As Simcha Bunim of Peshischa taught, we hold always a piece of paper in each of our pockets and on one it is written “I am dust and ashes,” and on the other is written “For my sake the world was created.”

And so, I offer this raw recording of Ms. Parton’s deep Torah (as sung into my iPhone while rehearsing at home). And I invite you to join me in aspiring to lead not only from our wholeness but from our brokenness as well:

Did I just reference Dolly Parton and Simcha Bunim on the same page?

Yes, yes I did.

}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

My new CD, “at the edge of the unknown” is all about bringing our whole selves into song. Its twelve songs are quite simply the most love and Torah I could squeeze onto one shiny plastic disc. If you’d like your own copy, you can pre-order it using the “buy now” button.

The title track bespeaks my sense of the edge of the unknown as a place of both uncertainty and unlimited possibility. Enjoy!

For me song has always been a tool of growth and liberation and that’s why I couldn’t be prouder to be celebrating the CD’s release with a concert to benefit Berks Women in Crisis. BWIC is dedicated to helping women stuck in the grips of domestic violence find their own voices and make positive changes in their lives and the lives of their children. Can’t make the May 16th concert? Sign up in the box on the right, and I’ll be sure to let you know when the concert recording is available.

My new CD, “at the edge of the unknown” is all about bringing our whole selves into song. Its twelve songs are quite simply the most love and Torah I could squeeze onto one shiny plastic disc. Order your own copy by using the “buy now” button. The title track bespeaks my sense of the edge of the unknown as a place of both uncertainty and unlimited possibility. Enjoy!

For me song has always been a tool of growth and liberation and that’s why I couldn’t be prouder to be celebrating the CD’s release with a concert to benefit Berks Women in Crisis. BWIC is dedicated to helping women stuck in the grips of domestic violence find their own voices and make positive changes in their lives and the lives of their children. Please join us on May 16!

You can buy tickets here.

Jill Bolte Taylor teaches that every one of us has the ability to choose to cultivate wholeness in our minds…if we are willing to make that choice 1,000 times every day. Inspired by this teaching, I asked the folks at the assisted living and at the hospital to share with the group one thing that reminds them that peace and wholeness are possible. They shared some amazing and touching images, memories, and practices which you can hear in the song’s verses.

At our Passover seders, we remember and retell experiences of stuck-ness and liberation: our own and those of our people. Working with the students in my “Finding Our Songs” class, people who have lost so much and have such songs to sing, is a humbling and uplifting reminder of the strength each of us has to choose to believe in Infinite Possibility right in the moment — even when our larger choices about life may be quite limited.

Have a listen to The Chametz Song!

It’s singable enough for all ages, yet grown-up enough to say what I really want to say:

Chametz is the stuff, that makes us feel all puffed up
I feel different from you, when I’ve got that chametz-view

So I’m gonna find it (find it)
Burn it (burn it)
Turn it into nothing (nothin’!)

Pride and shame, at their heart they are the same
They may be different in tone, but they both make me feel alone

I want to be free, I wanna be loved just for being me
Chametz-free, yes it’s true, also helps me love you for being you!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{

If you listen closely, you can hear my parents singing back-up. Enjoy!

My soon-to-be-released album “at the edge of the unknown” is an eclectic mix of my various songwriting styles, from deeply rooted singer-songwriter fare to genre-troubling pieces like this one.

“Dig Deeper” begins with a quote from Pirkei Avot, an ancient collection of Jewish wisdom. In it we learn: “Ben Bag-Bag used to say of the Torah: ‘Turn it and turn it again, for everything is in it.’” The English lyrics are a combination of my own words and the Book of Proverbs’ description of Torah as “a tree of life to those who hold fast to her.”

People often ask me whether I read the Bible literally. I generally respond that, in my lineage, reading the Bible literally means that one is failing to take the Bible seriously enough. Instead, Torah demands that we do just as good ol’ Ben Bag-Bag used to say and keep turning and turning the words of Torah, dancing with Torah, wrestling with it, wresting from it the deepest juiciness that it has to offer.

How do you dig deeper?

In my own work, I’m more and more curious about how I think about money (the money I give/spend and the money I receive). Might singing and money have some common ground? As you can hear in the interview, Tara dove right in and helped me think about how money, just like singing, might be something that can create a healing (rather than a harming) connection between people. I think the biggest piece of wisdom that we surfaced in our conversation was about the fallacy (I would even call it idolatry) of thinking of ourselves in terms of what we are worth.

Attending the Art of Earning LIVE with Tara was one way for me to connect with other thinkers and artists and creative entrepreneurs.  I’m excited to go into greater depth about all of these issues and to explore how I might grow my own work in the world in ways that are in integrity with my own values and truths.

Talking with Tara left me with my heart jumping up and down, delightedly anticipating all the wonderful travelers I know I will continue to meet on this journey.  Could one of them be you?

(a wee bit of Shawn Colvin’s “Diamond in the Rough” as sung into my iPhone in a luxuriously reverberant stairway)

Using Kickstarter to raise the funds for my new album, and thereby inviting others into the album-making process, has taught me one part of the answer to that question.  There I was in the recording studio the other day when my phone rang and my text message buzzer buzzed with dear ones letting me know that my Kickstarter project had reached its goal. Seeing the number of backers and the number of dollars add up, receiving this kind of support for bringing my songs into the world feels like filling up the fuel tanks on that huge machine.  I am so grateful to every one of my 123 backers.

Whether they contributed $1 or $1800 they have given me not only their money — and used email and Facebook and Twitter and podcast waves and word of mouth to bring others in as well — they have provided a clear sense of fellowship in this (otherwise potentially isolating) process. We (yes, we! I and all 123 stakeholders) are 104.5% funded and very much looking forward to being able to put these funds to good use: studio time, album design, pressing, printing, postage.

If you’d like to be kept abreast of this and other projects as they unfold, please put your email address in the little box on the sidebar where it says “Care to hear from me?”  In the meantime, I continue to brim with gratitude for each and every one of the 123 luscious souls who are helping me give voice to the songs that move through me.

We brought it on home and wrapped up the Kickstarter phase of my new album.

Now it’s on to the next phases of this wonderful birthing process: finishing the recording, getting the CD itself together, sending goodies to all my Kickstarter backers, and having a CD release concert to benefit Berks Women in Crisis (May 16th! Stay tuned for more info on that)!

“The Land of Love” was written last March. It was inspired in part by the synergy of preparations for Pesach (Passover, when we retell the ancient story of moving from slavery into freedom) and enjoying Martha Beck‘s concept of learning to tune in to which experiences in life give us a feeling of having shackles on and which give us a feeling of those shackles falling away. Hint: Aim toward having more experiences that give you a “shackles off” feeling. So, this song is a way of calling myself and all of us to our truest home: the wandering wilderness of infinite possibility.

Using Kickstarter to raise funds for the new album has definitely been a “shackles off” experience.

I feel heartened by the 123 people who backed me and helped me reach my goal. It’s a money goal, but it’s also much more deeply a goal of inviting the world to support bringing this new creation into being. It’s a way of inviting you to journey with me, always, toward the “land of love.”

Here we go!

How often do you get to witness this kind of raw work from an artist in any medium? I welcome your feedback (artistically, producerly, spiritually, and otherwise) and the offer to refer a friend to back me on Kickstarter still stands.  They get the satisfaction of backing me, you get extra goodies.

About the song: “These are the words” was written as a final assignment for the class I took on the Book of Deuteronomy in my last year of rabbinical school.   All semester we looked at Deuteronomy as the words that Moses wanted to leave the people who were about to journey on without him.  To do this, Deuteronomy retells previously told stories seemingly for the purpose of imparting some kind of lesson and giving us something to carry with us.  Our wonderful teacher, Dr. Judith Kates, told us to look back at our time in rabbinical school and retell the story of that journey “Deuteronomically.”  My musings took me even further back to tell an origin story about songwriting itself and its healing and transformative role in my life. 

A Kickstarter update: As of this writing, I have 67 backers and have raised $4388 toward my goal of $7000.  Many thanks to all my backers…now get your friends on board!