OH LAND
This song came through me as I was wanting to honor and have an embodied experience of my connection to land and the work I am committed to doing in my lifetime. You can sing the verses as an echo or you can have the group hummmmmmm for the verse and have a different person sing each verse (which is what we did). We have also just taught one verse with the chorus and sung it repeatedly. I believe the most potent verse for a land acknowledgement is "oh land, i know, the history here is painful, oh land, you know, your healing’s woven with the peoples"

lyrics:
oh land, upon which i stand - holding me 
i thank you - for all that you hold me through 
i lean back into you, rejuvenate my body anew 
oh land, upon which i stand - holding me 
i feel the gravity, where you meet my feet 
i can hear your heart beat - if i listen carefully 
oh land, upon which i stand - holding me 
oh land, i know, the history here is painful 
oh land, you know, your healing’s woven with the peoples 
oh land, upon which i stand - holding me 
oh Land, we’re here to see the grief and rage and suffering 
take these hearts as offerings, massage you with our feet as we sing 
oh land, upon which i stand - holding me

to hear more community songs by ahlay, visit: https://www.alexandrablakely.com/songlibrary

Oh Land (Land Acknowledgement Song)

Belz Nigun (Shark in the Mikveh)
Batya Levine, Aly Halpert, Sol Weiss & G Lindberg

Belz Nigun (Shark in the Mikveh)

I Belong

This song came out of me as a natural instinct to soothe my nervous system after engaging with secondhand and intergenerational trauma from the Holocaust. May it bring softness to our pain and courage to the resilient parts of us who still reach for the good in life.

Song For Soothing Trauma

Inspired by an excerpt from the poem "Red Sea" by Aurora Levins Morales written in 2002 and included in the article written by Arielle Angel “We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each other” in Jewish Currents post October 7, 2023.

Written by Molly Bajgot & Sol Weiss on our way to DC, October 2023
Sung by Leigh Witzling, Nina Gordon Kirsch, Lily Israel, Molly Bajgot and Sol Weiss


Lyrics:

We won’t rest till we’re all free
You are not my enemy
In our pain, in our grief
Border walls won’t protect me

We will cross the sea
With all of us or none

We will cross the sea
We will cross the sea
With all of us or none
With all of us or none

Cross the Sea (by Molly Bajgot & Sol Weiss)

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

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

Artist: Unknown
I learned at Adamah (Jewish Farming Fellowship) in 2014. The song was brought to the Isabella Freedman community from Cara Michelle Silverberg who learned it at The Art of Mentoring (a workshop from the Vermont Awareness School). **please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this info!

Sung at a song circle on April 13, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Part 1:
Learn to live your life with all your heart, and
All your soul and all your mind, and
Love all humankind as you would love yourself

Part 2:
Learn to live your life
With all your heart
And all your soul and mind and 
Love all humankind

Part 3:
We've got happy lives to live
We've got open arms to give
We've got hope down deep inside
Because in love we do reside

Learn To Live Your Life (Unknown)

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)

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

Artist: Saro Lynch-Thomason

Lyrics:
There are more waters rising
This I know, this I know
There are more waters rising
This I know
There are more waters rising
They will find their way to me
There are more waters rising
This I know, this I know
There are more waters rising
This I know

There are more fires burning...

There are more mountains falling...

I will wade through the waters
This I know, this I know
I will wade through the waters
This I know
I will wade through the waters
When they find their way to me
I will wade through the waters
This I know, this I know
I will wade through the waters
This I know

I will move with the fires...

I will rebuild the mountains...

*Note: Saro's lyrics are "I will walk through the fires" - I changed them to "I will move with the fires"

More Waters Rising (Saro Lynch-Thomason)

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.