Main fundraiser photo

"Hope with Our Hands": a climate action anthem

Donation protected

Enjoy the demo above, and if you like it, help fund the full studio production! (lyrics, liner notes, + chords all the way below)

WHO + WHAT IS THIS SONG FOR?

"Hope with Our Hands" is a song to inspire mass collective action to solve the climate crisis.

Dayenu: A Jewish Call for Climate Action, one of my favorite nonprofits, put out a call for "songs to grow the Jewish climate justice movement," and I wrote this song for them. They loved it, and offered to partially fund a full studio production — so now I'm reaching out to you to help cover the remaining costs!

Once complete, Dayenu will use this track in their videos & events, and also share it with climate activists all over the United States, to sing at rallies, chant at marches, use in vigils, and share in organizing meetings.

We have the means to solve the climate crisis — but we need the political will to act boldly and quickly.

For that, we need a massive people-powered movement that is politically powerful enough and spiritually grounded enough to stir the moral conscience of humanity and all our political leaders.

And that's where songs like "Hope with Our Hands" come in.

Music alone won't solve the climate crisis, but music can inspire, nourish, and sustain the kind of grassroots action we need in order to bring about lasting change.

WHAT WILL THE FUNDS BE USED FOR?

This is a labor of love for me, so I'll be passing on every penny to cover:

• Tracking, editing, mixing, + mastering courtesy of Spirit House Studio 
• Epic choir vocals, courtesy of the AWESOME Thrive Choir 
• Musical guests including percussion, oud, & more
• Professional piano & vocal notation for community choirs
• Cover art

WHAT THIS REALLY MEANS TO ME

• As a songwriter, I consider this song some of my finest and most inspired work.
• As a Jew, it was exciting to delve into the Torah + commentary that shapes the lyrics.
• As an artist, it's a blessing to create music that can make an impact in the world.
• As a producer, it's been so FUN co-creating with such brilliant collaborators!
• And as a climate activist myself, it's an honor to harness my art for social change.

FINISHED PRODUCT, TIMELINE, + WHAT YOU'LL GET

We'll finish mixing & mastering in mid-October. It won't hit Spotify or other streaming platforms for a while after, BUT as soon as the track's done, all funders will immediately get the finished product, which will include:

     » The finished full-band track (mp3 + high-quality wav file)
     » A stripped-down "acoustic" version (mp3 + high-quality wav file)
     » An "a capella" version featuring me + Thrive Choir (mp3 + high-quality wav file)
     » A PDF songbook with lyrics, chords, liner notes, & piano/vocal notation
     » Cover art
 
THANK YOU!

It's a joy to share my music with you. And I'm so grateful for all your support, in getting my music out to those who can do some good with it. I am truly blessed by you.

For your enjoyment, I've included the lyrics and the liner notes below!

• • •

LYRICS

VERSE 1
This ground below us
Is holy, holy
This air that breathes us
Is holy, holy

CHORUS 1
So we're gonna hope with our hands
We're gonna pray with our feet
For the world that we love
For the world that we need

VERSE 2
This bush is burning
This water’s rising
Our Earth is hurting
Our people crying

CHORUS 2
So we're gonna hope with our hands
We're gonna pray with our feet
For the world that we love
For the world that we need

BRIDGE 1
Whoa oo whoa, whoa oo whoa whoa « 4x

BRIDGE 2
[ Hope with our hands
Pray with our feet
For the world that we love 
For the world that we need ] « 4x

VERSE 3
So mercy, mercy
May we meet this moment
This world unfinished
But never broken

And courage, courage!
May we guard Creation
For every thousandth
New generation

CHORUS 3
So we're gonna hope with our hands
We're gonna pray with our feet
For the world that we love
For the world that we need

We're gonna hope with our hands
We're gonna pray with our feet
For the world that we love
For the world that we need

For the world that we love
For the world that we need

• • •

CREDITS

Written by ZO TOBI
Inspired by Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action: https://dayenu.org
"Pray with our feet" attribution: Frederick Douglass: https://truah.org/resources/praying-w...
Demo recorded at STUDIO Z in April 2021
Performed & produced by ZO TOBI
Performed by ZO TOBI on GARAGEBAND
Cover art photo: Tim de Groot on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/photos/yNGQ830uFB4)

• • •

LINER NOTES

"Hope with Our Hands" is a song to inspire mass collective action to solve the climate crisis.

I wrote it for Dayenu, a Jewish climate advocacy group I love. They wanted songs focused on climate, grounded in Judaism, aimed to inspire activism. My songwriting happy place. :-)

While I’m not a full-on scholar of the many centuries of Jewish thought, I wanted this song to reflect some of the spiritual depth and rigor of our teachings, especially around the teaching of Tikkun Olam. We often translate this as “repairing the world,” but there is so much more to it.

Olam means “world,” but also connotes “all of time,” and relates to helem, or “concealment.” In this way, what we call “the world” is the realm of time and space, which “conceals” or exists on top of a more fundamental reality. Quantum physics might call this string theory, while Jewish mystics call it the “running and returning” of all phenomena, from and to the infinite light of its source.

Tikkun often translates as “repair” or “rectification,” but it may more accurately translate as “fixing up, refining, or perfecting.” Rabbi Tzvi Freeman writes: “Yes, we must admit, much of our world is fractured, fragmented and very messy. But it’s not broken. It’s been disassembled—purposely. The Creator made a world that was designed to fall apart—so that we could put all the scattered pieces together and create a better, more harmonious, self-sustaining world … Effectively, He made us His partners in the creation of heaven and earth. This changes everything.”

I wanted this song to reflect this view: Our world is not broken, it’s a reflection of the Divine to be uncovered. We are not powerless victims nor all-powerful dictators of transformation — we are here to be humble, reverent partners with the force of life itself, to which we always, always belong.

• • •

STRUCTURE & CHORDS

Key: D
Time: 4/4, 104 BPM
Guitar tuning: DADF#AD

VERSE 1 (8 bars)

| Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | « 3x 
| Em7 | Gadd9  A7 |

CHORUS 1 (8 bars)

{ | Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | 
| Bm7 | Gadd9  A  F#7 | } « 2x

VERSE 2 (8 bars)

| Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | « 3x 
| Em7 | Gadd9  A7 |

CHORUS 2 (8 bars)

{ | Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | 
| Bm7 | Gadd9  A  F#7 | } « 2x

BRIDGE 1 (8 bars)

{ | Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | 
| Bm7 | Gadd9  A  F#7 | } « 2x

BRIDGE 2 (17 bars)

| Bm7 | Bm7 / A | G9 | F#sus9  F#7 | « 4x
| F#7 |

VERSE 3 (16 bars)

| Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | « 3x 
| Em7 | Gadd9  A7 |
| Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | « 3x 
| Em7 | Gadd9  A7 |

CHORUS 3 (20 bars)

{ | Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | 
| Bm7 | Gadd9  A  F#7 | } « 4x
| Bm7 | Gadd9  Dadd9 | « 2x

Donate

Donations 

  • Anna Anawalt
    • $10 
    • 2 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $20 
    • 2 yrs
  • Brian Hilliard
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • Seth Bush
    • $10 
    • 3 yrs
  • Morgan Goodwin
    • $10 
    • 3 yrs
Donate

Organizer

Zohar Tobi
Organizer
Milford, NH

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.