new song for Psalm 27; "Earth Etude"

[David Seidenberg]

Hi Chevre,

Folks might be interested in having more songs to sing to Psalm 27 (the Psalm we say in the liturgy for all of this month and until the end of the holidays), in addition to Achat Sha'alti, for Selichot or HiHos and beyond. I've finished working on a song for the last verses of Psalm 27:13-14, which are my favorite verses in the Psalm. Listen here: neohasid.org/audio/Lulei-2.mp3

Also, every year Rabbi Katy Z. Allen asks a bunch of folks to write an Earth Etude that connects environmental issues with the process of going through Elul. My piece came out today for the 21st of Elul; it's pasted below and can also be read and shared through this link:  https://jewcology.org/2023/09/earth-etude-for-elul-21/

Now some comments on the verses from Psalm 27:

Had I not trusted to see YHVH’s goodness in the land of the living...
Hope in YHVH, strengthen your heart, and hope in YHVH

לוּלֵא הֶאֱמַנְתִּי לִרְאוֹת בְּטוּב י״הוה בְּאֶרֶץ חַיִּים  

קַוֵּה אֶל י״הוה חֲזַק וְיַאֲמֵץ לִבֶּךָ וְקַוֵּה אֶל י״הוה

Lulei he'emanti lir'ot b'tuv Adonai b'eretz chayyim. 

Kaveh el Adonai chazak v'ametz libekha v'kaveh el Adonai.

The Psalm ends with the speaker (with us) being suspended between faith/hope and whatever all-too-real reality that ellipse might allude to at the end of verse 13. The capacity for hope in spite of all challenges is the salvation that we can grasp, what it means to dwell in the land of the living, and it is perhaps the only salvation we can count on. This period has been a difficult time for me personally, so this is a message that is having a lot of weight for me now.

Here are links to the score with chords as well as to a fully arranged recording of the song:

neohasid.org/audio/Lulei-2.mp3

neohasid.org/audio/Lulei-score.pdf

This song repeats the words at the end in a slightly altered manner: "v'kaveh el Adonai, kaveh Adonai". Here's the intent: first, the object of the verb "to hope" is usually indicated by "to", whether "el" or "l'-" -- as in this verse -- but not always. In several verses (e.g. Ps 40:1 and 130:5) what one hopes or waits for (God in both verses) is the direct object of the verb. But by its nature it also has another message: asking (telling) God to have hope, i.e. to be hopeful in us, to wait for us. I like that double meaning.

wishing you all a meaningful Selichot and all else to unfold, and a beautiful year,

David Seidenberg

And now here is the Earth Etude (but please do check it out on jewcology.org along with the other Etudes). The teaching it is based on comes from Rebbe Nachman: "The divine name 'YOU' (in Hebrew 'Atah') is propitious over the sea to calm the waves. This is the inner meaning of the verse 'YOU (Atah) rule over the magnificence/swelling (gay-ut) of the sea; in lifting its waves, YOU (Atah) will make them still.' (Likutei Moharan 1:256 on Psalm 89:10)

"Turbulence Within and Without"

Waves of feeling can stir us up and arouse our passion, and they can arouse confusion. Amid turbulence can we see magnificence? Is there splendor to match the chaos and confusion of these times, amid political strife, division, and turbulent torrents from a disrupted climate? How can we make ourselves more present, more centered, and able to take on the challenges brought on by wild hurricanes and mega-fires, by glaciers melting and seas rising, by the human destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems?

In the midst of turbulence, one can take a moment to look toward the divine “You” and say “You are” — that is, one can both recognize the divine and also address it. In the moment one says “You are”, one also says “I am”. There is a center-point within that addresses the divine. Knowing that point is the beginning of moving calmly forward.

During this time leading up to Rosh Hashanah, however, the direction in which we seek to move forward is the direction of t’shuvah, which means returning. There is a tension there — how does turning back help us move forward? The obvious answer is that if we are moving in the wrong direction we must turn backwards to move in the right direction. But the less obvious answer is that returning means calming the waves and returning to stillness.

May we harness all the emotions we feel about the planet so that we can bring all our energy to bear as we enter upon the renewal of Creation in the New Year.