Night time can be a scary time. Not only does danger increase in the outside world, but our worries often increase when we are lying in bed, waiting for sleep. Night time is a time when we often think about things that might have gone wrong during the day, bills we have to pay, any seemingly insurmountable challenges we might have to tackle. Hashkivienu reminds us that God is with us at night to keep our troubles away from us. This setting evokes the peace that I want to feel when I lie down to sleep.

Chanukah has always been one of my favorite holidays. I always say that the real miracle isn’t that of the light that lasted for eight days, but of the victory against our oppressors. Each year, we tell the story of how there were people who wouldn’t let us be Jewish, but through the bravery of the Maccabees, we prevailed. Josh Nelson takes this idea and ties it into the image of the lights that we use to celebrate the holiday.

The text for Oseh Shalom appears in several places in our liturgy: at the end of the Amidah, during Mourner’s Kaddish, and often as a closing song or prayer. With all that has been going in the world, I have been drawn to this prayer of peace. This setting by Yoel Sykes of Jerusalem-based Jewish Renewal community Nava Tehila is especially powerful for me. Musically, it delivers a message of hope. Textually, it reminds us that God will make peace not just for us, but for all those around us.

I remember attending my first ever Hava Nashira songleader conference in 2007. Debbie Friedman was such a bright soul, and when I met her for the first time, she welcomed me with open arms. She continued to serve as a teacher and source of inspiration for me until her death in 2011. Each year at Hava Nashira, when we would sing Debbie’s setting of Mi Shebeirach, our prayer for healing, she would have us all sing it together, and then she would tell the rest of us to stop singing so that she could sing it for us. It was a special moment, and I looked forward to it each year. As I sing Debbie’s setting of this prayer on Shabbat, I remember Debbie, and I hope that all those in the world who are in need of healing can have the kind of healing that Debbie wished for all of us.

Shabbat can never come soon enough for me. The week is long, and I can’t wait to have a day to put away my laptop, disconnect from all my outstanding projects, and devote a day to rest and prayer. In addition to a chance to recharge, Shabbat is also a time of great joy. At the end of Friday evening services, we often have an oneg with food and drink. “Oneg” literally means “pleasure.” We take pleasure in spending time with our friends and family. This setting of V’sham’ru by Meir Finkelstein captures the joy of Shabbat in the refrain and the expansiveness of time of the day of rest in the verses.

As someone who struggles to find the perfect image of God, I look forward to that time of the year when we as a collective Jewish people refer to God as our parent. Like a parent, God admonishes us when we fall off the path of goodness. However, also like a parent, God is always there to help us when we need it. Max Janowski’s setting of this text, perhaps his most prolific piece, captures both of these images of God as a parent.