My recent posts…

Twilight Zone

My recent posts...Twilight Zone בֵּין הַשְׁמָשׁוֹת Bein hashemashot, literally, between the suns. בֵּין הַשְׁמָשׁוֹת A twilight zone of time, or rather, out of time, between one day and the next. Our sages of old used this concept to explain certain miraculous...

When to Pray Yizkor

My recent posts...My edited comments from this past final day of Pesach. Ellie’s mom, Julia Helfman, died on her 95th birthday, December 24, 2025. This was the first Yizkor service Ellie feels obligated to attend. She said, “I’m now a member of a club I was not eager...

Timing

It had become a Kremer household Pesach tradition, or rather, a pre-Pesach tradition. Somewhere within a couple of days prior the first seder and noon on erev Pesach, something would go awry in the kitchen.

A Moment of Hebrew

My recent posts...רֶגַע שֶׁל עִבְרִית regga shel ivrit: A moment of Hebrew The summer of 1970, I was one of 250 teens in Israel with Camp Ramah. (Ellie was on the same program, but we didn’t meet then.) I got an outsized pleasure of riding an Egged public bus in...

Yom Kippur Singing

Oct 7, 2024 | A Rabbi Writes

Over the decades, I have composed melodies for some of the texts we use in our prayer services. (I’ve written English interpretations of the texts for a few of them.)

Some of them are posted here so we can sing them together at Shirat Hayam and, even if not used there, simply for your listening pleasure. More tunes (and another CD of original songs) will be available in later autumn 2025 on a CD and for digital download at www.jonathankremer.com.

 

harofei: (Psalms 147:3) a song to accompany (or to serve as) a prayer for healing.
ki hinei kachomer (Mahzor Lev Shalem p. 227) As clay in the hands of the potter…so are we in Your hand, Guardian of love…
ya’ale: (Mahzor Lev Shalem p. 223) May our voices rise up at evening…transforming us at dusk.
Credits:
harofei: Joe Handler, piano; Jodi Handler, vocal.
ki hinei kachomer: Ken Ulansey, sax
ya’ale: Susan Davenport-Elsayed, violin

All melodies and English texts ©Jonathan Kremer. Bery Happy Music/ASCAP.