Hebrew Wisdom Teaching Songs (Maggid Niggunim)

This CD contains many of the Hebrew wisdom teaching songs that Marc Gafni brought to the “Maggid” program, and to many teaching circles and students in the United States. It was given to Marc Gafni “as a gift” by one of the students in the Maggid program. Many moments of ecstasy, in which we lived and felt divinity pouring through us and animating our being, were held in the vessels of these chants and songs. None of these songs was professionally recorded. Rather, they are live from the teaching sessions of Marc Gafni and Erica Ariel Fox with the Maggidic community.

Marc Gafni often said that there are three kinds of teachers: those who sing beautifully and do; those who cannot sing in tune and therefore do not sing; and those who do not and do. Marc Gafni’s singing was never from a place of musical mastery but rather from a place of clear and pure sharing of overflowing spirit and love.

The chants in the snippets of recording below are:

1) Adama VeShamayim
2) Ma Nora HaMakom Hazeh
3) Ki Imcha Mekor Chayim
4)Im Btoch Ha- esh
5)Moonshadow
6)Sweet Surrender, Like a Phoenix from the Fire
7)Yehi Shalom
8)Zachrenu LeChaim

The Maggidic Ordination program sought to empower masses of American and Israeli householders to claim their rightful mastery and priesthood as students, teachers, and masters of the Hebrew wisdom tradition. In this vision, every student chooses a particular person, ritual, practice, or idea in the field of Hebrew wisdom.

One might choose the matriarch Rachel, another the sage Akiva, a third the Shofar of Rosh Hashanah, a fourth Maimonides or a specific work of Maimonides, a fifth the prayer shawl, and a sixth the Hassidic master Levi Isaac of Berdichev. Each seeks to submit, study, and through the two former steps, gain mastery through the radical merger with the field of meaning that they have chosen. Each then incarnates that idea, Mitzvah, sacred text or person, in the “Maggidic circle.”

For a brief glimmering of something more of the Maggid intention and vision, see the Tikkun Olam/Social Activism section on this website. Most of the songs originated around campfires of spirit, in Israel and in Rainbow Gatherings around the world. All of them were central theme songs in the Israel teaching world of Marc Gafni.

 Stream the audios here: