Shalom, everyone! Welcome to the Light Lab Podcast. My name is Eliana Light, and I am joined today by my friends Cantor Ellen Dreskin.
Hello, everybody!
And Rabbi Josh Warshawsky.
Hello!
And today is a very special episode where tables are turning. And indeed, I'm going to be interviewed by Ellen and Josh, we're recording this on August 31, which is the day that my new album Orah Hi is being released into the world. I was sharing before we pressed record that it feels a little bit like a birthday, people are texting me and I woke up really early with excitement. And it feels really great. And I'm really honored that the two of you wanted to take this time for us to talk a little bit about not just the music, but how it relates to the work that we do on the podcast and in the Light Lab and in your own work. The tfilosophy of it all. So I'm going to turn it over to you. I'm excited!
Well, the one thing we didn't talk about Josh was who was going to go first. It's a really exciting day here at the Light Lab and I'm just so happy about it. I know that Eliana some of we're going to listen to some melodies, from the can I call it an album from the album, haha, in a little while. But I know that I would love to hear about the process, and how even your tfilosophy, fed into, to the way in which you chose to make the album?
Absolutely. We know, through being musicians and writers and also just from listeners of music, that there are many, many ways to get songs out into the world, and many ways to choose to record and preserve and share them. And the the process for this started already a few years ago, when in the deepest depths of the pandemic, that urge and that desire to sing with others, knowing how healing and beautiful it isn't missing that very much. I started having conversations with different people about what it would be like to put the music into the world. And I asked someone about producing it and they said, well, I won't be able to produce this project. And also like you have a microphone Eliana you could just record the songs at home. And that was kind of clarifying for me, because I remember having a very strong feeling of, well, I guess I could record the songs at home. But it's not just about getting the songs on the internet. Right? It's for me, it was about the process, I had witnessed Josh, your recording processes of bringing the Chaverim, the Chaverai, the friends into the room and being together and other friends and colleagues of ours who have made recordings in this way. Because it was about the final product for me, but potentially more for my own soul and my own need about the process. And so having asked a couple of people like could you do it? Could you do it? Could you do it? At a certain point, I was like, well, I guess I have to do it. So I'm going to pick a date. And I'm going to call people and I'm going to see if Shearith Israel, this synagogue in Atlanta that my producer and friend Ori lives down the block from and works with, let me see if they can host it. And once I decided to do it, it all came together pretty quickly. We recorded this past January, we arrived on a Monday, this group of people had never played music together before. We didn't really have many arrangements. I had ideas of how I wanted the songs to come out, and chords. But even a lot of those changed over the course of the day. We rehearse through everything. And then we did a concert that night, which was really beautiful and powerful because we got to see the songs come to life because these are all songs for singing together. And I hope even through listening to this music, it feels like you're in the room singing with us. That was really the vibe that we wanted. And then the next day, we kind of brought in all the microphones and the cords and the headphones and recorded it, and we got to feel the buzz that was in the room. And we made changes and decisions to how we recorded it based on the experience we had together. So we have both the quote unquote studio version, even though it was still in a sanctuary. And then in a couple of months or so, not sure but we'll keep you posted listeners. We're going to release the video of the concert so that you can see and feel what it's like to do the songs really in in community.
This is, this is all awesome. It's so cool. It's really amazing to get to hear your process and hear you know you walk me through all this experience because I you know I remember seeing the the Facebook posts and the pictures and everything about back when this is happening, and now getting to hear about it coming to fruition and everything, it's so beautiful, and the music is so good, it's really gorgeous. And I'm looking at the tracklist right now. And I'm, you know, the one that's that's jumping out on me, I'm seeing Shelter Us in Place here, which, you know, I think some of the music was written during the pandemic, and then to have a recording experience that was so I think, foreign to our experience in the pandemic, where you not only had the group of musicians all together, but you had this whole audience who is there and able to sing along and present, I wonder if you could speak to how it felt to, you know, share the whole recording, but also this specific song about being so alone, and in one space being sheltered and what it felt like to come out sort of on the other side and sing through that and pray it?
Oh, such a beautiful question. I think every time I do Shelter Us in Place, and I get to sing it with people it feels, it feels beautiful, and powerful, and melancholy, even. Because COVID is not over a, and b, there are still so many in this world who are not safe, and who do not feel safe. And I think the idea of a sukkah, at least from This is Real, and You Are Completely Unprepared kind of getting to that territory. You know, we use we say a Sukkah of peace or a sukkah, of shelter. But a a Sukkah actually doesn't give that much shelter, it's actually a very vulnerable structure, this reminder that as secure as we might feel, we're never totally 100% secure. But to have that not lead us down a road of perpetual fear. But to lead us into a sense of openness and vulnerability, that we can care for each other and create that safety for each other. It really started as a personal prayer for me, as a lot of these songs did, or at least some of them. In the first few months of the pandemic, when I started hearing people say shelter in place on the news. And that sounded like a scary thing, we didn't know what it was. But I started singing it to myself, because actually shelter is what we what we want and what we desire. And it comes that piece of liturgy, I ended up connecting the two because I realized, Oh, my spiritual ancestors in times of change and confusion and fear, also prayed for shelter and safety. It was in the liturgy the whole time. And in those moments, it feels like a beautiful kind of heart meeting between me the person and my spiritual ancestors. And then it flows back into the Jewish community as a whole. It feels like I get to be in dialogue with the Siddur. And get to bring that to people and when I when I sing it or pray it with folks kind of feeling that wish and that prefer shelter to for ourselves, and also to spread out to those in our, in our world who so need it. But yeah, it's such a beautiful thing to get to sing, particularly this one with other people.
So can I take that, you know, when you just said sheltering in place, the first thing that I thought of was Makom, and, and being sheltered in Makom. Which, of course, wants me to ask about the different names for God that you use throughout the different pieces on the album. So can you say a little bit about your choices of when to be go more Adonai and go more, I don't know, something besides Adonai?
That's a beautiful question. I love Makom, place, as a name for the Divine. I think I've been leaning into that a lot lately, the idea of tapping into holiness wherever you are. And that, to me what it means to say that G?d is everywhere is that we have the potential to access the Divine wherever we are. Not as I thought there's like a guy that's always watching me, which could be nerve wracking, like to sing Hashem is here, Hashem is there, but then to also anthropomorphize it to be like, am I being watched? What does that mean? But that it can be tapped into whenever and that the different nicknames that we have for the Divine can allow us to tap into that relationship in different ways. Like I'm also looking at the tracklist, I don't know if there's an Adonai in here. I'd have to, I'd have to think about it. You know, in Shelter Us in Place, Hashkiveinu Yah Eloheinu, I ended up using, partially I think because I'd heard melodies for Hashkiveinu that have that Yah in it, but that also, and I can't remember where this teaching comes from. So I'll find it or maybe intrepid listeners, you can find it but this idea that Yah being half of the four letter name, Yud Hey Vav Hey, just the beginning, that there's something incomplete about it, that there's a piece of it missing. And that when we call out to G?d, using or call out to the Divine using Yah, it can be in times of distress or worry or anxiety where we feel like there's something missing, and we are maybe even calling out for the Vav Hey to come and complete that Holy Name, Yah also being breath, and breath also being tied into our experience of COVID. This, right, the breath that we share, all of us together, there's no new air, it's coming in and out. And that being a very holy idea, but then that also becoming a scary idea in that it's our breath that we could be hurting other people with. I think that Yah is connected to breath really comes through there. And then there's all sorts of other G?d names, you know? Koli Ekra, I think calling out to the Holy One as Havayah, keeping the Yud Hey Vav Hey root, Havayah also feels like a like a calling out one, like a calling out name ending on that, ah, sound that ah sound. And that also came from my own singing and praying and that song is about calling out. And so a name that felt like a call made a lot of sense. I guess the one other one I would focus on in this particular question moment is at the end of Havdallah. I, I made an effort to do the last blessing of Havdallah hoping that people will see that they can kind of like mumble the first few blessings and then sing the last one out loud and I think I think it is, Brucha At Yah Shechina Imoteinu Ruach HaOlam, which would be We experience Your blessing Shechina, Indwelling of the Divine, Imoteinu, Our Mother, Ruach HaOlam, spirit of the world. And I made I made a conscious effort. Maybe, maybe it was just me being lazy, but I didn't then put like Havdil intofeminine. I, I find that some people get tripped up around G?d language and un-gendering or re-gendering the Divine because they want it to be quote unquote, correct. And like, Yes, that's good. It can be good to say the right things and to conjugate all the things but I also don't want that to stop people from experiencing what it's like. And so some people might listen and say, How can we have the beginning that's feminine? And then hamavdil bein kodesh l'chol be masculine? But yeah, Ellen's like moving her hands up and down, like a weight. I think it's balancing both of them. And it's also saying, It's okay, like, play around with the G?d language, there's permission to do that, even if you can't conjugate all the verbs, because like, I certainly can't.
Thank you so much for this. I mean, I think this is really clarifying. And I think it's fascinating and playful to be using all these different volumes as you're sort of making your way through the songs to be able to experience singing about and hearing others sing about G?d using all these different names. While we're on names, I'm wondering if you can share a little bit about your use of all caps are no caps, or the ways in which you've named some of the tracks because it jumps out to me also. So you know, why is the walk home nigun called what it is, or why is havdallah called the here? And maybe we'll listen to something after that. But if you have anything to share about the names?
Sure. I think in terms stylistically, you know, five years ago, when I put out songs about G?d, I wanted it all to be in lowercase, except for the one in the middle of the word beyond. But distro kid at that point was like, oh, you can't do all lower caps. And so I didn't, but it stylized that way, in other places, and then Olivia Rodrigo's Sour came out. And I was like, Wait, if Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift did it on Folklore, like all the names and lowercase, there's something, I think that's very, like welcoming and warm about that. There are people in my life that don't use upper upper cases for anything, like their emails will all be in lowercase. And I think there's something beautiful and approachable. And then it also in a way matches Hebrew, Hebrew doesn't have, you know, capital letters in that sense. It's all the same size. And something felt good to me about that. So when I realized it could be done, I went back and I tried to change it on disc for songs about G?d, we'll see. But then playing around with it here on this album, I think visually, it makes it interesting and it let certain things stand out. I can do like a quick drive by of the names here because I can see them. The walk home nigun I had originally called it the Harlem nigun. So if you've sung it with me, and it was called that that's what this is. Because I have memories of singing it to myself walking by my apartment, walking home or walking to something else, and then coming back home. I lived on St. Nicholas but the St. Nicholas nigun, didn't, didn't sound like the best idea. But you know, you can call it the St. Nicholas nigun. That works for me too. But I think I called it the walk home nigun more for this general idea of melodies, being beautiful companions. And also because there are plenty of things that I've sung to myself like I think about even going back as a kid. Like people ask how I became a songwriter and I say, Well, you know how little kids just like sing all the time ? I never stopped. Like it's still that idea of of play and singing to myself, and it just kept coming back. I didn't think it was anything. I didn't think it was ever a nigun I only sung it with people for the first time like a year and a half ago. But this idea that we can sing to ourselves and for ourselves as companions. Shirat Nafshi comes from the second paragraph of your Yedid Nefesh, hador naeh, and I co wrote it with Susan Glickman through this beautiful program that we were a part of called Kesher Shir, Bridge of Song, run by your friend and mine, Rosalie Will, which I did when I lived in Boston, but then I moved to New York and would go back to Boston for these things. And we wanted to call it Shirat Nafshi, song of my soul, because that's really what Yedid Nefesh felt like. And we were focusing on that yearning piece. There was also someone in Kesher Shir called Shira Nafhshi, so that was a lot of fun. We can see that that's to her. Okay. And then I guess we'll talk about the here, Havdallah. That's the other I guess interesting one. That also came out of the pandemic. Havdallah is one of the strangest rituals to do alone. There is there's a lot of, as I said, in the liner notes, it kind of feels like, you know, Holy One, it's just you and me, like, do I really need all these pyrotechnics? Do I really have to light something on fire, it's just, it's just us, but that those rituals can also be grounding. And I remember doing Havdalah at the little island in my kitchen in my old apartment, and just singing out loud to myself and this very simple melody coming out. And this also connects to Makom, Ellen, kind of leaning into the Hinei of it all, here, which which can be translated in the sense as Behold, right, like Hinei Mah Tov, Behold, how good it is. But also just Hinei, right in this spot, I feel presence, and I'm calling upon the Holy One to help me overcome my fear. Right. And leaning into that here, space and saying, it's here, whether you know, at camp with everybody doing Havdalah. And it's also here, if I'm alone by myself, and of course, never really alone, because I have all of my spiritual ancestors with me. And everyone's saying Havdalah around me around the world, even if it just feels like me. So that's a couple of behind the titles, behind the titles, tidbits.
Thanks for that. I feel so much more clarified now. And I love the idea of getting to note some of the things where these came from and the reasons behind it. And I like the St. Nicholas nigun I think that's really fun. Should we listen? Should we listen to a track?
Yeah, let's listen to a track. This must have been not last Passover. But the Passover before that. I was putting together a song sheet, and wanting to know when Adir Hu was written, this song poem that is for Passover, but it doesn't have so much to do with Passover, but we only sing it on Passover, an acrostic with different nicknames for the Divine with a chorus of rebuild your house soon speedily and in our days. And Wikipedia told me when Adir Hu was written and it also said, Rabbi Kohenet Jill Hammer, wrote a version of this with feminine G?d language was like, Oh, she did, did she? I must read this. And it was on her blog from like 2008. And I read through it, and we'll put a link to the original blog post with her commentary in the show notes. But I was so moved, not just from seeing these names in the feminine but also names that seemingly contradict each other, and express the multitudinous of Divine experience. And when I do this live, when I sing it with people, I find it really meaningful to read the English out loud before we sing it to really get a sense of the names and the fullness that they express. So if it's okay I'll read them here and we can see how that how that feels for us. She is light, she is light. May she build her house soon, soon, speedily and in our days. G?d build your house soon, close to us in time and space. She is wisdom. She is joy. She is tears. She is splendor. She is a rose. She is a flowing stream. She is renewal. She is the center. she is oneness. She is the full moon. She is birth. She is the fountain source. She is comfort. She is forgiveness. She is strength. She is redemption. She is righteousness. She is holiness. She is a beloved companion. She is always changing. She is complete and perfect.
It's so interesting. We should possibly maybe even the show notes also put Adir Hu.
Yeah.
Which we haven't said yet. At the moment that I grew up singing Adir Hu in English, and the first phrases were G?d of might God of right, Thee we give all glory. And it and the the energy of the hymn of course that I sang as a child but also just might end right and big and chosen and awesome is some very different from Orah Hi that it really opens wide all sorts of doors that you chose this and I'm very grateful.
Thank you. I'm so grateful I stumbled upon it too and I think particularly even in the name and we can talk about this also, let's talk about it after we listen why why we decided to call it that way, that way. Okay.
It's so big!
You have rendered us speechless!
It's so big, it's so joyful, it's so full. I also loved getting to hear all the different voices leading the text. Was that something that you had chosen from the beginning? How did you come to that choice?
Yeah 100% I wanted different people to lead the stanzas and in particular or it felt important to me to have people of a variety of gender expressions be a part of it, because I think feminine gendered and non gendered or expansive gendered G?d language, Divine language and Jewish spaces are beneficial for everybody. And I think sometimes we say, oh, that's just for the women, or that's just for the non binary folk. But I think it's a really powerful experience to be in sacred community that has led from that place, no matter who you are. And so actually, my favorite of the verses is Drew's which comes after that pause the Bimheira, Bimheira, oh, my G?d, it gets me every time. And the fact that the, you know, the dudes that were part of the recording were so onboard and excited about it. And so not just open to it, but but embraced it. And that was that was really powerful for me.
Can you say something about the call and response just a little bit about that whole dynamic, which, to my mind, we don't hear often enough in our liturgy. So just about your choice?
Yeah. I don't know if going back I can remember why. Because like, the original Adir Hu that I grew up with wasn't call and response. And perhaps it was because, you know, if part of the goal is to make things accessible, call and response is a really great way to do that. And the day that I put this handout together, the next day, I taught it in a backyard with a group of people. And it felt really good. I think, even for folks, first of all, if if you don't know Hebrew, and you don't speak Hebrew, it can be hard to get your brain around transliteration. I think it's important to have transliteration. But that's not all that we need in order to make things accessible. And having those moments of call and response just means that more people will have the option of jumping in. And even if you do know Hebrew, I found for the first couple of days of singing it, it was hard to get myself out of Adir Hu. Like, bimheirah, el benei, el benei, instead of saying el abanin, and I would sing it the old way. And I also think that's a good practice for us to try. And if we make a mistake, show ourselves some compassion and keep moving forward. Instead of harping on the mistakes I think about, you know, people's pronouns and how some people are so upset that other people might want to be referred by the gender that they express. And to say, for those of us who are trying to do, or trying to honor people's names and people's genders, that we might mess up. And that's okay, we can take that with compassion and, and learn to be better next time and move forward.
Well, now that we're here talking about Orah Hi, she is light! Is there anything? Is there a connection? Why do you name the album Orah Hi?
Oh, of course. I love puns, that people who know him know me well know. I'd say like puns and wordplay is one of my love languages. And with a name like mine, it opens up a lot of possibilities. I get asked often, if it's a stage name, it is not. I lucked in to this and I feel very grateful for it. My first album is called A New Light after the song, A New Light, which is a riff on Or Chadash. But, of course, the album had to be called that. And, you know, I joke with myself mostly that in many, many decades, if I ever do like a career retrospective, or a best of album, it's going to be called Ner Tamid, which means eternal light. I already have these things like blanked out in my head. And that's part of what I found, why I found Orah Hi so powerful. I love light as a name for the Divine. There are many names for the Divine, that involve light like Ziv HaOlam, which comes out in Shirat Nafshi from Yedid Nefesh, Brilliance of the Universe, which I absolutely love, the idea of Ziv is the kind of emanating the light that comes from inside. And I think, why it is such a beautiful metaphor for the way that we get to shine in the world, for the ways that we connect to the Divine, for our connection to each other. It's a core metaphor for the light lab. It's it's in our very name about holding the gems of our liturgy up to the light. And yeah, I find that a fun play on words, but also a beautiful statement. And then I put at the bottom songs about G?d, Volume Two, because why not? You know, my joke again, mostly to myself is I'm never going to run out of material so we're just going to do songs about G?d all the time.
Well, at the very I mean, I'm sure now you're gonna hear from everybody who's listening other names for future albums. I write to you know, Yehi Or, Vayehi Or, is is coming.
Let there be light. That's true. I there was there was a regular my synagogue growing up that would say, um, Yehi Or whenever we walk into the room. Names actually just just a brief, a brief sidebar is that I'm also working on a album of holiday songs for kids and families. And to tie into my first kind of kid focused album on ritual objects, which is called Eliana Sings about Jewish Things. That one is, of course, going to be called Elliana Rhymes About Jewish Times, which, and then some, you know, friends sometimes come up with a game of like, Elliana blanks about Jewish blanks and trying to come up with more, but there aren't many more that actually make sense. But if you can think of some listeners you can let us know.
Would now be a good time to listen to another song? You mentioned Shirat Nafshi can we go there next?
Absolutely. To share a little bit about this. So like I said, Susan Glickman and I were paired as musical hevruta, learning partners, as part of Kesher Shir. We were at this beautiful retreat by the ocean in the fall, so it was chilly, but the water was delightful. And Susan wanted to start with Kabbalat Shabbat and we noticed looking in the Miskan T'fillah the Reform Movement Siddur that I wasn't as familiar with that in the I guess version at the front of the book of Kabbalat Shabbat there's only the first paragraph of the Yedid Nefesh. So Susan hadn't really encountered the second paragraph and was excited about looking at that and learning it together. And as often happens in our liturgical life, or at least in my liturgical life, we looked at the second paragraph and we couldn't get past the first four words because there was so much beauty and yumminess and potential and light in that first line so we just stayed with that for a while and that's where this melody, that's where this melody came from. So let's give it a listen!
Are allowed to have favorites already?
You can have favorites already, yeah.
Eliana, can I ask about the experience have to record like this, it shows an amazing amount of vulnerability? You know, when we sing Yedid Nefesh we don't every melody doesn't access those words in the same way. And to access it in that way and access, dare I say G?d in that kind of relationship. Can you speak to that a little bit?
Yeah, I think there are the words of Yedid Nefesh which when, when read, you can you can hear that yearning in the author's choices, of words and of metaphors. It's very fully there. And you're right, in that that's not always how we sing Yedid Nefesh. I think it can be challenging to call out in that yearning. We often feel like either A, I have to have G?d all figured out or B, I see G?d as more of a force that connects us and all that we are a part of, and how do I have a relationship with that? I'll often tell people that and we'll put information about these two people, so it doesn't stay an inside baseball comment, but that Mordecai Kaplan helped me and have an understanding of G?d that I could think of and feel good intellectually, and Reb Zalman helped me pray that G?d. What it feels like to both hold an expansive understanding of the Divine, and then also call out to the Divine as you which I know, Ellen, we've brought up at this podcast many times, how challenging that can be, what does it mean to call out to the Holy One as you if godly-ness is something that we feel. And I'm just trying to embrace that instead of, but it's a yes, and, that it can be, that it can be both. And doing this piece in particular, like when I've brought it to synagogues, if they don't know it, it's challenging. We, you know, there's not as much improvisation as there is, I think, with the musicians or doing something like this at Hava Nashira. There's an old video, Josh, you're in it, you've done this with me a couple of times in a variety of beautiful places. And I love singing it with you, Josh. Because when we kind of go into the part at the end, you go, you go up the octave, and it's like, very powerful of those great memories. But it was so powerful, because like I was telling you, we didn't arrange the songs, I had a sense of how I wanted them to sound. But it's not like I told piano, I don't, I didn't tell Drew to do something on the piano, I didn't tell Chava to do anything with the guitar, I didn't tell Coleen when to come in, I didn't tell the singers what to sing. And it just kind of happened. Like with most of the songs, we didn't need much to say, like, I wasn't even sure how to credit anybody as arranging anything because everybody arranged everything. It just kind of came to fruition. And it's that part of that spontaneity, and that freedom, and that invitation to use your voice in that way and to just let it go. That's part of the prayer too. I think there's a lot in singing particularly around vulnerability, that can be a metaphor for what we are attempting to do in prayer itself. Because prayer is raising our own voices or our feelings, our needs or concerns, whatever it might be. Maybe not with our physical voice, but singing can help us tap into that potential. And also it feels vulnerable to me. Like there were a couple of things we were able to do and quote unquote post. Like my voice sounds like what it sounds like and I don't always I don't always feel I like it's the strongest. And it's very easy for me to compare myself to other singers who it seems always hit, quote unquote, the right note at a given time, or who always sing harmonies that that lock in just right. And I don't always do that. And then of course, I try to extend myself the same, A, the same compassion that I would extend other people and to say, it's not about being perfect. It's not about your voice sounding perfect. It's about something much deeper than that. And if that's something I'm teaching to others, what does it mean for me to also hold that for myself?
I'd love to ask another question about the the yes anding that you were just talking about. Because my experience of prayer growing up did not include praying in Hebrew and English interchangeably. And the way you've weaved so many of these melodies were like, very seamlessly weaving the English into the Hebrew and back and forth, like the one with just listen to, and also like, Keep Open the Gates, which I now use whenever I'm in my High Holiday services wherever I am. And it's something that that I've just, it actually felt like such an easy thing to incorporate, because it just felt so prayerful to me. But it was not something that I grew up with. I think that I don't know, if you had the same experience, I'd love to hear what that was like for you to sort of begin to incorporate that and then really hone in on it and focus on it, especially on this album.
Thank you, that's beautiful. I think the first thing that came to my mind is that, if me 10 years ago, like found out that this was the kind of music I'd be making, they would be very surprised. I also didn't grow. Not only did I not grow up with singing English and services, I didn't grow up with instruments and services, I didn't really grow up with chanting, like repeating as a mode, I didn't grow up knowing who composed the melodies that we did, because we didn't think about them as songs per se. They were tunes and many of them were very old. I mean, it was just around the time that like a quote, unquote, Carlebach service was starting to be the cool new thing. And even that we were pretty late in adopting in many places, and my Jewish practice, and my prayer practice and ritual practice have definitely changed over time, certainly inspired by, you know, 10 years of going to Hava Nashira, and seven years of going to Song Leader Boot Camp, and learning from the Reform tradition, which has a long history of Hebrew and English prayer songs being intertwined. And then also a lot of influence from the Renewal world, particularly when I was living in New York and attending Romemu more regularly, and also from the style of Nava Tehila, chanting, because it's not, it's about English and Hebrew, partially, so that we can access things more, but then the question becomes, what is the English going to be? And what is its role? And what is it going to do? And in any translation that I do, part of my goal is to make it expansive. It's not to give a direct translation of the words, it's an attempt to help us tap into the poetry and the playfulness and the imagination of the liturgy in a way that might help us to do that. And so any English that I've written has been helpful for me and my own prayer. And I hope it can, it can be like that for the people who are listening or praying or leaving it as well.
Thank you so much for that. Yeah, I think that that lends us to thinking a lot about the prayerfulness of this this season. We're sitting here in Elul, are making their way towards the holidays, and both experiencing and also reevaluating the ways in which we've done things and thinking about if we want to do those things the same way or differently in the year to come. And you actually you have a couple different high holiday esque melodies on this album, like Koli Ekra, also from Psalm 27, but I don't know if you'll feel okay, by just sort of jumping into Keep Open the Gates. I wonder if we can just listen to that. You know, one of my you've mentioned Hava Nashira a bunch of times and one of my first memories of experiencing this, it was singing it out with you at at Hava Nashira at the open mic and it really has just become an essential part of my holiday experience. So we want to talk about how you came to be right to write this piece. I know I think it had something to do with Park Avenue. Is that right?
Yeah, absolutely. First, I go back to that video of all of us at Hava singing that I think it's definitely one of my like peak music, Jewish life moments. Because I also remember not knowing what to do with open mic and a bunch of us hanging out was it in Jackson's room and me being like, Y'all, can you sing this with me? And that just being so magical. Yeah, it started because when I worked at Park Avenue Synagogue, they have this project of making Youth and Family Machzorim. And so we were working together on their other goal of having different pieces of music that go along with every page and Park Avenue loves to commission a song. And I was I was asked to write a bunch and there were a bunch that came out on that album, we can put a link to the album in the in the show notes it's on Bandcamp, there are versions of like the B'Sefer Chayim that I've never actually used in any other context, plenty of songs that I write that end up not feeling like the like the right one for any given situation. But Keep Open the Gates started as an attempt for the youth machzor, for like the little kiddos. And it turned into something much different that I hope though can speak I feel like a lot of my stuff tries to do that to the the child in all of us, and the one that is asking for just a little more time. I say this in the liner notes but the whole thing is very chutzpanik, this piyut, this prayer poem because Neilah literally means the time of the closing of the gates. And then we're like, um, could you not do that? Could you keep the gates open a little longer please we know that this is called the time of the closing of the gates but but don't! We need we need a little more time and I think there's just something so vulnerable and beautiful about that so let's give it a listen.
I'm just thinking, normally we would say, Okay, here's where you can pause because then there's this long silence after. But it's like, oh, no, no, no, no please, leave in that silence is just so luscious after being able to experience that Eliana the, you know, it really is the experience of hearing it and not just like driving down the highway, you know, listening to the radio.
Thank you. Yeah, I, I want it to feel prayerful. I feel so grateful that, like, we really did get to pray as a band. And I just want to call out, in particular, Coleen Dieker's prayerful violin. I mean, that's one of the, one of her many amazing superpowers is that she prays with that violin, and it's, it helps us It helps us all into that more deeply.
Yeah, I don't want to change the energy too quickly. And yet, I really do want to circle back and make note of this idea about how these kinds of songs come into being. Particularly that and I noticed from the liner notes from the back cover that I just saw, before we came together this morning, that people can say, hey, Eliana, or het Josh, we'd like to sponsor we'd like to commission, a piece of music. And that it's, it's a beautiful way of bringing something into the world. Eliana you've even started like, today feels like a bit of a birthday. But this is one of the ways in which pieces like this get born. And so I just like to put that little plug in there for the world of new Jewish compositions.
Yeah, I love being commissioned. I love people asking for a particular piece of liturgy, and then getting to explore it. And I was, I was definitely on the sponsorship side, inspired by Josh grateful for the precedent that he said of communities supporting the creation of this music because one of the reasons we put it out in the world is so that communities can sing it, and so that it will, it can it can become a part of a community's repertoire because we believe that there is value and prayerful value in these melodies. So grateful to follow in your footsteps and take your advice on that Josh, your, your guidance through all of this has been immensely immensely helpful and supportive.
Aw, shucks.
Wow, yeah. Aw, shucks. Yeah, any last things maybe as we wind down and say goodbye, and maybe we can play out. We can play our listeners out on on something.
Well, Eliana, I'm what I want to know. What didn't we ask? What What would you like, before we sign off? What would you what else would you like people to know about?
Oh, I guess we can we can tie it into a, to a standoff. What is the shmacks? And both of you know this, but, and I put this in the liner notes, because I've had the experience of people at synagogues coming up, sheepishly to me and saying, you know, I'm so sorry for this question. That might just be like a very common Jewish thing that I'm not aware of, bu, but what is the schmacks? I feel so I'm like, Oh, no. Another another reason that people feel like they don't have quote unquote, enough Jewish knowledge. And I'm like adding to that problem. So first of all, I try to say, there is always so much to learn Jewishly and we should never feel sheepish about asking questions and about sharing what we know with others, but schmax is not a what, it is a who. It is, Shannon and Max are dear friends who got married and I was honored to be at their wedding and this melody came through for them and in honor of them from the traditional wedding liturgy, though again, we get to play around with language, the voice of the bride and the voice of the groom and bride and bride and groom and groom and loving companions, which felt really special, but it feels special to have their spirit and that was also a highlight moment of teaching this melody to the to the people that were gathered there kind of stealthily on Friday night and then leading Shabbat morning services at Greene Family Camp in this beautiful spot in the woods and using it as a through line in the service, and then not telling them until the very end that it was the wedding liturgy, and it was actually for them in being able to relive that, that beautiful moment with everybody. And I also get before we rush into that, like, we like ending with practices and don't want to a full one. But just, if I could, like bless, bless us all. My hope for these songs is that they provide vessels for our own prayer, particularly in community, whether that is you singing these melodies, where you are, with your congregations with your singing circles and your people, or listening to the music and knowing that you are there with us in that sanctuary singing along that it can help us feel a little more connected and a little less alone. And yeah, sharing that attention for, for all of us. And just so beyond grateful for the two of you for jumping along with this experiment and letting us do a little behind the music here. So, so grateful for your partnership!
Well, this has been a real treat. For us to reconnect, the three of us and do this together again for the new year. And to begin with such a wonderful, you, you have opened up the gates, been a part of the gate opening for all of us this year. And you know, I'm sure it'll bring much sweetness into the world this recording.
Amen, amen, thanks for all of this Eliana. Thanks for letting us go behind the scenes. Thanks for opening us up to this amazing new music. I really hope everyone checks it out. You can find it wherever you find your music, it's really beautiful. Respond to us. Let us know what are your favorite tracks? What's speaking to you at any particular moment? What's resonating in different ways?
Absolutely. We want to hear from you and excited that as the year kicks off, we'll be back to record more episodes together. Now that we've been on our Amidah journey. We're going to tackle something with fewer words. We're going to look at Friday night at home and the blessings for Shabbat at home which I'm really excited about. All right. Some thank yous. Our show is edited by Christie Dodge, Yaffa Englander does our shownotes, our Podcast Producer is Rachel Kaplan. You can find links to all the stuff at light lab.co And we're gonna sing us out on some schmacks. Thanks, everybody, and we'll be with you again very soon.
