Welcome to AshiraMusic.net
This album bears the fruit of Ashira’s musical and spiritual journey over the past four years. The songs have seen the five of us through life’s peaks and valleys — new jobs, new babies, illness and death, professional triumphs and crises, final exams, car accidents, miscarriage, cross-country moving, pregnancy and more. We present these songs to highlight events in the cycle of traditional Jewish life.
The song cycle begins with Mal’ach haBrit and Shalom Yalda, intended to welcome baby boys and girls at a Brit Milah or Simchat Bat. Birkat haGomel, a blessing of thanksgiving for surviving danger, is often said by a new mother at these events. The words for Ki Orech Yamim come from the Pidyon haBen ceremony, marking the redemption of firstborn sons at 30 days. Eytan’s Niggun celebrates a child’s Upshirin, the first haircut at age 3. Maya’s Niggun is a wordless prayer for the triumph of a struggling child. Olamcha appropriates rabbinic valedictions from the Talmud to a child on becoming Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Marriage is celebrated in V’eirastich Li. Finally, the cycle begins again with Birchot Shamayim Me’al, a blessing for pregnancy.