As our nation struggles with another natural disaster–the Gulf oil spill, it’s time to remember the other environmental issues we have created and need to solve. We have toxic substances in our water, disappearing habitats and species, a damaged ozone layer, climate change, and more…
In this effort to remember…and to heal…the environment and the temple in which we live–Earth, one of my favorite musicians has create and offered a chant as what he calls a “wake-up call to open our hearts and minds toward the saving of this Eden which we’ve been given to steward.” Cantor Richard Kaplan‘s song, Lamenting Her Temple So Wounded ends with a global call call for a reverent mending of our “larger Temple.”
Click here to listen to Lamenting Her Temple So Wounded (4:10) Or you can download the songย for 99 cents at: cdbaby.com.
Lamenting Her Temple So Wounded is an all-English version of a track from Kaplan’s second CD, “Life of the Worlds,” where it is sung with Hebrew and English intertwined. To hear the original recording of Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden (6:17), click here.ย (This version is also downloadable for 99 cents at: cdbaby.com.)
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Here are the lyrics to the song:
Jeremiah wept, oh! hearing her song,
Lamenting her Temple so wounded (Gaia sings:) “Alas my forests are dying,
I hear my waters crying,
Have all the lessons been lost?
Oh! oh that I, oh that they, were pure again”
Jeremiah wept, oh! hearing her song,
Lamenting her Temple so wounded
(Gaia sings:) “My precious forms of life that are no more
In silence live the children of the poor
Alas! why will they not feel their disgrace?
Oh! oh that I, oh that they, were pure again”
In the night, she weeps and weeps
Longing for her lovers,
Who so seldom come to comfort her
Bring us back to You, oh Soul of Souls
Spark us to turn, that we may be seen
Mending this Temple, our Eden
For more about the creation of this piece,visit the “Writings” section of Kaplan’s website and scroll down to “track 4” in Christina Roden’s interview concerning Life of the Worlds.
Enjoy…and heal the planet.
