Rising Song Records is excited to share the first single from Rabbi Ariel Root Wolpe's forthcoming album Ruach Neshama. This collection of original songs celebrating the connection between music, nature, and Jewish wisdom will be available on digital platforms everywhere on Rosh Chodesh Elul (August 9, 2021).

Contribute to Ariel's crowdfunding campaign to get early access to the whole collection while directly supporting the talented artists who made this beautiful music: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rabbi-ariel-root-wolpe-s-rising-song-record#/

Listen to this single and the title track, "Ruach Neshama," on Bandcamp: https://arielrootwolpe.bandcamp.com/

All music composed by Ariel Root Wolpe, Hebrew text from Jewish liturgy and Tanakh.
Music direction by Joey Weisenberg and Ariel Root Wolpe
Harmony direction by Deborah Sacks Mintz
Produced by Joey Weisenberg

Recorded outside and in home-studios in Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA, and Berkeley, CA.
Engineered by Joey Weisenberg and Jon Mitchell
Mixed and Mastered by Don Godwin
Artwork and Layout by Sol Yael Weiss.

Singers and Musicians:
Ariel Root Wolpe - lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Kendra Root Wolpe - vocals
Deborah Sacks Mintz - vocals
Valerie Root Wolpe - vocals
Jon Mitchell - vocals, djembe
Joey Weisenberg - bass, percussion, guitar, baritone ukulele, piccolo, drum programming, vocals
Will Robertson - bass
Eliyahu Sills - flute
Rising Song Institute Vocalists: Rena Branson, Rebekka Goldsmith, Eitan Kantor, Gedalia Penner, Sam Tygiel, Batya Levine, Gayanne Geurin

www.arielwolpe.com
www.risingsong.org

A Project of Hadar's Rising Song Institute: Cultivating Jewish spiritual life through song.

Ruach Neshama

Waking Up Nigun

Waking Up Nigun - Rabbi Ariel Root Wolpe

Ana B'khoakh — Kabbalat Shabbat Liturgy

A series of niggunim—or (mostly) wordless melodies—emerging from somewhere in the dance between my heart, the ancestors, and the land in which I dwell. Unembellished recordings of tunes you’re welcome to make your own or sing with others, to express joy, praise, longing, and wonder wherever you go.

Taproot Nigun

The Rock from Whom we've eaten this food: faithful ones, bless! We're satisfied and made pure through God's word.
[a joyful song for after eating]

Tsur Mishelo Achalnu, Bar'chu Emunai, Sava'anu vehotarnu kidvar Adonai. 

Hazan et olamo roeinu avinu, 
achalnu et lachmo vyeino shatinu, 
al kein nodeh lishmo unhal'lo b'finu 
amarnu v'aninu ein kadosh kadonai. 

Tsur... 

B'shir v'kol todah n'varech leloheinu, 
al eretz chemdah tovah shehinchil lavoteinu. Mazon v'tzeidah hisbia l'nafsheinu, 
chasdo gavar aleinu v'emet Adonai. 

Tsur... 

Rachem b'chasdecha Al am'cha Tsureinu, 
al Tsion mishkan k'vodecha z'vul beit tifarteinu. 
Ben David avdecha yavo v'yig'aleinu, 
ruach apeinu m'shiach Adonai. 

Tsur... 

Yibaneh hamikdash ir tsion timaleh, 
visham nashir shir chadash uvirnanah na'aleh. 
harachaman hanikdash yibarach v'yitaleh 
al kos yayin maleh k'birkat Adonai. 

Tsur...

Tsur Meshelo - Lo Yisa Goy (p 72 in Mishkan benscher)

Why, why worry when you can _____
Pray to/for the most high
Pray to/for the mothers and the fathers
Pray to/for the most high
Pray for them to watch over
Why, why worry when you can ____

Why Why Worry

recorded by Batya Levine & Noam Lerman
November 9, 2016

Noam Lerman learned this song during a morning water ceremony that took place at standing rock reservation when they were there during sukkot. It was taught by someone named Lia.

Water Heal My Soul

Ahavah

Hadar - Singing Communities Intensive 2017

Nigun Yetzira-Deborah Sacks Mintz

This song came through in pieces over the course of many weeks. As I was writing and uncovering it I experienced it as a song that was demanding itself be heard, despite the discomfort it often provoked for me. It is relentlessly fiery - an expression of love as a fierce "no" our boundary, as a mother protecting her young. As I was writing it felt clear to me that this voice is essential and called for in our world now. In a world where it is all too easy to lose sight of how our actions and lifestyle impact others and where we often lurch into excess and greed at the expense of others, this song offers a voice of fierce boundary that can be helpful in waking us up and restoring balance.As I've been teaching it to Wholehearted Chorus, I have been encouraging my singers to make it their own, so it is personally meaningful for them. For me much of this song has been a response to climate grief, and some parts a response to the "me too" movement, along with a deeply personal journey of feeling the spirit of fierce, feminine power within. I wish to express my gratitude to Patra Lounsbury for making the connection of this energy with Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of fierce power, and for Deva Munay and all who supported this song's birth and my integration of Sekhmet's archetype within it. I would also like to thank Ben Gould for writing the men's part, and Annie Anton for her contribution of one of the melodic lines.

Original song by Lisa G. Littlebird, with contributions by and appreciations to Ben Gould & Annie Anton. Recorded by Lisa G. Littlebird with Ben Gould.

For lyrics, individual part tracks and more, visit: http://thebirdsings.com/sekhmet/

Song of Sekhmet by Lisa G. Littlebird

By Molly Bajgot & Noah Weinberg. 
Elul music project by Anat Hochberg & Matt Goldfield

Elul: Songs for Turning

Od Y'nuvun: Ripening in its Time

More at: www.patreon.com/rivshapiro

Song from project "fragments":

"Fragments" is a multimedia process of ancestral re-membering. Music and film become the container for the artist's quest to recover the stories and strengths of their Jewish ancestors who migrated from Romania to Minneapolis at the turn of the 20th century. "Fragments" challenges linear space-time to illuminate the past through the present and invite the audience into the question: How do we remember what's been forgotten?