In the south, we have entered the place of strength and community. We are no longer a child and we must take a place in the world between the other adults. The south is the place of relationships and activity. To express the south’s qualities of interconnectedness and interaction between people, I chose a canon in which the melody can weave through itself in various ways. I learned the melody in a dream: a Chasidic rebbe was singing it to me. The words are the introduction to one of the most important Hebrew prayers, the amidah, which is spoken at the beginning and at the end of each day. The meditation reminds us that our words have meaning and carry weight. We must use our words with awareness and care.
adonai sefatai tiftach, ufi yagid tehilatecha
shechina, sefatai tiftechi, ufi yagid tehilateych
creator, open my lips and my mouth will sing your praise
shechinah, open my lips and my mouth will sing your praise
In this version of the meditation, the first line starts with the masculine ‘adonai’ (lord), the second with ‘shechinah’, which expresses the (mostly hidden) feminine side of god. My own voice weaves together with Galitta Tassa’s voice (for more about Galitta, see track 3), to a background of many people talking.
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