Today I’m grateful to share my new single, “Elohai Neshamah,” a song that has been part of my spiritual journey for many years.

“Elohai Neshamah” comes from the morning liturgy and begins with one of my favorite reminders in Jewish prayer:

Elohai, neshamah shenatata bi, tehorah hi.

My God, the soul You have given me is pure.

Before we step into everything the day asks of us, we are reminded of something essential: beneath our mistakes, our struggles, our fears, and everything we carry, there is a soul within us that is inherently pure.

The Origin of the Song

My relationship with this melody began many years ago through my friend and teacher, Rabbi Zelig Golden.

Rabbi Zelig is a rabbi, spiritual teacher, wilderness guide, and longtime leader in the Jewish earth-based spiritual movement. His work has brought Jewish prayer and tradition into relationship with the natural world, helping people encounter Judaism not only in synagogues and study halls, but also in the wilderness.

I first heard Zelig sing his melody for “Elohai Neshamah” after returning from a Passover vision quest in the desert.

There was something about hearing these words in that moment that stayed with me. After spending time in the wilderness, stripped away from the noise and distractions of everyday life, the prayer landed differently.

The soul You have given me is pure.

Those words became more than liturgy. They became a reminder of returning to who we were before the world told us who we were supposed to be.

Over the years, the melody stayed with me. Eventually, I felt called to create my own interpretation of the song and bring it into the musical world I have been building through Jewish devotional music.

Bringing the Prayer Into a New Sound

For this recording, I worked with my longtime producer and collaborator Ben Leinbach, whose work has helped shape so much contemporary devotional music.

Together, we created a new arrangement around Rabbi Zelig’s original melody, allowing the prayer to move through the atmospheric, meditative sound that has become part of my own musical practice.

What makes this release especially meaningful to me is that, after all of his years of teaching and spiritual leadership, this is Rabbi Zelig Golden’s first officially released musical composition. I feel incredibly honored to help bring his melody into the world.

As we enter the month of Elul, the timing of this release feels especially powerful.

Elul invites us into teshuvah: return.

Return to God.
Return to one another.
Return to ourselves.

And perhaps one of the deepest parts of that return is remembering that underneath everything we have accumulated along the way, the soul is still there.

Still sacred.

Still connected.

Still pure.

Elohai, neshamah shenatata bi, tehorah hi.

May this song be a reminder of the sacred soul that lives within you, and may it accompany you on your own journey of return.

“Elohai Neshamah” by Mikey Pauker is out now on Beautiful Way Records.