Music & audio © 2023 Alexander Massey – All Rights Reserved
נֵר יְהוָה, נִשְמַת אָדָם
חֹפֵשׂ, כָל-חַדְרֵי-בָטֶן
אֱלהַי נְשָמָה שֶנָתַתָ בִי טְהורָה הִיא
כִי-אַתָה, תָאִיר נֵרִי
יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי, יַגִיהַ חָשְכִי
1: The soul of a person is the candle of God, that searches the deepest parts of ourselves. [Prov. 20:27]
Ch: My God, the soul you have given me is pure. [Berachot 60b, morning prayer]
2: My God, you light my candle; my God, you illuminate my darkness. [Ps. 18:29]
I love Chanukah. It’s an important season for me, because it gives me an excuse to spend eight whole days reflecting on gratitude for everyday miracles and goodness, and to inspire other people to do so as well. It reminds me of the importance of respecting a multitude of faiths, and recognising that every person holds a unique perspective, and we must take each person seriously for that. It’s the season when I reaffirm for myself the importance for not just finding, but making, light where I find darkness. But … what I’m going to say next might put a few people off; it might even tempt them to write me off as an equivalent of a Chanukah Scrooge – “Bah, humbug!”
For years, I’ve been looking for a Chanukah song with words that could inspire to me. I know there are lots of Chanukah songs out there, and lots of traditional texts. But I don’t get excited by jingoistic lyrics, accounts of heroes who bashed our enemies, nursery songs about a dreidl or Chanukah gelt, how exciting it is to light a candle (‘we light these lights because it’s what we do’ -so what?!), or eat donuts and latkes, or sentimental generic odes about universal goodwill; I find it difficult to celebrate a miracle or being saved from destruction many centuries ago unless there is a link drawn to its relevance for us now – in a way that’s not ‘preachy’ (I don’t think a song is the right medium for being piously didactic). I find many Chanukah songs vacuous, superficial or irrelevant, and I’ve never felt moved to try and set to music any of the traditional Chanukah-related texts.
So I wrote this because I wanted a Chanukah song that had high, celebratory energy. In the depths of winter, at Chanukah, I want a song I can have fun with. Metaphorically, when things are dark, I want something that can help me find the light. I also wanted the words to matter, and mean something. And putting together these three texts provides an opportunity for deeper reflection. Actually, I used the same words to compose another setting with a very different, contemplative character: Neir Adonai No.2
Find more songs with the theme of ‘light’.