Listen Sh’ma Yisrael How should I listen? What do you want me to hear? Adonai Eloheinu What are you? Who are we to call you ours? Adonai Echad You are One. Why do you seem so Other? V’ahavta… v’hayah… vayomer… Love. The rest will follow. Enough said. © 2022 Alexander Massey
Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 10 Feb 2015 BUY the sheet music (lead sheet) – $3.95 For commentary about the text and symbolism of Adon Olam, click here.
This translation of the second paragraph of the Sh’ma intersperses close reading of the original Hebrew with meditative interpolations to expand on multiple meanings and ambiguities in the Hebrew, as well as in the translation itself. The reader is invited to use this as a starting point for personal meditation on the deep power and …
This translation of the first paragraph of the Sh’ma intersperses close reading of the original Hebrew with meditative interpolations to expand on multiple meanings and ambiguities in the Hebrew, as well as in the translation itself. The reader is invited to use this as a starting point for personal meditation on the deep power and …
BUY the sheet music (2 vces & pno) – $6.75 (3 copies @ $2.25) Adon Olam is one of those lyrics that everyone seems to know by heart, and many take great delight in fitting to popular tunes like ‘Auld Lang Syne’, ‘Summertime’, ‘Happy Birthday’, or even ‘Yellow Submarine’. But what is it about what, …
“Yes to next Shabbat!” Inviting the angels to return soon … Kein LaShabbat Haba’ah – Composition, lyrics and audio © Alexander Massey, 30 July 2011 BUY the sheet music (3 vce round) – $6.75 (3 copies @ $2.25) BUY the sheet music (3 vces & pno) – $9 (4 copies @ $2.25) This piece is …
The Rabbis juxtaposed the three separate paragraphs of the Shema, because they touched on so many themes and layers of meaning central to Judaism. Reading the Shema therefore enables us to fulfill the commandment to study Torah (Berachot 60b). For about a year and a half, I have studied the Shema closely, as well as …
What weight should we give to the voices from the past? After all, we don’t do exactly what was done in the past, not least because we cannot know for sure what was done, but also because conscience, common sense, or new knowledge to which the Rabbis did not have access persuade us to do …
Hebrew has a structure of correspondences between words by their root (shoresh) that provides layers of subtlety and multiple meanings. Comparison of passages that use words similarly or in special ways gives scholars opportunity for a range of interpretations. In kabbalistic thought, the letters themselves have meanings, and gematria (numerology) provides another relatedness between words and phrases …
Blessing by a man after miscarriage1 Before we could ever say hello I loved the idea of you. I loved the thought of each of your lives entwined with ours2, Joined in destiny and love and heartache and joy.