By Daniel Kieval
Text from Psalm 27, verses 12, 8, 14
Lead vocal: Will Robertson. Small ensemble: Gregg Bedol, Gary Falcon, Carrie Hausman, Rob Kistenberg, Faith Russler.
These final lines from Psalm 27 often serve as a guiding teaching in preparations for the High Holy Days. The root of the Hebrew word kaveh means both “hope" and “thread,” suggesting the idea that by unifying threads, we can create a lifeline of hope. This message helped inspire the album title Red Thread.
Daniel Kieval is a young Jewish voice from Massachusetts. “Kaveh” first appeared in the 2017 compilation album Elul: Songs for Turning. He writes: “This psalm is simultaneously the desperate plea of a person lost in brokenness and suffering, and a confident statement of absolute faith and ok-ness. That paradox speaks to me as a central experience of the t’shuva season and of life. On the one hand, we are lost, confused, and broken; at the same time, we also realize that we are exquisitely perfect just as we are, reflections of the divine whole. The experience of wholeness comes through a deep abiding with the messiness and imperfection of existence.”
lyrics
Al titneni b’nefesh tzarai
Kaveh El Adonai
Lach amar libi bakshu fanai
Kaveh El Adonai
Chazak v’yametz libecha
V’kaveh El Adonai
Don't let me get lost in my soul-suffering
I will trust in the wholeness of everything
My heart says, "I am looking for you!"
I will trust in the truth of the way things are.
Fill your heart with power and courage
Teach me the way of Presence
Hope then for THE ETERNAL ONE; strengthen your heart with courage,
and have hope in THE ETERNAL
It is awakening, moving, and thought/action provoking. Thank you for holding out the messages in these melodies. The album is guided my awareness towards a deep way of living. ctrammell2020
This work is a reflection of the considerate loving kindness of the composers.
I was fortunate to have been a choir student of Rebekka Goldsmith.
Rob Duyungan
Originally sung by Holocaust survivors in Yiddish, Polish and French, this moving album is now available in a gorgeous LP package. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 11, 2022
It is rich in women's energy, deeply felt sounds of womb energy. A beautiful expression of the best of women in the Jewish hera-tage! Chana Raskin moves my soul, an Irish soul have I! Morgana Morgaine mollymaven