Oseh Shalom Bimromav - Saul Kaye at East Bay Jewish Music Festival 2024

When: Sunday, March 31, 2024
Where: The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704

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Oseh Shalom: A Prayer for Peace

The longing for peace is central to the Jewish mindset, and is the source of this ancient prayer longing for peace. This prayer is incredibly common in the Jewish liturgy, appearing at the end of the Kaddish prayer (not just the mourner's form but all forms marking breaks between sections of the liturgy), commonly sung while waiting for others to finish the Amidah (the central prayer of every religious service) and at other times. It is often sung to joyous melodies, a joyful hope for peace.

Oseh shalom bimromav
He Who makes peace in His heights
הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם

hu ya'aseh shalom
may He make peace
עָלֵֽינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל

aleinu v'al kol Yisra'eil
upon us and upon all Israel.
וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן

v'imru Amein
Now say: Amen


Saul Kaye is a pioneer of the musical genre Jewish Blues. Saul brings together the sounds of the struggle of the African Slaves in this country with the history of the Jewish slavery experience.

Jews have been enslaved in many countries over the centuries including Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Rome, Greece, Germany, and Malta. So, like the African Slave experience proved to be a catalyst for blues, so the path of Jewish history fostered its own form of soulful tears, from Jews crying out in Egyptian slavery (Exodus) to the prophet Jeremiah weeping over the destruction of the Temple in Eicha ( Lamentations ) , Jews know the pain of spiritual crisis and call to Hashem with their own form of blues. You can hear it in the synagogue when the Torah and the books of Prophets are read, chanted in tropes passed down through time, recounting forbearers' sorrows on days of tragedy like Tisha B'Av, or remembering celebrations of freedom on Passover, when Jews recall the Israelite's "Song at the Sea," as the waters of freedom parted.