Written & Performed by Nessa Norich

Commissioned by Lab/Shul for Awe: High Holidays 2019/5780

Hammerstien Ballroom, October 9th, 2019

Musical Accompaniment by Daniel Avi Halper

Earth Altar by Morning Altars

Photos by Ali Levin Photography

Yom Kippur offers us a time and a space to encounter and release the pain we hold individually and collectively throughout the year. With awe as this year's theme, I looked to nature for her messages on forgiveness and healing. I spent a few days in nature in silence. During this time, I uncovered profound grief about the destruction of our planet. This grief revealed a challenge: how do I forgive a loss as great as this? How do I heal a wound as deep? How do I let go of guilt this heavy? This piece is a meditation on how forgiveness can heal the source of our pain. Using breath and full bodied listening, we will focus in on how pain is held and released from the body, and how this kind of somatic healing can change the ways we show up for our greatest battles to make the world a better place. The Yom Kippur Torah reading is a manual for our day of atonement, and this piece looks to its instructions to find a code for dealing with grief that feels too great to encounter alone. I am looking to ancient symbols to help us reckon with current loss.