Karov

We Are Good, We Are Flawed, by Batya Levine

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

Artist: Sarina Partridge
I learned this song from Sarina at Let My People Sing 2023.

This recording is from a song circle on June 30, 2024 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Lyrics:
I will go down to the well
Let the water ring me like a bell
Let the water rock me like a child
For this well will not run dry
No this well will not run dry

Down to the Well (Sarina Partridge)

Ayeka is a song based on the story of Cain and Abel, the first story of murder in our ancient texts, between the first brothers.

And Gd says to Cain after he has taken Abel’s life, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

Hashem hears the ground shaking, hears the cries of every child, every world of a human who has been taken from us in the last 132 days.

Ayeka asks us to look at ourselves, at everything. At every Palestinian and Israeli death that is the result of occupation, apartheid, and colonization, because these systems keep no one safe. At how the world is expected to grind on, to look away from what’s happening in Gaza and the tens of thousands of people who no longer get to have their one wild and absolutely precious life. All for profit, for war, for oil, lining the pockets of Western powers who have never cared about using Jews and don’t mind making Palestinians disposable. Ayeka asks, where are we? And how do we find our humanity again?

meh asita
kol d’mei achicha
tzo’akim eylai min ha’adamah

מֶ֣ה עָשִׂ֑יתָ ק֚וֹל דְּמֵ֣י אָחִ֔יךָ צֹעֲקִ֥ים אֵלַ֖י מִן־הָֽאֲדָמָֽה

(what have you done?
the voice of your brothers blood cries out to me from the ground)

ayeka,
ayeh achicha
ayeka

אַיֶּֽכָּה
אֵ֖י אָחִ֑יךָ
אַיֶּֽכָּה

(where are you? where is your brother? where are you?)

from the ground I
hear them calling
your brother’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?

from the soil I
hear them crying
your sister’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?

from the ground I
hear them calling
your sibling’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?

from the soil I
hear them crying
our family’s blood
what can grow here
what have we done?
credits
released February 21, 2024
Music and English lyrics composed by Aly Halpert
Hebrew text from Tanakh
Music direction by Aly Halpert
Produced by Aly Halpert
Recorded at Tonal Park Studios on Piscataway land (Takoma Park, MD), January 3, 2024 / 22 Tevet 5784
Engineered, mixed & mastered by Don Godwin
Artwork by Jay Smith
Text chosen in consultation with Chana Rusanov

Singers and Musicians:
Aly Halpert - lead vocals, guitar, piano
Maia Kamil - vocals
Yoni Battat - vocals, viola
Jessie Reagan - cello
Sam Weisenberg - percussion

Ayeka

Tu B'shvat Nign

let the rain soak soak soak your clothes
let the rain seep seep into your bones
let the rain drench drench drench your soul
let it in

*with the help of a bat and an egret and the pond in a powerful summer storm*

storm song

Original three-part harmony with English lyrics version

Ozi v'zimrat yah vayihi li lishua 
My strength and the divine song will be my deliverance 
(Psalm 118:14, Exodus 15:2) 

A prayer for courage, strength, and surrender as we navigate these trying times.

Ozi Vizimrat Yah Original Version

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

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, 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 (Demo)

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

https://fb.watch/3eSSURrJSb/

We will not underestimate 
our power any longer—
we know that together, we are strong.
Like drops of water shape the rocks 
as they rush down the falls,
we know that together,
we are strong.

שִׁירָה חֲדָשָׁה שִׁבְּ֒חוּ גְאוּלִים לְשִׁמְךָ עַל־שְׂפַת הַיָּם יַֽחַד כֻּלָּם הוֹדוּ
Shira chadasha shibchu ge'ulim l'shimcha al sfat hayam, 
yachad kulam hodu
"With newborn song, liberated people praised Your name on the lip of the sea. All were one in thanks." -Jewish Liturgy

May it be so.

Production by Eitan Kantor
Art by Sol Yael Weiss
Music and English Lyrics by Rena Branson
Hebrew Lyrics from Jewish Liturgy

Virtual Choir:

Aly Halpert
Anat Halevy Hochberg
Ari Yovel
R' Ariel Root Wolpe
Ariel Shapiro
Arielle Rivera Korman
Aviva Chernick
Batya Levine
Binya Kóatz
Caryn Shebowich
Chloe Telfeyan Glickman
Cole Krawitz
Dori Midnight
Eitan Kantor
Gedalia Penner
Grace Gleason
Itai Gal
JB Levine
Pastor John Bergen
C' Jessi Roemer
K' Keshira haLev Fife
Margot Seigle
Marigo Farr
Mariyama Scott
Marques Hollie
May Ye
Molly Bajgot
R' Mónica Gomery
Nissa Mai Rose
Nnedinma Umeadi
R' Noam Lerman
Patrece Dixon
Rachel Chang
Rebecca Peretz-Lange
Rebekka Goldsmith
Reem Rosenhaj
Reuben Shachar Rose
Riv Ranney Shapiro
Rowan K. Ching
Sadie Gold-Shapiro
Shana Salzberg
Sol Yael Weiss
Yaara Perczek
Yasha Shapiro
Zuriel Biran

Our Power (Video Version)

Kohenet (ecofeminist Jewish clergy)
multi-modal artist and digital storyteller
educator

fka Cedar Ranney

Ozi Vizimrat Yah Original Version

Kohenet Riv Shapiro