Jewish Mourning Song Study
The Mekonenet’s Journey - Song for Grief and Gratitude
Alison Avigayil Ramer & Jaco Cohen
KOL Retreat Song Sheet
This song sheet was designed for a heart-opening song circle at KOL: A retreat for Jewish music across the diaspora. This song sheet is designed to support you in a journey through the legacy of the Mekonenet—the sacred grief tenders of Jewish communities—while learning melodies, rituals, and practices that invite remembrance and repair.
Berde Chever Niggun
The Berditshever Niggun is a wordless Hasidic melody from the lineage of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev, carrying the soulful yearning of 18th-century Ukrainian Jewish life—sung to stir teshuvah, mercy, and closeness with the Divine in times of reflection and communal mourning. The chords for the tune and a recording be found here.
Aya ya ya ya
Aya ya ya ya
Aya ya ya ya
Aya ya ya ya ya ya
Aya ya ya ya ya ya
Ay ya ya ya ya
Ay ya ya ya ya
Ay ya ya ya ya ya
Ay ya ya ya ya ya
Ay ya ya ya ya ya
Ay ya ya ya ya ya
Aaaa ya ya ya yo
Gud Garma - Song of the Mekonenet of Shekhantziv
This Aramaic phrase—“The bone falls from the jaw and the water returns to the kettle”—comes from a Talmudic account of the mekonenot, women grief-tenders of Shekhantziv, whose poetic mourning evoked the raw, communal alchemy of death, memory, and transformation. The tune was developed by Miriam Rubin and Miriam Bursky-Tammam as a part of the Kohenet program.
Gud Garma
Mikak V’nimtey Mayya
L’antikhi
Gud Garma
Gud Garma
Gud Garma
Gud Garma
x 3
Bloodlines
“Bloodlines” is a song from WAILS, a grief-dedicated concept album by Ahlay Blakely—recorded with over 200 voices and inspired by the songs of whales and Francis Weller’s Five Gates of Grief. You can see the chords for the song here.
there are Songs singing in my bones
i can barely hear the notes
they are older than i know
they sound like
the ones i've not brought home yet
the ones i've not yet named
the ones i've pushed away
how
can i
be whole until all of you...
ALL OF YOU i have claimed?
why
deny
this lineage it's why
i am alive
(Nigun)
yay da dai dai dai dai
he dai dai hi yai yai yai
he dai dai hi yai yai yai
he dai dai yai yai yo
Hine Ani
“As You Will,” composed by Shye Ben Tzur and performed by Nessi Gomes, is a meditative song of surrender, drawing from Hebrew liturgical language—particularly the phrase kirtzoncha, meaning “as You will”—to evoke deep spiritual alignment and devotion.
Hineh ani
kuli shelcha
Aseh bi kirtzoncha
Bati rek
ani nichn’a
Libi natun
lechasdecha
Gam im hakol yishalel mimeni
Betochi kolcha eshm’a
Min hake’ev hu yarimeni
Yemaleh libi behashra’a
Here I am, I am yours
At your will
Into emptiness, I surrender
My heart submits to your grace
If all is lost, if all is taken
From within, I will hear your voice
And from the pain, you will raise me
Sing to the eternal
Sing to the eternal
With [insert] (repeat)
And your tender voice
Hodaya
This song was written by Alison Avigayil Ramer for this group. It is rooted in one of the Torah’s first expressions of gratitude, spoken by Leah as she names her son Yehudah: “This time I will thank the Divine.” Her thanks arose not from ease, but from pain and longing. The Hebrew word hodaya holds this complexity—gratitude that honors both joy and sorrow.
I've got grief and gratitude,
That is my holy attitude
I've got grief and gratitude,
For whatever may come.
Hodaya ya ya ya, hodaya
Hodaya ya ya ya, hodaya
Hodaya ya ya ya, hodaya
Hodaya ya ya ya, hodaya
Va-tómer ha-pa‘am, odeh et Adonai
Va-tómer ha-pa‘am, odeh et Adonai 🎶
(repeat 2x or more)
