Hands touching hands, Reaching out - new video!
Yedid Nefesh - יְדִיד נֶפֶשׁ
Yedid Nefesh - Click to Watch!
Rabbi Josh Warshawsky and the Chaverai Nevarech Band
Guest Teachers!
As we spotlight each of the melodies in the coming weeks, I invite you to learn from the words of some of my teachers and mentors throughout the years. I am only where I am today because of the help and guidance I have received from them. They have supported me - offered advice, honest critique, suggestions, wisdom, and Torah. I asked a few of my teachers if they would be willing to share words of Torah and Kavanah (intention) about the music and the texts from Chaverai Nevarech Vol. II. A short bio will follow each post. Thank you to my teachers - you have made me who I am!
Rav Todot (much gratitude) and Shabbat Shalom,
Josh
Hands Reaching Out by Jon Adam Ross (JAR)
One of my most cherished memories comes from the audience in a theater, many years ago, where during a heartbreaking and personal scene on stage, my father reached for my mother’s hand at the same time that her hand reached for his. I’d never seen anything like that before, in its subtlety and power and mutuality. Two souls, reaching for each other. I’m reminded of that moment, and the power of reaching for mutual love, in the words of Yedid Nefesh.
I grew up knowing Yedid Nefesh as the first moment of Shabbat, like that first reunion hug after a long time apart (I think of those viral videos of children hugging their parents who return home from military deployment). By Friday afternoon, it’s been a busy week of work, logistics, traffic, family, activity, and life. And now we’re finally ready to crawl into safe space with our beloved, with our partner, our lover. That privilege, to have such love for another, isn’t taken for granted in the words of Yedid Nefesh. “Please” makes more than one appearance in the text. The entire poem is a request, an invitation, a proposal with desperate hope for requital.
And the music of Josh’s interpretation does unique justice to that plaintiveness. Having sung this version of Yedid Nefesh with 600 of my closest friends at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin by the lake on a Friday evening, I can attest to the power of the music’s upward lilt, framed as a request but containing the kavanah (intention) of devotional partnership and collective ardor. The poetry of Yedid Nefesh can be articulated in the image of a hand, reaching out for the hand of lover. A hand at the end of an arm connected to a body that contains a soul, reaching out to another, longing for mutuality. Just like that moment in the theater all those years ago: my parents, manifesting the words of Yedid Nefesh through the light gesture of love.
Jon Adam Ross is managing director and founding artist of The In[heir]itance Project, a national arts non-profit that creates space for communities to navigate challenging civic conversations through collaborative theater projects inspired by inherited texts, traditions, cultures, customs, and beliefs. As an actor, Jon has performed in over 90 cities around the globe. His stage credits include: a dog, a 2,000-year-old bird, an elderly orthodox Jew, a spurned housewife, a horse, a British naval officer in 1700s Jamaica, a goat, Jesus Christ, a lawyer, a wrestler, a hapless police chief, and a cyclops. Jon holds a BFA in Acting from NYU/Tisch. www.inheiritance.org
Stream Chaverai Nevarech Vol. II wherever you find your music by clicking here!