Al tastayr panecha mimeni

Do not hide Your Face from me. (Psalm 102:3)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 102 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

I begin chanting this prayer with insistence and passion because I long to see and know The Face of God in all things, in all people, in all places, in all blessings, in all predicaments. After a while it feels as if God is chanting these words to me, saying, “I have been here all along; it is you who have been hiding. Show your face to Me. “ And then I enter the subtle state that I call “The Holy Confusion.” Whose Face? Mine? God’s? Both? Neither? Or does God look out from my face? Or do I look out from God’s face?

If I chant long enough I may be able to rest in this holy confusion, and bathe in its questions and come to the state of Un-knowing that leads to Wisdom.

This is a 3-part round.

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.

• Whose Face?  
• Whose Face? Round  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Whose Face? PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 291.

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

Et-halaych b’tam l’vavi, b’kerev bayti

I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. (Psalm 101:2)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 101 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

To find the integrity of my heart is to return to its innocence, simplicity, and wholeness, and then live my life from that place. When Life gets complicated, tangled up and overwhelming, it’s time to “go for a walk.”

Et-halaych is a reflexive verb (to take yourself for a walk) that describes a way of living that is self-aware. I must take this walk within my own house, first, if I am to manifest that integrity in the world. My own house might mean the workings of my inner life or the life of my family and intimate relationships, or the sacred realm of “HOME.”

This practice is a walking meditation.

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 Walk 1  
• Heart Walk 2  
• Heart Walk Mix  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Heart Walk PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 288.

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

Min HaMetzar karati Yah,
Anani vamerchavYah

From the Narrow place I called out to God
who answered me with the Divine Expanse. (Psalm 118:5)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 118 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

A High Holy Days Practice

With this chant, we can dedicate our own narrow places — the places of struggle, difficulty, suffering or challenge in our lives… . We can know and accept those narrow places as that which will make our “Call” beautiful and compelling. When we can allow the force of our call to move through our narrow places, through what makes us all-too-human, then our call will be answered by God’s Divine Expanse — a sense of spaciousness in which transformation can happen.

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.

• Min HaMetzar 1  
• Min HaMetzar 2  
• Min HaMetzar Mix  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Min Hametzar PDF. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 280.

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

Borchi nafshi et Adonay, HallaluYah

Bless the place of Sovereignty, Oh my soul! (Psalm 104:1)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 104 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]
A High Holy Days Practice

I call on the force of my soul to bless the God-spark within me, to call it forth, to let it shine though all the layers of Self so that that part of me can be re-enthroned.

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.

• Blessing of My Soul 1  
• Blessing of My Soul 2  
• Blessing of My Soul (mix)  

To download the PDF file for this chant, click Borchi PDF file. For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 249.

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

Tzam’ah Naf’shi L’Elohim L’Eyl Chai

My soul thirsts for God, for The Living God (Psalm 42:3)
[Click (or tap) to see the entire Psalm 42 in Hebrew and English (JPS 1985).]

Deep inside of us there is a soul-thirst to know God, the Underlying Unity, the Mystery within and between all the things of our world. The word Elohim is a God name that is in the plural, alluding to the many faces of the One… what Taoists might call “the 10,000 things.” We enter through this world of multiplicity so that we might encounter “The Living God”… Eyl Chai, who can only be experienced with the wholeness of presence in this very moment. The God of the past, my own or other peoples’ conceptions, beliefs, or expectations will not suffice. They will not open the doors to The Living God. My soul thirsts for direct encounter with God/Reality in each moment.

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

• Encountering the Living God  

< For the musical notation, see The Magic of Hebrew Chant, page 284.

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