Kirtan Rabbi Blog

A prayer leader’s dilemma: Everyone’s dropped in, so why go on?

We are two chants into a musical Friday evening Shabbat service. We haven’t even gotten a fifth of the way into the prayer plan. Yet, thanks to Shoshana Jedwaba’s mystical drumming and whatever space I am able to hold, when that second chant comes to an end, the entire yurt is completely silent, sitting. Now what? Why go on?

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What We Can Learn from Siri Voice Dictation

Is Siri an oracle? Does she auto-correct our voice dictation to let us know what we meant to say, not what we did say? [Funny Video] Shabbat Shalom!

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Submitting Havayah to the Jewish Forward Soundtrack Search

I submitted Havayah to the Jewish Forward’s Music Search today. Here I describe how Jewish music functions for me and attest to my influences.

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Eight Days, Eight Songs. Candle Eight: Ein Od Milvado (Track 10 on Nondual)

Listen to this music by clicking here. I chose this final, well-known chant to be the Shavasana moment of Nondual. What do I mean by that? Just as in a […]

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Eight Days, Eight Songs. Candles 5-7: The Shema Medley

Shema Medley: Yotzer Or; Ahavah Rabah; the Shema These three songs comprise Tracks 7 through 9 of Nondual. They are adaptations of the sequence of prayers in a regular Jewish […]

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Eight Days, Eight Songs. Candle Four: Zikr (Tracks 5 & 6 from Nondual)

This is part of Kirtan Rabbi’s Gift of Listening: Eight Days, Eight Songs. To hear this candle and the previous ones, please click on the: Kirtan Rabbi Music Player Zikr […]

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Eight Days, Eight Songs. Candle Three: Havayah (Track 4 from Nondual)

This is part of Kirtan Rabbi’s Gift of Listening: Eight Days, Eight Songs. To hear this candle and the previous ones, please click on the: Kirtan Rabbi Music Player Havayah […]

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Eight Days, Eight Songs. Candle Two: All Worlds (Track 3 from Nondual)

This song is arguably the happiest moment on the album  – and that’s a lot to say for an album with one fun and happy moment after another! It stands […]

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Eight Days, Eight Songs. Candle One: Kedushah Medley (Tracks 1 & 2 from Nondual)

Together, these first two tracks of Nondual, offered me an opportunity to start the CD by expressing gratitude to my Reform Jewish upbringing – an upbringing which did not always […]

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Singing Kaddish for my mother

Last night we offered a Hebrew Kirtan in Berkeley, California as a benefit for Wilderness Torah and under the auspices of the Jewish Music Festival. We sang kaddish for my mother who passed away last week, as well as – of course – for the souls of others in the room whose witnesses in body were in a period of mourning.

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