Songbook is music to the ears of Reform
Songbook is music to the ears of Reform – article in the Jewish Chronicle by Simon Rocker, 14 July 2011 – read here.
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Yotzeir Or (Creator Of Light)
Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 22 June 2011 Download the free sheet music (voice & optional piano, piccolo) The Yotzeir Or blessing is a reminder to live joyfully and gratefully, to raise our voices in song, and our feet in dance. This nigun was shaped with that in mind – and heart. In the Yotzeir
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“If male, is he circumcised?” Covenant, community, compassion and conscience [2011/2016]
[I am addressing the question of circumcision in Judaism by looking at Liberal Judaism UK. Please bear in mind as you read this article, that I believe that the Liberal Jewish movement plays a vital role in the ethical awareness of the Jewish people, and has done much good to challenge and update Judaism, not
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Seven Triptychs on the Sh’ma (poem)
The Rabbis juxtaposed the three separate paragraphs of the Sh’ma, because they touched on so many themes and layers of meaning central to Judaism. Reading the Sh’ma therefore enables us to fulfill the commandment to study Torah (Berachot 60b). For about a year and a half, I have studied the Sh’ma closely, as well as
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Tradition (poem)
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
Lashon Hakodesh (poem)
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
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Nigun Nachamu Nachamu (comforting at Tisha B’av)
Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 8 March 2011 Download the free sheet music (1 or 2 voices & piano) The music for this came to me in the week of Tisha B’Av (the 9th of the month of Av), the day that marks many sadnesses for the Jewish people – the date it is
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Nigun Yonah (chant for Yom Kippur mincha)
© Alexander Massey 9 Oct 2008 Contact me to request the free sheet music (2-4 voice round). I wrote this originally as a musical meditation to prepare for leading Mincha (the afternoon service) at Yom Kippur 5769 (2008) with the London Ruach Chavurah community (Jewish Renewal). Some commentators on the Book of Jonah have said
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Nigun Limmud
Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 1 September 2008 Download the free sheet music I wrote this after coming back home from my first ever experience of a Limmud conference, camping in a field in the heart of the English countryside, where I heard the most amazing gig that mixed Israeli and Sephardic music. One
Nigun Etz Chaim (Tree of Life Nigun)
Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 4 May 2007 Download the free sheet music (voice & optional piano or guitar) This nigun was written to mirror the movement of the angels on Jacob’s ladder, ascending and descending between earth and heaven (Gen 28:10-19). I originally thought of the melody spanning 10 pitches (B to D),
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