Beyond words

My husband and I spent last weekend visiting at the home of an old friend. Our friend does hostessing in a generous and gracious way and built her home so that having eight guests spending the weekend just felt like a wonderful opportunity to spend time with dear friends.

We did Kabbalat Shabbat together in the living room. The next morning we studied Torah together rather than going to shul.

As Shabbat drew to a close we ate Seudat Shlishit the third Shabbat meal. The songs sung at that time of day are often poignant.

One of our friends began to sing

 Here is a different version with words ( Yes, the audio quality isn't great but it gives you the sense of what it is like to sing this among friends)


This song often leads into this song.

As we can sometimes express what is hardest not in our own words but in sacred words and music, we sang of love and of loss of pain and of joy as best we could.

We then sang 

There was something so profound about our friend sharing his complicated deeply felt emotions in a group of friends not with words but with text and song. These melodies have been in my head and in my throat since Saturday evening.