A Small Taste from "Ein"

This short video offers a first taste of "Ein", a larger composition written by Harel Shachal and performed here live at Beit Mizrah Maarav. Even in excerpt form, the piece points toward the spiritual architecture of the full work: a journey through one chosen maqam, carried by pulse, breath, and gradual transformation rather than by quick resolution.

As Harel describes it, "Ein" is a long-form composition built on a single maqam chosen especially for the work. Its structure is fixed: an opening that presents the maqam, a long instrumental peshrev, four sung sections, and then further instrumental movements that continue the ascent. The aim is to lead the listener toward a spiritual experience of elevation. The rhythms are rooted in the heartbeat, the modal movement follows the inner spirit of the maqam, and the words are meant to turn the higher self away from ego and toward love, being, breath, and gratitude for creation.

The name deepens the piece. In Persian, "Ayin" originally means a ritual, and in the Mevlevi context it names the composition that accompanies the Sufi sema ceremony of the whirling dervishes. Read through Hebrew resonance, it also suggests self-emptying, disappearance, and the movement toward nothingness. This excerpt does not try to contain the whole journey, but it opens the door to it.