ABRACADABRA FROM "THE GOLEM PSALMS"

Ellen Frankel

Lyrics by Ellen Frankel, Music by Andrea Clearfield

Story

Performed at the University of Pennsylvania, May 6, 2006, by the Mendelssohn Club, conductor Alan Harler. Soloist Sanford Sylvan. Music by Andrea Clearfield. Lyrics by Ellen Frankel.

To hear an audio track for this piece, go to www.andreaclearfield.com.

Lyrics

ABRACADABRA

Avra ke-davra.

Thus spoke my master,

Judah Loew,

the Maharal,

the lion-hearted rabbi of Prague.

I will create as I speak.

In the beginning God created,

b'resheet bara.

So did Rabbi Judah wrest me from the mud of the Moldau,

and circling seven times,

bring me to life.

Alef, bet, gimel, dalet, hay, vav, zayin.

Eyns, tsvey, dray, fier, finef, zeks, zibn.

Seven gates, seven planets, seven earths, seven heavens,

Seven lands, seven rivers, seven seas and seven deserts,

Seven days, seven weeks, seven years, Jubilee.

Shabbat, Shavuot, shiva, seven-branched menorah.

Avra ke-davra.

Abracadabra—

my skin of mud glowed red with blood,

my lungs drew air, I sprouted hair.

Yet still I was but cold, dead clay, until--

My master etched upon my brow:

Emet, Truth--

I breathed,

and knew life.