Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 16 Feb 2017: V’asu li mikdash v’shochanti b’tocham. Recording with English words: “We’ll make You a holy home, and You will live with us.” BUY the sheet music (2 vces & pno) – $6.75 (3 copies @ $2.25) The sheet music is also available for purchase as part of …
In the previous parsha (Vayeshev), we have met Joseph with his multi-coloured robe, the envious brothers who sell him into slavery, and learn of their wicked deception of their father Jacob. In an interlude we hear of Tamar’s righteous deception of Judah. Returning to Joseph, after his swift rise to success in Egypt, Potiphar’s wife …
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 …
Lev. 19:1-20:7 The portion Kedoshim begins: “And G-d spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation …” So this is an ideal opportunity to consider what Moses was told to share with us as a community. Kedoshim tih’yu – ‘you shall be holy’, or, more literally, as kedoshim is plural, ‘you shall be holinesses’, …
Written and first performed for the Oxford Unitarians service at Harris Manchester College, Yom Hashoah 5774/2014 Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 23 January 2014 In English: In Hebrew: Essa Einai / I lift my eyes – BUY the sheet music (Eng & Heb) – $4.95 Many commentators have seen this psalm as expressing total …
Y’varech’cha Adonai (May You Be Blessed) – Composition and audio © Alexander Massey, 3 July 2013 BUY the sheet music (solo & pno) – $4.95 BUY the sheet music (SATB & pno) – $11.25 (5 copies @ $2.25) The simple meaning I have always loved the sounds of this blessing (sometimes called the ‘Priestly Blessing’), whether …
Shel Silverstein’s children’s book, ‘The Giving Tree’1 has sold many millions of copies since 1964, but has been dogged by controversy ever since it first appeared. It is a tale of the relationship between the Tree and a boy, always able to magically communicate with one another, as the boy moves from childhood to old …
Composition and recording © Alexander Massey – 14 March 2013 BUY the sheet music (3 vces) – $6.75 (3 copies @ $2.25) Who is like You among the gods, O God? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in splendour, doing wonders? A new song the redeemed sang to Your name at the shore …
Music and audio © Alexander Massey 14 March 2013 Watch/listen on YouTube BUY the sheet music (solo & pno) – $4.95 BUY the sheet music (SATB & pno) – $11.25 (5 copies @ $2.25) Commentary The words of Mi chamocha are taken from the Song at the Sea (Shirat Hayam) in Exodus 15, and are …