Welcome to the Omer, a counting period between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot! Once again, Dayenu is sharing songs and writing of resilience from Jewish climate movement artists.
For more wonderful resources, check out Dayenu’s Climate Arts & Music.
Find all the full recordings on our Youtube channel, and be sure to follow us on social media for timely updates:
Week One: Chesed
This first week’s theme is Chesed, or ever-expanding loving-kindness. Here’s Rachel Chang and Aly Halpert singing the incredibly gorgeous song, “Heart of Mine” by Cantor Marsha Attie.
Amidst so much heartbreak, may we carry this reminder to “take the time to feel the sadness / love is always near / it seems they go together.” We have what we need in each other to make it through.
Week Two: Gevurah
Week two’s theme is Gevurah, or justice/strength/boundaries. For this week, we have Yoni Battat singing his song, “Hineini,” a meditation on presence and hereness.
What can help you tune in to what is most important? Showing up with all our grief and all our courage, all our vision and strength, sometimes requires paring down to the most simple things – our breath, our laughter, our song.
Week Three: Tiferet
The theme is Tiferet, or beauty/harmony/balance.
Hope is a balancing act – we reach towards the beauty of the world and say, this is worth continuing to fight for.
Enjoy Sarina Partridge singing her song, “I belong,” and sharing a loose ASL interpretation. As Robin Wall Kimmerer so beautifully teaches, our inherent belonging to the earth allows us to root deeper in our actions to protect all living beings. In the week of Tiferet, may you notice all of the natural beauty that you belong to, and notice the desire to take action that can stem from it!
Week Four: Netzach
Our fourth week’s theme is Netzach, or endurance/resilience.
This week, we have Joshua Blaine singing his setting of “Min Hameitzar,” a song for crying out. Joshua sings, “To you I call/feeling scared and small/And you answer me with the vastness of the sky.” In order to endure and build a world where everyone thrives, we need to be able to call out for help, whether that is to each other or our ancestors or to the divine.
May you be blessed this week with sensing the ground beneath you and the sky above.
Week Four: Netzach
Our sixth week’s theme is Yesod, or foundations. Our song this week comes from Rabbi Yosef Goldman and is an 11th century Andalusian poem and Turkish melody called “Kol Beruei”. Rabbi Yosef shares that the meaning of this mystical poem is about returning to the strength and wholeness that has always lived within us, and about celebrating the great diversity of all creation – how everything interwoven is a vital piece of the whole.
This week, may we remember that each of us and everything that lives is an irreplaceable part of our foundation.
