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A song for atonement and regeneration. A re-wilding.
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Alphabet 🕊 of 🕊 Wrongdoing / Ashamnu אשמנו
The Ashamnu prayer, also known as the “Alphabet of Wrongdoing,” is written in the first-person plural, alphabetically listing all of the wrongs ‘we’ have committed in the past year. Traditional Jews recite it silently every morning, but it is more well known for its appearance on Yom Kippur, where it is recited aloud in a group. When recited together, it is a gesture of solidarity, a confessional inventory sung aloud to remind us what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel stated: “In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”
We beat our chests, our hearts, with each word that we sing in the prayer. Rabbi Alan Lew describes this experience well: “We pound at the heart until it opens and we can read it.” Though the content is heavy, the prayer is sung in a major key, and the refrain feels singsongy in an almost tongue-and-cheek way. The wit and wisdom of this inversion seems clear: we can confront our shortcomings earnestly and with precision, but not without levity and humor.
lyrics
Ashamnu– it’s our fault; Bagadnu– we have betrayed; Gazalnu– we have robbed; Dibarnu dofi– we were speechless; He’evinu– we have acted perversely; V’hirshanu– we have done wrong; Zadnu– we have presumed; Hamasnu– we have done violence; Tafalnu sheker– we have practiced deceit; Yaatsnu ra– we have counseled evil; Kizavnu– we have spoken falsehood; Latsnu– we have scoffed; Maradnu– we have revolted; Niatsnu– we have blasphemed; Sararnu– we have rebelled; Avinu– we have committed iniquity; Pashanu– we have transgressed; Tsararnu– we have oppressed; Kishinu oref– we have been haughty; Rashanu– we have acted wickedly; Shichatnu– we have dealt corruptly; Tiavnu– we have committed atrocity; Tainu– we have gone astray; Titanu– we have led others astray.
released September 4, 2020
Produced by Daniela Gesundheit and Dan Misha Goldman
Performed by
Daniela Gesundheit voice, percussion
Dan Misha Goldman nylon string guitar
Johnny Spence synth, percussion
Alex Lukashevsky voice, percussion
Recorded by Dan Misha Goldman in Montréal, Leon Taheny at Boombox studio in Toronto
Mixed by Steve Kaye at Sunking Studios in Los Angeles
Mastered by David Travers-Smith at found.sound
Artwork, typography, and layout by Brankica Harvey and Ken Deegan
Fonts Flecha and Grifo designed by Rui Abreu of R-Typography
Cover photograph by Dawn Garcia
All included Hebrew texts are traditional; all English translations and English translation excerpts are by Rabbi Richard N. Levy z”l, from his volume of High Holiday liturgy, On Wings of Awe, courtesy of B’nai Brith Hillel Foundations.
The melodies and texts herein are traditional, though the vocal embellishments and ornamentation are original.
This track was recorded on the traditional territories of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat people, and on the unceded lands of The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation and the Gabrielino/Tongva people.
Alphabet of Wrongdoing was recorded with the assistance of a Canada Council for the Arts Concept to Realization Grant.
Daniela Gesundheit is a vocalist, composer, and cantor who lives in LA and
haunts Toronto. As Snowblink, Gesundheit writes non-denominational devotional pop music and has released three critically acclaimed albums.
"Daniela’s voice is like clear glass that she frames a kind of playful, velvet privacy with. The sounds are sparse but so rich and carefully wild." Leslie Feist...more
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