Mi Shebeirach/El Na Refa Na La

from Red Thread by Congregation Bet Haverim Chorus, Band and Strings

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about

By Will Robertson
Text from liturgy and Numbers 12, verse 13
Soloist: Will Robertson

In December 2019, a car crash injured our beloved music director, Gayanne Geurin. As she recovered, we all missed her voice, literally and figuratively. Will, used to working in tandem and singing by her side, felt the lack acutely. Driving home from a service they had been slated to do together, he began to chant the tune that would become this prayer for healing.

The first half is a new setting of the Mi Shebeirach prayer. It owes a debt to songwriter Debbie Friedman, who had added to the traditional blessing the phrase “m’kor habracha l’imoteinu” (source of blessing to our mothers). Knowing Gayanne had been pondering the thin veil between life and death, Will further adapted that phrase to “m’kor hachayim,” the source of life. The second half is a biblical prayer for healing: “El na refa na la,” or “Please, God, heal her, please.” Moses offers this prayer for his sister, Miriam. In the sense that Gayanne once told Will he reminded her of the brother she lost, this, too, is a prayer for a sibling.

As the song itself lives on, it becomes a prayer for all who need healing. (In this video made by Bill Witherspoon and Zoom, Will introduces the song and you see chorus members singing in their little windows.) The first part is call and response; the second is sung together. If you join in, free to change the final word, la (her), to lo, li, lanu, or lahem (him, me, us, or them), depending on whom you’re holding close.

lyrics

Mi shebeirach avoteinu
M’kor hachayim l’imoteinu
Hu y’varech v’yirafeh
Et hacholim

El na refa na la

(May the one who blessed our fathers,
source of life for our mothers,
bless and heal the suffering.

Oh God, please heal her.)

credits

from Red Thread, released December 10, 2020

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Congregation Bet Haverim Atlanta, Georgia

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