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Authors: Adam Byrn Tritt
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that. When I
tell them we’ll be chanting for an hour
or so, still more leave. I tell them it won’t
feel like an hour. That they will wonder
where the time went but people want
fast, instant results and they want them
easy. They want to slouch in a chair and
attain enlightenment from watching
other people sing for five minutes. Good
luck.
The last rule is everyone comes to the
center. I set up four chairs in the middle
of what will be our circle and, at some
point, each person comes to the center
to sit and have the rest of us sing around
them, letting them feel the sound, the
vibration, the harmony. I often have a
person help me make sure everyone gets
their chance. I joke that I call her my
shill. I tell them, at some point, I’ll be
going to the center as well and, please,
please, they should not stop chanting
98
The Harmony of Broken Glass
just because I have. Always people laugh
at this. The twenty or so people who
remained did exactly that—laughed.
The group had been culled and we were
ready to start.
The chants are short and simple. We learned
the first one by listening to me say it once,
then the group repeating after me. Then say-
ing it with me. Then I sing it on my own and
we sing it once together. That’s it. No lengthy
process. Nothing written on paper until the
end of the workshop. The first time I taught
this I passed out the chants, with their trans-
lations, on paper before we started. Then,
with the chants written down, people read
them over and over instead of singing, look-
ing at the paper the entire time.
People worried about losing the words.
They always do. Don’t worry, I tell them.
There is power in the tune itself. Hum, tone,
sing dai de dai like we have all heard rabbis do. The tunes have lasted a thousand years.
Two thousand years. There is power in the
sound. Never worry about the words.
99
Adam Byrn Tritt
We sang our first chant, all in our circle,
four times. It was practice, it was invocation,
it was lovely.
Hineyni
Osah (oseh) et atzmi
Merkavah l’Sh’kinah
Merkavah l’Sh’kinah
Hineyni is “here I am.” Oseh ( Osah for the guys in the group) et atzmi is “I make myself become.” Merkavah is a chariot. Sh’kinah is, literally, the Presence, but a distinctly femi-nine manifestation of the divine presence, so
“Goddess” is a good translation. But not a par-
ticular Goddess, however, and definitely not
the word for small-g goddesses. That’s what
Craig R. Smith told me, at least. And I believe
him.
Here’s how Shelly translated it:
Here I am!
I make myself
A chariot for the Goddess.
I like that. That’s how I translated it then.
That’s how I translate it now.
100
The Harmony of Broken Glass
We learned the next chant.
Ana
El na’
R’fa na lah
That simple. I sing it once through before
telling them what it means:
Please
Strong One, oh please
Heal the world (all)(nature) please.
Here is what Craig says about it:
Ana and na’ both mean “please,”
loosely. It’s somewhere between beg-
ging and pleading and a demand, so
it’s closer to “oh please, NOW!” El ,
one of the words translated “God,”
means “strong one.” It’s the same root
as other strong words. For example,
the word ayil is a ram (strong one of
the flock), ayal is a stag (strong one of the forest) and eyal is strength. R’fa means “to heal.” Tradition teaches
that prayer need not be lengthy or
101
Adam Byrn Tritt
elaborate. This is the earliest known
Jewish prayer for healing, uttered by
Moses as a petition on behalf of his
sister, Miriam: “ El na, refa na lah ,
God, please heal her, please.” Lah is
“her,” and the Kabbalists say this is to
be expanded to all of nature.
The chant is done four times, steady, rising,
steady, falling, then starts over again, again,
again, again, again. Ten minutes, twenty min-
utes. An hour. Voices rise and fall. Voices high and low. Melding,
tell them we’ll be chanting for an hour
or so, still more leave. I tell them it won’t
feel like an hour. That they will wonder
where the time went but people want
fast, instant results and they want them
easy. They want to slouch in a chair and
attain enlightenment from watching
other people sing for five minutes. Good
luck.
The last rule is everyone comes to the
center. I set up four chairs in the middle
of what will be our circle and, at some
point, each person comes to the center
to sit and have the rest of us sing around
them, letting them feel the sound, the
vibration, the harmony. I often have a
person help me make sure everyone gets
their chance. I joke that I call her my
shill. I tell them, at some point, I’ll be
going to the center as well and, please,
please, they should not stop chanting
98
The Harmony of Broken Glass
just because I have. Always people laugh
at this. The twenty or so people who
remained did exactly that—laughed.
The group had been culled and we were
ready to start.
The chants are short and simple. We learned
the first one by listening to me say it once,
then the group repeating after me. Then say-
ing it with me. Then I sing it on my own and
we sing it once together. That’s it. No lengthy
process. Nothing written on paper until the
end of the workshop. The first time I taught
this I passed out the chants, with their trans-
lations, on paper before we started. Then,
with the chants written down, people read
them over and over instead of singing, look-
ing at the paper the entire time.
People worried about losing the words.
They always do. Don’t worry, I tell them.
There is power in the tune itself. Hum, tone,
sing dai de dai like we have all heard rabbis do. The tunes have lasted a thousand years.
Two thousand years. There is power in the
sound. Never worry about the words.
99
Adam Byrn Tritt
We sang our first chant, all in our circle,
four times. It was practice, it was invocation,
it was lovely.
Hineyni
Osah (oseh) et atzmi
Merkavah l’Sh’kinah
Merkavah l’Sh’kinah
Hineyni is “here I am.” Oseh ( Osah for the guys in the group) et atzmi is “I make myself become.” Merkavah is a chariot. Sh’kinah is, literally, the Presence, but a distinctly femi-nine manifestation of the divine presence, so
“Goddess” is a good translation. But not a par-
ticular Goddess, however, and definitely not
the word for small-g goddesses. That’s what
Craig R. Smith told me, at least. And I believe
him.
Here’s how Shelly translated it:
Here I am!
I make myself
A chariot for the Goddess.
I like that. That’s how I translated it then.
That’s how I translate it now.
100
The Harmony of Broken Glass
We learned the next chant.
Ana
El na’
R’fa na lah
That simple. I sing it once through before
telling them what it means:
Please
Strong One, oh please
Heal the world (all)(nature) please.
Here is what Craig says about it:
Ana and na’ both mean “please,”
loosely. It’s somewhere between beg-
ging and pleading and a demand, so
it’s closer to “oh please, NOW!” El ,
one of the words translated “God,”
means “strong one.” It’s the same root
as other strong words. For example,
the word ayil is a ram (strong one of
the flock), ayal is a stag (strong one of the forest) and eyal is strength. R’fa means “to heal.” Tradition teaches
that prayer need not be lengthy or
101
Adam Byrn Tritt
elaborate. This is the earliest known
Jewish prayer for healing, uttered by
Moses as a petition on behalf of his
sister, Miriam: “ El na, refa na lah ,
God, please heal her, please.” Lah is
“her,” and the Kabbalists say this is to
be expanded to all of nature.
The chant is done four times, steady, rising,
steady, falling, then starts over again, again,
again, again, again. Ten minutes, twenty min-
utes. An hour. Voices rise and fall. Voices high and low. Melding,
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