Rabbi Shefa Gold

Author: Alia Meira

  • Building the Intention for Love: Sham etayn

    Sham etayn et dodai lach
    Sham Etayn Hebrew text
    There I will give you my love. (Song of Songs 7:13)

    This is a practice of strengthening and refining our deepest and finest intentions to love God through each moment and detail of our lives. Before the chant begins, imagine before you the landscape of your life — all the small details that make up your day. Then when you chant the word “Sham” (there), focus the force of your love into a particular detail or relationship of your daily routine.

    Imagine bringing the power of Love (a love that embraces the mystery of the Whole), to everything you do: getting out of bed, making tea, greeting your family, doing your daily practice, cooking and eating breakfast, cleaning up the kitchen, approaching your work, acknowledging strangers and friends. See and imagine each moment as an opportunity for loving God through whatever is before you.

    Each time you chant the word “Sham,” direct its energy towards another relationship or situation or detail of your life, charging up your intention to love God through “this.”

    This practice can also be done as a walking meditation, when you’re on your way to do something that may require your clear, strong and loving intention. With each step you can build this intention and expand your awareness of the precious opportunity that awaits you.

    To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

  • Loving ‘This’: Zeh Dodi

    Zeh Dodi v’zeh ray-ee
    Zeh Dodi in Hebrew
    This is my Beloved; this is my Friend. (Song of Songs 5:16)

    Meditation is the practice of opening to “this” — this very moment, this very place. Ordinarily I may have my judgements — things about this that I like or not. But in meditation I just say yes to whatever is before me. I accept it fully. I may not like it, but I surrender to “this” whatever it is. I fall in love, each moment, again and again. I make this moment my friend.

    My friend and teacher Sylvia Boorstein has taught me a phrase of intention, “I greet this moment in friendship with an undefended heart.”

    This phrase from the Song of Songs helps me to enter into meditation with a clear and vital intention of making each moment my Beloved.

    To view context from Shir HaShirim through the Love at the Center project, click Shir HaShirm (Beha’alotekha).

    To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

    For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 258.

    The Magic of Hebrew Chant ©2013 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.
    Shir Delight: A Journey Through the Song of Songs ©2004 Rabbi Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.

  • Preparation for Healing: Atah Ozi

    Atah Ozi
    Atah Chayai
    Atah Ori
    Atah L’fanai
    Preparation for Healing Hebrew text
    You are my Strength
    You are my Life
    You are my Light
    Ever before me. (inspired by Psalm 27)
    [Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 27 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

    In the practice of healing we leave the “small-mind” place of fear and separation, and enter into the “big mind” place of infinite possibility, and gratefulness for the blessing that is already flowing. We take the journey from “small-mind” to “big mind” by addressing God as YOU. We must become calm enough and spacious enough to receive God’s presence in response to our invocation. When we are filled with that presence, then we can open to the healing power that flows through us.

    To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

    To download the PDF file for this chant, click Preparation for Healing PDF. For the musical notation, click Preparation for Healing notation PDF.

    The musical notation is also on page 282 of The Magic of Hebrew Chant, which is available from the Books page.
    The Magic of Hebrew Chant ©2013 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.


  • Aging and Saging: Od y’nuvun

    Od y’nuvun b’sayva
    D’shaynim v’rananim y’hi’yu
    Od Y'nuvun Hebrew text
    They will be fruitful, even in old age
    They will be juicy and luxuriant. (Psalm 92:15)
    [Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 92 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

    I wrote this double-round chant in honor of Reb Zalman Shachter-Shalomi z”l and in honor of his 80th birthday. The intention that I bring to this double-round chant is to get in touch with the kind of fruitfulness, luxuriance and juiciness that emerges from my depths after many years of experience. This is a fruitfulness of wisdom and subtlety and it’s not always obvious if you’re only attuned to the surface of things. Even as our outer skin dries and wrinkles, there is an inner softness that can be cultivated from years of rubbing up against the Mystery. Even as outer sight dims and hearing falters, there are inner senses that can become fine-tuned as we age.

    As I chant these words, I bless the elders who have been models of aging and saging for me as they continue to blossom, burgeon and flourish in full-hearted glory.

    To hear the chants, use the audio players. To download a chant, right-click a note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

    NOTE: Re-recorded in November, 2024.

    To download the PDF file for this chant, click Aging and Saging PDF. For the musical notation, click Aging and Saging notation PDF.

  • Opening to the Source of Flow: V’nahar yotzei

    V’nahar yotzei me’eden, l’hashkot et haGan.
    Opening to the Source of Flow Hebrew text
    A river comes forth from Eden to water the garden. (Genesis 2:10)

    My friend and teacher Melila Hellner told me that this line from Genesis was the most quoted sacred phrase in the Zohar, one of the central texts of Kabbalah. I was intrigued and began chanting this phrase with the intention of opening to the Source of Flow. Chant these words until the chant begins to chant itself. In the silence after the chant, open to the Flow.

    As we delight in the garden of this moment, let us attune to the source of its vitality and beauty.

    To hear the chant, use the audio player. To download the chant, right-click the note and save (or download) the linked MP3 file.

    For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 255.

    The Magic of Hebrew Chant ©2013 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.