[music] Rabbi Shefa Gold: I chant because it's a way of taking Torah right into my body, it resonates, it lives inside me. So I'm not just thinking about it, I'm allowing it to live in me and resonate and do its work in me of reminding me of some things that I know, but I might tend to forget. [music] Rabbi Deborah Waxman: I'm Rabbi Deborah Waxman, and I'm so happy to welcome you to Hashivenu, a podcast about Jewish teachings on resilience. This podcast looks at different resiliency practices in Jewish teaching and Jewish living. In this episode, I'm delighted to talk with my teacher, Rabbi Shefa Gold, about chanting. Shefa studied for the rabbinate at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and also received smicha from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. She develops Hebrew chants based on Jewish sacred texts. Shefa focuses in on one or two verses and she creates beautiful mantra-like chants that open people up to transformation. She leads workshops, she's written books, and she's recorded several CDs. And Shefa also has an app that I'm a big fan of called "Flavors of Gratefulness", and this app has 49 versions of a prayer for gratefulness from the morning liturgy, which I use every morning. You can find links to Shefa's website in the notes to this podcast and we'll draw on all of the resources that are found there in our conversation today. Shefa, thank you for being here. RG: It's nice to be with you. RW: I thought we could begin today with a sample of a chant that you think cultivates resilience. This will give people an introduction to chanting and also will let us focus on our topic. RG: When I have a question, if the question is a spiritual question of how do I cultivate resilience, I start with looking at what are the obstacles and when I look inside and I see my own obstacles, some of them might come up with our... My own reactivity, when I get overwhelmed or feel alienated or go into a place of despair or when I'm feeling cut off from my source. And I first... I wanted to do some inquiry into what those obstacles are and how I can meet them. So when you asked the question about resilience, I came across a line in the Psalms that seemed to perfectly describe my process of my relationship to resilience. RG: And the Psalms says "Even when I walk in the midst of trouble." {Psalm 138:7) "Im elekh b'kerev tzarah" RG: "Even when I'm meeting all of these obstacles." And then the last word of the phrase says... "Tekhayyeni" RG: Which says to God "You are giving me life right now. There are resources available that I'm not aware of and I need to open to them in this very moment." So when I came across that phrase, I just thought "Wow, this is the description of the cultivation of resilience, which is meeting the obstacles and then awakening to the possibility of renewal in this very moment." And I began to play with that phrase and chant it, and I chant because it's a way of taking Torah right into my body, it resonates, it lives inside me. So I'm not just thinking about it, I'm allowing it to live in me and resonate and do its work in me of reminding me of something that I know, but I might tend to forget. In the last week since you asked me the question about resilience, I've been chanting this chant and opening up is the power of this sacred phrase. So just, for a couple of minutes, see what you think. And the melody itself really holds that kind of description of the journey towards resilience. [music] RW: Thank you. What I think about so powerfully is both in the language of the pasuk, of the verse that you've chosen about God giving us life, and then in your description of talking about the process of creating this chant, about being awakened to the resources available, I just find that so very moving. Because I wasn't really thinking about it but from an embodied perspective, when I am feeling, what's the opposite of resilient? When I am feeling... When I'm struggling, when I'm turned into myself, I really am kind of collapsed and looking down. And the notion, and as you said, you captured it in the music as well, of looking up, of being infused with new energy and new awareness. I think that you're exactly right that that's a powerful pathway toward resilience. RG: In the practice what I want to do is to really take the journey into the center of what's wrong, what's the difficulties, to acknowledge it with compassion, and then in that very moment to open up to the possibility of joy and curiosity, and insight, and a wider perspective. And in that moment of opening, to let go of my story, I become curious, and I connect with both inner and outer resources that were always there, but I was too tied up in my troubles to notice. And with that noticing, I reignite my enthusiasm for the journey. RW: That's very moving. Can I ask you to talk a little about... The modality of chanting I think is if not universal, it's widely available across traditions. How and why it is that you turned to Jewish sacred text, why Jewish sources serve you well in that exploration? RG: So my journey to chanting was one of just wanting to have a relationship with a text that was fully embodied and really coming from my intuition. That each sacred text I encountered was like a doorway and it was inviting me to enter through that doorway to find a deeper truth. And tradition tells us that our sacred texts have many many layers and levels and levels of meaning that can unfold if we stay with them, if we enter through them. So my life has really just been this adventure, this exploration into sacred texts to see -- almost if you took it off the page and brought it to life. Everything I know about music, about how melody and harmony affect consciousness. So for me, it's been this realization that I have inherited this great treasurehouse of sacred phrases that can be brought to life and be transformed into tools that can then transform me. RW: That's wonderful. One of the things that I so value about the body of work that you've created is that when I'm out in the world teaching, I can teach -- sometimes, most often in Jewish settings but sometimes in secular settings -- and I can bring just one verse from the Hebrew Bible, or from the Jewish liturgy, and it's exactly the doorway you described that some people who've never engaged in Hebrew... Some of your chants have English in them as well but significantly in Hebrew, and I can invite them in and they love it. They fall in love with the imagery, they fall in love with the music. And in some of them, it sparks something in them and they go looking for the larger text that line was drawn from or they go looking for just text in general, and that's been very exciting to see. RG: For me, it's a way of falling in love with the text and engaging with it fully, and also for its meaning to evolve over time. The chants that I created 25 years ago keep having new life in different contexts and new meaning unfolding the longer that I chant them. But what I find is that I put these chants inside me so that they'll be there when I need them. And in the cultivation of resilience when I come across an obstacle, I might just reach inside me and find, "what is the medicine, what is the sacred phrase, that can help me return to center to access the resources that are inside me to meet this challenge of this day?" RW: That's wonderful. One of the things that, as someone who does sing and chant a lot, one of the things I most enjoy is sometimes I'll notice myself singing while I'm washing the dishes, or I'm taking a walk, and I'll say, "Oh what am I singing?" And then I'll pay attention to the... Oh it's this chant, or it's this verse, or it's this song that someone just taught me and it's... So why is that rising up? Sometimes as you said you reach for it 'cause you need it and sometimes I find it presents itself to me. RG: It's, kind of, a message from the soul, or from the deeper place in you that says, "This is what you need to remember right now." RW: I'm going quote you back to yourself. You wrote, "Chant is the bridge between the inner life and the outer expression, between the solitary practice and the shared beauty of fellowship," and we've talked already, a little bit, about the solitary practice and it's also very powerful to do this kind of chanting in a larger group. Can you explain what you think happens when people chant together, in community? RG: Well, when we chant together, in community, we start to breathe in the same rhythm with each other. We create an attunement, with each other and we're on a journey together. And so I find this incredible way to bond at a deeper level, beyond the level of our personalities and what I call the Psalm level of our connection. And when we chant, we are raising energy and in the silence, that energy then can be used for healing, or for inquiry, or for connecting to ourselves, to each other, or to God. And when we are chanting with a group, it seems like that energy is just magnified of what we can create. RW: So, I want to take it back to possibly, solitary, although certainly not exclusively, and to talk about the importance of practice. In all of the studies I've read from a secular perspective about cultivating resilience, they talk about the importance of practice, about setting intentions and following through on them, in various practices that calm the mind, that are frequently heart-centered, that help us to set intentions, and I have found that chanting is a really important part of my practice. I do chant every morning, from the morning liturgy, "Modah ani lefanekha. I am grateful to you, Adonai, for the life you've returned to me," and I use your app, "Flavors of Gratefulness", to support me in that practice. So, I'd like to ask you to reflect on your thoughts on practice and how chanting can be a component of a daily practice. RG: Well, I think the repetition has a way of just creating a new groove in mind. I think that... Brain science has shown us that our brains have this kind of negative bias. We evolved to be able to just notice the danger, and notice what's wrong, and to overcome that negative bias, I have to create a new groove. That new groove is one that is opening to, not just what's wrong, but what is profoundly right. What is the blessing of our existence, the miracle that we might overlook. It's to open my eyes to that, and to overcome that negative bias, I have to be in that practice again and again. I think it would be important to map out the anatomy of a chant, of every chant, which has three parts to it. And each of those parts has its importance in the practice. RG: The first part is in the setting of intention, and before I even open my mouth, I want to direct my heart toward, "What is this for? Why do I need it?" I become vulnerable and I acknowledge the importance of this practice. I really set myself up on a path of transformation, knowing that I may be a different person at the end of this practice than I am before. Now building the intention also includes the understanding what the words mean, and what their purpose is, and what their context is. That's the first part of the chant, before I even make a sound. RG: Then, the second part of the chant is that during the chant, itself, I'm giving everything I have to it. Every time the repetition of that chant comes around again, I ask, what more do I have to give? And you don't have to be a great singer to be a great chanter. To be a great chanter is to be able to reach inside you, find what's inside, and bring it out, bring out the truth and the passion of your own inner resources. Each time the chant comes around again, I want to bring more of myself to it. And then the third part of the chant, is the silence afterwards. And during that silence afterwards, that's when I receive the benefit of my practice. RG: I want to be able to stay with the feelings that the chant has opened. I talk a lot about... There's kind of a door that opens at the end of each chant, and in the silence, I could walk through that door, and receive the benefit of the chant. Allow the feelings to penetrate and really notice what the power of the chant has done for me, who I am now, at the end of the chant. And...each of these three parts of the chant, are merely important, and if you miss one of them, you've missed the complete power of the chant. RW: That's interesting. I also have a daily meditation practice, and I will say that arc that you just described around chanting practice, I do experience six days out of seven. I chant in the morning, and I'm not a morning person, so I'm often in a fog, or I'm kind of blue -- that bent toward negativity that you mentioned, that's often how I wake up. And after five minutes of chanting, three to five minutes of chanting, I am frequently in a different place and that happens very, very regularly versus with my meditation practice, sometimes I have a busy mind and sometimes I fall asleep, it's far more variable... There I'm in it more just because I'm still just trying to convince myself that this is good for me and I know it's good for me, but I don't always experience it as such, and the chanting, I am filled up with song and with intention in a way that really feels like a gift to me every morning, or most every morning. RG: There's a rule about practice that I love to follow, which is that we are moving through different states of consciousness. You may wake up in that one state and that's kind of finding a negative, and then the practice helps us to move to a different state of more clarity or positivity, but it is the awareness of that state which allows you to be able to access it and create those neural pathways in the brain. So, bringing... When you're done with the chant and you bring awareness to what is this new place that I have that I've just brought myself to, that awareness creates a pathway for you to be able to more easily return to that positive, more expanded state. RW: I think that's exactly right. In reflecting what I just said to you, I think that a meditation practice, I bring to it a fair amount of anxiety and a fair amount of judgment, and a chanting practice -- certainly it's simpler, it's just more infused with joy, there's just an openness to it, to the whole experience, I'm just less self-conscious in a certain way. RG: When you have a practice that is pleasurable and beautiful, you're more apt to do it. RW: Yes, it's true. I am more reliable about my chanting... I mean, I'm pretty good about both, but I almost never miss chanting and I sometimes miss the meditation practice. [laughter] RG: Well, I like to bring them together because I think that the two practices are very complementary, I do both. And I feel like the chant gives me an entranceway into the silence that helps to clear my mind and open my heart and relax my body, so that I can better easily fit in that silence and really go deep. And at the end of the silence, I like to also chant, so that my chant is then coming from the deeper place that I've reached in the silence. So I teach the practices of silent meditation, of devekut, of connection to God, in conjunction with the chanting practice. The chant brings me to a place of focus and in the silence, I can really receive the benefit of having connected with that mystery and I can be there in the silence much, much deeper and much longer after I've chanted. RW: I think that's really true and in an expansive morning, that's exactly how I'll start, with chanting and then move into meditation. And I have a lot of mornings when I'm on the run, either because it starts early or because I've gotten a later start than I intend. And it is the chanting practice and again, I wanna thank you for the app, because I just go to it and I click on what's next and I've been able to really make it non-negotiable that I start my day with this ancient prayer using the most modern of technology and using the melodies that you've written over recent years to set my intention and to orient myself toward the day. RG: When I think about resilience, I also think about Yitro, Moses' father-in-law who comes to him and says, this lifestyle that you're creating for yourself is not sustainable, you really need to rethink it, to be able to look and see, what are the requirements for you to stay balanced and connected and centered so that you can do your job? And I feel like that's a question I'm asking all the time is to say what's going to help me connect to those inner resources? And if I'm not giving myself the right amount of nurture, the right amount of alone time or wilderness or sleep or study, all the requirements of a balanced life then I'm not going to have that resilience, I'm going to be more vulnerable to places of despair, or disconnection, or alienation. RG: So I think what it takes is really looking at the whole of life to see what I call the requirements for sanity or centeredness in my life, and I ask the question, what is the minimum daily requirementfor those practices that will allow me to lead a life that is sustainable and to build up the practice that will help me to shine, to serve, to walk my talk. And I often say that to spiritual leaders, that it is your practice that is important because your leadership is the overflow of your practice. And I think that goes for every kind of service in the world that we bring: that if we don't have a practice, we're going to burn out. RW: It's a wonderful way to end. I think that's exactly right that the entire intention of this podcast and the series that we're creating is about -- to help move from a place of reactiveness and overload and overwhelm, whether it's on a global level because of geopolitical events, or whether it's what 21st century living looks like where we're constantly plugged in, or whether it's because of personal challenges that people are confronting in their lives, to try to focus in on practices and on resources that allow us, as you said, to find a place of centering and to tap in to our best, and I think, truest selves and that's both our interior conversation with ourselves and with whatever conception of the divine we have and it's also I think -- by locating this within a particularly Jewish conversation, it also means it arises out of conversations with our ancestors who created these sacred texts and other sources that are all pointing toward holiness and toward being most fully human and being in relationship with the divine and with other people in the best possible way. RW: Shefa, thank you so much for your wisdom for this extraordinary practice that you've really helped to bring to the world and for this time today. RG: Thank you for the opportunity of sharing. [music]