One of my more “popular” Jewish liturgical settings is a melody I wrote to the medieval hymn, L’chah Dodi. L’chah Dodi is sung during Kabbalat Shabbat, the Friday night prayer service that welcomes Shabbat. It describes two companions going out to greet the Sabbath Bride. The words were written in the city of Tzfat, birthplace […]
Poems and Stories
I recently had a chance to become aware of a bias of mine. It’s a songwriting bias. The bias is this: when I write songs I think of them as poems set to music. There I’ve said it. When I write songs, I think of them as poems. So what? Well, not much, except for […]
Asking for a Friend
Asking for a Friend For permission & forgiveness compassion & judgment discretion & sharing warnings & recommendations teaching & learning seeing & believing witnessing & forgetting embracing & discarding approval & disdain sharing & keeping tears of all kinds tears of all kinds presence & companionship now & always
On the language of giving and receiving
I’ve always loved language. And over the last decade or so I’ve come to love language even more because language is at the heart of songwriting. More than blogging or journaling. Certainly more than emailing, texting, or tweeting. And in some ways even more than speaking, listening, and reading, songwriting has helped me grow closer […]
everything is the same
everything is the same nothing is the same everything: same heart, mind, and soul same body, face, and eyes same family, job, and home same sun, moon, and stars nothing is the same: not heart, mind, or soul body, face, or eyes family, job, or home sun, moon, or stars similar, […]
Today, if only we could hear
Of all the songs I’ve written I think this is one of the most beautiful and meaningful. It’s based on two passages from Psalm 95. The first, “v’anachnu am marito v’tzon yado,” means something like, “we, your people, are like a flock that you shepherd with your hand.” The second, “hayom im b’kolo tishmau,” means, […]