Where there is grief there is holy ground
Where there is grief there is holy ground
Walk this ground, walk this ground
Walk this ground with me

Where there is grief there are sacred tears 
Where there is grief there are sacred tears
Shed these tears, shed these tears
Shed these tears with me

Where there is grief there is deeper love
Where there is grief there is deeper love
Feel this love, feel this love
Feel this love with me

Where There is Grief

Ancestor Song came through in Spring 2022 when I was walking with my dad. At this point in his dementia, he said a lot of odd things. On that particular day he said “my mother of ten thousand names”. What was he trying to say? To a “normal” brain it didn’t make sense, but it was so poetic that I knew I needed to put the line in a song. So, just like that my dad and I were collaborating in songwriting and he didn’t even know it. Thank you ancestors, thank you angels, thank you Dad!

Ancestor Song

Pt 1
On a night like this I swim with the moon
Flowing through my soul, oohh

Pt 2
La luna calls to me
Open to her ecstacy

Pt 3
Let it out, let it out
Let it all out
Shake it off, shake it off
Dance in your fullness, dance in your fullness
Beauty

Pt 4
I want to howl
I want to scream
In this moon dance I feel all of me

Dance in Your Fullness (moon song)

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

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

Rinnington’s Choir Rehearsal

Niggun Tishrei - Nava Tehila

You can purchase the Elul album, which was compiled, recorded & edited by Anat Hochberg & Matt Goldfield here:
https://elulmusicproject.bandcamp.com/releases
This album features a beautiful collection of original songs for Elul by various contemporary Jewish musicians.

This song came through in the forests of the Blue Hills, which is on the land of the Massachusett tribe. Sometimes it may seem that all of our leaves fall down, onto the forest floor, and our branches lie bare & exposed in the cold wind. Shedding tears and the things that no longer serve us, we are stripped down to our most basic selves. This leaves us vulnerable, and it naturally opens up a space for teshuva, a return to self. Because we are the water, earth, fire and wind, and we can call on these powers, to help us through.

LYRICS:
all the leaves have fallen down, have fallen down
all the leaves have fallen down, have fallen down

i am the water, earth, fire & wind
dig deep my roots and return again
i am the water, earth, fire & wind
return again

CREDITS:
from Elul: Songs for Turning, released September 7, 2017
Batya Levine: vocals
Anat Hochberg: vocals
Micah Shapiro: djembe, vocals
Album Art: Roz Freeman

Elul: Songs for Turning

All The Leaves

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

let it blow through
let it blow through 

open up the windows of your soul and let it blow through

hard times come and hard times go 

let it blow through

Let It Blow Through by Maggie Wheeler

Origin:
Words from Selichot liturgy
Melody is a Chabad tune
This is a recording that Batya Levine made for NSP in preparation for co-leading High Holiday services with Rabbi Joseph in 2020

Words:
Rachamana d’anei (de’anei) la’ani’ei
oy vey! aneina(n) 

Rachamana d’anei l’tvi’rei lieba, 
oy aneina(n)! oy aneina(n)!

Translation:
Compassionate One, who answers/responds to the oppressed. 
Oy Vey! Answer/respond to us!

Compassionate One, who answers/responds to the brokenhearted. 
Oy! Answer/respond to us! 
Oy! Answer/respond to us!

Rachamana - Chabad Melody

JEWISH COMMUNAL SINGING FOR HEALING AND LIBERATION
Let My People Sing! is a cultural project expanding the ancient and transformative practice of Jewish communal singing. We gather in multi-racial, multicultural and genderful Jewish community, uplifting songs and leaders historically and ongoingly pushed to the margins. Together, we transmit and reclaim diasporic Jewish singing traditions, celebrate original music emerging from our communities, and create heart-centered gatherings where we can all be leaders and learners of song.