morning songs

Slow

Fast

Tefilim

Lila

Morning gooeyness

Round House Song Sessions
July 23rd, 2016
Millerton, NY

recorded by: Aly Halpert, Shelby Handler, Beck Gross, Batya Levine & Margot Seigle

lyrics:
I am grateful for the unknown blessings already on their way 
I am grateful for the unknown blessings already on their way 

I will not 
Look back in anger
Or forward in fear
But around in awareness

The Haudenosaunee believe that words of gratitude come before all else that should be said in a conversation, and the initial words of this song are credited to them.  Sarah Thompson learned this song, which expands on that concept, while doing ecological social justice work with Joanna Macy. Batya heard it from Sarah while they sat in the red tent during Passover in the Desert with Wilderness Torah.  The version recorded here is Batya's crafting.

original words:
We give thanks 
for the unknown blessings
already on their way (2x)

We will not
look back in anger
or forward in fear
but around in awareness...

We give thanks

AV - I Am Grateful

Ahava V'rachamim by Bon Singer 
Ahava V'rachamim Chesed V'shalom
Love and compassion, kindness and peace/wholeness

Recorded by IfNotNow Boston Summer 2016.

Ahavah V'Rahamim

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)

Recordings of songs taught by participants in the niggun share at the 2017 Havurah Institute at the University of Hartford, CT.

NHC2017 16 Joey Weisenberg Kol Haneshama

Part 1:
Swaying body, swaying soul
Swaying body, swaying soul

Part 2:
Move to the rhythm of your heart,
Move to the rhythm of your soul

Lyrics and melody by Theresa Martin and Christine Kick

Theresa Martin's Album

Swaying Body, Swaying Soul

A powerful contemporary spiritual with a unique and compelling rhythmic arrangement from Sweet Honey In the Rock founding singer Ysaye Barnwell.

Caint No One Know by Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock

This song was born out of John O'Donohue's poem, "For Someone Awakening to the Trauma of Her Past"; it has come through me in a season when the long buried wounds of past trauma have surfaced, inviting healing and renewal. "Only you know where the casket of pain is interred," John O'Donohue wrote. "You will have to scrape through all the layers of covering and according to your readiness, everything will open." 

May this song bring you healing, too.

Part One: 
As your tears fall over that wounded place,
may they wash away your fears and free your heart

Part Two:
I am coming home, I am coming home,
this body now, a meadow -- gentle, my love.

Awakening

This one (chorus) came through in Northeast Missouri while singing with a couple people and (verses) in California outside the house I grew up in, standing at the foot of a great Monterey Cyprus tree (not a Redwood!) and watching some vines climb up the brick outside of the house.

Chorus:
Sister you are not too far holding
I need your strength to carry on

Verse 1:
Our bodies are bound like the vines on the side of a house somewhere deep in the heart of the earth

Verse 2:
Our roots intertwine like the Redwood tree somewhere deep in the soil in the soul of the earth

Sister, You Are Not Too Far for Holding

Your Heart Knows the Way

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

Negro Spiritual reinterpreted by Koach Baruch Frazier

Be With Me by Koach Baruch Frazier

Elohai Neshama by Sol Weiss

asher lo hayam

this is a fragment of a longer phrase "asher lo hayam v'hu asahu" from psalm 95, which roughly translates as "g!d is/is of/has the sea and g!d made it"

collage by chani nicholas
https://chaninicholas.com/horoscopes/

Asher Lo (by Matthew Goldfield & Batya Levine)

Yismechu, words from Shabbat liturgy, melody by Batya Levine sung at Let My People Sing! 2018.

(Sung & transliterated in Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew)
Yismechu b'malchuscha shoimrei shabbos v'korei oneg

Translation: They will rejoice in your Sovreignty/Interconnected-Reality, those who guard/honor/keep sacred shabbat and call it a true celebration.

LMPS 2018

Yismechu - Batya Levine - LMPS 2018

Daily praise song that celebrates all who live in the home of the divine (our sacred planet). Words from tradition, music by Aly Halpert. Creative consultation from Batya Levine.

Written for Linke Fligl, a queer Jewish chicken farm and cultural project in Millerton, NY, for their Sukkot gathering, 5779. (linkefligl.com)

Lyrics 
Hebrew(from traditional Jewish services)
Ashrei yoshvei veitecha, od y'hallelucha, selah!

English (by Aly Halpert)
I sing for you
I sing for what is holy and is true
I sing for all creation, for life and liberation
Everyday anew

Aly Halpert's Album

Ashrei

brich rachamana malka d'alma mar'ei d'hai pita
thank you, thank you, 
thank you for this beautiful food, 
may it nourish us to build a world that's whole.
*a close translation of the aramaic: blessed is the merciful one, sovereign of the world, creator of this bread.*
**art (woodburned challah board) by batya levine**

Brich Rachamana (aftermeal blessing)

Written by Aly Halpert on a summer morning 5778 at Eden Village Camp
Recorded on garageband spring 5779

original text:
modah/modet/modeh ani l'fanecha, ruach chai v'kayam 
(I am grateful before you, eternal living spirit)

english lyrics by aly halpert:
I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life inside me is a gift
so we may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life around me is a gift
so I may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life inside me is a gift
so I may heal

I was made for this morning
I was made to be here
All the life around me is a gift
so we may heal

Modah Ani (morning prayer)

Farr Nigun

there is a concept in Jewish thought, that in a person's life, they need to have both hishtadlus and bitachon, learning to balance the two.

hishtadlus is personal effort, bitachon is trust.

this song is a tribute to the power and endurance it takes to do our own unique work in this lifetime.

photo by batya levine

Hishtadlus Nigun

Blessed Motion - 7:2:19, 11.01 PM

A slow song brought to you by the waters of the Webatuck swamp - Schagticoke / Mahican land. 

Water provides life. From the rain, the dew, the ocean, water heals and holds, and sings so many songs through us. I am grateful to the waters for being such a teacher, and invite you to honor them with this song.

The hebrew at the end is the traditional prayer said for a Mikveh, ritual immersion or bath:

Barukh atah Adonay Eloheynu ruach ha-olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al ha-t'vilah.

Blessed are you, source of creation,  of the universe, who sanctifies us through mitzvot and has shown us immersion.

lizard popping bubbles

Great Waters

Niggun Simcha/Anim Zemirot/Yifrach Beyomov - Chabad melody

'Please bring positivity into my life, everyday. Please bring only joy and peace, and everything that is love.'

www.BeautifulChorus.com
Produced for Beautiful Chorus by DiViNCi of SoS

Positivity

Melody by Sol Yael Weiss, harmonies by Aly Halpert

Words brought by Batya Levine, text from the very end of the Shmoneh Esrei / Amidah (silent standing prayer in every Jewish service): Y'hiyu l'ratzon imrei fi v'hegyon libi lefanecha adonia tzuri v'goali

"May these words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be favored in your presence, eternal One, my rock and redeemer." 

Dedicated to Ratzon: Center for Healing and Resistance in Pittsburgh PA, and all of us working to build the world we know is possible.

Y'hiyu L'ratzon

how can I ...

be a little more soft today
feel a little more connected today
get a little more grounded today
be a little more free today 
___ a little more ____ today

A part of the melody inspired by and based on "Faith's Hymn" by Beautiful Chorus

How Can I

Modah/Modeh Ani is a prayer said upon waking up in amazement that the spirit has returned from the dream world to the body! There are so many beautiful and joyful melodies for this prayer, but sometimes waking up and discovering oneself alive, while beautiful, is also kind of eerie and bizarre. Here's my slightly emo Modah Ani for you to try out when the right moment hits <3 

I thank you, vital and present Ruler/Spirit of the Universe, for you returned my spirit to me with compassion. Your faithfulness is abundant. 

מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקיים, שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה, רבה אמונתך
מודה אני לפניך רוח חי וקיימת שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה רבה אמונתיך

Modah/Modeh ani lefanekha/lefanayikh, Ruach/Melech chai v'Kayam/Kayemet, shehekhezart/a bi nishmati b'chemla raba emunatekha/emunatayikh.

Modah Ani (in Existential Dread)aka Emo-dah Ani

The name Binyumele can of course be replaced by any other name and b'nei-mitzva or bas-mitzva can replace bar-mitzva. Originally this was written by Beyle Schaechter Gottesman for her nephew Binyumin Schaechter.

Tsi vest ir voser tog iz haynt?
S'iz Binumeles var mitsve
S'kumen noente un gute fraynd
Oyf der foyser simkhe

Vayl a yatl voyl un fayn
der bar mitzve bokher
a guter yid vet er take zayn
der bar mitzve bokher

Di gedule iz gor groys
Bay di tate-mame
S'vet fun zeyer zun aroys
A groyser goen mistame

Vayl a yatl voyl un fayn...

Tsugeyn zol es zingendik
lozt men zikh nisht ayln
zingen iz dokh ikerdik
zingendik farvayln

Vayl a yatl voyl un fayn...

Lomir zikh mesameyakh zayn
oyf Binyumeles bar mitzve
esn un trinken a glezele vayn
s'avade dokh a mitzve

Vayl a yatl voyl un fayn...

Translation:
Do you know what day it is?
It's Binyumele's bar mitzvah
close dear friends are coming here
to this great simcha (joyous occasion)

For a dear great lad he is 
this bar mitzvah boy 
a great Jew he'll be one day 
this bar mitzvah boy

This is a really big deal
for father and mother
their son will one day grow to be 
a great Torah scholar

For a dear great lad he is ....

It should happen songfully 
without any rushing
for singing is the whole point
songfully enjoying ourselves

For a dear great lad he is...

Let us rejoice at 
Binyumele's bar mitzvah
eating and drinking a glass of wine
after all, it's a mitzva

For a dear great lad he is...

Modah Ani (in Existential Dread)aka Emo-dah Ani

Arielle Rivera Korman