Great stuff Jacob. Bullet rank has a free play offer right now, you should try it out and get some plays

Offered live on April 5, 2019, with beautiful piano accompaniment by Joyce Rosenzweig.

The text is adapted from liturgy, in a multi-part prayer that most commonly appears in Shabbat and festival mornings, at the end of a section called P'sukei D'zimrah (literally, "Verses of Song"). The words draw upon a wide variety of imagery to express profound, immeasurable gratitude. For the refrain, those familiar with the liturgy will note that I removed the gendered language for God, rendering the arrival moment in the prayer as "...we can never stop giving thanks and blessing..." or "...we cannot adequately thank or bless...", and then descends, or perhaps ascends, into wordlessness.

Translation:
Even if our mouths were full of song like the sea,
and our tongues like countless waves,
and our lips with praise as boundless as the sky,
and our eyes shining like the sun and the moon,
and our arms spread like eagles’ wings,
and our legs as fleet as gazelles,
we could never stop expressing our thanks and blessing.

Ilu Finu

Sung with Rachel Chang (guitar + vox) and Marni Loffman (vox)

Lyrics:
In doing and in dreaming
You’ve been dropping seeds behind you that will flower in due time
You will never know all the change that you help sow
But just know that it’s happening all the time
You will never know all the beauty you help grow
But just know that it’s happening all the time
All the time (x4)

In Doing & In Dreaming

Finding some comfort in the midst of the rockets, as we gathered together in Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo in Yerushalayim to sing and learn. This is an old melody from Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi a'h who left the world last week.

For more info, email us at info@shlomokatz.com

Hine Ma Tov - R' Zalman's Niggun

Ashreichem, piyyut from Persian tradition, sung by MJ Gilbert 
written in Judeo-Persian 
זְכוּתֶה תוּרֶה יֶה מוּשֶׁה
זְכוּתֶה גַ'מְעֵה חֲבֵרִים 
בָּר מָה רֶסַאן בְּשׂוֹרָה 
אָז אוֹמַאדַנֶה יְשׁוּעָה 
אַשְׁרֵיכֶם אַשְׁרֵיכֶם אַשְׁרֵיכֶם יִשְׂרָאֵל 
אָז צֶ'שְׁמֶה יֶה הָיֶיה יְשׁוּעָה 
אָוֹבֶּה הָייָאתִי בָּרוֹרִים 
בָּר מָה רֶסַאן בְּשׂוֹרָה 
אָז אוֹמַאדַנֶה יְשׁוּעָה 
אַשְׁרֵי אֲשֶׁר אַשְׁרֵי 
הַשִּׁירִים אֲשֶׁר לִשְׁלֹמֹה 
אַשְׁרֵיכֶם אַשְׁרֵיכֶם אַשְׁרֵיכֶם יִשְׂרָאֵל

Zekhuteh tureh ye Musheh
Zekhuteh jam’eh haverim
Bar mah resan besorah
Az omadaneh yeshu’ah
Ashreikhem, ashreikhem, ashreikhem Israel
Az cheshmeh yeh hayeh yeshu’ah
A-obe hayati barorim
Bar mah resan besorah
Az omadaneh yeshu’ah
Ashrei, asher ashrei 
Hashirim asher li-Shlomo
Ashreikhem, ashreikhem, ashreikhem Israel

By the merit of the Torah of Moses
By the merit of this gathering of friends
Send us the good news
Of the coming of our redemption.
Happy, happy, happy are you O Israel
From the wells of redemption we draw the water of life
Happy, happy, happy are you O Israel



Artwork by Sivan Tratt

Ashreichem - piyyut from Persian tradition, sung by MJ Gilbert

Highlights from a two-hour lecture by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi given 4/5/1981 at the B'nai Or Religious Fellowship in Philadelphia, PA. Originally entitled "Pesach for Adults". Learn more about Jewish Renewal at https://www.aleph.org

08 A Bitter Herbs Niggun

Vocals - Batya Levine
Percussion - Simcha Halpert-Hanson

I'm Gonna Get Through  - Batya Levine

Ein Od Milvado

Lyrics by Ibn Gvirol & Melody by Arielle Korman 

Shachar avakeshcha, tzuri u’misgabi
E’eroch lefanecha shachri v’gam arvi
Lifnei gedulatcha, e’emod v’ebahel
Ki eincha tireh chol machshevot libi
Ma zeh acher yuchal halev v’halashon 
La’asot u’mah koach ruchi b’toch kirbi 
Hineh l’cha titav zimrat enosh al ken 
Odcha b’od tihyeh nishmat Eloha bi 

(Somewhat Interpretive) English Translation— Arielle Korman

Dawn— I seek you, my rock and my fortress 
I unfurl before you my Shacharit (morning) and Aravit (evening) prayers 
Before your greatness I stand in my fear 
For your eye sees all the thoughts of my heart.
What is it that my heart and tongue are capable of 
doing? What is the strength of this spirit within me?
Here— a human’s song will be good to you.
I thank you, while the spirit of God is still within me. 

שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶשְׁךָ,
צוּרִי וּמִשְׂגַּבִּי
אֶעְרֹך לְפָנֶיךְ
שַׁחְרִי וְגַם עַרְבִּי
 
לִפְנֵי גְדֻלָּתְךָ
אֶעְמֹד וְאֶבָּהֵל
כִּי עֵינְךָ תִרְאֶה
כָּל מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבִּי
 
מַה זֶה אֲשֶׁר יוּכַל
הַלֵּב וְהַלָּשׁוֹן
לַעְשׂוֹת וּמַה כֹּחַ
רוּחִי בְּתוֹךְ קִרְבִּי
 
הִנֵּה לְךָ תִיטַב
זִמְרַת אֱנוֹשׁ עַל כֵּן
אוֹדְךָ בְּעוֹד תִּהְיֶה
נִשְׁמַת אֱלוֹהַּ בִּי

Shachar Avakeshcha - Lyrics by Ibn Gvirol & Melody by Arielle Korman

Nanny's Niggun is an ode to the incredible resiliency of my grandmother, "Nanny" Dorothy. A Holocaust survivor, she endured unimaginable horror and summoned untold strength and endurance to survive four different concentration camps over the course of 18 months as a Hungarian Jewish teenager. 

I caught the initial threads of this niggun (Hebrew for a "wordless melody") while singing with/to her about a year before her passing. It's my attempt to honor her story in all of its pain and profound triumph while reminding me to remain committed to ending oppression for all - no matter the creed, gender, sexual orientation, or color. 

"Nanny's Niggun" was one of the last songs I sang to my grandmother at her bedside before she drew her final breaths in mid-October 2019. This is a recording of me teaching it to a group of about thirty-five community singers in the rotunda of the Texas State Capitol on 11.18.2019, a one month after her burial. 

This song is yours to carry if it helps you connect to your own resiliency and your own commitment to fighting the grave injustices of our time.

To read a more in-depth backstory of this song, become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/posts/35685709

Nanny's Niggun (Joshua Blaine) - Live in the Rotunda

A song from the depths of grieving

www.madelynilana.com

https://madelynilana.bandcamp.com/album/awake-dreaming

Ilu Finu

Cantor Jacob Niemi

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