Ana Yah hoshiyah na, Ana Yah hatzliycha na

Please God, grant us new Life; please God, make us successful! (Psalm 118:25)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 118 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

This Psalm, the concluding Psalm of Hallel, overflowing with extravagant praise and gratefulness, sends us our own strength. From here we call to God. Our calling is from a stance of fullness, calm confidence and the celebration of the ongoing Divine flow of abundance, justice and truth.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch translates “hoshiyah” not as save us, or deliver us… but grant new Life. “Y’shuah,” he says, is “undimmed vigor of one’s own life and existence; Yud-Shin-Ayin is the true, genuine YESH.” (is-ness) So, from the fullness of celebration we ask that this joy might invigorate our existence and then open us to the source of prosperity. As we receive the force of new life, we ask that it be channeled in ways that help us succeed, manifesting our highest dreams and most passionate purpose.

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

• Please God

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Please God! PDF.

Im l’vavi asicha, va’yichapais ruchi

With my heart, I meditate (converse) and my spirit searches. (Psalm 77:7)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 77 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

There are three phases of this Heart meditation, all meant to awaken the heart as a vehicle of exploration and perception.

1st Phase (with sound and concentration)

1. Chant Im l’vavi asicha 3X with complete focused gentle attention to the “back door of the heart.”
2. As you chant va’yichapais ruchi, release and send the inner power that has accumulated in the heart out into the Universe. Let that spirit fly out and explore.
3. The 2nd time you chant va’yichapais ruchi, allow that spirit to return and find its home within your heart.

2nd phase (with sound and movement)

1. Turn head to the left, and as you chant Im l’vavi, circle down and around to the right. As you chant asicha circle down and around back to the left. Repeat 3X.
2. As you chant, va’yichapais ruchi, bow to the center, finding your depths.
3. The second time you chant, va’yichapais ruchi, lift yourself up into the fullness of your heart.

3rd Phase (silent chanting with breath concentration)

1. Im l’vavi, on the exhale, asicha in the inhale, spiraling in to the heart. Repeat 3X
2. On the exhale, va’yichapais ruchi, sending the breath out to search, taste and explore.
3. On the inhale, va’yichapais ruchi, letting the breath return with information, subtleties and richness.

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

• Heart Meditation 1
• Heart Meditation 2
• Heart Meditation Mix

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Heart Meditation PDF. For the musical notation, click Heart Meditation Music.

Sova smachot et panecha

Filling up with the joys of Your Presence (Psalm 16:11)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 16 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

This is a practice of deliberately filling ourselves up with joy, beauty, light, and vitality. We chant that word “sova” three times, and with each repetition, we open up a greater capacity for joy, cultivating and stimulating those inner receptors that can open to Divine Presence. Sometimes I do this practice with my eyes open, taking in the beauty of the things of this world, filling up with the magnificence of light, color, fragrance and the vast variety of God’s Creation.

This practice can also be done as a circle dance. Stand in a circle and then face a partner. Look into your partners’ eyes and allow God’s light to shine through them to you. Each person that you face in this dance shines a particular and unique refraction of that one light. Fill up with that light as you chant Sova, sova, sova smachot (2X). Then as you chant Sova smachot et panecha the first time, take hands with your partner and slowly change places. The second time, turn to face your new partner and take in their unique light.

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

• Filling Up 1  
• Filling Up 2  
• Filling Up 3  
• Filling Up (mix)  
  

< To download the PDF file for this chant, click Filling Up (Sova) PDF. For the musical notation, click Filling Up Music.

V’laila kayom ya-ir kachashaycha ka-orah

Night shines like day, darkness is as light. (Psalm 139:12)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 139 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

Perek Shira is an ancient midrashic text that assigns a verse to each creature and hears the particular call of each aspect of Creation praising its Creator in song. One day, after vacationing on a lake in upstate New York, my beloved students, Wendy and Susan called me to ask, “Does the loon have a song in Perek Shira?” When I said, “no,” they suggested a text. I went immediately to the internet to listen to a recording of the loon’s call. Wendy described that call as mournful yearning. Susan said that although that was true, the mournful, yearning call of the loon led her to joy. Not many birds sing in the dark, but loons call to each other all through the night. The loons teach us to know the radiance of night, and to let even our darkness shine.

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

• The Song of the Loon  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click The Song of the Loon PDF.