Sh’lach-orcha va’amitcha

Send forth Your light and Your truth. (Psalm 43:3)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 43 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

Each of us is called to shine our own unique light and to find a way to express the truth that may lie buried in us. The world depends on our willingness to become radiant, and to speak our truth. Sometimes, I experience just a glimmer of that truth, and I must follow that glimmer wherever it may lead. It takes courage and faith to live it and to express it in ways that not everyone will understand.

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

• Light and Truth (melody)  
• Light and Truth (harmony 1)  
• Light and Truth (harmony 2)  
• Light and Truth (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Light and Truth PDF. For the musical notation, click Light and Truth notation PDF.

Kol atzmotai tomarnah, Yah mi Chamocha!

All of my bones shall say, “Oh God, who is like You!” (Psalm 35:10)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 35 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

Yah Mi chamocha is an exclamation of wonder. Like WOW! The word for my bones also means my essence. So, when my bones are expressing this wow, I am allowing my core essence to communicate its amazement radiating out from my center. When I express this wonder, my bones come into alignment with the whole of life, and I just want to dance. My bones lead the way.

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

• All of My Bones (melody)  
• All of My Bones (harmony)  
• All of My Bones (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click All of My Bones PDF. For the musical notation, click All of My Bones notation PDF.

Va’ani b’tumi tamachta bi

Whenever I am in my integrity, I feel Your support. (Psalm 41:13)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 41 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

No matter what difficulties or challenges I face, my commitment is to learn from everything, and to use all of it as a catalyst for awakening. And if I stay in my integrity, I know that I will be supported. Being in my integrity means always aligning and re-aligning myself with my highest soul-purpose. When I am living in authentic, whole-hearted alignment with my soul-purpose, I can lean into the Divine embrace that is forever holding me steady. In that embrace, I relax and enjoy the wild ride of being human.

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

• Your Support (melody)  
• Your Support (harmony)  
• Your Support (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Your Support PDF. For the musical notation, click Your Support notation PDF.

Baati b’megilat sefer katuv alai, la’asot r’tzoncha Elohai
Chafatzti b’toratcha b’toch may’ai

I have come, with my whole life written upon me,
To do your pleasure, my God
My own desire and your Torah and mingled within me. (Psalm 40:8-9)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 40 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

Back in 1996 I was ordained as a rabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. All through those 8 years of study, I also studied with Reb Zalman, and so I asked him if he would give me smicha after I graduated from RRC. He graciously and enthusiastically said yes. That long awaited moment happened at Elat Chayyim that summer. He asked me to come to the door of where he was staying at sunset. I knocked on his door; he opened it but wouldn’t let me in. He asked me to stay up all night in prayer, and at dawn, he promised to give me smicha. And then he scribbled something on a scrap of paper and handed it to me, and quickly closed the door.

It was this line from Psalm 40. I spent all night in the hot tub, crying and contemplating these words and singing them. At dawn I was still crying, but I felt washed clean and ready…. to step onto a path of wholeness and integration.

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

• Smicha Chant  

NOTE: This recording is from the Chanscendence CD.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Smicha Chant PDF. For the musical notation, click Smicha Chant notation PDF.

Chushah l’ezrati, Adonai t’shu’ati

Hasten to my aid,
O Lord, my deliverance. (Psalm 38:23)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 38 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

When our burdens seem too heavy; when our thoughts are tangled; when we feel surrounded by enemies; when we’re at the end of our rope … it’s time to ask for help. When we surrender and realize that we’re going round in circles of futility, it is possible to step out of the trap of our complaint. Then we can stop, come to stillness and call out to the larger Mystery to save us from our smallness. Our deliverance comes not in anything being “fixed” but in opening to the widest perspective and getting out of our own way to allow for the unfolding of grace in its time.

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

• Help! (melody)  
• Help! (harmony)  
• Help! (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Help! PDF. For the musical notation, click Help! notation PDF.