 
The Magic Words

Class: Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonai Tzevaot (Sings) Me-lo, Chal Ha-aretz Ke-vodo)

Voice I (From Isaiah 6):

In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,
High and exalted. And His train filled the Sanctuary
Above Him stood the Seraphim - each with six wings
And one called to another and said:

Class: Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh - Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts The whole earth is filled with His glory.

Voice I: The door posts were shaken at the sound of the voices; And the Temple was filled with incense and smoke.

Class: The God of Might who dwells in glory!

Voice II: But who is the man chained to God's lofty throne? Who is chained with chains of gold, Chains strained taut but yet unbroken?

Left: Mashiach ben David

Right: The Saviour of Mankind

All: In chains

Voice I: Fettered, a thousand years,
By golden chains that will not be broken. Captive and bound to the Throne of God Bound so tightly that he stir not.

Voice II: Yet, so close to God,
That he sees the fury and terrors of life
That seize upon his brothers;
And his strength, restive, is powerless to help,

Voice III: Rage, consumes him, like fire. His veins stand out, convulsed. His heart floods with desire and ebbs with longing. He summons all his strength,
To burst his chains; to break forth to freedom, that the Messiah descend quickly to earth.

Voice II: To redeem and deliver
The oppressed from the oppressor,
The poor from those who debase him
And in the quiet night his cry thunders out:

Voice III: Eli Avi - Ad Ana? How long O Lord?
Why hast Thou breathed this soul into me?
Wherefore has thou implanted this heart within me?
To mock? That I feel pain,
All suffering and evil to deride?
That I bear the scars of all oppression,
All unhappiness and misfortune?
Why these agonies?
Yet Thou ensnared my hands and bound my strength.
That I may not save

Voice IV: Why this strength which comes from Thee, if not to save and redeem, to help and to rescue, to comfort the mourner, to heal the shattered spirit; And to bind the broken in body and health? Why then these chains that hold me captive to Thy Throne? 0 Lord, God - why had Thou chosen me to be a redeemer; And hast forbidden me to serve as redeemer?

Voice V: See Thou and hear Thou
It is not I that have chained thee,
Children have I reared and brought up,
And they have rebelled against me.
A sinful nation; A people burdened with iniquity;
Men that deal corruptly and thus forsake me,
Who show their sin as Sodom and hide it not.
They have forged these chains,
Out of the spoil of the poor
That is in their houses.
They have fettered thee.
When the base rose up against the honorable.
And the callow behaved insolently against the wise.

Voice IV: But how long O, Lord?

Voice I: Until a new generation arise,
A generation that will understand redemption
A generation zealous to be redeemed,
Hearing within their spirits,
And understanding within their hearts

Class: Tziyon B'Mishpat Ti-padeh

Voice II: That Zion will be redeemed with justice;
And they that return to her with righteousness. Then wilt Thou, too, achieve Thy destiny, Thy chains be broken and go forth redeemed.

Class (Sing): Yimloch Adonai L'Olam,
Elohayich Tziyon L'Dor Va'Dor Hallelujah

Voice VII: We would be that newest generation, 0 Lord, Who stand in awe of Thee. We await the day, when mankind may be redeemed, from the terror that darkens man's days; That brings the shock of anguish, and searing pain of restless nights to homeless creatures. We stand in reverence, and live with hope that we might prove worthy to serve Thee.

Voice VIII: We come with promise, We are young,
May we reach the throne of Thy glory. May we reach the seat of Thy mercy. May we speed the tidings of salvation, the message of hope
The age when swords are forged into tools and wounds are healed without scar when peace disarms hate And fear overcome in love.

Voice VII: Hopes - so often proved vain and unfulfilled
Dreams that embittered with petty accomplishment Where rest your hope - the seeds you carry for a new world?

Voice IX: In the words we speak
May they not be the babble of children.
In the letters we learned,
Letters dipped in wisdom
Illumined with the spectrum of heaven
Letters - simple letters - spoken by humble men.

Voice: Are they equal to the challenge of the spirit?

Voice: What is their connection to God?

Voice IX: Look to the Alef - Bet,
For a rabbi once said that the Alef - Bet flew to heaven, when the Temple was destroyed. The Alef - Bet - floated in the air. They were carried on high Where they were bathed in tears, Burnished by the prayers of martyrs, Shaped into the Mitnvot - the precepts of Torah.

Voice X: Now man can hear the start of truth in the beginnings of little children Learning the Alef - Bet! Learning, we hope, the divine purpose with which each is endowed?

Class: Simple Alef - Bet.

Voice: Endowed with holy purpose - can it break the chains?

Voice: Alef - Bet - begins "Aleyf Binah - learn wisdom."

Voice X: Tender children - form them well,
Fashion the key to understanding.
Gain the purpose for which scholars sacrificed,
By which generations lived.

Class (NEAR THE HEARTH OIF'N PRIPITCHOK):
On the hearth there glow Embers gleaming bright Spreading warmth and cheer and the teacher shows His flock of little ones Letters large and clear

Listen carefully
Children dear to me
'Tis the Sacred Law
Say it once and then, repeat, repeat again
Kawmatz alef aw

Voice XI: Gimel - Dalet - "Gemol Dalim - Consider the lowly".
The Prophet said: "Woe unto them who sell the righteous for silver that covet the very dust of the earth that covers the poor;
And turn aside the way of the humble."
Gimel, Dalet - Simple letters
Guiding us beyond egotism
Toward human understanding.
To consider the needs and existence of the less fortunate, who are part of our world.

Class (Sing):
Listen carefully
Children dear to me
"Tis the Sacred Law
Say it once and then, repeat, repeat again
Kawmatz alep aw

Voice XI: Hey and Vav, separate the Jew from the Idolater.
Joined, they comprise the name of God.
Teaching us that the fear of the Lord
Is the beginning of wisdom
The knowledge of Him, the key to understanding,

Class: Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yod

Voice XII: Each letter, lit with dreams.
From Babylonian cities - Russian villages,
Spanish castles, German prisons
Palestinian tents, American suburbs
Each letter paints an image of truth and beauty
They float in the air and form magic words.
Zach - pure
Hesed - mercy
Tov - goodness
Yosher - equity.
Our words; moulded and graced by the wisdom of our heritage.

Class: Zach - Hesed - Tov - Yosher

Class: Say it once and then,
(sing) Repeat, repeat again
Kawmatz alef aw

Voice XIII: Letters - words - Dibrot - The Asseret Ha-debrot The Ten Commandments, A warming flame, An eternal fire - A brilliant truth, The rock of Judaism - Our foundation of faith.

Class: Mitzva!

Voice XIII: A strange word, Mitzvah
More than divine Commandment.
More than good deed.
It is a moral teaching.
It is the guide, helping us respond to God's demand
That we uplift and perfect life.
It is an expression of faith
In the righteousness of Israel's sacred calling,
An exercise of the soul
A training for the spirit.

Voice XIV: The Midrash says this about Mitzvah:
Rabbi Simlai said: Moses gave Israel 613 Mitzvoth.
Then came David and summarized them in eleven.
Isaiah came and spoke them in six.
Micah came and condensed them into three:
"It has been told thee 0 Man, what is good
And what the Lord doth require of thee.
Asot Mishpat - to do justly
Ahavat Hesed - to love mercy
Tz'ni-at Lechect Im Elo-hecha
To walk humbly with thy God.

Class: To do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God.

Voice XIV: Isaiah of the Exile digested them into two: Observe justice and do righteousness. While Amos expressed them as one Dirshu-ni V'Chiyou - seek Me and live.

Sing: Thus saith the Lord unto Israel
Seek me and ye shall live
Seek good and not evil
And so the Lord God of Hosts
Shall be with you.
Hate evil - love the good
Establish justice in the gates
That the Lord God of Hosts
Will be gracious unto Israel.

Class: Mitzva - sacred fulfillment of God’s Law.

Voice XV: Mitzva is our first gift at the throne of God. A word with wings and a melody. A wonder in itself in its cry. Yet the next is its equal in the heart of Israel.

Class: Racham...

Voice XV: Tenderness in the keenest sense,
Bound with mercy and loving kindness.
The sensitivity of child for an animal pet,
Of parent for infant,
Of the truly strong for
The helpless and needy,
In poverty, grief, defeat, pain of body or soul,
In despair, Rachamim means solace,
In trial it means support.
In shame it means understanding.

Class: Rachamim - The power of understanding...

Voice XV: To build within men self respect and dignity, to offer the despondent - promise and hope we seek to be Rachmanim b'nei Rachmanim Merciful children of merciful parents.

Quartet: Sim Shalom

Voice XVI: We submit - the winged magic of Tzedek. Rooted in Dueteronomy - calling to all ages.

Class: Tzedek - Tzedek - Tirdof

Voice: Justice - only righteous shall you pursue.

Voice XVI: Tzedek - Justice - an historic passion for all ages*
The prophet hungered for it.
He indicted an unjust world with a monstrous crime -
Injustice - disloyalty to God.
The rabbis wondered whether the world still listened to the voice of prophecy, and looked upon Israel's plight as proof of Creation's monstrous injustice.

Class: Our lot - persecution, exile, hatred, landlessness, homelessness. Outcasts beyond justice.

Class: For centuries Jews were beyond the pale of justice.

Voice XVI: And the Rabbis with their hope gave us...

Class: Tzedaka

Voice XVI: The Mitzvah of charity.
An obligation toward our fellow man.
It is righteous to ease the pain, and alleviate the
sting, to overcome life's injustice; by becoming
Co-workers with God. We are redeemer and protector until chains are broken.

Class: Tzedaka

Voice: To serve God by Service to Man.

Class: And so the Lord, the God of Hosts
(sing) Will be with you as you have spoken.
Hate to evil; love the good;
Establish justice in the Gates;
That the Lord God of Hosts
Will be gracious unto Israel.

Class: Ahava - Love

Voice XVII: Ahava - a word both intimate and infinite,
Whose many ways all are beautiful, all are holy.
Ahava, the ways of a boy and girl- of man and his brother of young and old.

Class: Ahava - the ways of friend, and king - of feeling and blood.

Class: Ahava - toward land and Planet
Purity of rolling rivers and green capped hills.

Class: Ahava - Love, as in Ahavat Hayim - Love of life.

Class: TO LIFE - TO LIFE (L'CHAYIM)
To life, to life, L'Chayim
L'Chayim, L'Chayim, to life!
Life has a way of confusing us
Blessing and bruising us,
Drink L'Chayim, to life!
To life, L'Chayim, LIChayim, L'Chayim to life!
One day is honey and raisin cake,
Next day a stomach ache, drink L'Chayim to life I
Our great men have written words of wisdom
To be used when hardship must be faced
Life obliges us with hardship
So the words of wisdom shouldn't go to waste
To us and our great fortune
Be happy, be healthy, long life
And if our good fortune never comes
Here's to whatever comes
Drink L'Chayim - TO LIFE!

Voice XVII: Love of life - of every breath, Every day, every opportunity. To be Jewish means to love life And live a life of love, Growing greater, eternally renewed. A spark kindled in two hearts Making all men poets, singers to God; Every sense a blessing, Every feeling a song.

Class: DODI LI
Do-di li, va-ani lo Ha-ro-e ba-sho-sha-nim

Mi zot o-lah min ha-mid- bar Mi zot o-lah
M'ku-te-ret mor u-l'vo-nah Mor u-1'vo-nah

Li-bav-ti-ni aho-ti cha- lah Li-bav-ti-ni cha-lah

TJ-ri tza-fon v-vo-i Tey-man

Voice XVIII: I am my beloved's. He is mine.
Set as a seal upon my heart.
For love is a flame,
And many trials cannot quench it.

Class: Mi zot o-lah min ha-mid- bar Me-kuteret mor Mor U'levona mor u-l*vo-nah Do di li, va-ani lo Ha-ro-e ba-sho-sha-nim

Voice XVIII: Ahava - The love beyond joy.
Love fed by hope amid clouds of death.
Love recorded on crumpled scraps amidst broken bodies.
Poignant love of life by unfulfilled children
Never grown to embrace.
Martyr's love - searing history by flames leaping
Prom burning scrolls on tyrant's funeral pyres,
From burning villages and ghettos grimly besieged,
Little children facing tomorrow with grief,
A heritage from the day when faith in One God
Set our fathers apart to wear the martyr's badge.

Song:
ZOG NIT KEYNMAL: WE SURVIVE
We must never lose our courage in the fight, Though skies of lead turn days of sunshine into night Because the hour for which we've yearned will yet arrive, And our marching steps will thunder; we survive!

From land of palm trees to the land of distant snow, We have come with our deep sorrow and our woe, And everywhere our blood was innocently shed, Our fighting spirits will again avenge our dead.

Not lead, but blood inscribed this song which not we sing, It's not a caroling of birds upon the wing, But a people midst the crashing fires of hell, Sang this song and fought courageous till it fell!

Voice XIX: Shema - Adonoi - 0 hear, you powers on high, This song of the Warsaw Ghetto;
This defiance of martyrs who died Al Kiddush Ha Shem For the sanctification of Thy Holy Name, Shema - Hear their song: "Owe me grace and give me dignity, 0 Lord, teach me to die, Let my prison be a fortress, And my wailing wall a stockade; For I am in Egyptian bondage Thence, I am not departed. Yet brothers do not consider this the end, When skies of lead above you threateningly bend The longed for day will come We have no fear Our steps resound like beating drum Proclaiming we are ever here."

Voice XX: Al Kiddush Ha-Shem - to sanctify God's Holy Name Have Jewish martyrs given their last breath.
Therein lies revealed the utmost truth of our prayer's today. Kadosh - holy, is a weak translation lacking depth, For Kadosh is mortar of our covenant with God. The Torah says, Kedoshim Ti h'yu.

Class: Holy shall ye be; for I, the Lord, your God am Holy.

Voice XX: Kadosh - energizes our purpose.
To learn Torah means to know how to be holy, To become like God revered through deed, Hallowed by righteousness.

Voice: But Kadosh is also found in Kiddush. Rejoicing on a festival.

Voice: Don't forget Kiddushin - the beauty of marriage is holy

Voice: And Kaddish - sacred reverence for our departed by fulfilling their tasks.

Voice: Kedusha - all of life...
All of life sanctified
Dedicated to God’s glory.

Voice XXI: Yet return to Kiddush Ha-Shem
That moment of sublime devotion.
The moment of deepest sacrifice
When life and death struggle in the balance.
A bitter choice, death.
Yet transfigured by the words.
Of an unknown child in
Tereizenstadt,
Bound for Auschwitz to be consumed
But somehow to live on in faith.

BIRDSONG:
He doesn't know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out
He doesn't know what the birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about;
Ah, that the world is full of loveliness.
When dew drops sparkle in the grass
And Earth's afloat with morning light
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to be alive.
Hey, try to open up your heart to beauty
Go to the woods some day and weave
A wreath of memory there.
Weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if tears obscure your way.
You'll know how wonderful it is to be alive.

Class: Sh'ma Yisrael Adonai elohenu, Adonai echad.

Voice XX: Letters - sounds - words. We have uttered them. Created by Thee, 0 God. Spoken by men, grown -
And children merely beginning the process.
Their lives and sacrifices made these words precious - holy, These are their words, yet now our own. Sincere in the hope they will light our way In the world - to Thy Throne.

Voice XXI: Shema V'Haksheev. Hear thou the words we utter. Accept us as a generation striving for the redemption of a universe may these be found worthy intercessors swift on the wings of magic phrases to spell our dedication to free the redeemer.

Voices: ...Mitzva ...Tzedaka ...Rachamim

Class: Love and sanctification

Voice VIII: Words, - yes, they can be hollow
or pregnant To clang harmlessly against the chains that bind
redemption; Or to sunder the fetters, freeing the world and
life upon I.

Voice XX: Tikva - Hope in the future Simcha - Joy to posterity.

Class: Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonoy Tzevaot (sing) M'lo chal Haaretz Kevodo

Class: V'ahavta
Help us to love Thee with all our hearts to build Shalom
(Sings) Sim Shalom
Sim, Sim, Sim Shalom
Tovah, Uv'racha
Baolam
Cheyn, Cheyn, Cheyn vachesed, chesed v'rachamin
Aleynu v*al kol Yisrael, Yisrael amecha Barcheynu Avinu kulanu k'echad b'or panecha
Ki v'or v'or panecha, V'or v'or panecha
Notata lanu Torat Chayim
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