Recordings

Oseh Shalom (Make Peace)

Music: Navah Tefilah Text: Liturgy Vocals: Cantor Tifani Coyot Instrumentalists: Sam Glaser Avi Sills, Chad Watson, Lacy Rostyak, and Toshi Yanagi

Album: Returning Home: Songs for the High Holy Days

This version of Oseh Shalom comes from the land of Israel. The middle eastern groove and the Yemenite niggun bring joy to our traditional words of peace.

Mi Shebeirach

Music and Text: Debbie Friedman

Vocals: Cantor Tifani Coyot Instrumentalists: Sam Glaser

Debbie Friedman’s version of Mi Shebeirach revolutionized Reform Jewish prayer. I send this MP3 to my congregants when they are ill or in recovery. They find it extremely helpful to be able to play this song before surgery, visiting a sick family member and anytime they need to pray.

Y’rushalayim Shel Zhav (Jerusalem of Gold)

Music and Text: Naomi Shemer, English Text and Arrangement: Sam Glaser Vocals: Cantor Tifani Coyot

Instrumentalists: Sam Glaser, Javo Barrea, Anthony Crawford, and Toshi Yanagi Album: Music of Healing and Hope: Songs of Israel

This song paints the beauty of the old city at sunset; the golden sun is reflected off the exquisite Jerusalem stone walls. Our love for Jerusalem runs deep and we wish to show that love through music. We promise to be the harp on which Jerusalem will sing her songs.

Hello Everybody

Music and Text: Ellen Allard, adapted by Tifani Coyot Vocals: Cantor Tifani Coyot and Danny Rubenstein

Instrumentalists: Sam Glaser, Danny Rubenstein, Joey Heredia and Chad Watson Album: Shabbat Sing Along

I adapted this song for our Tot Shabbat services a few years ago. I wanted to make families feel welcome and honored by greeting them in the languages that they speak in their homes. Children and parents are delighted to be welcomed in their native languages.

Priestly Blessing

Music: Cantor Tifani Coyot and Mary Ekler Text: Birkat HaKohanim and original lyrics by Tifani Coyot and Mary Ekler

Vocals: Cantor Tifani Coyot, Danny Rubenstein and Stephanie Kupfer Instrumentalists: Sam Glaser Avi Sills, Chad Watson, Lacy Rostyak, and Toshi Yanagi

Album: Returning Home: Songs for the High Holy Days

I wrote this Priestly Blessing with my writing partner, Mary Ekler. I wanted a Priestly Blessing that was participatory for our choir and congregation. Traditionally, this blessing was reserved for the priests, rabbis, and cantors. The call and response in this version allows the community to be part of the blessing.

HaTikvah (The Hope)

Music and Text: Naftali Herz & Folk, Arrangement Sam Glaser

Vocals: Cantor Tifani Coyot Instrumentalists: Sam Glaser, Javo Barrea, Anthony Crawford, and Toshi Yanagi, Album: Music of Healing and Hope: Songs of Israel

The text of “Hatikvah” was written by Jewish poet Naftali Herz Imber in 1878, as a nine-stanza poem entitled “Tikvatenu” (“Our Hope”), an expression of his thoughts and feelings towards the construction of one of the first Jewish settlements in Israel, Petah Tikva. When the State of Israel was declared in 1948, “HaTikvah” was unofficially proclaimed the national anthem, but it did not become the official anthem until November 2004, when it was sanctioned by the Knesset. The anthem’s underlying message is about hope – the wish of the Zionists that they would someday attain national independence in the land of Israel.