A Shabbat of Song: Vol. IV Out Now (Shabbat Shirah 5785)

A prayer and a song for all who are weary to find rest and joy

Yom Shabbaton - Rabbi Josh Warshawsky Featuring the Chaverai Nevarech Band

Chaverai Nevarech Volume IV Out Now!

This album is truly a culmination of everything we have created so far with Chaverai Nevarech. Volume I back in 2018 was truly live and alive at the Pico Union Project. In 2022 with Volumes II and III we headed into the studio to add even more to the musicality and the production which I hope you could hear, but we missed our live audience and community. This past June, we gathered with community at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles for a truly incredible live recording experience, but brought the entire recording studio with us, hoping we could find a way to have the best of both worlds. I believe we achieved everything we were hoping for and more. This is the best music we’ve ever made, and I can’t wait for you to hear it.

Thank you so much to our executive producers, Marc and Susan Sacks and the Beck Family Charitable Foundation, and to our Album Sponsors Janna and Keith Berk and the Neshamah Project. Thank you also to our incredible track sponsors, listed in the liner notes picture below. Thank you to my incredible team: Coleen, Brock, Jeremy, Ayo, Patrick, Mayta, Chava, Noah, Zach, Rebecca, and Kiel for bringing your hearts and souls and voices to this project.

Click this button to listen and watch wherever you find your music:

Yom Shabbaton - Lay Down Your Weary Head

Our featured track on the album art and in today’s video is Yom Shabbaton - an 11th century Shabbat Zemer (table song) written by Yehudah Halevi, which is why the first letters of all of the verses spell out Yehudah. I love this song, we sang it as my daughter Jona was born into Shabbat two years ago. The chorus invites all of us in:

“Yona matz’a vo mano’ach, v’sham yanuchu yegi’ei koach”
“The wandering dove finds her nest… in you (Shabbat) all who toil find a place to rest”

At my synagogue and whenever I pray with a community to welcome in Shabbat, the question I always ask is: “What do you need from Shabbat this week, and what can you do to help ready yourself to receive Shabbat in that way?”

This week is Shabbat Shirah, when we read of our Exodus and redemption and crossing the sea as a people leaving Egypt. A few years ago, I wrote this prayer below to recite this week before the ark, and I wanted to share it with all of you as it is still relevant to me today:

This Shabbat, like every Shabbat, we are on a journey. But this week’s journey is different. This week we stand on one side of the sea, with our enemies at our backs, uncertain how to move forward. God, only you, and each person themself knows what sea lies in front of each one of us, but I know so many of us have felt at one point or another, perhaps even today, that the obstacle in front of us is insurmountable, and the enemy behind us, in the past, is too fearsome. We are stuck. Help us find the courage today. Help us find the words to pray, and help us find the strength to act. When the people of Israel complained to Moses and Moses called out to You, You said, “מה תצעק אלי? דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו”

“Why are you yelling at me? Talk to the people and set forth. Go!” Help us find the strength to take the first step into uncertainty, believing that You and those who love us will be there for us like the walls of the sea, on our right and on our left. Help us remember that we are never alone, our strength is in our song. This we ask of You today, as we cross this sea together.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, The core emotions of this entire album are joy, hope, and love. We need more radical joy, we need more audacious hope, we need more unflinching love. I can’t wait for you to hear this music. Please listen and share!

Shabbat Shalom,

Josh

If you missed the first single, Ahavah Rabbah, you can watch here:

Album Liner Notes - Thank you to our track sponsors!!