The Magic of Hebrew Chant: Healing the Spirit, Transforming the Mind, Deepening Love

by Shefa Gold, Sylvia Boorstein (Foreword by)

Overview

A few short words—repeated with passion & intention—can unlock treasure upon treasure of healing, wisdom & love

"Chant is a path for all of us who lead with our hearts, who are determined to seek out the truth that is buried deep beneath the ground of our lives, and who have made a commitment to live that truth, from moment to moment, breath to breath, 'one little bit at a time.'"
—from the Introduction

Chant is a meditative practice that fully engages the body, heart and mind, and facilitates healing and expansion of consciousness. Rabbi Shefa Gold, beloved teacher of chant, Jewish mysticism, prayer and spirituality, introduces you to this transformative spiritual practice as a way to unlock the power of sacred texts and take prayer and meditation into the delight of your life. She illuminates the usefulness, benefits and blessings of chant by:

• Teaching you the theory and foundations of chant—its relation to beauty, pleasure and the deep wisdom buried in sacred texts
• Providing—for the first time—complete musical notations for many of her popular chants and practical instruction for how to use them to cultivate self-awareness and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683364023
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Rabbi Shefa Gold, is director of C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. Shefa composes and performs spiritual music, has produced several recordings, and her liturgies have been published in many prayer books. She teaches workshops and retreats on the theory and art of chanting, devotional healing, spiritual community building and meditation around the world. She also trains chant leaders in Kol Zimra, a two-year program for rabbis, cantors and lay leaders. Shefa, who is on the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, combines her grounding in Judaism with a background in Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Native American spiritual traditions to make her uniquely qualified as a spiritual bridge celebrating the shared path of devotion. She is author of Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land and In the Fever of Love: An Illumination of the Song of Songs. For more information about Rabbi Shefa Gold, please visit her website at www.RabbiShefaGold.com.

Rabbi Shefa Gold is available to speak on the following topics:

• The Magic of Hebrew Chant
• Ecstatic Meditation
• The Path of Love
• Gratefulness as the Foundation of our Spiritual Practice
• The Power of Intention

Click here to contact the author.

Sylvia Boorstein is cofounding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, and a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She lectures nationally on Buddhism and mindfulness, and teaches Vipassana and Metta meditation.

Table of Contents

Foreword xiii
Introduction xv
Abracadabraxix

Fundamentals of Chant 1
Chant
What It Is 3
The Sacred Phrase
Or ... How a Chant Is Different from a Song 7

The Ground of a Chant 8
Components of a Chant 9
Entering the Silence 10

Intention 11
Cultivating Four Pathways of Intention 13

Memory 14
Imagination 19
Presence 22
Attunement 24

"That This Song May Be a Witness"
The Power of Chant 27

Entering the Mishkan 28
Developing a Chant 29
Obstacles and Traps 31
Meditative Practice in Relation to Prayer 32

The Lineage of Chant 34
Chant as a Core Spiritual Practice 41

Why We Value This Practice as a Core of Contemporary Jewish Spirituality 41
The Relationship between Chanting and Other Spiritual Practices 42

Meditation as the Foundation for Chant Practice 45

The Functions of Consciousness 46

Rhythm 49

The Secrets of Chant 51

The Inner Dimensions of Chant 53
Eight Functions of Consciousness in a Spiritual Group 56
Power and the Open Heart 67
Longing
Fuel for Spiritual Practice 73
Focus, through Pleasure, All the Way to Basking 77

T he Uses of Chant 81
Chanting as a Healing Modality 83
Chant in Ritual 86
Chanting During Taharah 92
Chant
Transformation, Purification, Healing, and Renewal 97
Inquiry and Shadow Work 104
Ecstatic Practice and the Establishment of Basic Trust 109
Soulful, Wholehearted, Embodied Text Study 113
Gratefulness as the Foundation of Practice 119
Healing the Spirit, Transforming the Mind, Deepening Love 125
Chanting—Alone and Together 131

The Practices 135
Liturgy 137
Scripture 159
Psalms 173
The Daily Psalms 205
Isaiah 209
A Few More Practices
Elements, Directions, Spirit Buddies 220

The Musical Notations 225
Introduction to the Musical Notations 227
Liturgy 231
Scripture 253
Psalms 266
The Daily Psalms 298
Isaiah 305

Acknowledgements 315
Appendix 1 316
Suggestions for Further Reading318
Index of Practices and Notations319
Index of First Lines323

What People are Saying About This

Rabbi, Institute for Jewish Spirituality - Sheila Peltz Weinberg

"A tour de force.... It integrates the extensive research and teaching Rabbi Gold has pioneered and offers a luminous resource for the renewal of Jewish religious life and contemporary spirituality."

Rabbi, author, Amazing Chesed: Living a Grace-Filled Judaism - Rami Shapiro

"There are two ways to enter the gates of heaven: storm them from without or be invited in from within. Chanting is the way of invitation, and this book is the invitation to the invitation. I have chanted daily for decades, and Shefa was my teacher. Let her be yours as well."

Rabbi, Emanu-El Scholar at The Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco; author, I'm God; You're Not: Observations on - Lawrence Kushner

"A literate, personal, inventive, beautifully written anthology of, and manual for, offering 'musical kavanot.' Gold offers American Jews seeking to rediscover the melody of meditation the perfect primer and inspiration."

Rabbi, author, The Path of Blessing: Experiencing the Energy and Abundance of the Divine - Marcia Prager

"A treasure of exquisite simplicity, wisdom and love! With mellifluous and stunning beauty ... offers a path of awakening through which outworn habits of heart and mind are discarded, core truths rediscovered and ever more expansive capacity for joy is born."

Rabbi, author, A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice - Michael Strassfeld

"Shefa Gold has transcribed the music and meaning of Hebrew chant onto the pages of this book. Yet the experience of these chants flows off the page and connects you to the Jewish past and this very moment."

Rabbi, Wiener Professor of Contemporary Jewish Civilization and director, Levin-Lieber Program in Jewish Ethics, Reconst - David Teutsch

"Combines the insight of a seeker, the textual knowledge of a rabbi, the clarity of a gifted teacher and the voice of a creative composer.... This moving volume provides sufficient guidance for a beginner while taking more advanced practitioners to new heights."

Rabbi, co-director of programs, Institute for Jewish Spirituality; series editor, LifeLights - Nancy Flam

"This is the finest flowering of Rabbi Gold's vast experience and deep dedication to working with and understanding the energies of body, soul, voice, intention and consciousness in relation to sacred Jewish text."

PhD, author, Evolving Dharma: Buddhism, Meditation and the Next Generation of Enlightenment and God in Your Body: - Jay Michaelson

"Wise, warm advice from the foremost expert in this form of Jewish devotional practice. It is encyclopedic, thoughtful, accessible and deep."

Rabbi, PhD, professor of Jewish thought, Hebrew College - Nehemia Polen

"Allows readers to inhabit the immersive, transformative, gently flowering yet powerful world of chant: an indispensable guide for the spiritual seeker of our time. Highly recommended!"

Cantor - Linda Hirschhorn

"Shefa has transformed the world of chant, allowing both the chanter and the listener to find personal meaning in Jewish prayer through the mesmerizing repetitions of words and meditative melody."

Rabbi, author, Does the Soul Survive? A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living with Purpose and Heal - Elie Kaplan Spitz

"Boldly yet gently beckons you inwardly with prescriptions of stirring sacred words, offering a practice of wisdom, a pathway of self-discovery and a yearning to reach expansively toward God and compassionately toward God's creation."

Rabbi, author, Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about I - Mike Comins

"As it brings text study, song and contemplative practice together—body, heart and mind acting as one—chant is the ultimate, spiritual practice. Shefa Gold is its prophet."

Rabbi, author, Meaning & Mitzvah: Daily Practices for Reclaiming Judaism through Prayer, God, Torah, Hebrew, Mitzvot - Goldie Milgram

"An incredibly clear, valuable, often transcendent transmission of powerful, readily implementable approaches to Jewish spiritual awakening, growth and healing. This is a sacred book to savor and widely gift to family, students and friends."

Rabbi, author, Davening: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer and Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewi - Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

"Lots of people chant and few become enchanted.... Rabbi Shefa guides her readers past the sentries of the legal/rational border into the sacred space of the charismatic/ecstatic realm."

Rabbi, director, Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion; author, The Jewish Book of Days: A Companio - Jill Hammer

"Thorough, honest, and wise.... [It] will appeal to regular practitioners of sacred chant, and those who are intrigued by the possibility of a chant practice.... The book itself is almost a long chant, able to transform the consciousness. All who read it will find a treasure, not only in the book but in themselves."

Rabbi, author, Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life: Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God - Jeff Roth

"A deeply important contribution to all those interested in contemplative practice. At the same time, Rabbi Gold facilitates a profound connection to the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition illustrating their continued relevance to contemporary Judaism."

Rabbi, LCSW, director of spiritual development, The Academy for Jewish Religion, California; author, Mourning and Mitzva - Anne Brener

"For those new to these pathways to the Great Mystery (aka God), here is an invitation to a richer and more profound life; for those seasoned in the disciplines of meditation, chant and prayer, it will frame your experience with insight and wisdom. It will deepen your practice; it has deepened mine."

The Rev., DD, founder, Interweave, Inc. - Robert Corin Morris

"Invites the reader of any spiritual path to enter more deeply into the heart of love. Her contribution to Jewish spirituality in particular is immeasurable. May it endure!"

Rabbi, coeditor, The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: Clal's Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings - Irwin Kula

"One of our great teachers shares her secrets of how to enter the heart, open the mind, stir the spirit and awaken nothing less than a transformation in your self-understanding and love for others. The profound wisdom and amazingly beautiful chants are a gift for human flourishing. Be prepared to be touched by a magician of the soul."

Editorial Reviews

Gold, Rabbi Shefa. The Magic of Hebrew Chanting: Healing the Spirit, Transforming the Mind, DeepeningLove. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2013. 326 pp. $24.99. (9781580236713).

Chanting is a form of meditation. Rabbi Shefa Gold has written a book presenting both the theory of chanting and also providing musical notations for her popular chants. Gold explains that the root: zayin-mem-resh ((רמז for chanting "has a double meaning: z-m-r means to chant, but it also means to prune." By chanting, we are removing the nonessential and uncovering our soul or neshamah. Chanting can bring spirituality, healing and togetherness as a community. The book is well organized and the explanations are clear. One suggestion, however, I would also purchase Gold's audio discs if you truly want to experience the power of chanting. If you can play a musical instrument, you can play and sing the chants yourself.

Ellen Share, Librarian, Washington Hebrew Congregation

Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews - Ellen Share

"Thorough, honest, and wise.... [It] will appeal to regular practitioners of sacred chant, and those who are intrigued by the possibility of a chant practice.... The book itself is almost a long chant, able to transform the consciousness. All who read it will find a treasure, not only in the book but in themselves."
—Rabbi Jill Hammer, director, Spiritual Education at the Academy for Jewish Religion; author, The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons

"Lots of people chant and few become enchanted.… Rabbi Shefa guides her readers past the sentries of the legal/rational border into the sacred space of the charismatic/ecstatic realm."
—Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, author, Davening: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Prayer and Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice

“This is the finest flowering of Rabbi Gold's vast experience and deep dedication to working with and understanding the energies of body, soul, voice, intention and consciousness in relation to sacred Jewish text.”
—Rabbi Nancy Flam, co-director of programs, Institute for Jewish Spirituality; series editor, LifeLights

“A literate, personal, inventive, beautifully written anthology of, and manual for, offering 'musical kavanot.' Gold offers American Jews seeking to rediscover the melody of meditation the perfect primer and inspiration.”
—Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at The Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco; author, I’m God; You’re Not: Observations on Organized Religion & Other Disguises of the Ego

“One of our great teachers shares her secrets of how to enter the heart, open the mind, stir the spirit and awaken nothing less than a transformation in your self-understanding and love for others. The profound wisdom and amazingly beautiful chants are a gift for human flourishing. Be prepared to be touched by a magician of the soul.”
—Rabbi Irwin Kula, coeditor, The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: Clal’s Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings

“A treasure of exquisite simplicity, wisdom and love! With mellifluous and stunning beauty ... offers a path of awakening through which outworn habits of heart and mind are discarded, core truths rediscovered and ever more expansive capacity for joy is born.”
—Rabbi Marcia Prager, author, The Path of Blessing: Experiencing the Energy and Abundance of the Divine

“There are two ways to enter the gates of heaven: storm them from without or be invited in from within. Chanting is the way of invitation, and this book is the invitation to the invitation. I have chanted daily for decades, and Shefa was my teacher. Let her be yours as well.”
—Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author, Amazing Chesed: Living a Grace-Filled Judaism

“An incredibly clear, valuable, often transcendent transmission of powerful, readily implementable approaches to Jewish spiritual awakening, growth and healing. This is a sacred book to savor and widely gift to family, students and friends.”
—Rabbi Goldie Milgram, author, Meaning & Mitzvah: Daily Practices for Reclaiming Judaism through Prayer, God, Torah, Hebrew, Mitzvot and Peoplehood

“Invites the reader of any spiritual path to enter more deeply into the heart of love. Her contribution to Jewish spirituality in particular is immeasurable. May it endure!”
—The Rev. Robert Corin Morris, DD, founder, Interweave, Inc.

“Allows readers to inhabit the immersive, transformative, gently flowering yet powerful world of chant: an indispensable guide for the spiritual seeker of our time. Highly recommended!”
—Rabbi Nehemia Polen, PhD, professor of Jewish thought, Hebrew College

“For those new to these pathways to the Great Mystery (aka God), here is an invitation to a richer and more profound life; for those seasoned in the disciplines of meditation, chant and prayer, it will frame your experience with insight and wisdom. It will deepen your practice; it has deepened mine.”
—Rabbi Anne Brener, LCSW, director of spiritual development, The Academy for Jewish Religion, California; author, Mourning and Mitzvah: Walking the Mourners’ Path from Grief to Healing

“Boldly yet gently beckons you inwardly with prescriptions of stirring sacred words, offering a practice of wisdom, a pathway of self-discovery and a yearning to reach expansively toward God and compassionately toward God’s creation.”
—Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz, author, Does the Soul Survive? A Jewish Journey to Belief in Afterlife, Past Lives & Living with Purpose and Healing from Despair: Choosing Wholeness in a Broken World

“Shefa has transformed the world of chant, allowing both the chanter and the listener to find personal meaning in Jewish prayer through the mesmerizing repetitions of words and meditative melody.”
—Cantor Linda Hirschhorn

“As it brings text study, song and contemplative practice together—body, heart and mind acting as one—chant is the ultimate, spiritual practice. Shefa Gold is its prophet.”
—Rabbi Mike Comins, author, Making Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices on Why Prayer Is Difficult and What to Do about It

“A tour de force.... It integrates the extensive research and teaching Rabbi Gold has pioneered and offers a luminous resource for the renewal of Jewish religious life and contemporary spirituality.”
—Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg, Institute for Jewish Spirituality

“Wise, warm advice from the foremost expert in this form of Jewish devotional practice. It is encyclopedic, thoughtful, accessible and deep.”
—Jay Michaelson, PhD, author, Evolving Dharma: Buddhism, Meditation and the Next Generation of Enlightenment and God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness & Embodied Spiritual Practice

“A deeply important contribution to all those interested in contemplative practice. At the same time, Rabbi Gold facilitates a profound connection to the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition illustrating their continued relevance to contemporary Judaism.”
—Rabbi Jeff Roth, author, Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life: Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God

“Combines the insight of a seeker, the textual knowledge of a rabbi, the clarity of a gifted teacher and the voice of a creative composer.... This moving volume provides sufficient guidance for a beginner while taking more advanced practitioners to new heights.”
—Rabbi David Teutsch, Wiener Professor of Contemporary Jewish Civilization and director, Levin-Lieber Program in Jewish Ethics, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; author, Spiritual Community: The Power to Restore Hope, Commitment and Joy

“Shefa Gold has transcribed the music and meaning of Hebrew chant onto the pages of this book. Yet the experience of these chants flows off the page and connects you to the Jewish past and this very moment.”
—Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, author, A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice

From the Publisher

In three-part harmony, a group of more than 50 people—mostly women, mostly middle-aged and older—began chanting a verse from Leviticus: Aish tamid tukad al hamizbei'ach; lo tichbeh ("Fire always shall be kept burning on the altar; it shall not go out").

They were led by Rabbi Shefa Gold, who added an overlay of harmony, drumming, and the droning sound of an accordion-like "shruti box."

As the chant continued, it grew more intensely spiritual, less self-conscious, louder, and more harmonious.

For three hours on May 19, Gold led participants at Bnai Keshet in Montclair in what she called a “circumcision of the heart”—or healing of the spirit based on rituals drawn from the esoteric boundaries of Jewish tradition. Gold, a leader of Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, is the author of a new book, The Magic of Hebrew Chant (Jewish Lights, 2013).

Sponsored by Bnai Keshet with nearby Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, the event attracted members of other area synagogues, representing each of the liberal streams, and a handful of people not affiliated with a congregation.

Some had chanted before, while others were having their first experience.

Among the group were at least two rabbis, a cantor, a cantorial soloist, and a rabbinical student, as well as a handful of graduates from Kol Zimra, the 18-month program for chant leaders run by Gold, now in its sixth year. Her lessons draw on the history of Jewish chant, from the cantillation used in the public recitation of the Torah to the nigunim, or wordless melodies, sung by hasidim, to her own compositions.

Gold, who is originally from Paramus but now lives in New Mexico, writes that her interest in chant was spurred by a meeting with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, a proponent of Jewish mysticism, while she was in rabbinical school.

“I felt inundated by the sheer volume of texts and teachings, codes and midrash, Talmud, Mishna, Gemara, commentaries, and then commentaries on those commentaries,” she writes in her new book. “I am drawn toward simplicity in my spiritual practice, and I was struggling each day against what seemed like endless Jewish ramblings, thousands of years of accumulated clutter. I was drowning.”

Responded Kushner: “You only have to deal with one little bit at a time,” a directive that led her on a search for rituals capable, as she writes elsewhere, of “transforming the words of liturgy into doorways.”

Among these was attaching a specific purpose to each chant. Leading a chant based on Psalm 101:2 (“I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart”), Gold explained that she was working through an experience of feeling wronged by someone who insisted on being right.

When a chant is successful, she said, the practitioner moves from a self-conscious place to another place altogether, which she described as, “I'm chanting, I’m chanting, I’m chanting, I’m chanting…. Who’s that chanting?”

During a break, participant Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu of Teaneck spoke about her own worship practice.

“Sometimes I just want to focus on a few words; I just want to chant for a while,” said Sirbu, director of Rabbis Without Borders at CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. “Sometimes on Shabbat, chanting is all I want or need, but sometimes, a full worship service is just what I want or need.”

New Jersey Jewish News - Johanna Ginsberg