Raffi's Page o' 'riginal Songs
Still better than the back of the cereal box
Recently I've started composing my own songs and chants for my own singing pleasure, and that of anyone else who cares to join in.  Here is a page where I'll be sharing these songs with said people.  Many of these are still works in progress.  If anyone has suggestions about how to tweak a particular song, feel free to call me up and sing with me.  Wheee!

(*Note: I don't have great recording equipment right now - not everyone is Shir-Yaakov - so deal with it.)


Gam Ki Eilech
This is one of the first songs I created and so far also one of my favorites. Very relaxing. Also kind of haunting. The words come from Psalm 23, a common seudah-shlishit song.

גם כי אילך בגיא צלמות לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי. שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמני
Gam ki eilech b'gei tzalmavet lo ira ra ki ata imadi. Shivtecha u'mishantecha hema yenachamuni.
Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I shall not fear evil for You stand with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.



Esa Einai
This is also one of the first songs I "wrote," and is therefore not so great, I think. It's meant to be a three-part round, but someone pointed out to me that the first two parts are almost identical. So I'm open to consultation on this one. The words come from Psalm 121, another fairly common song.

אשא עיני אל ההרים מאין יבוא עזרי
עזרי מעם ה' עושה שמים וארץ
אל יתן למוט רגלך, אל ינום שומריך. הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל

Esa einai el he'harim, me'ayin yavo ezri. (x2)
Ezri me'im Hashem, (x3) oseh shamayim va'aretz.
Al yiten lamot raglecha, al yanum shomrecha. Hineh lo yanum ve'lo yishan shomer yisrael.

I cast my eyes to the hills, from where shall come my help. My help [comes] from God, Maker of heaven and Earth. He shall not allow your feet to falter; your Guardian shall not slumber. Behold, He shall not slumber and shall not sleep, the Guardian of Israel.



Yihiyu Leratzon
Not particularly original, but creative, at least! This is Yihiyu Leratzon, Psalms 19:15, plus the familiar Oseh Shalom as they are paired together at the end of the Amidah (silent prayer). I sung them to "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis�rables, which is an absolutely show-stopping song, and which I thought of one day when I sang the first few words - "God on high..." - and decided that this would make a good pairing. (Notw: I used the Reconstructionist reconstruction of Oseh Shalom here just because it fit better. Hope nobody minds.)

יהיו לרצון אמרי פי, והגיון לבי לפניך, ה' צורי וגאלי
עושה שלום במרומיו, הוא יעשה שלום עלינו ועל כל ישראל ועל כל יושבי תבל ואמרו אמן

Yihiyu leratzon imrei fi, ve'hegyon libi lefanecha Ado-nai tzuri ve'goali.
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu yaaseh shalom aleinu, ve'al kol yisrael, ve'al kol yoshvei tevel, ve'imru amen.

May it be according to His will the words of my mouth and the inner thoughts of my heart, God, my Rock and my Redeemer. He Who makes peace in High Places, make He make peace upon us, and upon all Israel, and upon all the inhabitants of the world, and let us say amen.



Ahava
Oooh, I like this one. Okay, yes, I like them all, fine. This one is actually a group meditation type of thing. The idea is that you're with a group of people, and we all relax for a bit, we close our eyes (if we so desire), and everyone takes a deep breath. Then, as everyone exhales, we sing out the word ahava each time until we expend our breath. Then together, we inhale again, and sing out again. If we're all together on one note, you get this amazing resonance feeling in your chest, where you can actually feel the group singing together, or else you can shoot for a beautiful multi-harmony thing. It's great.

אהבה
Ahava.
Love.



Ashrei
Finally! A tune you can use for Ashrei! I know one other one that doesn't suck, and that one only takes care of the first line (Shefa Gold's delightful chant - you can actually find it and other great ones here). Then there's the standard one we all grew up with, and also I've heard some people sing it to the crappy old-fashioned An'im Zmirot tune, which also doesn't so much peel my potato. So, I think this one's pretty good. Open to commentary, though.

Psalm 145. Look it up your darn self.



Uvikashtem
As far as I know, this doesn't have any other tunes attached to it. It's a verse in Parashat Va'Etchanan (Deuteronomy 4:29) that really spoke to me, so I decided it needed a melody as well. It says that no matter how distant you might feel from God at any point in your life, no matter how far you might feel you've sunk - there is always a way back. All you have to do is seek it - with all your heart and with all your soul.

 ובקשתם משם את ה' אלקיך ומצאת כי תדרשנו בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך
Uvikashtem misham et Hashem Elokeichem u'matzata ki tidreshenu bechol levav'cha u'vechol nafshecha.
And you shall seek from there Hashem your God and you shall find [Him], if only you demand it with all your heart and with all your soul.



Kol Ado-nai
I was looking at some really peaceful water when I thought of this. God rocks. I'm not sure how done this one is. It's intended to be one of those lots-of-people-together-make-nice-harmonies-over-and-over-again type of chants. But I find those are real ard to conceive of by yourself. *Shrug.* This is culled (non-sequentially) from Psalm 29.

קול ה' על המים, קול ה' בהדר
Kol Ado-nai al ha'mayim. Kol Ado-nai be'hadar.
The voice of God is upon the waters. The voice of God is in beauty.



Moneh Mispar
Same as the last one - this is a simple melody that I'm hoping will work when lots of people get together and harmonize. This is definitely a work in progress. This is also another verse that I don't think has any melodies previously attached to it. It comes from Psalm 147, a regular in the morning Pesukei D'Zimrah. It's also another verse close to my heart. It says that in our deepest moments of helplessness and insignificance, we are not alone - there are billions of "stars" out there, but God counts each one, gives each one a name. He knows you, He knows me, personally, lovingly, and He won't forget or forsake us.
Moneh Mispar (harmonized)
This was me playing around with a cool program I got. This is a little bit what the song would sound like with a couple harmonies tossed in.

מונה מספר לכוכבים, לכלם שמות יקרא
Moneh mispar lacochavim, le'chulam shemot yikra.
He enumerates the stars; to each one He gives a name.



Anachnu HaChomer
This is yet another verse I found floating around the morning prayers that I had never heard of before and I certainly don't think anyone else sings it, but I think it's a beautiful verse, though more for the imagery here than the anything else. It comes from the extended morning tachanun, which is quoting (up until the last three words) Isaiah 64:7. (The last three words are liturgical and not Biblical.)

אנחנו החומר ואתה יוצרינו, ומעשה ידך אנחנו. הושיענו למען שמך
Anachnu hachomer ve'atah yotzreinu, u'maaseh yadcha anachnu. Hoshieinu lema'an shmecha.
We are the clay and You are our Molder, and the work of Your hands are we; Save us for the sake of Your Name.



L�David Mizmor
posted 1/24/05
The first few lines of Psalm 24. This is the psalm-of-the-day for Sunday, and also what we say on weekdays (Mondays and Thursdays) when we return the Torah to the ark after reading from it. I was inspired to write a tune for it after hearing the rabbi sing it on Yom Kippur this year and really pour his heart into it: the words are absolutely beautiful.

לדוד מזמור, לה' הארץ ומלואה, תבל ויושבי בה
מי יעלה בהר ה', ומי יקום במקום קדשו? נקי כפים ובר לבב, אשר לא נשא לשוא נפשי

L�David mizmor, l�Hashem ha�aretz umelo�ah, tevel v�yoshvei vah.
Mi ya�aleh behar Hashem, umi yakum bimkom kodsho? Neki chapayim ubar levav, asher lo nasa lashav nafshi.

A psalm of David:
For God is the land and all that fills it, the world and all its inhabitants.
Who shall ascend the mountain of God, and who shall stand in the place of His holiness?
Only one of clean hands and pure heart, who has not borne my name in vain.



Mizmor L'David
posted 2/18/05
This is all of Psalm 23 (which means you'll have to look up the words yourself again), part of which also used in another song above. It's a pretty well-known psalm, the one with the shepherd and the lying down beside still waters. We Jews like to sing it a lot at the third Sabbath meal, which traditionally has a very quiet and somber mood, which I think this tune fits very nicely.



 VeShamru
posted 3/1/05
A common passage from the Friday-night liturgy. This is less of a song and more of a chant, I guess. I don't really see a group of people getting round a belting this one out. But I just kind of strung it together and I rather like the way it sounds. Maybe I'll use it one day when I'm leading the service.

ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת, לעשות את השבת לדורותם ברית עולם, ביני ובין בני ישראל אות היא לעולם, כי ששת ימים עשה יי את השמים ואת הארץ, וביום שבת וינפש
Veshamru b'nei yisrael et hashabat, la'asot et hashabat ledorotam brit olam, beini uvein b'nei yisrael, ot hi le'olam, ki sheshet yamim asah ado-nai et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, uvayom hashvi'i shavat vayinafash.
And the Children of Israel shall guard the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath for their generations, a covenant for all time, between Me and the Children of Israel, it is a sign for all time, for in six days did God create the Heavens and the Earth, and on the seventh day He ceased and rested.



Od Yishama
posted 4/11/05
This is the standard song Jews sing when someone gets engaged or married. I was inspired to write a new tune for it after we once sang through the two most common tunes, and then someone commented, "Those are the only two tunes for that song anyone knows!" So I wrote this one. Didn't come out as good as I wanted it to, but not bad, I think.

עוד ישמע בהרי יהודה ובחוצות ירושלים קול ששון וקול שמחה, קול חתן וקול כלה
Od yishama beharei Yehuda, uvechutzot Yerushalayim kol sasson vekol simcha, kol chatan vekol kallah.
Still there will be heard in the mountains of Judaea and in the outskirts of Jerusalem the call of mirth and the call of happiness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.



Camah Maalot Tovot
posted 4/11/05
This comes from the Pesach Haggadah. It's usually a throwaway line, something we quickly say before diving into the popular "Dayenu" song. I figured it deserved a more exciting recognition.

 כמה מעלות טובות למקום עלינו
Camah maalot tovot LaMakom aleinu.
How many greatnesses has the Omnipresent One done for us!



Moadim L'Simcha
posted 5/2/05
The words for this song are pieced together from the festival kiddush. I thought they were nice words that weren't done enough justice by a nice tune, so I fixed one up for them.

 ותתן לנו מועדים לשמחה, חגים וזמנים לששון
Vatiten lanu moadim le'simcha, chagim u'zmanim lesasson.
And You have given us occasions for happiness, holidays and times for mirth.



Alatz Libi
posted 7/11/05
Found this doozie (the verse, that is) while reading through the book of prophets. I Samuel 2:1, to be specific. Chanah, after years of praying for a son, sings jubilantly that God has answered her prayers.

 עלץ לבי בה', רמה קרני בה', רחב פי על אויבי כי שמחתי בישועתך
Alatz libi Bashem, ramah karni Bashem, rachav pi al oyvai ki samachti biyshu'atecha.
My heart is elated in God, my [pride]* is raised in God, my mouth is open wide upon my enemies because I have been happy in your salvation.
*There's really just not good translation for this word. It's translated as "pride," loosely, or more literally as "horn," but near as I can tell, it doesn't mean anything at all.
**Note: You may notice from here on out some not-so-good sound quality. I'm also replacing some old files with similar, lousy-sounding files. This is because I am running out of space on this account and using these smaller files helps conserve space. Sorry, folks.



Gesher Tzar Me'od
posted 7/11/05
This is a pretty well-known song, at least the original version. I got really sick of it 'cause everyone sings it all the time, so I wrote a new version. It's probably not as good as the one everyone knows, and I don't expect it to catch on any time soon, but I kinda like it. (The words come from Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav. The popular tune was written by Rabbi Baruch Chait.)

כל העולם כלו גשר צר מאד, והעיקר לא לפחד כלל
Kol ha'olam kulo gesher tzar me'od, veha'ikar lo lefached klal.
The whole world is a very narrow bridge, and the main thing is not to fear at all.



Mizbeach Evneh
posted 9/12/05
I came across these words in reading a book on prayer, wherein the author cited this piece which is from the "Song of Unity" from Yom Kippur (the Sunday song, as a matter of fact). I thought the words were so beautiful, they deserved a song. The two sentences are not *quite* consecutive, but close enough.

מזבח אבנה בשברון לבי, ואשברה אף רוחי בקרבי
שברי רוחי הם זבחיך, יעלו לרצון על מזבחך

Mizbeach evneh beshivron ruchi, va'ashabrah af ruchi bekirbi
Shivrei ruchi hem zevachecha, Ya'alu leratzon al mizbechacha.
An altar I will build with the breakage of my heart, and I shall break even my spirit inside me. The broken pieces of my spirit are your offerings; may they rise to Your will on Your altar.



Ki Mitzion
posted 1/27/06
This is what we say when taking out the Torah. It's a verse from Micah 4:2 plus an abbreviated blessing. It actually already has a couple of popular tunes, but this one sort of came to me out of nowhere. It's kind of different.

כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר ה' מירושלים
ברוך שנתן תורה לעמו ישראל בקדושתו
Ki mitzion tetze Torah udvar Hashem miYerushalayim.
Baruch Shenatan Torah le'amo Yisrael b'kdushato.
For from Zion shall Torah go forth, and the word of God from Jerusalem. Blessed is He who gave Torah to His nation Israel in His holiness.



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