L'chulam - A Gift of New Songs from my home studio

So what happens to a singer/songwriter in between and after albums have emerged from recordings in the studio?   

My songwriting of original Jewish music has never stopped since the creation of "Let Me Sing My Way into Your Night" in October, 1999 and "Two are Better Than One" in November, 1999.   Each time I went to the studio, there were several songs that were not included in the recordings, but not because they were less favorite or meaningful to me.   I have now created multi-track recordings of many of these songs in my home studio, using the resources I have available for myself.   At some point, other people's voices and instruments may be added.  For right now, here is what I have done on my own.   All of these tracks are posted on www.reverbnation.com/larrykarol and you can find them there, but here they are with brief introductions and explanations.  As always, it is an honor to share these songs with you! 

THE LINKS FOR THESE SONGS ARE NOW TO A FILE ON DROPBOX SO THAT ANYONE CAN ACCESS THEM FROM A PHONE OR TABLET, AS WELL AS FROM A COMPUTER.   HAPPY LISTENING! 

1) One Voice - created in 2005 as part of a songwriting workshop at Have Nashira led by Craig Taubman, the chorus emerged in response to a request for a sort of Jewish haiku.   The verses were added a few weeks later.   This was intended as a statement of who I am - and it still expresses my sense of self as part of a community. 

One Voice

2) Lev Tahor (A Pure Heart) - Based on Psalm 51. 

Lev Tahor (A Pure Heart)

3) Good to Me - This is based on the hopeful message that is contained in Psalm 13, created in February of 2006 to express gratitude for a fruitful 22-year run in Topeka, KS at Temple Beth Sholom.  

Good to Me

4) Eilu V'Eilu-  Jocelyn Segal Tarkoff asked me to come to her Cohen Hillel Academy 3rd Grade class in February 2008 to work on a song that expressed the values of being in a meaningful and productive study partnership.  I wrote the first two verses and the chorus, and the students wrote verse 3 and joined me on the vocals.  This was recorded on my iBook but I still love listening to these wise children add their harmonies.   

Eilu V'Eilu (These and These are the word of the living God)

5) Turn to Me - Based on Psalm 84, this was a song of reaching out for help and hope.   No one wants to feel alone, the presence of God or supportive friends can guide us through difficult times.  

Turn to Me

6) How Good - this was a song created in two stages.  The chorus was premiered at an Interfaith Thanksgiving service in Dover, NH.  The bridge in this song was written for a Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday celebration at the University of New Hampshire.   

How Good

7) Remember Us (Ya-aleh V'Yavo) - This song "anglicizes" a prayer recited on the Jewish holidays, and its meaning reaches beyond those special times. 

Remember Us (Ya-aleh V'Yavo)

8) What Peace Is - This was created for the Peace Village of Las Cruces Peace Camp summer program in 2015.    

What Peace Is

9) Feel the Blessing - I wanted to write about the Priestly Blessing (May God Bless You and Keep You) but from the perspective of the one giving blessing and the one receiving blessing.    This is what emerged. 

Feel the Blessing

10) House of Prayer - After the shooting at the church in Charleston, South Carolina, I thought about texts that spoke of holy places from the Bible, focusing on the Isaiah Chapter 56 message: "My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all peoples." 

House of Prayer

11) Nigun Refuah/Esa Einai - I created this melody during a time of healing for myself in 2005.   The Nigun came first, then I realized that Esa Einai fit the melody.   

Nigun Refuah/Esah Einai (Melody of Healing/Psalm 121- I Lift My Eyes

12) Asei L'cha Rav - I wrote this to mark the 35th anniversary of my ordination as a rabbi in 2016.  

Asei L'cha Rav (Find Yourself a Teacher)

13) Yosheiv B'Seter Elyon - This song incorporates text from Psalm 91, which is recited at funerals in Jewish tradition and at other times.  I wrote this the day after I wrote Asei L'cha Rav as a response to the attack at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv on June 9, 2016.  

Yosheiv B'Seter Elyon (I Dwell in the Shelter of the Most High)

14) Or Lay'sharim - This song was created in late January, 2017, as a way of generating a sense of resolve and action to reiterate values that we prize in our society and country - and the world. 
Or Lay'sharim (Light of the Upright)

15) Hak'shivah- Listen to My Prayer - Psalm 16 seeks a sense of God's presence, which can be realized when we are present for each other.   It is about companionship, love and hope.   
Hak'shivah (Listen to My Prayer)

16) L'chulam (For Everyone) - The naming ceremony in the Reform movement's Rabbi's manual includes a reading that was part of my rabbinic ordination service based on a quote by Martin Buber, that each of us is here to fulfill our particularity in the world.   I added to the mix a saying of the rabbis that "there is no one who doesn't have his/her time and no thing that does not have its place."   This was written in honor of the impending birth of a grandchild....so Joshua Moise Karol, born on 6/1/2017, this is for you! 
L'chulam (For Everyone)

17) What it Means to Be Free - originally created in 2013 during the push for new immigration legislation, I broadened the message of the song in 2016, and made it multitrack on 7/4/2017.   
What It Means to be Free

18) Owe It All - In 2007, I asked my students at Temple Israel in Dover, NH to say what they were thankful for and, if they were asking God for strength, for what would they make the request.  In 2017, I added comments about peace from the 2016 Las Cruces Peace Camp staff and campers.   
Owe It All

19) Nashirah (Let Us Sing) - I wrote this song soon after a visit to B'nai Jeshurun in New York City.   It is about how music can lead us to joy, soulful expression, gratitude and love.  I added to the original 2005 recording additional vocals in 2017.  
Nashirah (Let Us Sing)

20) Offerings - I have had the honor of setting to music three of Alden Solovy's liturgical poems that inspired me to create a melody tailor to his words.   This is the song which I have recorded with harmonies, with the other two waiting in the wings.   
Offerings (Words by Alden Solovy, Music by Larry Karol)

There are even more songs than these that can/will be shared.  Please listen and enjoy.   That is why this music is here, whether from me or anyone else. 

50 years ago - A Jewish summer camper was "born"

I figure that I should post this at some point.   In late June of 1967, I left home (in Kansas City, Missouri) for the first time to spend 11 days away on my own...well, sort of on my own.  This non-boy scout actually agreed to attend the inaugural session of Tzofim at what was then Olin Sang Union Institute Camp 50 years ago.  After a visit to my congregation from camp director Irv Kaplan, I had tried to sign up for the regular cabin session, Kallah.  After I was notified that it was closed, I was disappointed, but soon a green post card came to my house.  It said that there was a possibility for a tent-based session to be created, which would have the same basic programming as the Kallah session.   I said yes, and so I had my opportunity to get a taste of Jewish summer camping. 

  Full disclosure - I am the one in the front row on the far left in the photo below, it's true.  They did try to teach me to swim, but that didn't take.  Still, it was a great experience. 

      During one of my years at the camp for the Hava Nashira Songleader workshop (around 2003, maybe) we were all sitting in the Bayit, the main building that was near Lac La Belle.    One of the faculty gave us this direction during a service: "Think about the first time you were away from home."   As I sat on my chair in the Bayit, I said to myself my answer to the question.  "Here.   This is THE place where I spent my first time away from home."   I have had contact over the years with a few people in this photo.  I would have never thought that I would have been a part of something like this that was a first.   Tzofim 1967 was full of real Tzofim, because we were the ones who helped the camp "scout out" whether this program would work. And did it ever!  I returned for Tzofim Bet in 1968, and didn't make it back to OSRUI until 1999 for my first Hava Nashira workshop.  The distant memories of Tzofim added very much to my Jewish foundation of learning and connections that have continued during my time at University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, at HUC-JIR, and throughout my rabbinate (of 36 years now).  So, thank you, what is now OSRUI, for adding an important dimension to my Jewish life!

Strong Leadership inspires unity rather than division - Las Cruces Bulletin column - July 7, 2017

    Leadership - and what makes a good leader - has been on my mind for many years.   I have seen members of the congregations I have served assume positions of responsibility and exhibit a wide variety of approaches to fulfilling their responsibilities.   My hope is always that what will result from anyone’s leadership style is collaboration among members that creates a team spirit and a feeling of unity on many levels. 

      Every week, in synagogues around the world, the same section of the Torah (the first five books in the Bible) is read, explained and discussed.   That means there is ample opportunity to focus on the figure of Moses as a leader of the Israelites.   Recently, we read about the rebellion against Moses (and against his brother, Aaron) that was based on manufactured charges that gave Moses no credit whatsoever for his accomplishments.  That passage in the book of Numbers sees the people accuse Moses and Aaron of being arrogant and out of touch.  It was asserted that they portrayed only themselves as holy, when, according to the rebels, all the people were holy.  In fact, these two brothers were dedicated to the people and doing the best they could to serve a large multitude of individuals with different needs.  In modern terms, we could redefine the holiness of each person in reference to his or her intrinsic significance.  Every person counted.  In Jewish tradition, Moses was known for his humility, so he did value every individual. That made him a better leader.  

     There are aspects of Moses’s leadership from which we can learn today.  We see and hear, at times, about too many leaders who believe that it is their mission only to amass power and influence, to impose their will rather than to create partnerships, and to stir up their followers in order to create an us/them framework where life is about conquest rather than compromise.  

    When I seek out a list of the characteristics of a good leader, I usually turn to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s classic summaries of leadership traits based on her studies of presidents from our nation’s past.  She has noted that successful leaders are good-natured and learn from failure by being humble and persistent so that they can stand up and try again.  Successful leaders surround themselves with people who agree with them and people who may not agree with them in order toarrive at the best decision possible, based on a variety of opinions.    Leaders who are successful inspire those working for them and with them to do their best.  They are able to relax and to replenish their energy.  Successful leaders can cool down and control their emotions.  Leaders are at their best when they learn how to speak to people so that they will listen and feel inspired in a way that creates unity among them rather than division. 

    Hopefully, we see around us leaders who are able to sow seeds of understanding and cooperation, who can seek out the truth and hold up the importance of personal integrity. Sometimes, the ones who live by the highest values, the true heroes, come from among the rank and file of a society.  These are special individuals who are more concerned about doing good than about gaining power.       

    There are many ways to lead, and to follow, but the goal can always be to bring people together in a spirit of unity, beginning with the recognition of their common humanity.   So let us talk, listen, learn, and hope as we continue to guide one another on our journey together.

The Day that the Eternal One has made - Every Day! - Column for Temple Beth-El Las Cruces Adelante Newsletter for July, 2017

ZEH HAYOM ASAH ADONAI - NAGILAH V’NIS’M’CHAH VO - This is the day that the Eternal One has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”    This verse from Psalm 118 applies to most any important day in our lives.   Rhonda and I included this text on the invitation to our congregation for our son Adam’s B’rit Milah in March of 1986.   I referred to this verse from Psalms in the eulogy for my mother in May of 2006 to characterize how she approached her life, treating every day as an opportunity to do something special for and make an impact on her community.  

      Rhonda and I witnessed yet another “ZEH HAYOM” event on June 8 at the B’rit Milah of Joshua Moise Karol.  It was important that this tradition continued for yet another generation of our family.   What was also special was that some of the friends and family gathered for this ceremony at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City had also been present at past simchahs for Juli and for Adam.    A photo was taken on June 8 that was similar to one from the wedding weekend in February, 2015 of six of us: Rhonda and me,  Adam and Juli, and Juli’s parents, Steve and Nancie Schnur.  This new picture, however, included one more person who is just beginning his life’s journey.  We hope to see this “young man” grow not only in texted photos and on FaceTime but also in person as much as possible.  

      Recently, while working on a project of locating all of our personal documentation for the renewal of our New Mexico driver’s licenses later this year, Rhonda and I had an opportunity to rediscover and explore the necessary materials stored in their appropriate envelopes.   Not only was there my birth certificate from the State of Missouri, but there was also the Jewish certificate related to my 8th-day ceremony.  My bar mitzvah certificate (from 50 years ago) and Rhonda’s Confirmation certificate from 1970 are still there.  We found our Ohio marriage license from 1982.  Its Jewish counterpart is on our wall, our wedding Ketubah crafted by Dayton, Ohio friend and artist Joan Marcus. 

      Documents - both Jewish and secular - and photographs chronicle our lives.  They illustrate the stories we tell about our own beginnings and upbringing.   Sometimes the documents take on an unusual form.  One day when I was visiting my dad’s brother, Harry, he began talking about family history.   I began writing notes on store receipts that I happened to have in my wallet.   I found those notes again in the last few days.  They recorded stories that my uncle told me that day that I have shared with some of my cousins, including an account of how our ancestors helped one another find their way to America.

     Knowledge of my family history also enabled me to recognize the name of a “real relative” who was identified as one of my “DNA relatives” on a well-known ancestry website (his great-grandmother and my Dad’s mother were sisters).  I wrote him a note to make the connection.  He said of our common ancestors in his response: “I hear they were both very strong women!” 

     In just one sentence, a story was told. An aspect of character was memorialized, one that confirmed what I had heard as well.    Whenever we share these impressions, anecdotes and stories, the past comes alive (whether in families or in congregations) and is preserved so that new tales can be told in the years to come.

     As Rhonda and I each held our new grandson, we had a chance to look him in the eyes and to see him gaze right back.   Perhaps what he sees in our eyes will be something he will articulate later in his life.  What we saw in his eyes was all that he represents: a tribute to the past with his arrival, a source of joy for the present, and beacon of hope for the future.  We wish for him and his parents- as we wish for everyone of any age - many days on which to say, “This is the day that the Eternal One has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  

A Prayer for Softer Words and Sacred harmony among us - Parashat Chukat - June 30, 2017 (on the occasion of completing 6 years at Temple Beth-El of Las Cruces)

Eternal One,

You watch over us every day

In our best times

And in our most challenging times.

You direct us, as much as possible,

To work with each other for good,

To join together to do mitzvot

To engender understanding with each other.

Perhaps You lament, along with us,

When cruelty overtakes cooperation.

When the desire to strike back supersedes the possibility

Of soft speech and words than can lead to healing.

In the Torah reading this week,

We see Moses and Aaron driven to frustration

Forgetting to use only the gentle speech that was required in a crucial moment.

We see the Israelites mourn for Miriam, then Aaron,

Losing one who led them in song

And another who gave them blessing.

May we act in community

As if our voices were joined in sacred harmony

May the ways in which we work with each other

And build long lasting relationships

Bring us blessing and strength.

And may the enmity that leads to division

Give way to the realization

That we have much in common

As we continue along this challenging and eventful human journey.

Be with us every moment,

Inspire us every day.

Amen. 

"Let us by all means go up" - Moving ahead with optimism and courage - Parashat Sh'lach L'cha - June 16, 2017

   This has been a multi-faceted week – or we could extend it back for weeks.

   We are watching – or ignoring -hearings on decisions made for conflicting reasons and, some say, questionable motives. 

   We have witnessed violence from opposite ends of the political and ideological spectrum, with stabbings of two defenders of women on a train in Seattle by a man who called himself a patriot. 

    We followed, just after happened and since, the shooting on Wednesday of Congressman Steve Scalise and several other people who were at the baseball practice of the Republican team preparing for last night’s charity game.   At the end of the game, the manager of the winning team from the Democratic side gave the trophy to the manager of the Republican team so that that the trophy could be displayed in Scalise’s office.

   We never know where opinions strongly and militantly stated might take someone.   We tell young children to use their words after we see them hit another child, reminding them that there are choices to how one can express anger or frustration.

    While in New York last week, Rhonda and I went with friends to the National September 11 Museum at the site where the two towers once stood.   It was somber, chilling, and overwhelming.    And it was a reminder of what havoc and devastation a small group of individuals, driven by extreme views, could do to drastically alter the course of world history.   

   What struck me about going through the museum was the diversity of the people visiting and viewing the exhibits, and the stories of the victims and first responders chronicled on the timeline on the wall and in the displays and tales from survivors.

    There was the Ladder Company 3 fire truck that was partially crushed when the towers fell.  All the firefighters in Ladder company 3 died during their attempts at rescue.

   There was the red bandanna honoring Welles Remy Crowther, who was credited with sending many people to safety in the south tower, and who died during his heroic efforts.

    There were images of signs created to try to locate people who were missing after the attack posted by their relatives and friends.   

    There was an extended profile of the rise of Al Qaeda, something on which Rhonda and I chose not to focus as we went through the museum.  

   And there was the quote from Virgil, “No Day Shall Erase You from the Memory of Time,” against a backdrop of panels in shades of blue, each one an attempt to capture the color of the sky at various times in New York city on September 11, 2001. 

   As I read my favorite section of the Torah reading for this week, Sh’lach L’cha,  there was a passage that, I thought, resonated on some levels with the quote from Virgil’s Aeneid. 

    The narrative about the scouts who entered the land of Canaan in Numbers chapters 13 and 14 does list the names of all of the tribal representatives charged with that important task. 

   Moses instructed them as follows: “Go up there into the Negev and on to the hill country and see what kind of country it is.  Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many?  Is the country in which they dwell good or bad?  Are the towns they live in open or fortified? Is the soil rich or poor?  Is it wooded or not?  And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” 

   And so they went, bringing back a large cluster of grapes that had to be carried by two of them.  

   But 10 of them were overcome with pessimism, reporting that any attempt to enter Canaan would be disastrous. 

    Two of the scouts, Caleb the son of Jephuneh and Joshua son of Nun, both believed that the people could proceed into Canaan and make a home there. 

    The Torah mentions the names of Caleb and, of course, Joshua, many times.   The names of the other scouts, while chronicled in detail in Numbers Chapter 13, are not mentioned again in the Torah in such a way as to be easily recalled.  

   We have choices in our lives to be positive, optimistic, and hopeful even when our approach is grounded in realism.    “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best” might describe one way of recognizing both the challenges and the many possibilities before us that can enable us to realize our vision and our dreams.

   Caleb and Joshua exemplify that lens and the courage it takes to speak up and share reasons to “reach for the sky” rather than to hang one’s head in disappointment and to mire oneself in a state of inaction. 

   During our visit to New York, Rhonda and I, of course, had a chance to join family, friends and community members to wish our grandson, Joshua Moise Karol, a joyous sendoff as he begins his life’s journey.  

   The significance of his names was not lost on anyone in the family.   His Hebrew name, Yehoshua Moshe, remembers the first leaders of the Israelites, embodying long experience and youthful exuberance, humility and inspired guidance, bravery and patience, strength and wisdom, and a focus on a distant but attainable goal.  

    Joshua’s names also recall his great-grandmother Jeanette, his great-grandfather Joseph and his great-great grandfather Moise.  Adam and Juli spoke about their lives and the essence of their personalities before the naming at the brit milah ceremony.

   A museum can create a place of remembrance for those who made an impact on their families and were wrenched from life too soon.

   And it is what we do during our lives that gradually creates our own legacy, the way we want to be remembered.  

   I wish for Joshua Moise that he will create a path by which he will be remembered for courage, insight, compassion and goodness.

    And may we all live in such a way that our names and our deeds will be recalled for good and for blessing.  

Turning enemies into friends? A dream....a goal - Column for Las Cruces Bulletin on June 2, 2017

      I once had a congregant who claimed that the "us/them" approach to community and the world primarily came from the Bible.  

      I didn't agree with him when he first suggested the idea. As I think about it, he may have been right up to a point, given the dividing lines between peoples and nations that are expressed in a wide range of passages and that, sadly, come to fruition in real life. 

     I believe, however, that sacred texts, such as the Bible, also provide a partial antidote to the "us/them" perspective.    

     A small dose of that antidote comes in a passage about enemies in Exodus, Chapter 23. 

    In verse 4 of that chapter, the word for enemy is the common Hebrew term oyeiv. In verse 5, the word for enemy, sona-a-cha, means "one who hates you."

     The presence of these terms seems to acknowledge that we will, inevitably, have people in our lives with whom we may never have positive interactions.

    These verses present guidance on how to act if one should come upon certain situations.  Here is the passage: "When you encounter your enemy's ox or donkey wandering, you must take it back (to the owner).  When you see the donkey of one who hates you collapsing under its burden and you would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless help raise it (that is, you must help your enemy raise the animal)." 

    One commentator notes that the primary concern expressed here is for the animal that is lost or overburdened. Still, assisting the animal leads to helping one's enemy, whether the "helper" likes it or not.

    Members of study groups I led in recent years discussed this passage. In their comments, they expressed the importance of "taking the high road," not missing out on an opportunity to reduce enmity with one's enemy, showing respect for all people (whether enemy or friend), loving one's enemy (echoing Jesus' teaching in the New Testament), and considering all people as deserving of help or assistance based in justice, fairness and impartiality.

    This passage from Exodus was not the first one that crossed my mind regarding enemies. I have recently been thinking about Proverbs Chapter 24, Verse 17: "Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and don't be happy when they stumble." 

     When we consider what is happening in the world around us, this statement may seem relevant and helpful, or it may seem impossible to put into practice.  

    It is clear that both teachings from Exodus and from Proverbs suggest that we human beings do have it in us to step away from conflict and hatred, even for a brief moment. 

     There is a rabbinic story about what could have been happening in heaven after the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds, when they became free after having been slaves for so long. As the Egyptian army drowned, the angels were rejoicing.  God offered them a quick rebuke, "My creations - these people - are drowning, and you sing praises?" 

     In that tale, even the angels gave in to the impulse to celebrate the defeat of the foe.   The purpose of the story is to remind us to consider choosing another response when an adversary meets his or her demise. 

      The ultimate goal of our relationships and community ties might be best expressed in this teaching from a 1300 year-old rabbinic wisdom text:  "Who is a hero?  One who turns an enemy into a friend." 

      Even if it seems unrealistic to do so, perhaps it's time to get to work, taking small steps towards becoming that kind of hero.