untangling and embodying

mayyin hayyim

Heart Songs

9/20/19 Friday Night Service

These are the songs that were taught at a Let My People Sing teach back in DC, in Sept 2019. The teach back was organized by those of us from DC who attended the 2019 retreat and wanted to bring the songs we learned back to our community! The organizers & teachers of songs at this teach back were Naomi Weintraub, Lauren Spokane, Simone Holzer, Sarah Beth Alcabes, Hasan Bhatti, Tyler Benjamin, and myself. Some of the songs listed here were recorded that day, and others were taught that day but not recorded, since good recordings already existed on SoundCloud, and thus have been linked from other folks' pages! Enjoy :)

Let My People Sing! Teach Back - DC 2019

Rainbow songs

This tune was introduced to us by Hazzan George Mordechai and adapted to Psalm 29, Mizmor l'David. It's an Iraqi tune for a shabbat table song, adapted by Davening Team David Frankel.

Havu la’adonai, benei elim, 
havu la’adonai kavod va’oz. 
Havu la’adonai kavod shemo, hishtachavu la’adonai be’hadrat kodesh. 
Kol adonai al hamayim, el ha’kavod hirim, adonai al mayim rabim. 
Kol adonai ba’koach, kol adonai be’hadar. 
Kol adonai shover arazim va’yeshaber adonai et-arzei ha’levanon. 
Va’yarkidem k’mo egel, levanon ve’sirion k’mo ven-re-emin. 
Kol adonai chotzev la’havot esh. 
Kol adonai yachil midbar, 
yachil adonai midbar kadesh 
Kol adonai yecholel ayalot. 
Va’yechesof yearot, u’veheikhalo kulo omer kavod. 
Adonai lamabul yashav, 
va’yeshev adonai melekh l’olam. 
Adonai oz le’amo yiten, adonai yevarekh et-amo va’shalom.

Mizmor L'David: Psalm 29- Iraqi inspired Yah Ribon tune

Kosi R’vaya
My cup runneth over

Psalm 23
tune by Shefa Gold. 

recording by margot seigle, ilana lerman & michelle citrin around a campfire in the woods in mendham, nj
2016

Kosi R'vaya

by Batya Levine with creative collaboration from Noam Lerman

recorded by Batya Levine & Noam Lerman
November 13, 2016

We Rise

Put your roots down
put your feet on the ground
You can hear what she says
if you listen

The sweet sound of the river
as it moves across the stones
it's the same sound
as the blood in your body
when it moves across your bones

are you listenin'
are you listenin'

Are You Listening - Singing Alive 2017

ביצוע: 
ליאלה Liela ועודד בן ליש Ben Layish Oded
https://soundcloud.com/leora-leshem
https://soundcloud.com/user-433687383
מילים: 
 מרתה Marta Sarti
הוקלט באולפני: 
אייל אפשטיין Eyal Epshtein

I was told 
to be strong
to feel strong
to overcome the war

And I learned in my life
to feel light
to be light
to see the light in all

And I learned 
to open my heart
to be in my heart
to open up to the world

and again
and again
and again
and again
to open up to the world

Liela (Leora Simcha) & Oded Ben Layish - I Was Told

michael stillwater song sung in 432 ,,,in the light, in the love and in the glory!

In the Light, In the Love ~ Manis

Art by Brandon Boyd in Support of Standing Rock

Voice Memos

May I Be Empty/Full

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

Words from Friday night liturgy in Kabbalat Shabbat, when we welcome in the Shabbos Quing

Art by Danny Ferrell 
*depicting queers as royalty*
http://www.papermag.com/danny-ferrell-queer-royalty-2547954079.html

Lecha Dodi - Greeting the Shabbos Quing

Healing Song by Kestrel Feiner-Homer

Adonai Melech sung at Let My People Sing! 2016
The first part of the song is a Judeo-Iraqi song, and the second part is an addition to that song by George Mordecai.

Adonai melech, adonai malach, adonai yimloch l'olam va'ed.
B'yadcha afkid ruchi pedita oti, b'yadcha afkid ruchi adonai el emet.

Adonai Melech - George Mordecai - LMPS 2016

Singing Team - Friday Night Melodies

L'chu N'ran'nah --> Or Zarua (Joey Weisenberg)

Origin:
Music by Yerachmiel Begun
Words from Friday night liturgy

Lyrics:
Ana b'choach
G'dulat y'mincha
Tatir tz'rurah. 
Kabeil rinat amcha
Sag'veinu tahareinu nora

Translation:
Please, with the power
of your great right hand
free the bound.
Accept the song of your people, empower us,
Make us pure, Awesome One!

Ana B'Choach

Chassidic melody originally from Pursov, Poland

Y'did Nefesh - Pursov Melody

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

Nigunim, Vol. IV: Brooklyn Spirituals

Mozi's Nigun / Ana B'choakh by Joey Weisenberg

Show Up

I Am Willing by Holly Near

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)

Bobover Wedding Niggun

Origin: a person named Molly (we aren't sure of Molly's last name!), taught it on the first night of the Let My People Sing! 2019 retreat. Molly learned it at Urban Adamah, we're not sure where it originally came from - please comment if you know! This recording is from a Let My People Sing teach-back gathering in DC, in Sept 2019

Words:
I step into the flow
And then I let it go
I open my mind, my heart and my soul (x2)

I surrender, I surrender
I surrender, I open my mind, my heart and my soul

LMPS Teach Back

Step Into the Flow

This song is by Beyle Schaechter Gottesman, a matriarch of Naftali Ejdelman, who was one of the lead teachers at LMPS 2019. This recording is from a Let My People Sing teach-back gathering in DC, in Sept 2019

Words:
Fun blat tsu blat
Fun blum tsu blum
Flaterl, flaterl flit arum
Royt un grin gel un blo
Ot bistu dort ot bistu do

Ot bistu do ot bistu dort
Kenst nisht aynshteyn oyf eyn ort
Flaterl, flaterl sheyn bistu sheyn
Ikh vil dikh nisht khapn
Neyn o neyn

Fli zhe flaterl flaterl avek
Di velt iz groys, hot nisht keyn ek
Fun blat tsu blat
Fun blum tsu blum
Flaterl, flaterl flit arum

Translation:
From leaf to leaf
From flower to flower
Butterfly, butterfly flies around
Red and green, yellow and blue
Now you are there, now you are here

Now you are here, now you are there
You can't stay still in one place
Butterfly, butterfly you are so beautiful
I don't want to catch you
No, O no

Fly, butterfly, flutter away
The world is big, it has no end
From leaf to leaf
From flower to flower
Butterfly, butterfly flies around

LMPS Teachback 2019

Flaterl/Butterfly

Artist: Miner
I learned this song at Let My People Sing 2019.

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

Part 1:
Let the wave wash over me
Let the wave wash over me
I am already under
Let the wave wash over me

Part 2:
There will be better days

**Photo credit: Sarah Snyder!

Let The Wave (Miner)

Artist: Kate Sutherland

I learned this song at Let My People Sing 2019.

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

Part 1:
When I am waiting out a storm
I come back to my breath
When I am waiting out a storm
I come back to my heartbeat

Part 2:
Mmm, madeo, madeo
Mmm, madeo, madeo-o

**Photo credit: Sarah Snyder!

Waiting Out A Storm (Kate Sutherland)

This melody is by Hasan Bhatti, and who taught it publicly for the first time at LMPS 2019, at the community sing on the last day. It combines Mizrachi / Ashkenazi / Desi / Islamic styles of music; and is meant to tie the different corners of the diaspora together into one tune as siblings. The words are from Psalm 133. This recording is from a Let My People Sing teach-back gathering in DC, in Sept 2019, where Hasan taught the song to folks in DC.

Words:
Hinei Mah tov 
U-ma-nayim                       
Shevet achim gam yachad  

Translation:
Behold how good 
And how pleasant it is 
For siblings to dwell together in unity

LMPS Teachback

Hinei Mah Tov - Hasan Bhatti

recorded by Aly Halpert, Sol Weiss & Margot Seigle

I believed in solid ground until I saw the earth in motion,
in the winds of steady change and in the ever-rolling ocean.

All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

from Annie: 
Blessed Motion is a 4-part acknowledgement of the nature of Life as an unpredictable, ever-changing movement toward itself. The melody came squatting on a rock next to a fast moving fork in the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California. Martin Prechtel said after surviving the Guatemala earthquake of 1976, during which he witnessed the ground beneath him rising up and swallowing people and villages whole, that solid ground is a myth believed by people who live on the earth rather than in it. This idea has stayed with me through the years and provided partial inspiration for this song. This is a big song! It travels through two dimensions, the first, a three or four part set of repeating lines, the second, a layered riff topped with a solo section.

Step Into the Flow

Miriam Ginsberg