Welcome to Ancestralization, a collection of Jewish ancestor songs and prayers honoring the dead, by emergent Jewish artists, songwriters and musical liturgists.
We sing and pray together amidst the deep well of blessing that is our loving and wise ancestors. We share prayer songs to welcome our ancestors to be with us. Prayer songs to support our ancestors in their place, and us in ours. Prayer songs for healing, comfort, and to guide our beloved dead.
This sonic tapestry is crafted by emergent ceremonial musicians throughout the Jewish diaspora, committed to weaving sung prayer as a practice of remembering, reclamation and countering-oppression.
Welcome
Svivenu
by Mazal Masoud Etedgi
Svivenu, ‘surround us’, reminds us that our roots and the ones who came before us are with and a part of us always. They are us - our cells, our tears, our joy, everything. Svivenu is dedicated especially to folks who feel a disconnect to their ancestry and lineages, as a return into the knowing that they are in fact right here, surrounding us. There’s no need to have intellectual or written proof of this feeling - they are our blood and bones and butterflies in our tummies, and that is more than enough to “know.”
Kol haImahot, kol haDorot, svivenu. Kol haAvot, kol haDorot, svivenu.
All the mothers & all the ancestors, surround us. All the fathers & all the ancestors, surround us.
Mazal Masoud Etedgi (they/them/theirs) is a trans/non-binary and queer artist, arab/mizrahi/amazigh jew, drama therapist, cultural organizer and founder of b’samim apothecary. In their healing and ritual work, they utilize imagination, art, ancestral wisdom and somatic practices as tools for transformation, liberation, and connection.
Ulu Ushpizin
by Yael Schonzeit
During Sukkot, we invoke the “elevated guests” known as ushpizin and welcome them to dwell with us in our Sukkah. In this Kabbalistic custom, we invite our beloved ancestors of lineage and community to bless us and be with us. The Aramaic text of this chant is drawn from Seder Ushpizin and Ushpizata by Rabbi David Seidenberg. Recite or listen to this prayer / chant / invocation anytime you want to welcome your beloved departed ancestors into your space.
Ulu Ushpizin Ila'in Kadishin, Ulu Imahata Ila'ata Kidishata, Ulu Avahan Ila'in Kadishin
עוּלוּ אוּשְׁפִּיזִין עִלָּאִין קַדִּישִׁין עוּלוּ אִימָּהָתָא עִלָּאָתָא קְדִּישָׁתָא עוּלוּ אֲבָהָן עִלָּאִין קַדִּישִׁין
L'mitav B'tzilah Dimhemnuta Ila'ah, B'tzilah D'kudsha Brich Hu
לְמִיתָב בִּצִלָּא דִמְהֵימְנוּתָא עִלָּאָה, בְּצִלָּא דְקֻדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא
Come in exalted holy guests, Come in exalted holy mothers, Come in exalted holy fathers
Come sit in the shade of exalted supernal faith, in the shadow of the Holy One, blessed be.
Yael Schonzeit is a devotional musician, Hebrew Priestess, and scholartivist endeavoring to live in service to beauty and collective healing and priestessing at the intersections of justice, art, spirit and ancestral memory. Ulu Ushpizin vocals & arrangement: Yael Schonzeit, Percussion: John Alevizakis
Ancestral Invocation
by Ibrahim Baba
Pir Ibrahim Baba Farajajé began each one of his thousands of offerings - Sufi Muslim, Jewish and multireligious ceremonies, conference keynotes and seminary courses - by honoring, offering gratitude and respect for, and asking permission of, ancestors of place, of movement, of justice, of earth, of blood and family, and of spiritual lineage. Ibrahim Baba has been a model of centering ancestor reverence in his speeches and sermons since at least the early 1990’s. This weaves Baba’s ancestor prayer with ethereal vocals by Riv Shapiro and was first released on Makam Shekhina, an album of pulsing prayers in Hebrew, Arabic & English, centering multi-religious and counter-oppressive devotion.
Pir Ibrahim Baba Farajajé, aka Dr. Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajajé, may zhis secret be sanctified, is a scholartivist, tikkunolamologist, queer the@logian and public intellectual of multi-religiosity. He was and is a spiritual leader in Jewish and multireligious community, a teacher in the Chishty lineage, guide of the Ateshi-ashk Chishti community & co-founder of Makam Shekhina. Ibrahim Baba served as Provost at Starr King School for the Ministry for over two decades, and as faculty at Howard University School of Divinity for a decade. His sacred teachings on multireligiosity, counter-oppressive devotion, and much more powerfully and palpably live on. Feel him pulsing throughout his ancestor invocation and his kaddish. Welcome him & listen for his blessing beaming wherever you most need it.
Angels
The Angels Revealed to Us Healing Plants
by Dori Midnight
The Angels Revealed To Us Healing Plants is inspired by a line from the Apocrypha, Book of Enoch (9:7): “The angels taught the daughters of men incantations, exorcisms, the cutting of roots, and revealed to them healing plants.” This verse speaks to knowledge acquired through direct transmission, through relationship, specifically to “the daughters of men," which we know means anyone without access to institutional power/gender non-conforming/trans/femmes-- people who are identified by who they belong to and who are clearly transgressing by hanging out with and learning from angels. It also suggests that this knowledge is always still available to us; that even though it can feel like the healing wisdom and practices of our ancestors have been lost or purposely hidden from us, we can access this knowledge by connecting with “angels.” Who are these angels who reveal and teach? Perhaps they are the trees and flowers themselves, our beloved plant ancestors, who channel wisdom through embodied, non-textual intimacy. (Originally, in the Apocrypha, this was not actually a celebration of learning about healing from angels, as you can imagine!)
The angels revealed to us healing plants, The angels taught the daughters* the cutting of roots.
Erez v'ezov, levanah v'rimon, shaked v'tamar, peygam v'shoom
Cedar and hyssop, frankincense and pomegranate, almond and date palm, rue and garlic
Dori Midnight practices community rooted intuitive healing, helping people connect to and collaborate with everything- plants, stones, rituals and practices from their own ancestral traditions- for personal healing and collective liberation. Drawing on ancestral healing wisdom from her Ashkenazi/Sephardic Jewish lineage, Dori’s work is grounded in and enlivened by Disability and Healing Justice work and queer liberation. Dori composed and wrote The Angels Revealed to Us Healing Plants, and on this recording sings alongside Molly Bajgot, Helen Bennett and Margot Seigle, recorded by Matthew Goldfield.
Heylige Melokhim
by Noam Lerman
Yiddish tkhines are Ashkenazi spontaneous supplications that were/are composed and prayed by women, trans, and gender non-conforming people. The words of Heylige Melokhim (Holy Angels) are found in the Tkhine Sha’arei Shalom, “the tkhine of the gates of peace”, and recited during birkas kohanim, the priestly blessing. Birkas kohanim is a visceral ritual, where descendants of the priests stand shoeless in front of the Torah ark and chant the ancient priestly blessing while facing the community. Tallesim (prayer shawls) are draped over their heads and arms, and their concealed hands are stretched out in front of them. Legend teaches that the Shekhinah peers through the windows between the priests' fingers, and all people present must not look at their outstretched hands or the Shekhinah’s light pouring through. While cuddling under their own prayer shawls or shielding their faces, the people present FEEL the power of what is unfolding in the room and within themselves-- traditionally praying their dreams will be transformed for good and blessing, and for healing. This tkhine fragment calls our ancestors and angels to get in close and protect us from any negativity/harm in our daily lives.
ליבּער גאָט, לאָז אונז בּײַשטיין דער זכות פֿון שרה רבקה רחל ולאה.
און שיק אונז אַלע הייליגע מלאכים זיי זאָלען אונז באַהיטן פֿאַר אַלע בייזען
Liber G~t, loz unz bayshteyn der zkhus fun sore, rivke, rokhl, v’leye. Un shik unz ale heylige melokhim. Zey zoln unz bahitn far ale beyzn.
translation: Beloved G~d, let the merit of Sarah Rivkah Rachel and Leah protect us. And send all of the holy angels to us. They should protect us from evil / negativity.
Heylige Melochim melody & vocals: Noam Lerman, upright bass: Johanna Rose, violin: Rachel Leader, accordion: Ariel Shapiro.
Noam Vered Raye Berl Lerman is a white, trans, immunocompromised Jew whose Ashkenazi and Sephardi ancestors guide and carry them. They are a story-collector, musician, healer, restorative justice circle keeper, nature and shabbes lover, amulet maker, poet, rabbi, and soferex (Hebrew scribe). They founded Der Tkhines Proyekt, which provides experimental and songful workshops that give life to Yiddish tkhines, Ashkenazi spontaneous supplications that were/are composed and prayed by women, trans, and gender non-conforming people. When we engage with tkhines as a sacred prayer practice, we can imagine and discover hidden stories and folk customs embedded in the words and in our own (chosen and bio) lineages.
The Guardian Song
by Liviah Wessely
The Guardian Song was crafted from three Jewish texts that call in protection (Judges 5:12, Judith 9:17 and 13:6); the melody came in the days following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, feeling the need to receive and to give guarding. The simplicity of the chant has made it a resonant melody for many bits of traditional liturgy–Lecha Dodi, Ahava Raba, Ana El Na–as well as many individuals who find it with them when they need it. Liviah wrote The Guardian Song melody with textual inspiration from Kohenet Yael Tischler. On The Guardian Song, she weaves vocals with Sean and Julian Baldwin, along with upright bass from Daniel Ori and guitar, oud and percussion from Zach Fredman.
Oori, oori, oori, Devorah. Oori, oori, oori, davrei shir. (translation: Awake, awake, Deborah. Awake, awake, utter a song. from Judges 5:12).
Hear me, hear me, hear me Shekhinah. Strengthen me, strengthen me, strengthen me in my tears (Judith 9:17 and 13:6).
Miy’mini Michaeil, Umismoli Gavriel, Umil’fanai Uri'eil, Mei'achorai R'faeil.
Al roshi Shekhinah, Al roshi Shekhinah, Michaeil, Gavriel, Uriel, Rafaeil
(translation: May Michael be at my right hand, Gabriel at my left, Before me Uriel, behind me Raphael, And above my head the Divine Presence.)
Liviah Wessely is a Kohenet, Guardian (Sho’eret) and Song Weaver (Oreget Shirim). She regularly holds ritual space for the Kohenet community, and has led or co-led for Yelala, Kesher Pittsburgh, the Nechama Minyon, and for rituals designed for individuals around both traditional and created life events: weddings, funerals, memorials, shiva minyanim, baby namings, passages, beginnings, and endings. Liviah is a deeply committed activist and organizer in the Labor movement, teaches Theatre at Northern Virginia Community College, and is a theatre director, producer, designer and dramaturg.
Resilience
Mir Veln
by Avra Shapiro
Mir veln zey iberlebn, Yiddish for We Will Outlive Them, is a call to invoke our Jewish magic and resilience. It is a reminder that our people have outlived some very trying times, and that ancestral courage breathes through us now, reminding us that there is no disaster too big for our fierce and courageous hearts. Inspired by these words, chanted by a group of Jews in 1939 in Lublin, Poland, as they marched to their death, this song came to me after a failed Molotov cocktail attempt at a synagogue in Chicago, as part of the antisemitic waves of violence following the Squirrel Hill Massacre. Mir Veln is an offering to weaving us into a web of life, to connect us with righteous ones who have fought across time, and to give us strength for the future.
Avra is a queer, non-binary musician, ritualist, Jewish educator, Kohenet, and former organizer. They currently occupy Lenni-Lenape land. In addition to serving as a free-lance Jewish ritualist and educator, they are currently in school to become a therapist.
Ozi
by Riv Shapiro
The liturgy of Ozi (Psalm 118:14, Exodus 15:2) is traditionally sung during the Havdalah ritual. As Shabbat ended one night during a particularly challenging time of my life, I found myself in a deep and terrifying sense of aloneness. This new melody (with harmonies and an original English part that can be heard in the version on my soundcloud), came one layer after another as I prayed Havdalah alone that night, summoning my strength. Several months later, I had the opportunity to record the song with Madhu Anziani (who also contributes drum and accompanying vocals on the track). I wrote the English verses that day during production, a snapshot of my ongoing healing from debilitating anxiety and the spirit of courage that guided my way forward. I hope this ancestral spell will give others the courage and strength they need to begin again.
עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ וַיְהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה
Ozi v'zimrat yah vayihi li lishua. My strength and the divine song will be my deliverance (Psalm 118:14, Exodus 15:2)
(Translation by Riv Shapiro, inspired by the teachings of Rabbi Shefa Gold)
Riv (they/them) is a queer artist, outdoor educator and Jewish ritualist. After seven years working with innovative Jewish organizations and film clients in the Bay Area, Riv now serves as Arts & Culture Producer in their hometown of Minneapolis at the Minnesota JCC (Dakota land). Their creative work is process-oriented and often participatory, reveling in the intersections of ancestors, interspecies relationship, justice, queerness and spirituality. Blending the roles of Educator, Priestess and Artist, Riv is dedicated to sharing the wisdom and the medicine of their Jewish ancestors through adaptive, accessible, and liberatory means.
The Sky's Reply / Ana El Na
by Joshua Blaine & Keshira haLev Fife
The Sky’s Reply was born in the early days of the pandemic when many were feeling constricted, confused, and overwhelmed by sudden lockdown. The rhythm of Jewish ritual and prayer was an immensely stabilizing and supportive resource in those fraught first few months. This song, inspired by Hebrew from Psalm 118:5 and it’s translation in Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook came through me (Josh) while in deep relationship to a dear one who was uniquely suffering during this time as a survivor of sexual and systemic violences. As such, the song is a nod to the strength of survivors and a prayer for healing and justice.
The first time I (Keshira) heard The Sky's Reply, it transported me back to a particular moment in which I was unwell, feeling fragile, and lonely. One night, I found myself alone at the beach, gazing at the moon's reflection dancing on the ocean, with majestic stars overhead. Somehow, in their aloneness, they weren't alone. I was reminded that the sky (and the waters) are so vast that they simultaneously create distance and connection between us and I wove the healing prayer Ana El Na Refanala - adapted from Moses’ prayers for healing for his sister Miriam (Numbers 12:13) - with this melody. It has become a healing prayer I lead often in community. May this song bring comfort to those who feel helpless, may it help us remember the way that nature connects us all.
מִֽן־הַ֭מֵּצַ֥ר קָרָ֣אתִי יָּ֑הּ עָנָ֖נִי בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב יָֽהּ׃ Min haMetzar karati Yah, Ah-nani vamerchav Yah
To You I call, feeling scared and small. And You reply with the vastness of the sky!
Ana El Na Refanala, Heal us, hold us, Underneath your wing
(Guitar, vocals: Joshua Blaine, Harmonium, vocals: Keshira haLev Fife, Vocals: Sam Wise, Guitar: Courtney James)
Joshua Blaine (he/him) is a community songleader, Jewish ritualist & storyteller, and healing facilitator & coach. His work as a songleader began as an inquiry into the state of protest songs after the 2016 election, which sent him out on the road to interview dozens of musicians and song leaders for a project called “Finding Our Voice.” Since then, he’s been a humble servant of song, singing in capitol rotundas, at meetings & marches and around dinner tables across the country. Whether as a songleader, organizer, or healing facilitator, he draws upon the rich tradition of both his recent and ancient Jewish ancestors of seeding resistance and resilience through song. Raised in a Reform congregation co-founded by his parents, Josh stepped away from Judaism for most of his twenties before Jewish renewal, Kohenet, and antiracist commitments to reclaiming his own lineage brought him back to an earth-based, joy and resistance-fueled Judaism, and he currently serves as the ALEPH Kesher program’s co-director.
Keshira haLev Fife (she/they pronouns) is a Kohenet and a bi-racial, queer Jewish person who delights in serving as davennatrix (shlichat tzibbur), lifespiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, teacher, facilitator, liturgist and songstress. She serves as Oreget Kehilah (Executive Director) of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh, Program Director for Beloved Builders, and Program Co-Director of the ALEPH Kesher Fellowship. She is the inaugural Faculty Fellow with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and also enjoys working with Keshet and Jewish Learning Collaborative, and serving on the board of Kavod v’Nichum, which is dedicated to reclaiming the mitzvot of kavod ha-met, Jewish teachings on honoring the dead.
Sheltered by Shekhinah
Eyl Malei
by Taya Mâ
Eyl Malei is recited when a body is being lowered into the earth for burial, praying that the soul of the one who has died receives a peaceful return. Eyl Malei has a finality to it, even as it prays for protection, comfort and soaring. This Eyl Malei chant emerged as I was guiding ritual in Birkenau. In the waning moments of our week-long ceremony, I was slated to lead prayer at the crematorium, and felt strongly to recite Eyl Malei as a sacred technology toward the peace and healing for the souls of these dead. Yet Eyl Malei roots in specificity, naming the soul that has died, I wondered how to offer this prayer in a way that could both respect the unfathomable magnitude of those murdered in this place and hold the integrity of the prayer. It felt to me that a cycling chant of Eyl Malei as a cascading loop could be of support the rooting, releasing and soul-soaring at the essence of this prayer. Since that first offering, this Eyl Malei chant has been offered at many memorial and shiva gatherings in the Kohenet community and beyond, replacing the phrase “these souls” with the name of the person we are offering the prayer for.
Eyl malei rachamim shocheyn bam’romim. Hamtzei menucha n’chona al kanfei ha Shekhina.
Compassionate One who dwells on high, give rest to these souls and help them fly.
Wrap them in Shekhina’s wings. Protection, comfort and peace please bring …
Dreaming into the arrangement for this track, I kept hearing the deep and sweet soaring tones of the kora, a long-necked harp lute originating in West Africa (Senegal, Mali & the Gambia), and was blessed to record this with kora master Baba Diabate.
Taya Mâ (@tayatransforms) plays passionately in realms of transformative ritual, embodied vocalization and ancestral reverence. She is co-founder and Rav Kohenet of Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, co-author of The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership, and serves as Assistant Professor of the Practice of Organic Multireligious Ritual at Starr King School for the Ministry, training emergent clergy across faith traditions. Taya Mâ hosts the acclaimed Jewish Ancestral Healing podcast and offers online courses including Embodied Presence, Jewish Ancestral Healing and Pleasure as Prayer. Taya Mâ’s Hebrew Goddess chant albums —This Bliss, Wild Earth Shebrew, Halluyah All Night and Torah Tantrika — have been heralded as “cutting-edge mystic medicine music.” Her newest album, Makam Shekhina, in cahoots with her collaborator Ibrahim Baba and their multireligious Jewish & Sufi Muslim community, is Hebrew, Arabic and English prayers of counter-oppressive devotion.
Prayer for the Dead in Ge’ez
by Qes Efraim Lawi
Qes Efraim Lawi, spiritual leader in the Beta Israel / Ethiopian Jewish Community, is the son of Qes Zion Lawi and grandson of high Qes Lawi Zeno. Qes Efraim’s parents made aliyah as a part of Operation Moses in 1984, after a long and arduous journey from Ethiopia through the Sudanese desert. His father served as the religious leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community / the Beta Israel of Karmiel and encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps. At age 9 Qes Efraim began the studies necessary to be ordained a qes (i.e. kohen or priest). When he turned 13, his father officially designated him as his future successor. Qes Zion Lawi passed away three years later, but Qes Efraim’s mother, Ahuva, urged him to carry on with his religious training, sending him to study with two prominent qessoch in southern Israel, Qes Malke Azaria and High Qes Govesa Tesfahum, who continued to teach him the long-standing prayers, benedictions, laws and customs of Ethiopian Judaism. He was ordained a qes and now serves in the Ethiopian Jewish community of Karmiel, teaching and facilitating the community’s traditional observances, including weddings, funerals, and memorials, as well as the ritual slaughter of animals. Qes Efraim lives in Karmiel with his wife, Fasika, and their five children. This Prayer for the Dead in Ge’ez was featured in Qes Efraim’s interview on the Jewish Ancestral Healing podcast Episode 2.2: Beta Israel / Ethiopian Jewish Ancestral Traditions.
JAH appreciates the support of Shai Afsai in crafting this bio of Qes Efraim.
Shechinah's Wings
by Jo Kent Katz
Shechinah's Wings is a song of faith, a vulnerable request to be held, and a prayer calling one's self home. A rendering of the Hashkiveinu- a prayer recited every evening that asks the Source of Life to spread over us a shelter of peace- this prayer song is both a longing for and an affirmation of the Love that guides us. This song came through as an incantation for healing the inherited wounds that severed spiritual connection along many Jewish lineages, and a spell for invoking a renewed sense of belonging and Sacred protection for ourselves and our collectives.
Shechinah, we come home to receive Your love.
(Vocals: Jo Kent Katz, Helen Bennett, Matt Goldfield, Kathy Couch, Yael Tarshish. Instrumentals & Recording: Matt Goldfield.)
Jo Kent Katz (she/her) is an Intuitive, a social justice educator, a Theater of the Oppressed practitioner, a rite of passage ritualist, and an ordained Kohenet. She is a political educator who centers the healing of ancestral legacies, and a healing practitioner who believes in collective liberation. Her work supports the reclamation of Ancestral connection, uplifting lost magic, healing inherited legacies, and bolstering collective capacity to dismantle racism and all forms of oppression.
Grief & Praise
We Are Just Dust
by Elana Brody
We Are Just Dust is inspired by the advice of Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa who said "Keep two pieces of paper in your pocket at all times. On one: “I am a speck of dust,” and on the other : “The world was created for me.”" And also is derived from the Unetanetokef prayer in the High Holiday mussaf liturgy.
Elana Brody is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, celebrated vocalist, Jewish prayer-leader and Kohenet based and rooted in Southern Appalachia. Following a call to revitalize and remember the healing gifts of ancestral Judaism in her life, Elana has now been offering her healing voice, creating music, and leading prayer for Jewish renewal communities for the last eight years. She offers singing classes to help folks expand and explore their unique voice and potential to connect with Source within and beyond. Elana is in her first year of developing an earth-based Jewish community in Asheville, North Carolina and is excited to build a fruitful, holistic spiritual temple culture for Jews in Appalachia.
Kaddish
by Lily-Rakia Chandler & Between (aka Rafael Gell)
This chant can be used as an intro to traditional Kaddish to conjure up the kavanah and say the names of those we are remembering and lifting up. The humming part gives space to pour forth the names of beloveds on whose behalf we are offering Kaddish.
With ancestors from almost every continent, Lily-Rakia Chandler's life’s work has been navigating the many nuanced ways oppression affects people and the Earth. Her music is a reflection of that love and liberation in practice. Receiving inspiration from her many ancestors and growing up in the 80s and 90’s, Rakia’s music is a unique mix of Hip Hop, Reggae, and Sacred Chant. With drumming centered around a heartbeat and vocals ranging from thoughtful 90s style hip hop flow to, haunting Hebrew melodies, to traditional Mohawk chant.
Rafael Velvel Gell under the alias Between, is Lily-Rakia’s son, and produced and sings on Kaddish. Rafael is a creative, and hopes someday everyone can express how they see the world and people can understand. Between keeps a music library on Soundcloud as a journal of his life, driven by emotion, and invites all to enjoy his audio diary.
Baba's Kaddish
by Ibrahim Baba & Liviah Wessely
Ibrahim Baba first published A Meditative Prayer for Reciting Daily (along with Kaddish) for the Dying and the Dead and those Who Mourn Their Passing From This World in his handbook for Daily Spiritual Practice for his Chevra Kadisha circle. Liviah heard Taya Mȃ recite this prayer and was moved to craft a melody for it, recorded here with vocals by her son Julian Baldwin. May this prayer and chant be an offering and an honoring the challenging circumstances under which we or those in our communities and this world may be facing death or grief.
A Meditative Prayer for Reciting Daily (along with Kaddish) for the Dying and the Dead and Those Who Mourn Their Passing From This World
O, Holy One, O Shekhinah. Merciful and compassionate One, surround with your tenderness all of those who are passing from the visible world to the invisible world, especially those who will die alone in fear and anxiety, and those who will die in the streets, those who will die in prisons, those for whom no one will think to pray. May your holy angels accompany all those who breathe their last; may all bitterness and anxiety and fear vanish in their final moments: may they die in the sweetness of your fragrance. Open the way before them, ease their way and pour galaxy-oceans of peace into the hearts of those that love and cherish them. May Your peace abide, overflowing in the hearts of all. May old wounds be healed, may unfinished business be finished. May their memory be as a blessing to all generations and may they be forever enfolded in the waves of Unending Life and may the hearts of those who mourn be gently and tenderly massaged with your infinite love, O superluminal Shekhinah. O, Holy One, O Shekhinah. And so let us say, AMEIN!!
Shabbat in the Sukkah
Come to the Well
by Traci Marx
Come to the Well is inspired by Esa Einai, Psalm 121: I lift my eyes to the mountains: where will my help come from? My help comes from God, who made heaven and earth. Birthing my first child, while so well-held at home and in water, I felt desperately in need of even greater support for the intensity of this physical experience. I used my voice to call out from the deepest place. What came through me was a sound so abounding and seemingly never-ending that I had to quickly take in as much air as I could just to keep up with its powerful flow. As a singer, I am intimately aware of the parameters of my own voice. It was clear to me that this voice was a collection of ancient voices deep within and far beyond me in time and space. The vocal and spiritual support carried me through this journey, bringing me focus, being with me, and holding me. The resonance left in me a knowing of the abundant support that is present: guiding, blessing and flowing through. When I go into the Well, the center of creativity and truth within me, I seek the clarity of my own voice, and know that I am with the ancestors who strengthen, celebrate, and sing their songs through me. Come to the Well offers an invitation to drop deep within, where you may encounter Ezri, “my help,” from the Ones who make the heavens.
Vocals, guitar, arrangement: Traci Marx, backup guitar & vocals, engineering & mixing: Chava Mirel
Traci Marx is a priestess of song, ritual, and healing. As a musical prayer leader and Kohenet, they lovingly tend sacred communities, offering paths of return to the earth, to the body, to the heart, and to each other. Traci is a Spiritual Leader at Kavana Cooperative on Duwamish & Coast Salish land (Seattle), brings music and Jewish ritual to liberation work, and officiates life-spiral ceremonies.
Wise Ones
by Natanya Apfelbaum
Wise Ones helps us call upon the wisdom, power and strength of our loving, wise ancestors. Sing it and feel the qualities of the ancestors that it invokes. And, of course, it invites us into the biggest prayer of all: to become a good ancestor.
Natanya’s passion is to bring a sense of connection and belonging through rhythm and creative exploration. Based in Sicily, she is studying folkloric dance and music of Southern Italy with an eye to our matriarchal cultural inheritance. Natanya teaches dance and embodiment classes, focusing on healing bellydance and sacred circle dance.
Lean Back
by Sarah Salem
Lean Back was written in the midst of a Kohenet initiation ritual. The phrase "lean back" was a part of a message received from ancestral guides during the ceremony, as channeled by Kohenet Jo Kent Katz. This song aims to anchor us in a larger context and to remind us of the sometimes hidden but powerful sources of support, interconnectedness and blessing that are always at our backs.
Sarah Salem is a nature-based youth mentor, plant lover, and Hebrew priestess, whose ancestors are Irish settlers and Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. Sarah is devoted to the work and play of remembering our deeper connections with ourselves, each other and the more-than-human world.
We Remember
Hamakom Yinachem Et’chem / May You Be Comforted
by Koach Baruch Frazier
HaMakom Yenachem Et'chem / May You Be Comforted is a phrase (one of many) that is said to someone who is in mourning in the Jewish tradition. And after experiencing personal and communal loss, these words swirled around me. With help from the ancestors, this song came through.
Koach Baruch (KB) Frazier is a transformer, heartbeat of movements, healer, musician and co-founder of the Tzedek Lab, a networking of practitioners working at the intersection of dismantling racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. A collaborative leader, rooted in tradition, curiosity and love, KB strives to dismantle racism, actualize liberation and transform lives both sonically and spiritually.
Andrea’s Song
by Rayna Miriam Grace
This song is dedicated in loving memory to Andrea Jacobson haKohenet, Chodesh b'or uve'ayin, Rejoicer in Light and Emptiness.
Rayna Grace Matthews is a ritual Priestess, a wild lover of the cosmos, a songstress and a story-teller. A self-taught star-gazer, Rayna Grace loves to watch the star and moon-cycles and to share these wonders at events and gatherings as a star guide. She also brings earth-based prayer leadership to the one synagogue in the northern California small town she calls home. When not leading star tours or services, Rayna Grace is taking care of three incredible young humans alongside her Beloved wife. The family's most joyous moments are when playing music together. She can be contacted to book star tours and facilitate life cycle rituals at rayna.grace.matthews@gmail.com
We Remember
by Andrea Jacobson & Shoshana Jedwab, with excerpts from Aurora Levins Morales & Jill Hammer
We Remember foregrounds the recitations of Andrea Jacobson haKohenet, may her memory be for a blessing and a revolution. Here, Andrea recites an excerpt from Silt by Aurora Levins Morales (at Kohenet Rosh Hashanah Services 5782, ten days before her death, on Yom Kippur) and a ma’arivah blessing by Jill Hammer (from the Romemu Siddur), woven over the resplendent I Remember liturgy of Shoshana Jedwab. This track is the creative dreaming of Traci Marx and Taya Mâ with great blessing from Shoshana, and generosity from Aurora, Jill, and Andrea’s beloved partner, Phillip.
Andrea Jacobson haKohenet (z''l) was a Jewish and Buddhist elder, living in the mountains near Boulder, CO, where she was graced and supported by her husband Phillip and their son Gabriel. The natural world was her daily teacher and her easiest portal to connection with Source. She was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist for forty years, and that work engaged her on heart, mind, and spirit levels. Mountains, wildflowers, Point Lobos, Chapungu Sculpture Park and Congregation Nevei Kodesh were her wellsprings, as was the Kohenet practice. Andrea was named as Kohenet Choda b'Or v Ayin, Rejoicer in Light and Emptiness. May her memory be for a blessing and a revolution.
As a child, Shoshana Jedwab would drum on parked cars, plates, tables, books and other people's bodies. Hailing from a family of rabbis and community leaders decimated by the Holocaust, Shoshana became a prize winning sacred text teacher, the Jewish Life Coordinator at the A.J. Heschel Middle School as well as a founding faculty member at the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute where she goes by the name Batshemesh. As one of congregation Romemu’s regular hand drummers, and as worship leader, singer-songwriter, and teacher, Shoshana brings depth, humor, voice, feminism and sizzling rhythm to her grateful audiences. Shoshana Jedwab’s original sacred music grounds body and spirit, and brings the ancestral past into joyous contemporary practice. Her debut album, “I Remember”, and her viral single, “Where You Go,” emerged from ceremonies Shoshana was leading, and are sung, and danced to, in churches, synagogues, weddings and protest marches around the world. Shoshana was included in Jewish Rock Radio’s Jewish Women Who Rock the Worship World - her newest singles are Openings and Torah Orah.
Aurora Levins Morales is a movement elder. She is a Puerto Rican Ashkenazi feminist and radical writer and storyteller, and an arts based liberationist since her early teens. She's the author of eight books and is always working on several more at a time. She believes the stories we tell shape the worlds we can imagine, which is the only way we can build them. She lives on her ancestral lands in Maricao, Puerto Rico, where she tells stories of sovereignty, sustainability and climate justice with words and soil. Aurora is a community supported artist through Patreon, where for a small monthly donation you can read unpublished writings and learn more about her work. You can also join her mailing list and get updates and excerpts of new writings here.
Jill Hammer, PhD is a rabbi, rav kohenet, ritualist, author, educator, dreamworker, midrashist, and poet. She is the co-founder of Kohenet: The Hebrew Priestess Institute and the Director of Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralistic Jewish seminary. Rabbi Hammer is the author of Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women, The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons, and The Book of Earth and Other Mysteries, and the co-author of The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership and Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook, as well as other books. Her newest books are Return to the Place: The Magic, Meditation, and Mystery of Sefer Yetzirah and Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams
Shemini Atzeret: The Day of the Waters
On Shemini Atzeret (Gathering of the 8th day), we pray for rain. We go to the well of our human and more-than-human ancestors, to bless and be blessed by the waters - of the deep, the rain, the root, the womb, the desert spring, the hard sweat and the tender tears. We honor the sacredness of water. We pray for rain in right balance. We pray for access to clean, healthy water for all creatures.
Praises to the Seeds That Bloom / Alabanzas a Las Semillas Que Florecen
by YA Rivera
read by K' YA, Ari Felix and Manny Arroyo III
YA (Yocheved Angelique) Rivera transparently and irreverently is a Liberation Coach + Priestess/Kohenet + Consultant. Passionate about justice, equity, and healing, she brings a unique framework to support the collective. Revealing the path to healing and a shift in consciousness, recognizing that we all have spheres of influence that impact each other. Her passion is teaching practices that help us heal from trauma, decolonize and embody liberation.
Mimainei
by Avra Shapiro & Yael Schonzeit
We draw from the wellsprings of liberation for one another, for the movement, for our world. Love is liberation is water is life.
Mimainei hayeshua, shavtem mayim b'sason (adapted from Isaiah 12:3)
We will draw water in celebration
From the wellsprings of liberation
Mayim Chayim מים חיים
vocals & arrangment by Avra Shapiro & Yael Schonzeit. percussion by Dave Rosenfeld & Yael Schonzeit. Mimainei on bandcamp here.
Luminous Darkness / Miriam haNeviah
by Rachel Kann
Luminous Darkness, the poem, was inspired by Ibrahim Baba, may his secret be sanctified. His teachings on aswad nurani, the luminious darkness, drawn from his piece Alone with the Alone, encourage us to consider ways that associating darkness with negativity/evil and light with positivity/goodness is a white supremacist trope., and he invites us to find sacred wonder in the dark.
The Miriam haNeviah melody I received fully formed as a direct download given to me by the trees, the ocean, and the ancestors. For a while it existed as a niggun—a wordless melody. Before last Pesach, I was longing for a new prophet song for Miriam HaNeviah. I realized that this melody wanted to be for both of these prophets, who both worked so deeply with water. I offer my thanks, to the trees, and the ocean, and the ancestors, and to Eliyahu and Miriam for how this coalesced.
Rachel Kann is a Sephardic/Ashkenazi and neurodivergent poet, ceremonialist and Kohenet. She has apprenticed in indigenous plant work and Sufi vocal work, and has trained in dance and drumming healing arts modalities. Her latest poetry collection, How to Bless the New Moon, won the WORD: Bruce Geller Memorial Prize and her poetry film, The Quickening, won Best Experimental Film in the River City Underground Film Festival. She leads one-on-one and group ceremonies, rituals and creativity workshops.
Simchat Torah
On Simchat Torah, the yearly cycle of reading Torah completes, and begins again with the first portion of Genesis. We celebrate. We dance. And we turn around the spiral, ever deepening, ever new. Jewish wisdom sings of the Tree of Life (Genesis 2:9, Proverbs 3:18) reminding us of the ancient Near Eastern practice of honoring Asherah trees, the body of the Goddess in the forms of the natural world. Our offerings today honor the living trees, the ancestral tree, and the pulsing power of creation that contracts and brings the world into being.
Eitz Chayim Hi
by Ahava Lilith
Written first as a grounding song during the pandemic, this prayer shifted into a song about connecting with the Feminine & Nonbinary Divine as the Tree of Life/Torah and the many different ways we can experience, intrepret and connect with Her/Them. The Hebrew is from Proverbs 3:18, 3:17 and Lamentations 5:21 with the feminization of the text from Siddur HaKohanot. Thanks to Lior Gross (they/them/theirs) & Eyal Rivlin (he/him/his) for creating their nonbinary Hebrew system, including the NBH pronoun הֶא/“heh.” Thanks also to my teacher Rav Kohenet TayaMâ Shere for teaching me the nonbinary pronoun “zhe” that she learned from her beloved collaborator Ibrahim Baba haKohenet.
Ahava Lilith (“Aly”) evershYne, haKohenet (she/her) is a queer, Ashkenazi, disAbled, feminist eclectic witch, artist, sacred activist, liturgist, ritualist, threshold singer, songcrafter, and enChantrix, healing healer, reiki master, faery G!ddUs and meow mama, poet, and divinatory reader who helps guide others on their journeys with chronic illness and disAbiility, leads from a bima that is also a bed, and lives on unceded Apalachee and Muscogee/Creek land otherwise known as Tallahassee, Florida.
Ashorer Shira
by Simha Toledano
Ashorer Shira is a Moroccan piyyut, liturgical poem, written and composed by my Baba Baruch, my Moroccan great-grandfather R' Rafael Baruch Toledano z'l. I love that my ancestors wrote Torah love songs. This piyyut is so joyful and I enjoy singing it to remember where I come from. Today this song is popular among Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in Israel/Palestine where it is commonly sung on Simchat Torah and Shavuot. The original poem has seven verses, in the recording I sing three of them.
Ashorer Shira lichvod ha-Torah / Mipaz zakah uvarah
I will compose Songs to honor the Torah, more precious than gold, bright and pure
Yismach Yisrael v’ahavat El / Ki hu manchil El lomdei Torah
The people rejoice in Hashem’s love, Shechinah gives inheritance to those who learn Torah
Ashrei hagever al yitzro gover / Meisharim dover bocher baTorah
Fortunate is the one who overcomes their inclinations, Speaks the truth, chooses the Torah
Rabah ne’imah Torah temimah / Peti machKimah ayin me’irah
The perfect Torah is very delightful, making fools wise, lighting up the eyes
Simha Toledano is a hypnotist, ritualist, creative consultant, theater artist and filmmaker living on Lenni Lenape land, otherwise known as Philadelphia.
Creation Samaoui
by Taya Mâ
Creation - my Goddess-steeped take on the very first verses of Torah - was the first track on my album Torah Tantrika (2011), and has been played as a ritual soundtrack in countless birthing rooms, it’s heartbeat drum accompanied by the lyrics, “Zhe began to contract Her womb, and the whole world was born, emerging from Her tzimtzum” - a Jewish mystical term for contraction that brings the world into being. This alchemized composition, Creation Samaoui, weaves Creation with a melody inspired by gnawa, a ceremonial trance music of Morocco, and which has earlier sub-Saharan roots.
Creation Samaoui emerged as a composition for Dr. Vanessa Paloma Elbaz’s exhibit Yalalla: Jewish Saharans Singing to Birth. I sought to play the heartbeat rhythms of Creation on my guembiri, the three-string bass lute at the heart of gnawa music, but my fingers found themselves instead strumming Samaoui ~ the version of Maalem (Master) Mahmoud Gania, may his memory be a blessing, in the rhythmic cadence from Essaouira. Before I knew it, the first words of Torah rolled off my lips over this sweet and hypnotic groove. I’d been studying gnawa music and ceremony, and archiving the secret Jewish gnawa repertoire, for years and my teachers often encouraged me to creatively weave Hebrew with the traditional gnawa melodies. Creation Samaoui in this vein. This recording was a birthday gift to myself, while deep in pandemic quarantine - it’s the first song I ever tracked solo. I’ve tried to track it “better” many times since, including with the best of the best gnawa musicians. Only now, listening as Simchat Torah arrives, can I hear the little swing I add a sweet adaptation, rather than me just not getting the rhythm right. I’m deeply delighted to offer Creation Samaoui here, with a prayer to always know and remember all of the earth, all of sea, all of the stars, inside of you and me ….
Day of Sealing
This offering has been a gift beyond what I could have dreamed. I’ve been so deeply heartened by the artists pouring such heart and care into their creations, and it has been an immense joy to curate and priestess this ceremonial portal of song and prayer. What began as a lil dream to gather some of my favorite ancestor-songs, and to support a few emerging artists get their music recorded and released (many for the first time!) has become a sukkah of such overflow and abundance. YOU journeying with us and loving up this music has helped make this project pulse with vitality, sweetness and depth. Thank you for praying along with us. We hope you’ll share your feedback with us here, and pre-order the album. And mostly, we hope that you’ll continue praying these songs ~ and perhaps even craft your own! ~ in support of your connection with your loving and wise ancestors, and in support of their vibrance and well-being in their place. May the reverberations of this Sukkah be deeply blessed, and great blessing for we who have sung and prayed together, and our lineages, our beloveds, our communities and this world, toward collective liberation…
Grandma
by Taya Mâ
Grandma You Live In Me is one of the first songs I ever wrote, for my my beloved Grandma on her yahzreit. This recording from 2006, was envisioned as Kaddish on Wild Earth Shebrew, my debut album of morning prayers. Yet I ultimately felt it was too intimate to share, and kept it off the album. It is still so tender, and touches me to the core. I offer it here, grateful for the pulsing love of the Grandmothers and Grandfathers (all the way back ….) who have so deeply blessed, guided, supported and held me, and bless, guide, support and hold me still.
lyrics
Grandma you live in me, you shine you shine inside my heart
As I journey on this earth, Your radiant wisdom I seek to impart
Grandma you live in me, You are inside all my moments of grace
As I journey on this earth, Your resilient spirit I seek to embrace
Grandma you live in me, You dance inside that sparkle in my eye
As I journey on this earth May I stand as strong as you, and may I fly as high
composition and vocals: Taya Mâ guitar: Arik Labowitz
Stone by Stone
by Taya Mâ
Stone by Stone was born as a song for Tisha B’av, the day marking destruction and rebirth. In Kohenet community, we have often made ceremony for this holy-day by working with stones … dismantling a spiral of stones as the sun goes down to open the holiday, and after a night and day of grief and release, rebuilding something different and new from these same stones. And, in Jewish tradition, stones are both portals and memory-keepers. Ya’akov lays his head on a stone pillow, opening the way for him to receives his sacred dream. And from ancient times til now, Jews bring stones to graves, as a sign of marking, tending, honoring and remembering. This recording of Stone by Stone was woven by me, with Micah Shapiro on percussion & harmony vocals. Stone by stone, tear by tear, we release and create right here. What is gone, we build upon … and there are so many ways to sing it … Stone by stone, bone by bone, we remember, as we journey home … Stone by stone, breath by breath, bless this journey, from life til death … Stone by stone, love by love, honor the sacred, below and above …
As the Ancestralization album and project was coming into place, I dreamed into the album cover. I saw a stone but had no idea from where or in what form. One Pesach morning, while on pilgrimage to the sweet waters of Chefchaoen (Morocco), I woke feeling the album cover would come that day. I found myself suddenly and deeply drawn to the old Jewish cemetery, a humble, ancient spot that is currently woven into a walking path of many residents on the outskirts of town. As I wandered among these grassy and crumbling graves, this stone marker called clearly as the sigil for this project. I share it here with profound gratitude for the myriad peoples of this place - Amazigh, Andalusian, Jewish, Muslim and more - and for the sacred waters which emerge pristine from the mountain.
This project was Dreamed & curated by Taya Mâ Shere
Engineered by Steve Steckler at asparagus Media Studios
And cO-Tended and supported by Tucker Culbertson
*Ancestralization is a term I (Taya Mâ) first heard in the written works of the honorable Malidoma Patrice Some and again when he came to teach and guide ceremony on the land where I lived. Malidoma describes ancestralization as the process of the dead being welcomed fully by the ancestors, in support of completion, continuity and homecoming for their souls.