for when you need a lot of jewish movement music

Brucha at Shekhina (Blessed are you, divine presence throughout the physical world) who grounds me
Brucha at Shekhinah who reminds me that I know
Brucha at Shekhinah who guides me
Brucha at Shekhinah who gives me courage to let go
Brucha at Shekhinah ruach ha'olam hameikhinah mitzadei isha
(Blessed are you, Shekhina, spirit of the universe, who makes firm a woman's steps)
-Ri J. Turner

From Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook by Rabbi Jill Hammer and Kohenet Taya Shere 

Available here: http://isabellafreedman.org/store/siddur-hakohanot%3A-a-hebrew-priestess-prayerbook-rabbi-jill-hammer-and-holly-taya-shere/dp/6432

Birchot haShachar by Ri J. Turner

I wrote this song in the wake of the Nepal earthquake in 2015. I spent time travelling and teaching English in Nepal in 2011 and felt a personal connection to the people and land there.

Words & melodies by Osprey. Guitar by Rich Glauber. Produced by Geoffrey Mays at SoaringHeart Studio in Eugene, OR.

© 2015 Osprey Huffsmith

03 Grief & Praise

Round House Song Sessions
August 22rd, 2016
Millerton, NY

Melody by Bostoner Rebbe
Deuteronomy 4:35

recorded by the Let My People Sing! Core Team post Summer 2016 retreat: Margot Seigle, Nomi Lerman, Mónica Gomery, Ilana Lerman & Batya Levine

lyrics:
Ain ohd mill-va-doh Ha-shem hoo ha-El-oh-heem
אֵ ין עֹוד מִ לְ בַ ּדֹו ײ הּוא הָ אֱ ֹלהִ ים
There is nothing other. YHVH is Elohim. As above, so below. 
(translation and transliteration credit to Shir Yaakov)

some history: This melody is an original composition by the Bostoner Hasidim as part of their intensive outreach in Boston in the 60’s and 70’s.  It likely spread around the broader Jewish community through Reb Ebn Leader bringing it to Reb David Ingber who brought it to Romemu.  In the original recording there is a first part of the song that was not included in the spreading. 

ELUL - Ain Od

by Aly Halpert

chorus and bridge from an Arundhati Roy quote.

recorded by Aly Halpert (voice & guitar) & Margot Seigle (backup vocie)
November 9th, 2016

lyrics:
the policemen have thrown away their guns
they kiss their sons and their daughters and their souls are at peace
no more black boys black girls trans women dying
no more reasons that could ever justify their loss 
and mothers send their teens out at night 
to breathe the sweet summer air and exhale on the ground
the earth was made for them
the earth is made for them
she is on her way
and no one can be silent anymore
every death is a death that my family mourns 
we've traded in our numbness and all of our fear
to fight for the lives we now hold dear
and everyone has come to greet the reckoning
the place where our hearts got smaller and smaller 
now grows to hold the pain
the brokenness that leads to pain
she is on her way
another world's not only possible
on a quiet day I can hear her breathing
and when the world we're dreaming is ours
we'll be tall inside
there will be no more question
as we pray and sing
that we have each other and what that means
we'll finally get to be together
stare with our hearts at what has been
and find some place of home
she is on her way"

She is On Her Way

by Batya Levine with creative collaboration from Noam Lerman

recorded by Batya Levine & Noam Lerman
November 13, 2016

We Rise

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, Rabbi Jill Hammer, 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 (Preview)

chochmot bachutz tarona
ba'richovot ti'teyn kola

oh wisdom, oh wisdom cries out in the streets
our voices fill the air

Written by Noam & Batya
Vocals - Noam Lerman, Batya Levine, Ilana Lerman, Mónica Gomery & Margot Seigel (core team of Let My People Sing!)

Tarona - Noam Lerman & Batya Levine

Vocals - Batya Levine
Percussion - Simcha Halpert-Hanson

I'm Gonna Get Through  - Batya Levine

Art by Brandon Boyd in Support of Standing Rock

Voice Memos

May I Be Empty/Full

Tu Bshvat Nign (akon) [with B part]

we are good.
we are flawed.
we are the breath of an imperfect god.

returning to self. returning to source.
god is change. god is growth. the process, in all it's beauty and all it's mess, is god.

collage art by Chani Nicholas

we are good we are flawed

Song/prayer/meditation to heal personal and societal grief. For ordinary grief, extraordinary grief, the unbearable kind and the unseen kind and the enduring kind, in service of exhales and letting go of what is ours and not ours, of compassion, lightness, & becoming who we are after and through it all.

Aly Halpert's Album

Loosen Loosen

Negro Spiritual reinterpreted by Koach Baruch Frazier

Be With Me by Koach Baruch Frazier

Tu Bshvat Nigun by Batya Levine sung live at Let My People Sing! 2018.

LMPS 2018

Tu Bshvat Nigun - Batya Levine - LMPS 2018

Tree Nigun by Noam Lerman, used at many Let My People Sing! gatherings.

Tree  Nigun - Noam Lerman

Artist: MaMuse
I learned at a MaMuse concert in August 2018.

Sung at a song circle on August 18, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Part 1:
Findin' my way (x5)
Findin' my way back home
Findin' my way (x5)
Findin' my way back home

Part 2:
Oh river
I hear you feel you callin' me
Oh river
Who will I be when I reach the sea

Part 3:
I am, I am home
I am, I am home

Finding My Way / Oh River (MaMuse)

kol ha olam kulu gesher tzar meo'd 
the whole entire world is a very narrow bridge
and the main thing to recall 
is not to fear fear itself

<3

gesher tzar

for the trans bodies, covid bodies, black & brown bodies, disabled and chronically ill bodies, gloriously fat bodies & all the bodies that have to forge their own beautiful path to wholeness.

this body is the earth that holds my bones
this body is the air that i breathe
this body is the water flowing at the shore
this body is the path that guides me home

this body, this body, this body sets me free

This Body

Melody derived from the Ashkenazi trop (cantillation) for Eicha (the text we read on Tisha b'Av, a Jewish day of mourning)

Hebrew text from opening phrase of Eicha (sung in Ashkenazi trop, with Ashkenazi pronunciation)
אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד, הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם--הָיְתָה, כְּאַלְמָנָה
Eicha yashva vadad, ha'ir rabasi am haysa k'almanah
[Translation: How is she sitting alone, the city who was once full of her people, how she is like a widow]

Oh weary one, lay your head down and rest your aching bones on the ground
Oh fearful one, lay your head down and let your body breathe on the ground
Oh hopeless one, lay your head down and rest your heavy heart on the ground
Oh yearning one, lay your head down and sing your song into the ground
Oh rageful one, lay your head down and let your tears flow into the ground
Oh weary one, lay your head down and rest your aching bones on the ground
Oh ANCIENT ONE, as we lay our heads down, please lay with us on the ground

Artwork from 14 Century German Book of Eicha

Yashva Vadad // Oh Weary One (a mourning lullabye for the weary)

Origin:
Melody by Nava Tehila
Sung by Batya Levine
Art by Naomi Weintraub & Etai Rogers-Fett

for when you need a lot of jewish movement music

Track Trachtenberg