Category Archives: Chants

A Wild God

B’rach Dodi … Al Haray V’samim
A Wild God text in Hebrew
Hurry my Beloved … to the hills of spices! (Song of Songs 8:14)

Happily ever after? Well, no.

The Song of Songs is our great Love story. As with all great stories, you might wonder, “Well, how does it end?” I grew up with a bedtime story, a myth, a blueprint for how love was supposed to go, where it was supposed to take me, that can be summed up with the words, “And they lived happily ever after.” The last note says, “Ta-da!” “The End.” And I’ve always been a sucker for those romantic comedies that warm my heart and lure me with their fantasies of “happily ever after.”

The Song of Songs ends on such a different note. The lover turns to her beloved in the Garden and says, “Go! Hurry, my Beloved! Flee! Be my gazelle, my young stag on the mountain of spices.”

She turns to Love, Reality, God, the vastness of Being and says, “I will not domesticate you with my concepts; I will not limit you with my convenient definitions; I will not settle for comfort and ease and a small predictable Reality…. because I have glimpsed your vastness, your wild immensity, your unfathomable nature. “

I live at the edge of wilderness, and I’m always playing at that edge. I have a small container garden on my porch, a hummingbird feeder and a seed-block for the woodpeckers, jays, juncos, grosbeaks and finches that I count as family. A grateful tribe of chipmunks live under my wooden planter boxes. Bears sometime lumber onto my porch to do their mischief. The seeds from my chive’s flowers waft off my porch into the ground the surrounds my house, taking root as tufts of delicious food for the deer that wander by.

The other day I stood on my porch and stared into the dark eyes of a doe who was leading her two young children into those between lands where my chives had spread. For a long timeless moment, we were lost in each other’s eyes. And then quite suddenly she must have heard those words, “Hurry, flee, be like a gazelle in your swiftness and wild beauty; run to the mountain of spices.” I was so grateful for those moments and sad to see her go, and happy for her wildness, for in those precious moments, she awakened the wild in me.

And this is also how the Song of Songs ends — leaving us playing at the edge — between our civilized, predictable, constructed, comfort-seeking world… and the vast dangerous mystery that can’t be contained, defined or even fathomed.

The Song of Songs asks, “What would it mean to live at that edge?”


Illustration ©2009 Phillip Ratner, courtesy of the Dennis & Phillip Ratner Museum and the Israel Bible Museum collection. All rights reserved.


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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click A Wild God PDF. For the musical notation, click A Wild God notation PDF.

I Have Come into My Garden

Baati l’gani achoti challah
Baati in Hebrew
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. (Song of Songs 5:1)

With this practice we receive the Presence of the Beloved who has responded to our invitation with a glorious YES. We put down the struggle … and relax. We pause to receive that YES. We open in receptivity and relief, letting the strain of our effort dissolve into celebration. We share the myrrh, spices, honeycomb, wine and milk of this amazing garden, taking in the Great Love with all the nourishment and pleasure that Life offers.

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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click I Have Come into My Garden (Baati) PDF. For the musical notation, click Baati notation PDF.

The Place

Hinay Makom iti
The Place in Hebrew
Right Here! There is a Place with Me. (Exodus 33:21)

When Moses asks to see God’s Glory, God answers with these words, directing Moses to a Place from which to see and know the Divine Presence. That place is here. In fact the word Makom (place) became a name of God. I hear God saying, “stand still upon the rock, the foundation of existence, and you will know Me. For that Place is with Me; I am there with you in the place of your stillness, your longing, your love.”

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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click The Place PDF. For the musical notation, click The Place notation PDF.

My Good

Va’ani kirvat Elohim li tov
My Good in Hebrew
And as for me, God’s nearness is my good. (Psalm 73:28)

In Kabbalah there are 4 worlds that describe a continuum between the infinite Source and our limited reality. The world that is closest to God is called Atzilut, which means nearness. In moments when we touch the world of Atzilut, we feel close to the Source of All. This practice is the expressed realization that those moments of touching and being touched by Source allow goodness to flow in and become our own goodness. We are inspired to keep drawing near to that Source, through heightened perception, inquiry, praise and celebration. When we touch that Divinely sourced goodness within, we can open our own flow and bring that goodness to the word.

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

To download the PDF file for this chant, click My Good PDF. For the musical notation, click My Good notation PDF.

The God-Field

HaBotayach ba’Adonai chesed y’so’v’venu (Psalm 32:10)
The God-Field in Hebrew
The one who trusts in God will be surrounded with loving-kindness.

Trusting in God means that my heart rests in the deep knowing of my ultimate safety. (Yes, even Death is safe!) I relax and know that I am connected to an infinite resource that I can call on to deal with whatever might emerge in this moment. When I take off my armoring, and my heart opens, I receive the grace that is always flowing. That Divine flow fills my energy field, and protects me with an aura of kindness, a God-field that surrounds me.

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

NOTE: This chant was slightly updated to use Adonai (instead of the original Ya) on 10/15/21.

To download the PDF file for this chant, click The God-Field PDF. For the musical notation, click The God-Field notation PDF.