Poetry, Prayer, Songs & Divrei Torah

This beautiful niggun includes words by Rabbi David Seidenberg, niggun by Jonah Adels, z”l, and Nili Simhai on vocals. Enjoy!

הָרַחֲמָן הוּא יָשִיב לִבֵּינוּ אֶל הָאָרֶץ לְמַעַן נֵשֵב יָחַד עִמָהּ
בְּשָׁבְתהּ כָּל שְׁנַת הַשְׁמִיטָה

“Harachaman hu yashiv libeinu el ha’aretz, l’ma’an neishev yachad
imah, b’shovtah kol sh’nat hash’mitah”

“May the merciful One turn our hearts toward the land, so that we may dwell together with her in her sabbath-resting the whole year of Shmita.”

Lyrics:

Time to put down our plows.
Take a rest.
Stop running,
Catch our breath.

We can
Blur the lines
Between what is yours
And what is mine.

Time we look back
At footprints we’ve left,
See the good we’ve done
And what we regret.

And if not now
Tell me when,
We’ll have a chance
To start over again.

The seventh year is here.

Take down our fences,
Open up our fields,
When we don’t own anything,
There’s nothing to steal.

As the sun of the sixth year,
Set one last time,
We were given the chance,
To leave our old minds behind.

It’s a year to envision,
Our dreams coming true,
Peace with the Earth,
People living in truth.

So let’s get together,
You and me,
Let’s build the world,
We know needs to be.

The seventh year is here.

And this could be,
What we’ve been waiting for,
Another understanding,
Of what life’s worth living for.

Once every seven years,
Time to re-birth,
To dispel the notion,
That we own the Earth.

Raise our eyes to the skies,
Look up and see,
There’s more to the world,
Than our eyes can see.

The seventh year is here.

Shmita in Seattle