According to the tradition Jacobson cites in Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Complete Guide to the Art of Cantillation, all the words of The Song of the Sea are sung according to regular Torah trop, except for the words bolded or italicized in this document.
The melody for those particular words is sampled in this sheet music and audible in this recording.
Have you ever felt unsure whether you should use your synagogue’s Women’s Room or its Men’s Room?
This question shocks many people—or sounds irrelevant at first—but not all of my friends can easily decide between sex-segregated bathrooms. It is true that most men can go to a men’s room, and most women can go to a women’s room; however, these restrooms can provoke deep anxieties for trans* people.
To clarify, the term trans* (with that asterisk at the end) is an all-inclusive term referring to people of all sorts of transcending identities—whether that be a person’s sex (physical body), or a person’s gender (social role, acting “feminine” or “masculine,” etc.). Whereas someone’s body may indicate that he is a man, that man may play “feminine” gender roles (perhaps he wears elaborate and colorful clothes, is a stay-at-home parent, acts submissively, does all the cooking and cleaning, etc.). If this man’s “femininity” dominates his life, he might consider himself gender-queer (his gender is “queer” in that it doesn’t match the “traditional” roles of his sex). Being gender-queer is one form of being trans*.
The term trans* is not only about transcending identities, but also transitioning identities. Upon receiving candle sticks on the day of her bat mitzvah ceremony, a 13-year old girl may in fact be embarrassedly self-aware of the body of the man she wants to be 13 years from now. Upon graduating college in 10 years, she might undergo surgery for her upper body so that she can start to look more like the man she always longed to become. When that trans* Jew, being transsexual (transitioning between two sexes), then undergoes surgery for the bottom half of her body, she will fully transition into becoming a trans man.
But, all of these surgeries can be very expensive and emotionally damaging. Many trans* people live without ever going through all of the medical procedures to get the “right” body for their soul. Many trans* people live in transition. It is far easier to be a man who dresses up as a woman (a transvestite) than to be a man who becomes a woman (a trans woman).
All that being said: It is fair to ask why Conservative Jews should be talking about this at all. After all, aren’t most of our congregations egalitarian—meaning gender-equal? Can’t male and female people read Torah and lead services?
Yes, they can. But not all people are as simple as male or female. Some trans* people feel genderfluid—as if they can act more like their male counterparts in some parts of their life, and then they can act more like their female counterparts at other times. Some people don’t feel male or female at all. They feel genderless or non-gendered.
Trans* is the English catch-all word for everybody who’s not fully one and the same sex and gender. We Jews have two key religious terms for this.
The first term, ivri (עברי), the Hebrew word for “a Hebrew person,” literally means “one who is passing,” or “one who is transitioning.” Our father was a wandering Aramean. His offspring—our Biblical ancestors—were always passing between the Land of Israel and the Land of Egypt, or passing along the River Jordan. The ivri has always been defined by a life in transition.
We pronounce the second term Adonai, meaning “My Master,” but we actually don’t know for certain how to pronounce God’s four-letter Hebrew name of yod-heh-vav-heh (י-ה-ו-ה). According to the Biblical scholar William Albright, if we “correctly” pronounce the name (yah-veh, he says), the name means, “God Makes Into Being,” or “God Makes … Become.” God’s very name is The Cause of Transition.
Both God and the Hebrew people are trans*. We are a people guided by our processes of transitioning, of passing through different phases, and of becoming.
In the Kabbalah of the Zohar, God’s celestial body includes a male sexual organ (Yesod) as well as a female womb (Binah). The God of the Hebrew Bible offers the Jews motherly comfort in Isaiah (66:13), and that same God offers to hold the people Israel like a father tightly holds his son (Deuteronomy 1:31). God is simultaneously Shekhinah, a female “Presence,” and Melekh, our “King.”
Our God must be a god of no gender or of all genders. And so too are we, in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), a people of all gender or no gender at all. We are trans*, ivri, passing, Becoming.
Conservative rabbis have performed legal acrobatics to prove that Jewish law supports the full participation and leadership of Jewish women, and they have succeeded. Retroactively, many have commented that we cannot even turn to the Talmud to rule about women today, for modern women are not the same nashim (“women”) that were known 2000 years ago, or even 200 years ago. Today, women work more, are more educated, and move more visibly through the public sphere. The argument goes: Women today are not the nashim of the Talmud. Since the Talmud knows no other language to refer to women, the Talmud has little to say about modern women.
If modern women are indeed gender-queer (not defined) in the eyes of the Talmud, where does that leave modern men if they are the opposite of modern women? Is Jewish law unable to guide the lives of anyone of any gender today?
Perhaps this leaves all of us trans*. Not all of us are transsexual, not all of us are gay, and not all of us are feminists. Yet more and more of each of these kinds of Jews are searching for a spiritual home in a community of other ivriyim (“Hebrews,” or “people in transition”), all wandering in search of meaning and joy, tradition and God.
So back to my first question: Have you ever felt unsure whether you should use your synagogue’s Women’s Room or its Men’s Room?
Statistics indicate that a little less than 1% of people in the USA are transsexual. If we assume that this is true for the whole world, then the Jews still have reason to empathize. After all, we’re also a little less than 1% of the world population. A Jew who can care for any 1% minority is a Jew who can care for the entire Jewish people and more.
7 Ways To Help Trans* People In Our Communities:
Bathrooms
Installing just one single unisex bathroom (even if it be in addition to Men’s and Women’s rooms) will create one more room for a trans* Jew (or a trans* non-Jewish guest or synagogue employee).
Turning 13
In many communities, we would hope that men and women both participate in kiddush and candle lighting. These are both nice gifts. Decide on one gift (or gift-package) to give everybody who reaches the age of mitzvot.
Conversion
When a person immerses into the waters of a mikveh before emerging as a Jew, that person is witnessed by the eyes of a person of the same sex. A transsexual convert—not yet a man or woman—should be consulted on whether to have men, women and/or transsexual witnesses. (This collides with a question in Jewish law to discuss another time: Do Conservative Jews always need men to serve as witnesses so that Conservative Jews can live up to the standards of the Orthodox?)
Women’s League & Men’s Club:
Synagogues rarely host a social club appropriate for a trans* Jew. If a 40s & 50s Conservative Jewish Club group called for a golf outing and a knitting meet-up at the same time, the people who like only golfing or only knitting will go to the correct events. We may want to break down our clubs by ages—not by sex. For those of us who are egalitarian, we may have to ask ourselves why we wouldn’t want women playing golf or men coming for needlepoint? Is this segregation?
Also, when we talk about menopause among women, or impotence among men, we must also remember that not all female people will experience menopause, and not all male people, when naked, will look like “men.”
Blessings
Just as a Jew might get an aliyyah to the Torah upon turning 50 (no religious obligation, but a nice mi she-beirakh can even be said), a Jew can also get an aliyyah and a special blessing upon changing from one sex to another. This will help us validate and welcome the trans* Jews among us.
Death
During the custom of tohorah—purifying and cleansing the body of the deceased—a man is given to the hands of men, and a woman is given to the hands of women. Trans* Jews must be consulted about whose hands will be the last to handle the body, and the chevra kaddisha (burial committee) must be sympathetic to these wishes.
Jewish Law
The Committee on Jewish Law & Standards must re-examine the legal standings of trans* Jews. Rabbi Meyer Rabinowitz’s “Status of Transsexuals” paper, from 2003, is already out of date. For example, it references the inability of two men or women to become Jewishly married. Nine years after his teshuvah was approved, the CJLS approved of two ceremonies for marrying a same-sex couple. A new teshuvah must be written with the cooperative and emotional input of trans* Jews. Whereas it might sound logical that what makes a man a man is his lower half (as is concluded in the teshuvah), many trans* Jews are unable or unwilling to undergo such medical procedures for reasons both obvious and unobvious.
May these words be for peace, for truth, and for machaloket leshem shamayim—a convergence of Heavenly, Divine voices. For more thoughts, see JewishTransitions.org.
Jonah Rank is in his 3rd year of Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is a musician, a writer, and a Co-Founder of Jewish Eyes On The Arts, and the secretary of Siddur Lev Shalem, the Rabbinical Assembly’s forthcoming siddur for Shabbat and Festivals. Special thanks to Noach Dzmura, Meir Hoberman and Emily Aviva Kapor for help with this blog post. Another version of this blogpost can be found at USCJ100.
Devar Torah for Vayyikra all formatted by clicking HERE!
Unformatted below…
Shabbat shalom,
Try to make the simplest sound that you can with your mouth.
Try to involve as few parts of your mouth as possible.
If your mouth is closed, then the sound you made was probably mmm.
If your mouth was open, then the sound you made was probably some very short vowel sound: ah, eh, ih, oh, uh, etc.
When your mouth is open and you make the simplest sound you can, you make the sound of the Hebrew letter Alef (א): ah, oh, eh, etc. For English speakers, alef sounds like a vowel. It is the simplest sound we can make when we open our mouths.
I want to talk about a very special Alef that we see in today’s Torah reading. Right in the very first word, vayyikra—meaning, “God called,” as in “God called to Moses”—there is an unusually small alef. That small alef that we see in the reading appears here in every Torah, and we can even see this in our Hummash at Leviticus 1:1. We can tell that this alef is a small alef since the word next to it begins with a normally sized alef: אל ויקרא (vayyikra el, “God called to…”); we can compare the two alefs and see how our parashah begins with a small alef: a small simple sound.
One of the many reasons that alef is an important letter in Hebrew is that, in the Book of Genesis, God creates through speech. God says, “Let there be light,” and there is light; “Let there be birds,” and there are birds; “Let there be people,” and there are people; and so on and so forth. It is through speech that God brings the universe into being. Jewish mystics—Kabbalists and Hasidic thinkers—say that the first sound to cause our world to exist was alef—that simplest of sounds of the open mouth. It is from that ancient, primordial alef that the Wisdom of the universe emerges.
Chaim of Chernovitz (1760-1816) taught that there were two kinds of Wisdom: sekhel (שֵֽׂכֶל). One he called sekhel ma’asi (שֵֽׂכֶל מַעֲשִׂי), which is “basic wisdom.” Basic wisdom is our ability to say facts and say things that anyone could have observed. Someone might say, “How was the movie?” And we might say, “It was long. 2 and a half hours. The plot took many turns.” There is no personal opinion, and no analysis or serious assessment when it comes to basic wisdom. Chaim of Chernovitz says that even animals have this kind of basic wisdom. Any living creature knows the setting of the scene around them.
But then the second kind of wisdom is even more important for humans because, of all the creatures on Earth, only humans have this form of wisdom. It’s called sekhel iyyuni (שֵֽׂכֶל עִיּוּנִי), meaning “analytical wisdom,” and it’s our ability to think critically. Someone might say, “How was the movie?” And we might say, “It was very powerful, but very long. 2 and a half hours, but well worth it. I doubt that I could have ever thought of a story with so many plot twists. It was very well-written!” Analytical wisdom is the stuff that we have sat and thought about—the things that might not even be obvious to an outsider. Analytical wisdom is our ability not only to connect the dots, but also to engage emotionally with the world around us. It’s going beyond the facts.
In explaining these two kinds of sekhel, Chaim of Chernovitz intimates an image of the children of Israel witnessing all of the miracles of the desert but having no sekhel iyyuni, no analytical wisdom: no capability to take in anything wondrous that they saw. But sekhel iyyuni is an essential component of the religious life, he says. The facts of religious life—opening a siddur, wearing a tallit, lighting Shabbat candles—are no guarantee of a spiritual experience. Sekhel iyyuni, the ability to evaluate personally—how does this affect me, how do I relate to this ritual, does this feel holy to me—these are the questions that give meaning to Jewish life. To live a holy life, we need to be able to analyze our personal experiences.
One of the classic ways the rabbis of old interpreted Torah is they’d look at the Hebrew alef-bet and say that each letter is equal to a number. In gematriyyah—this system of “counting” letters—alef, the first letter, is equal to 1; bet, the second letter, is equal to 2; gimal, the third letter, is equal to 3; and so on. It would be like someone saying that, in English, A is 1, and B is 2, and C is 3. So, you can always calculate a Hebrew word by adding up the numerical value of each letter. When the rabbis look at the word אָדָם (adam)—which means “humanity”—they say: א (alef) is equal to 1; ד (dalet) is equal to 4; and ם (mem) is equal to 40. So, 1+4+40=45. The rabbis look at this and say, “The number 45 must be significant for other reasons too!” And they do find a reason. They look at the Hebrew word מַה (mah)—meaning “what”—and they do that math: מ (mem) is equal to 40; and ה (heh) is equal to 5. So, 40+5=45. The rabbis say then that “humanity” is equal to “what;” the human experience can be reduced to the simplest, primordial question: what? Mah? Chaim of Chernovitz rereads Exodus 16:7, where the children of Israel ask, “What are we?” as they complain to Moses. Instead, Chaim says that we should not read those words with a question mark, but with a period! The children of Israel don’t ask, “What are we?” They declare their identity. “We are what.” We are a people of what—asking what, and seeking meaning.
When we look back to the moment when human wisdom emerges from the universe—when the humans discover the ability to ask “what” and to analyze on a personal level—we see the emergence of alef, says Chaim of Chernovitz. Alef is the sekhel iyyuni that asks what and seeks to give meaning to religious experience. Moses was the intermediary between Godly experiences and the people Israel. Moses played the role of alef—offering deeper wisdom than mere facts, giving religious meaning to the people Israel.
So, you might ask: What does any of this have to do with the size of the letter alef in the first verse of Leviticus? Chaim of Chernovitz says: It is Moses’ alef, and Moses was a humble leader. A leader with his humility did not need a big alef, and it was the smallest and simplest of alef moments that opened up the mouth of Wisdom, opening up to the people Israel an entire universe of sacred questions and sacred answers. And it all begins with Moses’ humble Alef—Moses’ small spark of simple awe and amazement for the Divine: the inspiration and the courage to pursue Wisdom by asking the simplest yet most comprehensive of questions, “What?”
Socrates is quoted as saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” The Jews see their world created on the foundation of Wisdom, and, the more probing the wisdom, the more appreciated is God’s universe of mysteries. Not only does the Jewish world begin with a simple sound of alef, but alef is the beginning of so many simple interjections of enlightenment: ooh, ahh, ohh. Or skepticism: ehh. Or puzzlement: uhh.
Alef—as both “Wisdom” and “What”—is the first Jewish sound to reverberate through God’s cosmos. Alef is the question and the answer; the known and the unknown; the articulate and the inarticulate. Alef is the beginning of the Jewish quest for religious truth, and it is the endless perimeter of what humans strive to understand.
Just as Moses’ humblest wisdom provoked the children of Israel to say, “What are we,” we too have to learn to say, “What are we.” With every “What,” and with every Alef, we seek the greater wisdom of the universe.
In an age long past God’s creating the universe, and in an age millennia after Moses granted his people the fruits of his leadership—we still have a religious duty to ask “What” and to seek deeper meanings.
Fortunate for us, alef is a necessity for the human condition. Alef: the sound we make whenever we open our mouths.
Here is a special shofar blowing.
In this video I am Reb Sami Barth.
This is a video written and directed by Raysh Weiss, and a video animated by Raysh Weiss and the music of which I composed, recorded and performed.
And this is the poster to a film that helped sponsor Purim at JTS.
And this is the ad to a radio program that went on:
This Observant Life
Here are some things that happened at JTS’ Purim Se’udah, 5773:
A viddui (prayer of “confession”) upon eating too much. The core of this was co-authored by Dr. Raysh Weiss and me.
Some Purim Torah that was shared.
A video of Vice Chancellor Marc Gary’s first day, by Ravid Tilles.
An alternative I Am JTS campaign, edited by Andrew Markowitz; directed by Paula Sass; and co-written by many folks including: Dr. Raysh Weiss, Paula Sass, Philip Gibbs, Daniel Novick and me.
Some texts below–BADLY FORMATTED:
| Recited before the Confession; some recite the words in brackets:
Our God and God of our ancestors, may our prayer come before you, and do not ignore our tahini, for we are not so hard-faced or so stick-necked so as to say before you, “Lord, our God and God of our fathers [and our mothers] [and our uncles] [and our aunts] [and the sons of our uncles] [and the daughters of our uncles] [and the sons of our aunts] [and the daughters of our aunts] [and our brothers] [and our sisters] [and our sons] [and our daughers] [and our brothers-in-law] [and our sisters-in-law] [and our fathers-in-law] [and our mothers-in-law] [and our nephews] [and our nieces] [and our grandfathers] [and our grandmothers] [and our grandsons] [and our granddaughters] [and our great-grandsons] [and our great-granddaughters] [and all of the House of Israel] [and all those who dwell on Earth] [and all those who dwell in outerspace], we are righteous men [and women], except for (we recall the names of relatives who are not righteous) , who are completely evil, and we have not gotten fatter!” But we and our fathers [and so forth] have gotten fatter! |
We now recite the Confession on the next page.
|
קוראים לפני הַוִּדּוּי; יש שאומרים את המילות בסוגריים: אֱ-לֹהֵֽינוּ וֵא-לֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ, תָּבֹא לְפָנֶֽיךָ תְּפִלָּתֵֽנוּ, וְאַל תִּתְעַלַּם מִתְּחִנָּתֵֽנוּ, שֶׁאֵין אָֽנוּ עַזֵּי פָנִים וּקְשֵׁי עֹֽרֶף, לוֹמַר לְפָנֶֽיךָ, “ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵֽינוּ וֵא-לֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ [וְאִמּוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְדוֹדֵֽינוּ] [וְדוֹדָתֵֽינוּ] [וּבְנֵי דּוֹדֵֽינוּ] [וּבְנוֹת דּוֹדֵֽינוּ] [וּבְנֵי דּוֹדוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וּבְנוֹת דּוֹדוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְאָחֵֽינוּ] [וְאַחְיוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וּבָנֵֽינוּ] [וּבְנוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְגִיסֵֽינוּ] [וְגִיסוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וּמְחֻתָּנֵֽינוּ] [וּמְחֻתְּנוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְאַחְיוֹנֵֽינוּ] [וְאַחְיוֹנוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְסַבֵּֽינוּ] [וְסַבּוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וּנְכָדֵֽינוּ] [וְנֶכְדוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְנִינֵֽינוּ] [וְנִינוֹתֵֽינוּ] [וְכׇל־בֵּית־יִשְׂרָאֵל] [וְכׇל־יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל] [וְכׇל־יוֹשְׁבֵי חָלָל], צַדִּיקִים [וְצַדִּיקוֹת] אֲנַֽחְנוּ, מִחוּץ לְ (מזכירים את שמות הקרובים שאינם צדיקים) אֲשֶׁר רְשָׁעִים [וּרְשָׁעוֹת] לְגַמְרֵי, וְלֹא שָׁמַֽנּוּ!” אֲבָל אֲנַֽחְנוּ וַאֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ [וְכוּלֵּהּ] שָׁמַֽנּוּ! קוראים את הַוִּדּוּי בעמוד הבא: |
| Recited after the Confession: |
We have turned astray from your goodly recipes and kitchens, but we have not found satisfaction inside us. You are more righteous than any cook among us. Though You have prepared a meal, we got fatter.
|
קוראים לְאַחַר הַוִּדּוּי: סַֽרְנוּ מִמַּתְכּוֹנֶֽיךָ וּמִמִּטְבָּחֶֽיךָ הַטּוֹבִים, וְלֹא שָֽׂבַע־בָּֽנוּ. וְאַתָּה צַדִּיק עַל כׇּל־טַבָּח מִמֶּֽנּוּ, כִּי אֲרוּחָה עָשִֽׂיתָ, וַאֲנַֽחְנוּ שָׁמָנּֽוּ. |
| א We have eaten.
בּ We have devoured. גּ We have swallowed. דּ We have fished. ה We have been flatulent. ו We have given in. ז We have summoned for Birkat Ha-Mazon [a very solemn prayer]. ח We have grabbed snacks. ט We have tasted. י We have scooped. כּ We have cut. ל We have licked. מ We have poured. נ We have washed our hands. ס We have squeezed fruits. ע We have digested. פּ We have left crumbs. צ We have skipped a fast day. ק We have peeled. ר We have poisoned our guests in order to eat them. שׂ We have been satisfied. תּ We have mixed liquids. תּ We have spiced. |
תּ We have had appetites. Turn to the first page.
| אA-HAHL-noo.
בּ Ba-LAH-noo. גּGa-MAH-noo. דּDAHG-noo. הHif-LAHTZ-noo. וVi-TAHR-noo. זZi-MAH-noo. חHa-TAHF-noo. טTa-AHM-noo. יYa-TZAHK-noo. כּKe-RAHT-noo. לLi-KAHK-noo. מMa-ZAHG-noo. נNa-TAHL-noo. סSa- HAHT-noo. עEe-KAHL-noo. פּPo-RAHR-noo. צTzome dee-LAHG-noo. קKee-LAHF-noo. רRey-AHL-noo ET o-reh-HEY-noo keh-DEY le-oh-LAHM. שׂSa-VAH-noo. תּTee-MAHD-noo. תּTee-BAHL-noo. תּ Ta-AHV-noo. Previous page. |
אָכַֽלְנוּ. בָּלַֽעְנוּ. גָּמַֽעְנוּ.. דַּֽגְנוּ. הִפְלַֽצְנוּ. ִוִתַּֽרְנוּ. זִמַּֽנּוּ. חָטַֽפְנוּ. טָעַֽמְנוּ. יָצַֽקְנוּ. כֵּרַֽתְנוּ. לִקַּֽקְנוּ. מָזַֽגְנוּ. נָטַֽלְנוּ. סָחַֽטְנוּ. עִכַּֽלְנוּ. פּוֹרַֽרְנוּ. צוֹם דִּלַּֽגְנוּ. קִלַּֽפְנוּ. רֵעַֽלְנוּ אֶת־אוֹרְחֵֽינוּ כְּדֵי לְאׇכְלָם. שָׂבַֽעְנוּ. תִּמַּדְנוּ. תִּבַּֽלְנוּ. תָּאַֽבְנוּ. קוראים את הקטע האחרון בעמוד הקודם: |
Chapter 1 Teaching 1 It once happened that Rabbi Tarfon lied down on the road to read the Shema. He saw a camel chasing after robbers, and his heart was at ease. The robbers diverted from his path while the camel remained and tread upon him. Shimon ben Azzai found him sitting on a street corner in pain, praying pleas of mercy for his wounds whilst emitting from his mouth songs of joy and praise. He asked, “Rabbi, what is with you?” He said, “The Holy Blessed One has saved and been gracious [gamal] to me.” He did not be- lieve him. He said, “My son, robbers did not kill me and did not steal from my property. Rather this camel, an emissary of the Holy Blessed One, has trampled me in order to chase them away. Until this day, I never knew the meaning of this verse, but now I have learned: ‘In your lovingkindness I have placed my trust. My heart rejoices in your salvation, for a camel [gamal] is upon me’ (Psalm 13:6).”2 From where do we learn to eat Gelidah (ice cream) in the morning? “To tell in the morning of your lovingkindness” (Psalm 92:3). The Divine attribute of Lovingkindness is also called Gedulah (greatness), as it is written, “For you, God, are the Gedulah, the grandeur, the beauty, the eternity, and the glory” (I Chronicles 29:11). But do not read “the Gedulah,” for it is a mixup of the letters of “Gelidah.” Therefore it is written, “The ancient ones would awaken early and eat ice cream at the moment of the first ray of sunlight” (unknown source). 3 Rabbi Akiva saw Rabbi Tarfon, and tefillin (phylacteries) were ap- parently in his mouth. Rabbi Akiva said to him, “Men do not eat the word of the Holy Blessed One, but women do, for it is written, ‘A Torah of Lovingkindness is upon her tongue’ (Proverbs 31:26).” He said to him, “But does it not say ‘And my Word that I have placed in [masculine] your mouth shall not leave [masculine] your mouth or from the mouth of your [male] offspring or from the mouth of the [male] offspring of your off- spring’ (Isaiah 59:21)?” There are 4 masculine re- ferences for Rabbi Tarfon, and 1 feminine refer- ence for Rabbi Akiva. Rav said, “There is no dis- agreement.” Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav, “Women eat tefillin, and also men eat tefil- lin, for they are both equal in all mitzvot and holiness.”
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It’s not typical for me to post other people’s lyrics here.
That being said, I don’t know where else these lyrics may be more accurately written (even though I realize these lyrics are also slightly off)…
By the rivers of Babylon,
Where we sat down,
And there we wept
When we remembered Zion.
‘Cause the wicked
Carried us away, captivity,
Required from us a song.
How can we sing King Alpha’s song
In a strange land?
‘Cause the wicked
Carried us away, captivity,
Required from us a song.
How can we sing King Alpha’s song
In a strange land?
(Improv.)
So let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight
Over I.
So let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight
Over I.
(Improv.)
By the rivers of Babylon,
Where we sat down,
And there we wept
When we remembered Zion.
‘Cause the wicked
Carried us away, captivity,
Required from us a song.
How can we sing King Alpha’s song
In a strange land?
‘Cause the wicked
Carried us away, captivity,
Required from us a song.
How can we sing King Alpha’s song
In a strange land?
(Improv.)
