grandpa, the Romanian women, Kohenet and so many more. Thank you.

Lyrics:
Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and listen to the wind
All comes together; all falls apart
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and draw yourself near
The rocks are your keepers
Tell them your stories
Now it is safe to be here

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and you will receive
Life wants to meet you where you are
Not where you think you should be

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and you will be shown
The love that was always lifting you up
You are never alone

A river flows from within you to where you will go
The current carries you home
Let your life unfold

Slow down child, slow down (x4)

Slow down, child, slow down
Slow down and listen to the wind
All comes together; all falls apart
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow Down / The Mother's Response (Preview)

Negro Spiritual reinterpreted by Koach Baruch Frazier

Be With Me by Koach Baruch Frazier

singing resilience into beloveds - our selves, our loves, our communities, our interconnection

ani l'dodi v'dodi li
ha'ro'eh ba'shoshananim (bashoshanim ha'ro'eh)

source: song of songs 6:3
translation: I am to my beloved, and my beloved is to me, who shepherds in the roses

Ani Ldodi

asher lo hayam

this is a fragment of a longer phrase "asher lo hayam v'hu asahu" from psalm 95, which roughly translates as "g!d is/is of/has the sea and g!d made it"

collage by chani nicholas
https://chaninicholas.com/horoscopes/

Asher Lo (by Matthew Goldfield & Batya Levine)

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

Aly Halpert's Album

Ashrei

brich rachamana malka d'alma mar'ei d'hai pita
thank you, thank you, 
thank you for this beautiful food, 
may it nourish us to build a world that's whole.
*a close translation of the aramaic: blessed is the merciful one, sovereign of the world, creator of this bread.*
**art (woodburned challah board) by batya levine**

Brich Rachamana (aftermeal blessing)

Blessed Motion - 7:2:19, 11.01 PM

Gevurah ~ Strength
“Your loving kindness sustains the living, your great mercies give life to the dead*.” 

You wake us up
From our sleep
To fight for all humanity
‘Till everyone is free

Guided by our biggest light
Love is part of how we fight
Mechai meitim*

And I pray, pray, pray,
For our strength, strength, strength
And I pray, pray, pray,
For our strength

-- Molly Bajgot

[Other verse options:   Possibility    Our Community    Solidarity]

*to give life to the dead here is being specifically interpreted to mean:

to give life “to carry on the memory”
to the dead “people who died due to unjust systems":

583 people shot and killed by police in 2019
7,216 people have died crossing the US-Mexico border between 1998 and 2017
Israeli security forces killed 290 Palestinians, including 55 minors, in 2018
28 trans women killed in 2018
And many more deaths rooted in racism, sexism, class-based oppression, addiction, mental health, gender-based oppression, homophobia -- and more otherwise consequences of an oppressive society

we remember them & fight for them with love

for our strength | גבורה

Artist: Unknown
I learned at Adamah (Jewish Farming Fellowship) in 2014. The song was brought to the Isabella Freedman community from Cara Michelle Silverberg who learned it at The Art of Mentoring (a workshop from the Vermont Awareness School). **please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this info!

Sung at a song circle on April 13, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Part 1:
Learn to live your life with all your heart, and
All your soul and all your mind, and
Love all humankind as you would love yourself

Part 2:
Learn to live your life
With all your heart
And all your soul and mind and 
Love all humankind

Part 3:
We've got happy lives to live
We've got open arms to give
We've got hope down deep inside
Because in love we do reside

Learn To Live Your Life (Unknown)

Music: Miriam Margles
Words: Ary Solomon
I learned at Hava Nashira (singing retreat at OSRUI in Wisconsin) from Noam Katz. Original words are in Hebrew (zeh hayom asah adonai nagilah v'nis'm'cha vo) and have been changed (not a translation).

Sung at a song circle on July 20, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Lyrics:
Raise your eyes look up to the sky
Feel the rain as it falls down

*Note: I originally thought the music was by Noam Katz - thank you Baci Weiler for the correction!

Raise Your Eyes (Music: Miriam Margles, Lyrics: Ary Solomon)

Tune: an adaptation of the song 'Galeh' by Moshe Shur
Concept from Joseph Berman, Words by Joseph Berman & Batya Levine for the Neilah service on Yom Kippur

Open, open up the gates for 
All who gather here
Open up the gates for
all who seek your presence

Open, open up the gates of
Kindness and compassion
Open up the gates of
Wholeness and peace 
 
Open, open up the gates of 
Freedom and justice
Open up the gates of
Liberation

Open, open up the gates of
Change and release
Open up the gates of 
Transformation

Open, open up the gates of 
Healing and forgiveness 
Open up the gates of
Reconciliation

Open, open up the gates of
Listening and patience 
Open up the gates of 
Humility 

Open, open up the gates of 
Prayer and wisdom 
Open up the gates of
Intuition

Open, open up the gates of 
Equity and honor
Open up the gates of
Dignity
 
Open, open up the gates of
Torah and blessing
Open up the gates of
Gratitude and learning 

Open, open up the gates of
Love and connection
Open up the gates of 
Giving and receiving

Open, open up the gates of 
Trust and pleasure
Open up the gates of
Abundance

Open, open up the gates of    
Joy and resilience 
Open up the gates of 
Liberation

Open Up the Gates - Melody: 'Galeh' by Moshe Shur// english words by Joseph Berman & Batya Levine

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

I believed in solid ground until I saw the earth in motion,
in the winds of steady change and in the ever-rolling ocean.

All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

All is moving, all is change, though I once believed that there
might somehow be something firm beneath my feet, but
All is motion, and all is well for solid ground is just a myth 
for those who never swim in it.
All is moving in blessed change, o the world we know
will come and go and everything will rearrange, so
be the ground beneath that sky,
tumbling round the by and by.
All is change, so am I.
lye lye lye, lye lye lye.

Blessed Motion by Annie Zylstra

Origin:
Words are from S'lichot
We're not sure of the origin for this melody, if you know please comment!
This is a recording that Batya Levine made for NSP in preparation for co-leading High Holiday services with Rabbi Joseph in 2020

Words:
Ya'aleh tachanuneinu me'erev
V'yavo shavateinu miboker
V'y'raeh rinoneinu ad arev

Ya'aleh koleinu me'erev
V'yavo tz'dakteinu miboker
V'y'raeh p'dyoneinu ad arev

Ya'aleh inoneinu me'erev
V'yavo s'lichateinu miboker
V'y'raeh na'akteinu ad arev

Ya'aleh d'fakeinu me'erev
V'yavo gileinu miboker
V'y'raeh bakishateinu ad arev

Ya'aleh einkatenu me'erev
V'yavo eilecha miboker
V'y'raeh aleinu ad arev

Translation:
May our prayer arise this evening,
May our cry come before You by tomorrow morning, 
May our song be heard by next nightfall.

May our voices arise this evening,
May our righteousness be found by tomorrow morning, 
May our redemption be fulfilled by next nightfall.

May our fast arise this evening,
May our plea for pardon come by tomorrow morning, 
May our sighs be answered 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.

Asher Lo (by Matthew Goldfield & Batya Levine)

Batya Levine

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