Slow Down/Feel Your Feet

Commissioned by Footsteps (footstepsorg.org)
Sung with Batya Levine on electric guitar & harmony

We are whole just as we are
And we will go where our truth calls
We may not know just where the path goes
But we’re coming home to who we are

Thanks for your love, but I don’t need your worry
If you think you know what’s better for me
It’s good to learn to trust myself, and feel safe to be myself
With support from community

We are whole...

Our ancestors wouldn’t want us to suffer
They would want us to thrive
And when we find what brings us joy and meaning
They’d shep naches [feel pride] for our lives

We are whole...

Please don’t make me into a symbol
And I will try not to flatten you either
We are infinitely complex creatures
And we deserve to be known

We are whole...

Yes we're coming home to who we are [x3]

Coming Home To Who We Are

Composition and Vocals: Marni Loffman
Guitar: Jeff Weisz
Production and Violin: Eitan Kantor

Story of the Song:

This melody was composed by Marni Loffman while listening to Kohenet Keshira HaLev Fife offer words of Torah during a Zoom Kabbalat Shabbat service in September 2020. Marni began humming this melody on mute while K' Keshira spoke to the importance of connecting to abundant love, especially in the midst of racial violence and injustice. This prayer helps us access the love that the divine, universe, spirit, shechinah, ultimate, G-d or whatever greater force you believe has to give. We are wrapped in love, surrounded by it. Sometimes we just need words and melody to allow ourselves to feel all the compassion that holds us and grounds us in each moment. 

Lyrics:

Ahavah rabbah ahavtanu, 
hemlah g’dolah hamalta aleinu
hemlah g’dolah  viteirah 

Deep is Your love for us
boundless Your tender compassion for us
boundless Your tender compassion

For more information on the prayer check out My Jewish Learning: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/arti...

Composed 09/11/2020
Filmed 08/12/2021 1:24 AM (Camp Ramah in the Berkshires)
Produced 09/2021

Ahava Rabbah (Live) ft. Jeff Weisz and Eitan Kantor

kept this track for the chickens in the background

Little Song

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)

Artist: Sol Weiss

I learned this song from Sol at Let My People Sing 2019. They taught it during the trans/non-binary/queer mikveh just before we all jumped in.

Sung at a song circle on September 15, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Lyrics:
Great waters, great waters
Pour over me
For I am your child
Make me yours again

(Second verse:
Great waters, great waters
Pour over me
Heal my broken places
Make me whole again)

**Photo credit: Sarah Snyder!

Great Waters (Sol Weiss)

Music & Lyrics by Rickie Byars Beckwith
Brought to the LMPS community by Koach Baruch Frazier
sung by Mónica Gomery & Batya Levine (apologies for the tech fuzz!)

Link to Rickie Byars Beckwith singing her original version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMVkf5xu8as

We let the love wash over us, we let, we let it be

We Let It Be - Rickie Byars Beckwith

written on the 1st of Nissan, 5780 // March 26th, 2020

The words for this song come from Earthseed: The Books of the Living out of Octavia Butler's Parable series. At a time when so much is rapidly changing around us, her words feel more present than ever.  I sought to try and write a song to capture this, and opened the book to a part in the story where a community member passes without time to do a proper burial.  Instead, this prayer is offered.  May this song offer some support and solace in a moment where there is so much loss without the ability to come together and properly mourn.

As wind,
As water,
As fire,
As life

God is Change.

God 
Is both creative and destructive,
Demanding and yielding,
Sculptor and clay.

original text:
As wind,
As water,
As fire,
As life,
God
Is both creative and destructive,
Demanding and yielding,
Sculptor and clay.
God is Infinite Potential:
God is Change.

dedicating this song to Edith Louise Goldberg, a"h, who I did not have the privilege to know but was dear to many and took her life on the very day this song came to life. may her memory be a blessing.

As Wind, As Water

Lev Tahor

Lyrics: Modah Ani, a Jewish daily prayer/practice of gratitude. 
Music by Ary Solomon

Lyrics:
Modah, modah ani
L'fanecha
Ruach chai, ruach chai v'kayam
Ruach chai, ruach chai v'kayam

Modah Ani

Grateful for this little melody coming to me from the pages of my siddur one summer morning.

Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishk’notecha Yisrael
How lovely are your tents [people of] Jacob; your sanctuaries [people of] Israel.

Coming Home To Who We Are

Rena Branson

Related tracks