Emtza’acha vachutz esha’k’cha gam lo yavuzu li

I would kiss you in the streets
And no one would scorn me. (Song of Songs 8:1)

The last chapter of the Song begins with a fantasy. What If I could be completely open in expressing my love? What if I could come out of hiding and show my most innocent and passionate intentions for love? The mystic poet, Rumi, says, “Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah… it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” In releasing self-consciousness, I am rewarded with the ease to fully step onto the Path of Love. In the Presence of Shechina, my pomegranate wine fills me with both the sober taste of my unique complexity and the wild abandon of my full potential, set free.

To view context from Shir HaShirim through the Love at the Center project, click Shir HaShirm (Ki Tetze).

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

• Shameless Kisses (melody)  
• Shameless Kisses (harmony)  
• Shameless Kisses (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Shameless Kisses PDF. For the musical notation, click Shameless Kisses notation PDF.

Ani l’dodi v’alai t’shukato

I am my beloved’s, and his longing is for me,
Only for me. (Song of Songs 7:11)

When I fully and whole-heartedly give myself to Life as my Beloved, God as my life responds with “his longing for me”. God’s longing for me manifests as an evolutionary force calling me into my full potential. Knowing that I am fully seen, treasured for who I really am and could be, and loved unconditionally, allows me to relax and open to the adventure of my life in its uniqueness. God wants me to become self-realized.

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

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

• His Longing for Me (melody)  
• His Longing for Me (harmony)  
• His Longing for Me (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click His Longing for Me PDF. For the musical notation, click His Longing for Me notation PDF.

Mah-yafit u’mah-na’amt ahavah batanugim

How beautiful and how sweet is Love
In all its pleasures! (Song of Songs 7:7)

In a Birkat HaMazon I composed many years ago, I wrote, “Pleasure is a doorway to expanded reality.” Allowing pleasure to be a doorway means that we must commit to walking through… which is very different than the usual patterns of grabbing on to pleasure and pushing away pain. The Songs of Songs knows love as the highest and most profound pleasure. Its profundity is rooted in the fact that it is indeed a doorway and a force of beckoning. We are called through that doorway of pleasure into an expanded reality, where we can know ourselves as part of the greater whole. Called by beauty, we walk through, tasting each sensation, and letting go, opening into the greater mystery.

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

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

• Pleasure as a Doorway (melody)  
• Pleasure as a Doorway (harmony)  
• Pleasure as a Doorway (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Pleasure as a Doorway PDF. For the musical notation, click Pleasure as a Doorway notation PDF.

Sha’r’raych agan hasahar al yechsar hamazeg

Your navel is the moon’s goblet,
Ever filled with wine. (Song of Songs 7:3)

I sing these words as a blessing on the continuity of life in its fullness. The navel is the place where the imprint of the umbilical cord forms a magical moon-shaped goblet, filled with the wine of everything beautiful, joyous and life-giving. That ghost of an umbilical cord connects me with my Source. The moon’s goblet is filling us with a remembrance that nothing is lacking. HaMazeg is sometimes translated as “mixed wine” — nourishment and beauty combined. We celebrate this round belly — a mound of wheat, fringed with lilies — nourishment and beauty combined.

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

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

• The Moon’s Goblet (melody)  
• The Moon’s Goblet (harmony)  
• The Moon’s Goblet (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click The Moon’s Goblet PDF. For the musical notation, click The Moon’s Goblet notation PDF.

Shuvi, shuvi haShulamit, shuvi, shuvi v’nechezeh-bach

Turn and return, Oh Shulamit,
Turn and return that we may gaze upon you! (Song of Songs 7:1)

The Shulamit, the aspect of ourselves that is the Perfected One, dances with fervor, authenticity, passion and artistry. When we can know our lives as a dance, then the twisting and turnings of fate are reframed and experienced as poignancy, beauty, dignity, nobility or play. It’s all a dance!

To gaze upon the Shulamit is to be inspired by her dance, so we can each find our own dance, our own way of moving in the world and between worlds. I often come back to the question posed by Gabrielle Roth, the great teacher of Ecstatic Dance: “If you don’t do your dance, who will?”!!

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

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

• Turn and Return (melody)  
• Turn and Return (harmony)  
• Turn and Return (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Turn and Return PDF.