It's finally here-the album drop of the year!
An album celebrating the music of Temple Ner Tamid!
Cantor Meredith Greenberg and producer Ella Joy Meir have created a stunning album featuring all-original music, performed by a full band and a choir of friends and members from our Temple community.
All tracks are available to hear below.
If you would like to download for future listening,
please click on the link here: The Sounds of Ner Tamid
The Sounds of Ner Tamid artwork was created by Lori Loebelsohn
Album Tracks and Credits
Track 1: Aeh Elai...Vehiyeh Sham. Be there just be there, existing. Exodus 24:1
This chant is a zimmun, that is to say, an invitation from the Oneness to bring the whole of you. To join the Holy One in the space between the doings, where the only agenda is to exist.
Aeh Elai...Vehiyeh Sham. Be ther just be there, existing
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Bob Adleman - acoustic and electric guitars / Ella Joy Meir - piano / Aviva Frost - cello / Beth Adleman - hand drum / Bob Mellman - bass / TNT Choir
Written by: Cantor Greenberg
Track 2: Bamakom Haze: “ Achen, yeish Adonai bamakom haze, v’anochi lo yadati.” Genesis 28:16
In the midst of a stressful moment in my life, I have developed the practice of pausing to notice the ways that my body are solidly connecting to the earth under me, feeling the sensations of gravity and ground. If I am feeling particularly dysregulated, ( like the ground has suddenly turned into water balloons), I might then invoke Jacob, and hear his soothing words in my ear, “God is in this place- and I didn’t know it.” I hear in his words an assurance that my not-knowing is only temporary. I turn to the part of me that will not be comforted, because she doesn’t know that God has been here all along, and I open my compassionate heart to that suffering that lives in me.
Bamakom Haze: “ Achen, yeish Adonai bamakom haze, v’anochi lo yadati.”
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Bob Adleman - acoustic and electric guitars / Ella Joy Meir - piano / Aviva Frost - cello / Beth Adleman - flute & hand drum / Bob Mellman - bass / TNT Choir
Written by: Cantor Greenberg
Track 3: Gesher
Composer Judith Silver has constructed a new bridge of meaning through her setting of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav’s “Gesher Tzar M’od/ The very Narrow Bridge”. Especially for Rosh Hashana, as our community embarks on a new spiritual year, we lift up this offering, and each of us is strengthened by it’s message.
If we must cross the bridge, let’s do it together. Don’t look down. Keep going. Keep growing. Keep moving.
Gesher
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Leora Perlman - vocals / Peri Smilow - vocals / Gilad Perlman-Greenberg - hand drum / David Amlen - bass
Written by: Judith Silver
Track 4: El Rachum, v’chanun erech apayim, v’rav chesed ve-emet. Exodus 34:6
In this chant we explore 13 attributes of God, emphasizing Savlanut, the middah often translated as, forbearance, or one’s willingness to bear discomfort. A middah is a spiritual emanation of God, that manifests in us through our character traits. Our Savlanut is in alignment with The Oneness, when we make room, and even welcome the feelings of discomfort that accompany life. We are made more whole when we include the discomfort, rather than avoiding it. This is true for the Divine as well.
The text asserts, “God is mercy, compassion, and slow to anger.” If God feels the discomfort, of anger and frustration, but chooses to be slow to it, then maybe so can we. On Yom Kippur, as we near the end of Neila, we chant this as a prayer of hope, praying that if we can slow it down, we may find that tikkun/ repair is possible.
El Rachum, v’chanun erech apayim, v’rav chesed ve-emet. Exodus 34:6
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Bob Adleman - acoustic guitar / Bob Mellman - acoustic guitar / Ella Joy Meir - piano / Aviva Frost - cello / Beth Adleman - hand drum / David Amlen - bass / TNT Choir
Written by: Cantor Greenberg
Track 5: Oseh shalom bimromav Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu V'al kol Yisrael. Val kol yoshvei tevel. V'imru: amen. May the Oneness that makes peace possible, fill us with hope, and let us say, Amen.
This setting of the liturgical text Oseh Shalom Bimromav, May the Oneness make peace possible, was inspired by and composed in the long, uncertain nights of the 2019 Pandemic. Already in our 4th month of isolation, virtual life and prayer was getting stale and we needed an Oseh Shalom that amplified hope, and could be sung as a duet for voices to sing from their home computers on “mute”, while feeling the spiritual uplifting sensation that creating harmony brings. Though we pray we will never have to be in lock down again, for any reason, there was a deep affirmation that grew out of that difficult time, confirming for many how essential community is, and how praying in community, can be truly healing.
Oseh shalom bimromav Hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu V'al kol Yisrael. Val kol yoshvei tevel. V'imru: amen.
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Leora Perlman - vocals / Bob Adleman - acoustic guitar / Bob Mellman - acoustic guitar / Ella Joy Meir - piano / Aviva Frost - cello / Beth Adleman - flute and hand drum / David Amlen - bass
Written by: Cantor Greenberg
Track 6: Bakshu Fanai… Seek my Face…Et paneicha Adonai, avakesh. HalelYah !” Psalm 27: 8
I first composed this chant as an Elul practice. During the month leading up to Rosh Hashana our tradition teaches us to revisit the prior year with a high level of scrutiny. How did I do ? Have I continued to be accountable to the ways of living that I have committed to? Psalm 27 also accompanies us throughout Elul. I set verse 27:8 with a sense of urgency, “bakshu fanai/seek my face”, is a plea and is repeated again and again, until we are no longer sure who is seeking whom. This verse reminds me that even when we block out the light of Oneness, the light still persists. My soul knows that if I can just continue to seek, I will come to know You, because You are always ready, seeking me, and hoping that I will turn to You finally and say, HaleluYah!
Bakshu Fanai… Seek my Face…Et paneicha Adonai, avakesh. HalelYah !”
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Bob Adleman - acoustic and electric guitars / Ella Joy Meir - piano / Aviva Frost - cello / Beth Adleman - flute and hand drum / Bob Mellman - bass / TNT Choir
Written by: Cantor Greenberg
Track 7: Shaarey Tzedeck “Pitchu li shaarey Tzedeck.” Psalm 118
I sometimes find that my suffering can overwhelm me to such an extant,that I perceive the shaarei tzedeck/the gates of justice are within me, sealed, and therefore, I cannot enter them. I created this chant as a compassion practice and heart opener in those times of suffering. I envision my heart as heavy steal gates, rusted shut, unable to be pried apart. Only through the supplicating sounds of this chant, “Pitchu li, open them for me”, can the rust begin to fade, and the metal made supple, creating an opening, where justice and compassion meet, and are in perfect alignment.
Shaarey Tzedeck “Pitchu li shaarey Tzedeck.”
Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Bob Adleman - acoustic guitar / Ella Joy Meir - piano and electric guitar / Aviva Frost - cello / Beth Adleman - flute and hand drum / Bob Mellman - bass / TNT Choir
Written by: Cantor Greenberg
Track 8: The Priestly Blessing
Peri Smilow’s setting of the Priestly benediction has been a source of tremendous blessing in our community. It is this sound that has enveloped us at the end of countless prayer gatherings. In its gentle, spiritual embrace we continue to feel the healing vibrations, long after the song has ended.
The Priestly Blessing
Peri Smilow - vocals and acoustic guitars / Cantor Meredith Greenberg - vocals / Piano – Gary Blackman
Written by: Peri Smilow
Additional Credits
TNT Choir: Beth Adleman / Leora Perlman / Lori Ada Jaraslow / Lisa Westreich / Joanmarie Kalter / Laura Deacon / Miriam Libove / Julie Dobrow / Crystal Van Horn / Naomi Serlen / Lauri Hornik / Amy Karas-Plaut
Arrangements, Musical Production and Mixing by Ella Joy Meir
Mastering by David Amlen
Production assistant Eric O’Hare
Recorded at Sound on Sound Studios, Montclair, NJ
Engineered by David Amlen