Our Voices

Elana Arian has written many of the songs that accompany the soundtracks of our Jewish  lives. A gifted singer/songwriter, with a rich, full-throated, and inviting voice that warmly welcomes us to sing along with her,  while simultaneously piercing through to the depth of our souls, Arian is currently among the most relevant and significant contemporary Jewish musical artists of our time.  If We Loved Like That, her fifth and latest CD release, is the follow up to her mid-pandemic, 2021 The Other Side of Fear.

Arian’s Jewish music began to slowly find its way into the “mainstream” Jewish music world a little more than 10 years ago, and her songs and liturgical offerings have become a go-to for cantors and Jewish musicians throughout the Reform and Conservative movements.  With liturgical songs like the Latin infused Lecha Dodi, Hine Ma Tov (Clap Clap), the groovy Mi Chamocha, her plaintive and soulful Hashkiveinu have filled our sanctuaries and camp and Youth Ed tefliah song sessions, just as her pieces which mark important occasions both light hearted and joyful, or heavy and solemn, have helped see us through moments big a small which we’ve experienced collectively over the years.  Songs like We Return (co-written with frequent collaborator, Noah Aronson), Nachamu/Comfort Us, Ken Y’hi Ratson, and of course, we can’t forget the ubiquitous, almost over used and over played I have a Voice which Elana composed with a group of teens from Kutz Camp in 2019, which has essentially become the anthem for the annual Religious Action Center (RAC) trip to Washington DC- which brings together thousands of Reform Jewish teens to lobby at the Capitol.

The title track If We Loved Like That,  based on the Golden Rule (Love your neighbor as yourself - Leviticus 19:18) asks more questions than provides answers.  How would the world look?/ How might our days be lighter?/ How might the lens get wider?/ Arian’s answer:  Simple and to the point.  If we loved like that/ really loved like that./ Who could be saved?  How might the world be softer?/ Who could heal your heart?/ What is the gift you’d offer?  Arian doesn’t pretend to know the answer to all  these questions, but her song suggests that perhaps if we truly loved our neighbors  as ourselves, the world could possibly look and feel different.   The lilt of the 6/8 rhythm and the familiarity of the melodic hook  (I know I’ve heard this melody somewhere before- in the most wonderful of ways) create a feeling of timeless longevity.

One of the most striking features of this album is the way that the songs feel as though they’ve been around forever, while still sounding totally fresh and completely original.

The opening track Shiru L’Adonai begins with a simple vocal and middle eastern percussion.  Immediately, the listener is transported to another part of the world and perhaps another time and place in history. And yet, as ancient and elusive as the melody and rhythm are, there’s a playful clarinet (which is artfully interspersed throughout the entire album almost as a throughline) which roots us back not only to Eastern Europe, with its shades of Klezmer, but also to the golden age of Jazz with its improvisatory magic and melody.  Yet, the song somehow manages to be as current as they come….  The song is a perfect album opener.  Setting a playful, warm tone that at once provides the listener with the experience of sitting with Elana in her living room as she’s jamming out with a bunch of her musician friends.

Why is it that even though I had never heard the new Hine Matov/Gather Us, it feels as though I have been signing it forever?  Perhaps it’s her ability to get me singing along from the very first musical yai lai lai (and you know how much I love a good yai lai lai) Arian’s first Hine Matov, which which came out just pre pandemic around 2019, with its “How good it is, how sweet it is” refrain, quickly became the new gold standard for Hine Matovs.  First there was the ‘folk” version, then there was Rick Recht’s, which he wrote in about 1999, and for a while, it felt like that was it.    Along came Elana’s which took the Jewish world by storm, and even contained a third part, which many people don’t include  (Shalom Aleichem, Salam Aleikum)  And now, with the latest version of Hine MaTov, the simple addition of of the Hebrew word Kulanu (together)  instead of Achim (brothers), instantly brings us all together - not just musically but linguistically as well.

As much as rhythmic groove pulses through this album on tracks like Ivdu and Ozi, coloring the album with as much vibe as viby gets, there’s also such spaciousness and room to breathe on tunes like A Sanctuary of Time (Featuring the gorgeous Shabbat poetry of my dear friend and  former bimah partner at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills from 1996-2014, Rabbi Jonathan Aaron) where we are encouraged to stop, breathe, and take stock of the week that was, as we prepare to usher in a new Shabbat -leaving the prose of the past week in the rearview mirror and allowing the poetry of Shabbat to enter our souls and help prepare us for the peace that is Shabbat. “A sanctuary of time/ a space for us to repair/ the events to leave behind/a space for us to prepare/let us enter…..”

Spacious….soulful…..peaceful…..rejuvenating…..all words which describe many of the tracks on this album including the breakout hit, Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh bah Zeh.  “We are travelling the same path together/ We are walking each other back home/We are part of this holy community/We are better together as one.”  And as the mandolin and flutes soar, you can just picture huge sanctuaries, community spaces and concert venues filled with people singing the refrain and swaying together as one often does during a song by Elana.  Think about the last time you heard Nachamu/Comfort Us (Comfort us, comfort us from our wilderness/comfort us as we struggle to take care of one another) Sadly, in the last 18 months we’ve had too many occasions to lean on this song.  But thank goodness Arian has contributed this song to our canon, providing us with just the right musical/lyrical energy for the moment at hand.

Arian’s songwriting has the ability to connect disparate souls, touch hearts and heal brokenness, through the sheer directness of her messages and the simple beauty of her melodic lines.  

The production on this album (Arian co-produced with collaborator Benny Koonyevsky) feels lush and rich with many layers of sound, while not feeling overproduced or heavy handed.  While her stirring vocal is the central focus of each track,  Elana delivers with subtlety when needed, though the sheer power of her voice has the clarity and warmth of Ivan Barenboim’s soulful clarinet which is artfully layered throughout.

And just when you thought that the world didn’t need yet another setting of Shalom Rav, Elana proves us wrong, with what might very well be the sleeper hit on this album.  Singable from the get go, but yet completely  original and clearly inspired by the text, this track, with its  guitar and beautiful string quartet background (also credited to Arian and Raffi Boden, cello) will be a setting that cantors, soloists and song leaders will be singing for years to come.  And as an added bonus, background vocals are provided by Chava Mirel. Arian’s and Mirel’s voices sparkle on the English refrain- Make of us, a house for all people/ gather us, in a hope for all people/ surround us, in peace for all people/ in wholeness and in love. Again, they aren’t singing at us, but rather, the feeling is as if we are all invited to sing together, filling the space with these words of blessing.

The album’s final track is the perfect culmination of this full bodied and full hearted listening adventure.  Just as the album opened with Elana inviting us to “Sing a new song” with rhythmic aplomb, T’filat Haderech is an anthem that begins with a multigenerational choir singing Amen, in perfect unison.  Just as Elana did with her heart stirring blessing “Ken Y’hi Ratson” also from 2019-which so perfectly serves as a closing blessing for services or other gatherings (we now have made this our go to closer on Rosh Hashanah morning here at PTS), Tefilat HaDerech implores “Holy One of Blessing, wrap us in perfect peace/ guide our steps steadily forward/as we go on our way/ Bless us with compassion, as we walk new paths ahead/bless with strength for the journey/and we say Amen.”

 It’s as if this final track is itself a final blessing for all those who have spent the last hour or so listening to the album. Ready to step forth into the world, a little bit lighter, a little freer, slightly changed, and blessed “with the knowledge that we are never alone/bless us with love for the journey/and we say amen.”  And what a musical journey Elana Arian has taken us on.