Recordings from Congregation T'chiyah's 2020 High Holiday services, broadcast from The Light Box. 
https://www.lightboxperformance.org/ 

Recorded from livestream by Three Lyons Creative 
https://www.threelyonscreative.com/

PERSONNEL:
Jake Ehrlich - vox + guitar
Raya Samet - vox
Kendra Watkins - vox

8. We Let The Love Wash Over Us

Composition and Vocals: Marni Loffman
Guitar: Jeff Weisz
Production and Violin: Eitan Kantor

Story of the Song:

This melody was composed by Marni Loffman while listening to Kohenet Keshira HaLev Fife offer words of Torah during a Zoom Kabbalat Shabbat service in September 2020. Marni began humming this melody on mute while K' Keshira spoke to the importance of connecting to abundant love, especially in the midst of racial violence and injustice. This prayer helps us access the love that the divine, universe, spirit, shechinah, ultimate, G-d or whatever greater force you believe has to give. We are wrapped in love, surrounded by it. Sometimes we just need words and melody to allow ourselves to feel all the compassion that holds us and grounds us in each moment. 

Lyrics:

Ahavah rabbah ahavtanu, 
hemlah g’dolah hamalta aleinu
hemlah g’dolah  viteirah 

Deep is Your love for us
boundless Your tender compassion for us
boundless Your tender compassion

For more information on the prayer check out My Jewish Learning: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/arti...

Composed 09/11/2020
Filmed 08/12/2021 1:24 AM (Camp Ramah in the Berkshires)
Produced 09/2021

Ahava Rabbah (Live) ft. Jeff Weisz and Eitan Kantor

Ana B'khoakh — Kabbalat Shabbat Liturgy

a new nigun and havdalah tune in honor of the March equinox and all that is changing.

Equinox Nigun: Hinei El Yeshu'ati

We belong! Compassionately welcoming all the ways -- emotionally, intellectually, behaviorally -- that we exist right here in this moment allows us to connect. To be present with our selves in our own contradictions helps us build the muscles of witnessing the complexity of the beings around us. It turns us towards each other with open hearts and loving perspectives. Not only is finding home in ourselves and our present moment important for our mental health, stress and overall well being, but it is an important dimension of showing up fully in our communities, in our work to change and transform politics and social life, and harm caused all around us. Holding ourselves just as we are is a primary tool in transforming antagonism and erasure of experience into acceptance, humanization and openness.   

Lyrics:  
Its okay to be nervous 
it's okay to move slow 
it's okay to not know  
its okay to not have everything already figured out 
its okay to feel joy and also feel a lot of doubt  

you are home where you are 
as you are 
just who you are

just as you are

a few weeks ago, I joined a nature walk with a Celtic spirituality group at the invitation of my friend​. As we walked in silence through an old growth forest in Connecticut, I felt wonder, joy, presence and calm. I felt deep connection with the plants and people around me. I wanted it to last forever. I immediately thought to myself, "I NEED to come back here as soon as possible and as often as possible." Then a wise voice in my head started singing this song to me, reminding me that this, right here, right now is enough, no matter how much I want to hold on. Even if I returned over and over again, this experience would never come again. So it is in life.

The following week, Fatima Abbasi​ and I went to the ocean to say goodbye to a local establishment closing down. As we sat, looking at the water, I asked if I could share this song, and she said yes. We got very emotional, singing it together by the water, reflecting on the year that has passed and the end of our program that is nearing. She insisted we record an "unplugged" rendition by the water. Here it is.

When I feel a deep sense of connection to a place, person or experience, my immediate urge is to want to return to it over and over again. Whether it is the coffee shop I had one great experience at, a dish I cooked and it worked, a route I walked, or a person I met and loved --when I feel connected, I want to be able to replicate that experience, to keep coming back. The comfort of feeling rooted and returning feels like a guarantee. But it is not. Nothing is. Everything is moving, changing, transforming.
May we all have the continued strength to say the little goodbyes that happen in each moment, and to face the big ones as we traverse through an ever-changing life. May this song provide comfort to you when it is hard to reconcile that something you love very very much is fleeting and remind you that you have the strength to hold it as it is, be present with it and then say hello what is next.

Image Description: Person wrapped in a scarf with dark hair and white skin, stands in front of ocean and sings.

let it be enough (unplugged)

Cantor Josh and I recorded this outside at Hava Nashira 2022 in Rena Branson's session, where we recorded music to send to folks who are currently incarcerated. This tune is an original composed by Marni Loffman in late 2021, as a form of music medicine during a period of difficult emotions. This song is a prayer, a reminder, an affirmation and a protest. We remember that we are not solely defined by our external circumstances, that are context does not have the power to take our ability to heal from us, or our ability to find wholeness. A reminder that we have agency, power and the strength for healing, even in the simple act of getting through a single moment.

Thank you to Cantor Josh Breitzman from Beth Elohim for the harmonies, beautiful vocals and encouragement!

You Are Strong Enough Ft. Cantor Josh Breitzer

tune by Shefa Gold from Psalm 118:14, Exodus 15:2

Recorded at Boston Passover Action Prep Meeting 4/17/16

lyrics: 
Ozi v’Zimrat Yah Vayahi li lishuah

Tishrei Nigun By Nava Tehila (sung by Ilana And Rachel Lerman)

For most of the COVID quarantine, I have been sick. It has been physically and emotionally challenging to attend now-virtual class as usual, do my various jobs as usual, take care of my one and a half year old full time (not as usual), and all the while wondering what I am sick with, and whether it has unknown affects on the 16 week old baby-to-be in my womb.

One morning I woke up and even though I could barely speak, this tune came out of me. So I composed a new Modah/Modeh Ani for the voiceless, for the solitude of quarantine, for those of us struggling to insert a bit of hoda’ah, gratitude, into a difficult situation. Because we know that naming the blessings that we have in our life, while it may not change what is around us, brings light and hope into our inner world. 

Join me in beginning each day with Modah/Modeh Ani, to whatever tune you know. And if this tune moves you, download this track and sing along with me in the mornings. 

Together we can give thanks to all the little pieces that make life worth loving.

Modah Ani For The Voiceless

This is an original melody I wrote for Yedid Nefesh, a prayer of longing for connection and companionship with the eternal. Enjoy :) Yedid Nefesh starts around about 2 min.

Nigun Ga'agu'ah/Yedid Nefesh

a musical space to embrace imperfection and just keep singing and creating. join me 💕

https://open.spotify.com/artist/57wVhNabM6aloqbNDarbCQ?si=69rmILciRe66tIHlQz10Wg

just as you are

marni loffman | original music

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