Come, Whoever You Are Video Release

I am thrilled to share the music video for my song, “Come, Whoever You Are”, https://band.link/come ,

Out on 3/31/22

 

Miriam, the dancer featured in this video, represents to me the Shechinah, or Divine Feminine. And our meeting represents to me the power of sisterhood, and its place in the ongoing revelation of the empowerment and evolution of the Divine Feminine in our world. A rebalancing of masculine and feminine, in the wild environment of the desert, and on to the holy city of Jerusalem. The red and white dresses represent the inclusion of all feminine archetypes, from the Maiden/Mother in white, to the Lover/Crone in red. Miriam is a dear friend with whom I share a special and long history, from my first time in Jerusalem, where we lived together. She taught me to drum on the Egyptian tambourine, and to belly dance; I wrote my song “Miriam” for her wedding. It was so special to meet again many years later, and share the joyous and healing journey of filming this clip together.
​​
​​“Come, come, Whoever You Are
​​Wanderer, Idolator, Worshipper of Fire
​​Come even though you have broken your vows, a thousand times.
​​Come, and come yet again,
​​Ours is not a caravan of despair.”
​​-Rumi
​​Translation by Coleman Barks

The Tiniest Baby

The staff in the NICU was crowded around his bed. As I sang for another baby, whose doctor suggested I play for him as a preparation for the surgery he was facing later that morning, I was aware of the action around the baby in the corner, who was born weighing 650 grams. 

He wasn't just tiny, he was so different. Born so small, and so early, he seemed to be made of a different substance than other humans, almost looking like wax. I felt awe and fear as I approached him. The responsiblity to provide sonic care to such a small, fragile creature was daunting. I played the gentlest song I could find within me, gently plucking at the strings of my ukulele, and singing softly. 

All I had was a healing intention, and the inner song of my soul to invite him to inhabit his body, grow, be present in our world, and to live. We ususally think  of awe as a response to something huge, larger than life, bigger than us. In this case, awe was inspired by the very smallness of this creature, his unformed features, and the lifeforce holding him to his body, to his life.

The awe changed my song, but I needn't have feared. Within minutes of starting to play, his doctor looked at the monitor and exclaimed, "Wonderful! You've raised his oxygen levels!"

Prayers for this little life to take hold.

My Song for a Druze Cancer Patient

I had to guess at the faces behind their masks. It was my first day officially flying solo as a medical musician and chaplain in the Oncology ward in Ziv Hospital in Tzfat, Israel. They were a Druze couple who seemed about my age, and they were so open. I sang to her without words, gently singing sounds and playing a few chords on the guitar. I let my voice guide me, and watched her relax into the massage chair as I sang. Her husband had tears in his eyes as I finished the first song. "So many messed up things happen in this country, but the work you are doing is amazing" he said. He began opening up to me about their culture and beliefs, and spoke about their spiritual philosophy: they believe in reincarnation, which gives them a consciousness of life beyond the current bodily form. They also believe that everything is from God, even illness, death, and every other "test". This is their way of facing suffering and loss. Accept that it Divine Providence, and surrender your will and your existence to God's will. I asked if there is a phrase that expresses this belief, and they told me, "Raida U'Taslim": Accept and Surrender. I used these words to make her a new song. I based my new melody on the chords to "Wayak", a song by Farid, one of the most beloved composers to the Druze, in order to make the song sound familiar and comforting to them. I watched her melt into the chair as she relaxed. By speaking to them about their experiences and lives, and understanding what gives them faith, I found a song that unlocks the key to the Druze heart of faith. I tried it later that morning on another Druze lady, who was obviously suffering, her head misshapen, and eye socket distended, due to some kind of tumor. She also relaxed with my song, melting into her chair, and even smiling. Caring about this couple, their lives, was the beginning of our connection. Knowing what music they loved, and taking words of faith from our conversation, took our musical and spiritual connection to another level.

42 letter name (Matot/Masai)

Rabbi Shefa Gold writes the following about this weeks parasha:
"Forty-two stops or stages along the Israelites path are enumerated and named. Each stopping point on the journey holds a blessing for us. The Ba’al Shem Tov reminds us, “Whatever happened to the people as a whole will happen to each individual. All the forty-two journeys of the children of Israel will occur to each person between the time he is born and the time he dies.”"

Forty-two is a special and significant number. The stages along the way of our lives. The holographic journey of every person, through the desert to the promised land. It is also the source of the prayer "Ana B'Koach": the 42 letter name of God. This prayer, and the holy name it contains, breaks through gates and blockages. If you have ever stood before an impasse, with no idea how you will get to the other side, meeting your longing, frustration, hope and near despair, and prayed one more prayer, cried one more tear, hope one more hope, and seen a gate open to you that was just a closed wall, than you know the kind of breakthrough power in this prayer.  Here is a one version.

https://tzionaachishena.bandcamp.com/track/08-ana-bkoach

Parashat Balak: Song, Body, and Soul

In this weeks Torah portion, the sorcerer Bilaam is on his way to try and curse the Jewish people, when his female donkey refuses to take him any further. She has witnessed an angel that is blocking the path, which her master fails to notice. Three times she refuses to budge and is beaten, until Bilaam's eyes are open and he is able to understand what has been going on.

Rabbi Shefa Gold writes of this episode, "ALL OF US ARE BURDENED in some measure with the belief that body and spirit exist as two separate realms. Because this belief is buried so deeply, we may not even know it is there. But it is a lie that exacts a steep price and bars us from touching the fullness of what it means to be human which is to be a “holy animal.”

painting by Sheva Chaya www.shevachaya.com

 

This week I had a chance to explore the meeting point between this kind of body wisdom and the voice. I was teaching a student and we did an exerise where we focused on a place in the body that was hurting, stuck, or in some other way asking for attention. The instruction was to either sing to or from that place, improvising, exploring what this place has to say and what it needs. Release? New energy? Oxygen? Love?

When I demonstrated this process, I connected to my lower back which had been hurting for a few days. To my own surprise, my voice as expressed from this place of pain had a different quality than my "normal" singing voice. It was actually richer and more harmonically dense in its overtone scale. It had a kind of raw power to it that carried on its own momentum, and, as I was singing, the whole paradigm of judgement that had followed this place of discomfort was suspended. The pain was no longer something that I wished would simply dissapear; instead, it became an interesting sensation that opened up something new and unknown, and even powerful, inside of me, that came through in my singing. I have actually experience in the past something akin to this, where singing freely in the center of a circle of women caused physical pain (that was probably emotional in origin) to simply dissapear. Another time, a woman in a singing circle was suffering from a migraine headache. When I shared a song, her headache went away.

May it be Hashem's will that we learn from our bodies and their many messages, and that we receive our healing from the highest medicine: music, and our own mysterious voices. Amen.

Parashat Chukat: Where is the Red Heifer?

This Torah is circular. All points point to the center. It won't follow a clear path, beginning, middle, and end. Although the whole point of Hukat is that this Hok kind of Torah injunction is beyond our rational grasp, the use of the ashes of a dead animal to purify those who have come in contact with death can also be seen as a kind of homeopathic Zen koan type of Divine direction. It seems that, paradoxically, these dead ashes are associated with life: the great Tzfat based Kabbalist the Arizal is said to have had some in his possession, which gave him a greater access to Life.

 

Where is this red heifer in our days?

 

(Musical break: an exploration of the red heifer theme from my newly, finally, released LP The Flood) https://tzionaachishena.bandcamp.com/track/04-the-ghetto

 

Well, I think of Miriam the prophetess, who dies in this parasha. The Esh Kodesh suggests that the death of the holy ones atones for the Jewish people, and that she was like a mother to Israel whose death atoned for her many "children", just as the Red Heifer is like the mother that atones for the sin of the Golden Calf, "cleaning up" after that extravagant, idolatrous mess. Miriam's death also marked the end of the wellsprings of water that flowed for us in the desert, until her brother Moshe's personally disastrous misstep in hitting the rock to cause the water to flow again. The Midrash says that it first flowed with blood, and then finally with water. Perhaps this episode is also hinting at the woman's wisdom we all know too well, having learned it with our blood and flesh: you can not force a heart, either to open, or to close.

 

Miriam of course is also associated with the drum, a round symbol of both faith and cyclicality, another gift of women's wisdom, which we live out in our flesh and blood. Birth and death, bordering our world, assure us of the certainty of both goodbye and hello. The circle dances of Miriam and the women are an historic and transpersonal memory of the highest spiritual state humans can experience; one that is awaiting Moshe and the men of Israel at a future date. (see Sarah Yehudit Schneider's commentary on the Meor V'Shemesh) http://astillsmallvoice.org/miryams-circle-dance

 

I once heard Rav Ginsburg teach that although most of the Torah has already been revealed, we are still waiting for the revelation of the Torah of the Moshiach: the Torah of song. Rebbe Nachman teaches about the healing power of song in his story "The Seven Beggars", in which he describes a (mythical?) castle made all of water, which represents the healing power of the 10 types of song, which are sourced in 10 types of joy.  (see my album The Water Castle for a musical rendering of this story http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tzionaachishena4) Although each one of us has experienced firsthand the amazing power of music to transform our mood, spiritual outlook, and even affect our physical state, our knowledge of this musical medicine is at a very beginning stage. From ultrasounds, to using sound waves to break up gallstones, to the unfathomable meanings of the sounds of whales, to the effect of music on adolescent brain development, to the ability to use music to help Alzheimer's patients access both lost memory and verbal skills, we are just starting to notice and uncover this mystery. The Torah of Mashiach.

 

The Esh Kodesh, living at the time in the Warsaw Ghetto, as the atrocities of the concentrations camps were finally understood by those still counted among the living, wrote powerfully and heartbreakingly about the Magrepha, a small and mysterious shovel that was used in temple times for the gathering of the ashes of the sacrifices. Apparently, this tool, when used, created some fantastic number of sounds simultaneously, and was heard from great distances.  In learning about the ways that water was mixed with the Red Cow's ashes to purify the living from contact with the dead, we can start to both mourn all that was, all the losses that we have experienced, both as Jewish people collectively, and as individuals in our own lives, and also birth a vision of the future. No one can force a heart open or closed, but of all things in the world, the right song can penetrate even the most hardened hearts and constricted minds. We can see hints of the wonderous Water Castle in Simchat Beyt ha Shoevah, the pouring out of water ritual,  which brought about great joy, song, and prophecy, and the healing sounds of the Levites in the Temple, who worked in harmony with the Cohen priest to find the right sounds to break and find a new wholeness in the heart of the one seeking healing. We might even envision a water Temple, where the healing sounds of all kinds of joy (including Rina, the joy that follows tears) will be heard, and each person will receive the music specific to her own healing needs, whether on the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual levels. Perhaps the healing sounds will produce their effects from the ethereal all the way down to the physical level, and our bodies themselves will rebirth in wholeness. The song of Miriam and the women can then act as our Red Heifer, as the pain of the past is reborn in the joy of the present, and, as the song says, "we will be like dreamers".

Tu B'Av: A fixing of the wholeness of women

B"H

 

 

Last night I was working with one of my students on moving her weight forward and backward on her feet. I told her to "take her pelvis with her" as she rocked back and forth, keeping it together as part of the whole picture. This is not just another part of her body, but the place that defines her womanhood.  Just as there is a "throat" that connects her head and heart, there is another "throat" below. In Hebrew, the cervix is actually called the "throat of the womb", and as Rebbe Nachman teaches, when it comes to a woman's body, as in all things, "as above, so below". I recently read of a new vaccination against cervical cancer, which now has been shown to prevent throat cancer as well.

I shared with my student how, the last time I sang in a mixed group of women and men, I had a feeling that I had to sing "from the waist up", effectively cutting myself off from the lower part of my body, in order to protect my modesty and privacy within the group. That was my experience. It disturbed me, because I had made so many changes in my life to try to come to wholeness, and here I was cutting myself up into pieces.  That's was when I was finally able to begin to embrace the Jewish approach to singing for women, to women only, after a long struggle, as the free bird within me wants to be able to sing out at any moment.

Our feminine organs are directly connected to our singing as women. Those dreaded words, "Kol B'Isha Erva" :) (a woman's voice is a kind of nakedness or exposure of her hidden places), hides this truth, which has been rediscovered by women singers of all persuasions across the world. To truly sing in wholeness, I have to connect my whole body, with all my emotions, my mind and spirit, and resonate that oneness with the oneness of G-d. It is this ingathering of all my "parts" that parallels the ingathering of the exiles for which we pray daily. And it is glimpses and flashes of this oneness in song, that connect us to a supernal Jerusalem, revealing a vision of oneness in a fractured world. As above so below, this flashes of the rebuilt Jerusalem on high parallel our flashes of holy unification here in the lower worlds. The Ramchal writes in his "Treatise on Hope" that by hoping towards G-d, with a prayer or a song, we pierce the space between our existence in the lower worlds, up to the heavenly heights, and G-d reaches down to us, putting His ear near our mouths, as above reaches down to below.

Since the time of Eden, there has been a fracture and collapsing of the feminine as it is expressed in this world. (See Sara Yehudit Shneider's book, "Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine")  As this is fixed, we, as women, come into our wholeness and full stature. And men also fix their way of looking at women, overcoming the tendency to see us as a collection of parts, as an object to be used, enjoyed, and feared, instead embracing our wholeness and the wholeness brought about by the union between man and woman in love and honor. It is ironic that this coming together, which has the potential to bring about the greatest unification in all the worlds, can also bring down so much brokenness.

The story of Tu B'Av is one that spans many generations. In the story of Pelegesh, a horrible crime is committed against a woman by members of the tribe of Benjamin. In hopes of avenging her gang rape and murder, her avenger cuts her body into pieces and sends one to each of the tribes. The horror that this crime sparks causes a civil war that eventually leads to this tribe being cut off from all of Israel, and left without women to marry and continue their legacy. This parallels the cutting of Pelegesh into pieces, both in making her an object to be abused, and in actually desecrating her body into pieces. This is as about low as it gets.

Tu B'Av is the fixing of this. Women wore white dresses, which they lent to one another. They lent across social lines of status, as a way of saying, "we are all one" creating a feminine circle reality in a hierarchical male dominated consciousness.  And then they went to dance together, circle dances of the vineyard, affirming the circle consciousness in the light of the full moon, which represents the feminine in its wholeness and fullness. There, the menof the tribe of Benyamin were invited to fix their way of looking at women.  As Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi teaches on this holiday, the women were in effect saying, "don't look just at my pedigree. You are not getting married just to have children with important family ties…there is more to it than that. And don't look just at my beauty, for it will fade in time, and I am so much more than how I look. And don't say 'I will marry a woman who isn't beautiful or pedigreed, for then I won't have to give her much in order to satisfy her', because you have to give, and have to want to give to her so deeply. This is your real essence as a man."

This fixing of the man's way of looking at a woman parallels the fixing of the Israelites' way of looking at Eretz Yisrael. With the incident of the spies at the time of the desert, there was a problem in the way that the spies viewed the Land of Israel. The spies gave a negative report of the land, saying that its inhabitants were giants who would crush the Israelites. They saw themselves as much smaller and weaker than they really were. They went on to cry all night in fear of going into the land. This was Tisha B'Av, the beginning of the brokenness and lack of unity in doing G-d's will to love and respect one another that would haunt us throughout the generations. The Temple was destroyed on that day in the future, beginning a long and tortured exile that reached its low in the Holocaust of our people in Europe in the last century. Because of the sin of the spies, it was decreed on high that most of the men of Israel would not enter the land of Israel, but would die in the desert. The women were not subject to this punishment because we did not take part in this sin. The word "Eretz" is the same root as "Ratzon", which appears in the blessing we say every day as women "Blessed is the One who made me according to His will."   The Midrash says that every year on the ninth of Av, the men would dig their own graves and lie down in them. A number of them would die, and thus be ready for burial. The last year in the desert, they dug their own graves and waited….but no one died. They assumed that their timing was off, until the full moon of Tu B'Av revealed that the curse had been lifted, and the fixing had been made: The people were ready to enter the land, too see it in a deeper way, to see it from up close.

But now there is something deeper. The sense associated in Kabbalah with the month of Av is actually hearing. Perhaps the way to fix the brokenness, the fractured perception of both women and the Land of Israel, is not through seeing, but through hearing. As Reb Shlomo Carlebach said about Av, "seeing is only on the outside with your eyes, you cannot see the inside. Listening has to do to with the inside. On the level of seeing, you see G-d threw us out. On the level of hearing, I hear he is taking us back…if you have this deepest depths, the house can be rebuild by itself. Who needs a house? What is a house without people knowing how to hear each other?"

Shema Yisrael: Hear Israel, G-d is One; this prayer was given over in the parasha before Tisha B'Av; the medicine given before the illness. Reb Shlomo gives over from the Gemara that the destruction of the Temple and the coming of the Mashiah is like a woman giving birth to a baby. That the nine months of giving birth to a baby is also like the letter Tet, nine, which is Tisha B'Av, the day that Mashiach will be born.  A woman sounds 70 voices as she gives birth to her baby. We women are sounding 70 voices as we live from inside this long birth of a new Mashiach consciousness, all the pain and joy and beauty that it contains. 

The oneness and wholeness is revealed in listening. People listening to each other, our words and songs, to the silences between the words, what is unsaid;  listening to our stories without judging, listening to our own hearts, knowing to hear and value our own thoughts. We can hear past the illusion of ourselves as a collection of parts, to the essential oneness that is revealed in a woman's voice, which can bring together heaven and earth. In hearing, we are allowing that voice be a reflection of G-d's will, as opposed to an object to be possessed, in thought or in action. And as we learn to hear the depth of oneness expressed in women's voices, perhaps we will come to hear the hidden voice of our beloved Eretz Yisrael. Singing a new song. And she will be finally treasured: an expression of G-d's will, a free bird that can never be caged.

Recent North American Tour

Here is a series of posts about each of the stops on my tour: Toronto, Chicago, Cleveland, Maryland, and Manhattan. By the end of these postings I hope to have some brilliant insights on the overall experience. I'm sure I"ll be seeing the forest any day now. Meanwhile, I still feel like I'm moving through the desert, tho I'm back in the Holy Land. Chodesh Tov!
Tziona Achishena


a fun jam with some high school girls in Toronto
 

March, 2013 North American Tour: Toronto

 I started out the tour in snowy Toronto. We were glad to get a good crowd considering that there was about a foot and a half of newly fallen snow outside! As I looked into the deep and present  eyes of the women in front of me, I felt that special magic feeling of G-d putting the words in my mouth, of tapping in to Beyond. Leah Bassett did an amazing job organizing; the place was beautiful, the lights magical, the sound divine. A highlight of the show was definitely Leah and Kari Issacson dancing to my song "Lo Gava Libi". I often hear about women doing dance performances to my songs but rarely get to see that myself, and it brought me a lot of joy, as well as a big hug from the dancers!

 Below is another big hug from the women's dancing circle. Hearts were open and women were reaching out to each other. Thanks to Rhonda (our host) and her beautiful family for being the most gracious and loving friend to me and Doda to baby Shlomo. I was able to really let go and relax in her home, some much needed r and r and a shabbes that I had been fantasizing about since last time.

Return to the Land of Your Soul

here we are in this beautiful time of year...the 10 days of tsuvah. a time of reconnecting to our real selves and souls, awakening, reaching out...and in. the subtle world of G-d fills the spaces within. A special birthday night, surrounded by the gentle waters of the Kinneret, wondering...could this be Miriam's Well? A place where kindess embraces us, and we are softened and made new.
on tap for this time:
* weekly class in Tzafnat with the beautiful young women of Israel: drums, clarinet, and flutes abound
* celestial Rosh Hashanah singing circle
* singing with a few hundred girls at a school near Haifa
have the most joyous and sweet new year!

redemption time

photo from an uplifting concert in Pittsburg with music by Tziona Achishena and visuals by Sheva Chaya...and all the women and girls dancing together!

B"H

Koli el Hashem: My Voice to G-d

New CD from Tziona Achishena!

Vocal music for the Omer Count and Av! Simplicity and depth: voice is the only instrument on this album of Hebrew chants and prayers, layering in moving harmony and rhythmic sounds, reaching up to heaven.

Order physical CDs from Tziona (koltziona@gmail.com) or download from http://www.cdbaby.com/ (tziona achishena)

glorious cover artwork by Sheva Chaya www.shevachaya.com

POST TOUR NEWS!

Carlebach Shul, NYC



Sharon, MA

Sharon, MA

Chicago

Carlebach Shul, NYC

Chabad, San Francisco

B"H

Hey Holy Sisters!
We're still trying to give over in words the experience of our Pre Pesach tour. It's so beyond....

We landed in Chicago where the wonderful Ariella Levi received us with so much love and appreciation! My beautiful family, Auntie Marcia and Uncle Michael, took us out for a delicious dinner. Cousin Andy, a lighting expert, donated the pink and purple lights for the concert, which along with the projected images and the new sound system, created a magical effect that drew the women present into another dimension, ending with some beautiful dancing and a spirit of gratitude and longing for Eretz Yisrael and geula! Ariella showed some dancing moves sprinkled with Tai Kwan Do....she is a martial arts champion and master of bringing down holy gatherings. The next motzei shabbes the women of their community got together to dance to Tziona Achishena's music. (such nachas...) Hope to see you all soon!

From there we flew to Northern California for a beautiful Shabbes with our dear friends in Berkeley. An artshow for Sheva Chaya at Afikomen warmed us up for the concert that night at Chabad, SF, which was, in two words, the HIGHEST! All different types of women blasted off together from the first note into a world of prayer. Words of the songs woven into the projection made the Hebrew accessible to everyone. There was a trememdous energy and not holding back! I felf like I was flying through the stratospheres, improvising blissfully on the solid wave of sound produced by the holy sisters. It felt like a big big light in the darkness. My little (big Neshama) niece Kamille sang with me and hugged me for half the night. It was great to see my sister again after four long years!!!!!! We also got to see Sheva Chaya's brother, his wife, and their new beautiful baby who we both fell in love with. Yashar Coach to Nechama Shaina and her mother the holy Rebbetzin. I was able to share a song I wrote her about my first Shabbes ever, which was at her house. Shine on!

Beautiful Sharon, Mass. was our next destination; a little Jewish haven in the foresty NEast. So many holy sisters, longing for the real thing. The setting was lovely....a huge screen giving over the colors and beauty of Sheva Chaya's artwork. The women were just waiting to sing along. We started with a guided imagery session about the water palace in Rebbe Nachman's story, picturing ourselves going deeper and deeper through the gates in the walls of the palace until we reached our souls on the innermost level. Eventually we all got up and danced. There was a wonderful energy of gratitude that permeated the air. Leah and friends, Yashar Coach for bringing it down! Thanks to Ziesal and Hendi for hacnasat orchim and sweet friendship.

On to NYC, with many holy helpers on the way, including the guy that helped us get from the train to the cab (no small feat), whose name was Saint! My sweet Dad met up with us to help us get around. Joey the angel and her roomate offered their apartment as a landing pad...much appreciated! And the Carlebach Shul! What an honor! I could hear the holy melodies inside the walls, calling out...sing me! Sing Me! What I remember most was the feeling of readiness from the women...we are ready, take us with you! Such a sweet and divine vibration. Zion Train (my alter ego...Bob Marley's imaginary convert granddaughter) was delighted to meet the woman from Jamaica who sang ONE LOVE with her. We all danced and sang and praised Hashem for the awesome privelege of getting together. Chasya, you are an angel. Thanks to the Holy Rabbi Naftali for making it possible for us to come!

We spent the last day with my Dad and my oldest friend, Dina. It was a much needed, very short, day off from the intensity of all the travel and gigs, a chance to be grateful and simple for the awesome opportunity that Hashem blessed us with, connecting deeply and in such a real way with so many holy souls, sharing our own created offerings of songs and artwork, and collaborating in the creation of a new vibration...what happens when women get together to sing, dance, and tap into joy and prayer. Thanks to all our friends and everyone who help make it possible, donating time, house, and love. It was wonderful to reconnect to old friends, and see new babies and growth. Thanks to Hashem who has sustained us and brought us to this time. B"H video and plans for the next tour to come, B"H.
All our love,

Tziona Achishena and Sheva Chaya

Miriam's Drum on the Road

We are going on tour! Our multimedia performance will be reaching Chicago, San Francisco, Sharon, MA, and NYC! We are excited and looking forward to connecting with old and new friends, beloved sisters, some still unknown! Sheva Chaya will be projecting her visionary artwork, while I (Tziona Achishena) will be singing, drumming, and getting ready for Pesach with spiritual cleaning...from the inside out! This time is so special...we really feel the power of newness, purification, and freedom coming down into the world. This concert tour is a chance to connect to this energy in a positive way, keeping our eyes on the prize and Seder night approaches. It gives us a chance to breathe, sing, celebrate, dance, and connect to each other and to our creator, reaffirming our heart connection and coming back to our true selves.

We hope to see you there!
love,
Tziona Achishena

Inspiration

Hello holy sisters,
I'm so happy to tap into this stream of inspiration and holiness. The "Miriam" video is a glimpse of great things to come....circles and circles of women joining hands, smiling, dancing together.

The music is awesome, Tziona Achishena, thank you for sharing your gifts with us.

I want to share with you something...although deep down, I know everything and everyone has a rhythm, until this video came down, I never thought to have a drum, to even carry one around with me...and now...yes! I have a drum, I am ready to join the circle. I can start to believe in my own rhythm. That it exists, it is beautiful, it is needed to help make the circle whole. And the same is true of you, we need you, we are waiting for you, the circle is expanding.

Back when I started to paint, I wanted to paint music. I didn't exactly know what that meant, but I think it's time is coming now. The paintings in the video of Miriam and the women and the circles are inspired by the song, by the dancing women, by you.

Let's keep getting together, in the merit of Miriam the Prophetess herself, we should all find our drums, our rhythms, join hands and see the circle grow...

love and light,
sheva chaya
7alive@gmail.com

The "Miriam" Video

Here is the trailer for a new video by Sheva Chaya http://www.shevachaya.com/, with footage from our recent NYC tour, and beautiful new paintings of Miriam the Prophetess. This is a mulitmedia extravaganza with song, dance and projected visions. To recieve the link to the full video, please email me. This is to protect the privacy of all the beautiful sisters singing and dancing so freely. It was truely and taste of redemption those nights. Enjoy! koltziona@gmail.com

On Faith and Knowledge, Brain and Heart, Inner Light and Surrounding Light

BS"D

This is my translation of an article by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ashlag TZ"L
Everything that is born is created from its head, and we shall see that this is the brain. And even though is seems that the brain is a rational creation, which has absolutely no connection with the animal soul of the person, this is not so. Rather, all of the person’s life force is drawn from and has its source in the brain, because all the life essence and strength to exist of every living thing sits in the place of primary importance for that particular creature. And because there is no organ more important for man than the brain, therefore, in the brain is found all the power of his existence, and from there comes all of the body’s strength.
And know that the brain is closed within fluid, and within the bones of the skull, and it has no real physical connection with the organs of the body, except for thin veins which are connected with the eyes, and at the end of the brain, a certain kind of organ with "flesh round like Poland" which is the beginning of the spinal chord.
Thus it is that all the thoughts of the brain and its emotional peaks act with their strength on the person and their influence, like pleasure and sorrow, courage and despondency, joy and strength, fill the sinews and arteries with the flow of the life force, making him living and healthy. Conversely, downtroddenness and worry and cause complete death for the living and feeling creature, and according to the measure of their strength will neutralize the life force of the person, as it is written "the poor person is considered dead". His existence is considered "beyond nature", because the life force is measured according to the person’s ability to embrace creation, and his will is dependant upon this. And the person who has become disgusted by life has no life force according to nature, because the nature of living things is to contain and be drawn, with all their essence, to their life force and being.
This can play out is two ways, either that something like poverty and suffering has sucked out a person’s life force, or that he is actually missing part of his force of existence, and due to this lack, he doesn’t receive the influx of life according to the nature of all living things. As is written "evil doers are called living dead", meaning, the evil among the Israel, because they have a seed of Israel within them from their Creator, the addition of "Da’at" (Knowing) of Holiness within their bodies, which differentiates them from all the nations of the world. This is referred to in the holy books as "Helek Elokah Mimal. (A part of G-d from above). And therefore when this part is missing, it is not just a matter of imperfection, rather the person is thought of as dead, and even though he may move, and have other signs of life, he is considered as if he is not living according to nature.
And this is divided in the books to inner light, and surrounding light, meaning that one who lives according to nature , whose will embraces his life in wholeness, lives a life of true delight, and therefore inner light flows within him. This is not the case for someone who can’t bear his own life force and is disgusted by life, and yet is still alive, because his life is drawn towards his existence from without, and he is living the aspect of surrounding light. (And for the former), all the spiritual pleasures are drawn to him in faith, because now his Mishpat (judgement, vision, sentence) is clear to him, integrating his past and present, in that he understands that everything that has happened to him was fair, and with security he will reach his goals. His faith will increase with his every step, and according to this measure his pleasure grows and rises, his will embraces his life completely, and so he is called alive. Unlike the person who doesn’t see fairness in his paths, and doesn’t trust in G-d that he will be lead to his goal, and every step of the way his burden gets heavier, and the doubt increases, until he can no longer believe he will succeed. Thus his worries increase and he becomes disgusted by life, and he then is like a moving dead person (zombie), and his life force and sustenance are drawn to him from the outer surrounding lights . Actually, the place of "Mishpat" is within the brain, while the place of existence, faith, is drawn from the "Mishpat", and it is in the spinal column, and called "Da’at HaMishpat" ("Knowledge of Mishpat").
And if it were possible to inject the spinal column with faith, before the "Mishpat" went out, then we could draw life force to every person, because it would seem that this is not dependent upon the brain. However, this would be very difficult and nearly impossible, except through the brain and its "Mishpat", as stated above.

B"H
(adapted from Likutay Moharan, 77)

When we breathe in holiness, our breath is the aspect of running and returning...like the movement of the angels in our father Jacob's dream. The purpose of creation is the revealation of G-d's kingdom in the world. The mouth is also related to the sephirah of Kingship. Therefore, through our mouths we can accomplish this revealation. The breath corresponds to the "H" of G-d's four letter name. The voice corresponds to the "vav". When we send our voice up in awe and trembling, in prayer and in Torah study, our actions correspond to the "yud" and the "hey" of G-d's holy name, like an upside down tree with roots in heaven, reaching up towards our source. Malchut is connected to the Shechinah (Divine Prescence), which is connected to speech. The soul itself has its source in the world of speech. The Shechinah, speech, accompanies us wherever we go, like a mother that accompanies her child wherever he goes. When we become mute, unable to speak, unable to articulate and open our inner world before G-d, then the Shechinah is in exile. By using our voice in holiness and a desire to connect with the Divine, the Shechinah is brought from exile to salvation. Geula is in our mouths!

"In the palace of the King, let your true voice sing!" with love, Tziona Achishena

My Heart Was Not Proud

a better link to the new video...free interprative improvisation of Psalm 131

Sisters, tune into another rhythm. This one takes some deep listening. love Tziona Achishena

The Best Bat Mitzvah

I was privledged to sing at Ester's Bat Mitzvah in Nahariyah on Wednesday night. 14th of Sivan...also my little Sara Malka's Birthday! The main thing that stays with me is that there are all these hidden communities of special, holy Jewish women all over Eretz Yisrael. I felt so blessed to be a part of their simcha! In addition to the joy of singing to G-d from my heart, we also did some guided imagery together that expanded our minds and hearts. We took a journey to the rebuilt Jerusalem (soon in our days!), and while the girls made jewelry in the garden, the mother's and I did an inner journey, each imagining her daughter blossoming and flourishing, blessing her, and then feeling Hashem loving us as we love them. We did Hafrashat Challah, and then prayed for the redemption of the captured Israel soldiers, and of the whole world.
We passed out a little "miriam's drum" to every one there, and did a big, three part rhythm that awakened the heavens, while singing the Miriam song. It went on and on, rising with power and joy. No one wanted to stop. Friends, I think the geula is on its way!!!!!!! Good Shabbos!

PS Check out my first Rebbetzin's blog...Chana Bracha is the highest! rebbetzinchanabracha.blogspot.com, www.berotbatayin.org