On the scene from the beginning were director and producer Laura Sheppard and vocalist Laurie Polster, as well as oudist John Erlich and percussionist Jano Bogg, and we were off and running, holding our first service at the original Chochmat Halev space on 8th Street in Berkeley, in the
Fall of 1997. We rapidly outgrew the space owing to popular demand, and moved to our home of
15 years now, The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay.

And over the years, as an all-volunteer enterprise, the Shir Hashirim vision has been blessed by the many exquisitely talented folks who have given their time and leadership energies to the group effort, including Julie Batz, Rachel Brott, Adam Heilbrun, Gabriel Evan Fiske, Daniel Eshoo, Rabbi Daniel Lev, Lynn Feinerman, Rachel Valfer, Hannah Dresner, Skye Pelicrow, Morton Felix, Lilly Artel, Collette de Gangier-Rettner, Susan Felix, and many more poets, singers and musicians who have graced our services over time.

Music is central to Shir Hashirim,. We are one of the few minyanim in the United States that features authentic Mizrachi/Middle Eastern Jewish music, played on indigenous Middle Eastern instruments. We've been so very fortunate to have resident oud (pear-shaped lute), kanun (plucked zither), dumbek (hour-glass drum), and riqq (Middle Eastern tambourine) players, as well as guest musicians over the years who play ney (cane flute), kemanche (spike fiddle), and sitar (Indian lute), among others.

We thus sing Jewish songs from Morocco, Andalusia, North Africa, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and
Bukhara.

In addition, we chant many many gorgeous melodies in our gatherings from the Jews of Spain, drawing from the great corpus of Sephardic song, and are enthusiastic admirers of the music of the Sephardi Yerushalmi – the Sephardic Sacred Musical Tradition of Jerusalem.

We also have tremendous love and respect for our Ashkenazic forbears, and emphasize the experiential prayers, teachings, and music from the Jewish mystical traditions of Hasidut and Kabbalah. We have loved chanting hasidic musical meditations without words, devekut niggunim, over our 15-year run, and continue to do so, even encouraging congregants to create their own improvisatory sacred movements "on the spot." Sacred dance is hence an important part of our services, including Sufi zikr, a dance of remembrance of our Ultimate Source. And we love meditation.

We have remarkably and seamlessly been able to combine these disparate Jewish World Music identities within a single service.

Much of our music may be heard (and was pioneered within our services) on several CDs - Tuning The Soul: Worlds of Jewish Sacred Music, Life of the Worlds: Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music, and The Hidden One: Jewish Mystical Songs - and more of our music may found in the recorded work of the marvelous group Za'atar, of whom our oud player John Erlich is a founding member.

Please see the "Recordings" and "Reviews" sections of this website to hear and read about some of this music and, please visit:

We strive to be as utterly integral as possible in this world of rapidly-shifting paradigms. We thus have tremendous respect for the work and writings of such 'lights' as Brianne Swimme, Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, Teihard de Chardin, Joanna Macy, Ervin Laszlo, Sri Aurobindo and Jean Houston.

Shir Hashirim has been a longtime supporter of the Jewish Renewal Movement, and is blessed to incorporate many of the liturgies and approaches to ritual pioneered by its progenitor, the eminent rabbi and trailblazer, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, may he live to 120.

At the time of Rabbi Michael's initial vision, there were no such broadly-based Friday night musical shabbatot (Sabbath gatherings) in the Bay Area. As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we are overwhelmingly happy to have inspired such a flowering of such gatherings all around the Bay Area, and in all forms of denomination.

Each Spring, Shir Hashirim features a larger version of itself in conjunction with the Jewish Music Festival, and these events have been extremely memorable for us, as we've had the chance to bring in master musicians from all around the world to join us in "praises to The Mystery of Mysteries."

We hope to grow with the times, both particularly Jewishly and globally, and thank you for any help you can offer to help more folks know about this unique creative spiritual endeavor.