Beautiful, powerful, solemn as fitting given all the death and grieving

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

Little Song is a nigun (wordless melody) that is a soft, simple call and response / echo song that has often served as a way to sing out messages or add in words. This version was born when Ilana Lerman was driving to Washington DC to lead a songleader training at an IfNotNow action along with me and a powerful team of many songleaders, where she put the movement's messaging and demands to this tune. Since then, more of us have added words, the song growing every time. This melody is a powerful vehicle for sharing a message and grounding in our hearts. With these words, we hope the song can both be a gentle support to all of us in times of devastation and a strong loud voice in calling out for an end to the war.

With our prayers for healing this broken world and bridging the distance between us that can feel so cavernous, for grieving the terror of violence and oppression and a world that makes us believe they are necessary, for finding our way through together — we call for a ceasefire now: protect lives on all sides, end the siege on Gaza. 

How to use the song:

This melody can accelerate and pick up energy or slow down and get soft, is easy to learn, and is a call and response song, making it impactful for sharing a message. The last note of each line is drawn out to overlap with the response. When using in groups or at actions, the main words have been "Ceasefire Now," "Not in our name" and "No more genocide." You are welcome to use the words that feel right for the moment and add your own. Other possibilities include: Never again is now / Safety for all now / Let Gaza live / etc. 


Lyrics:

Ceasefire Now
to the tune of "Little Song" by Sol Weiss with added words from Ilana Lerman, Sol Weiss and many voices in the Ceasefire movement. 

Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)

Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)

Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)
Bring them home now (bring them home now)

Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)
Put the weapons down (put the weapons down)

Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)
Cease fire now (ceasefire now)

Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)
Not in our name (not in our name)

*V’ ahavta (v'ahavta)
L’arecha (l'arecha)
K’mocha (k'mocha)
K’mocha (k'mocha)

Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)
Cease fire now (cease fire now)

*וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ
Hebrew translation "and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself" (Vayikra 19:18)

Sung by: Matt Goldfield, Molly Bajgot, Ilana Lerman, Helen Bennett & Sol Weiss
November 2023

Ceasefire Now (tune of Little Song)

Time of Change - Keshira haLev Fife
We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for
We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for
It is upon us to dream beyond us
We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for
 
This is a time of change
Hold liminality
Let it rearrange us
May it turn us towards the sacred

Keshira's website: https://www.keshirahalev.com/

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

Time of Change - Keshira haLev Fife

Just a nice country-like pop song with nice melody

Still in love with you

Negro Spiritual reinterpreted by Koach Baruch Frazier

Be With Me by Koach Baruch Frazier

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: Molly Hartwell
I learned from Thrive Choir's online videos.

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

Lyrics:
Put your roots down
Put your feet on the ground
You can hear the Earth sing if you listen (x2)

'Cuz the sound of the river
As it moves across the stones
Is the same sound as the
Blood in your body as it
Moves across your bones

Are you listenin'
Are you listenin'

Put Your Roots Down (Molly Hartwell)

Nishmat Kol Chai - Joey Weisenberg

sung with sol yael weiss & ash berman

keep me, in the arms
of my beloved, oh g!d

planted where i stand
grounded by the land
carry me back to the sea
from dust to the dust again

perfect as i am
grounded by the land
carry me back to the sea
from dust to dust again

no matter where i go,
always keep me close
no matter where i go,
always keep me close

<3

keep me

Music: Katie Hicks
Lyrics: Wendell Berry

I learned this song from Allie Comet who learned it from the Art of Mentoring.

Lyrics:
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark, go without sight.
And find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
And is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

Ceasefire Now (tune of Little Song)

Sol Weiss

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