“Neird v’Kharkom”
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A Musical Meditation on Spring
We are delighted to share two versions of this piyyut created by JTS students for the album Seeds of Song: Music from The Jewish Theological Seminary. In these musical celebrations of spring, we can consider how
the season enhances our celebration of freedom.
Words Attributed to the Poet Nahum (13th-century, North Africa)
All the trees of paradise have changed from
their widows’ garb and budded. Friends are glad
and gay to see them in their splendid robe.
Music by Rabbi Abi Weber (RS ’21), Associate Rabbi, Temple Beth Zion Beth Israel
One Shabbat, walking home through Central Park, I was stopped in my tracks by three bright pink trees,
flowering from every inch of every branch. Truly, the trees had changed their widows’ garb and donned
splendid robes! Pausing, I saw person after person, group after group, similarly reveling in these delightful trees.
This feeling of delight is at the core of Neird v’Kharkom, a perfect poem for Passover. “Crocus and lavender have sprouted in my garden . . . myrtle has blossomed and bloomed”—all is right with the world. My melody—which tries to capture the joy emanating from each line—was inspired by a Tuareg rock band from northern Mali and
Algeria, where the piyyut’s mysterious author, Nahum, may have spent time.
“Dove and Swallow . . . Open their beaks and
coo. There they praise my maker’s might, one in
laughter, one in song.”
Music by Hazzan Eliana Kissner (CS ’21), Cantor,
Oheb Shalom
Neird v’Kharkom juxtaposes the total sensory appreciation of the present (“crocus and lavender have sprouted in my garden”) with the
longing for future redemption (“Dew to bring rest to the burdened ones”). In this setting (one of two on
this album), I tried to express that tension musically,
drawing inspiration from an Arabic musical mode called “kurd,” which is itself associated with love and longing. Rather than the usual repeated verses and refrain, this setting offers a series of melodic vignettes meant to capture the experience of walking through a garden, appreciating an individual flower or plant for a fleeting moment, and
then moving on.
