The Alephonics Podcast

Dan Berry
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Judaism

Every week, pianist and composer Dan Berry takes a phrase from that week's Torah portion, opens up the Hebrew letters, and plays what's inside — an original piece of music built from the phrase itself. Ancient words, live improvisation, new piece every week. A soundtrack for the week you're actually in.

Episodes

  1. Sep 7 ·  Video

    003 - Rosh Hashanah: Blasts of the Shofar

    Rosh Hashanah is under a week away, so this week's pasuk comes from Tehillim — one of the ten verses we say in the Shofros section of Musaf. Tiku va'chodesh shofar, ba'keseh l'yom chagenu (תקעו בחדש שופר בכסה ליום חגנו) — "blow the horn on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day." I'll be honest: this one surprised me. Some words map into something interesting. This one mapped into something genuinely beautiful, and I didn't see it coming. Tiku (תקעו) — to blast, to blow. It comes out sharp and wide open. In musical terms those are open fourths, and they have a spacious, powerful quality that fits the word almost too well. Va'chodesh (בחדש) — on the new moon. Shofar (שופר) — and those three together already make a complete musical statement, built on nothing but the spacing of the letters. Ba'keseh (בכסה), l'yom (ליום), chagenu (חגנו) — and the rest of the line fills in from there. This week I also get into something I haven't explained on the show before: what happens after the mapping. Twenty-two letters across 22 notes is an enormous span — much wider than anything a person could sing. So part of the work is bringing those notes closer together, into a range a human voice could actually hold. That's where a map starts turning into music. Then it's improvised, live, into the Rosh Hashanah energy: renewal, discovery, crowning Hashem as king, and opening up to a new kind of life. Ksiva v'chasima tova to everyone listening. IN THIS EPISODE Why I map the letters at all — the short version, for first-time listenersA verse from Musaf that turned out far more musical than I expectedOpen fourths, and why Tiku sounds the way it doesWhat happens after the mapping: bringing 22 notes into singing rangeThe piece: Rosh Hashanah energy, improvised liveHEAR A WORD YOURSELF Put in your own name, someone else's, or any word you're sitting with, and hear what's inside it. Free. danberrymusic.com/alephonics SUBSCRIBE New episode every week. Apple · Spotify · YouTube. ABOUT ME I'm Dan Berry — a jazz pianist and composer, a Lubavitcher chossid, and a Princeton-trained musician (music theory and composition) with 18 years in Torah and Hebrew study. I built the Alephonic Mapping Method to learn Torah in the only language I've ever been fluent in. danberrymusic.com/alephonics Shana tova u'mesuka.

  2. Sep 3 ·  Video

    002 - Nitzavim: Standing Strong

    This week is Nitzavim (נצבים). Moshe is near the end of his life, standing in front of the whole nation, and what he gives them isn't instruction. It's encouragement. He's firming them up for a journey they're about to make without him. Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem (אתם נצבים היום כלכם) — you are standing strong, today, all of you. Atem (אתם) — you. Plural. All of y'all.Nitzavim (נצבים) — standing, but the rooted kind. Standing firm.Hayom (היום) — today.Kulchem (כלכם) — all of you, together.Four words, mapped one letter at a time. You can hear the shape of them before you understand a syllable — the contour, the groove, the story sitting in the letters. I also get into why the mapping works the way it does. Hebrew is precise down to the spacing between the letters. Aleph matters because it's first. Bet matters because it's second. The sequence carries meaning — which means spelling a word in music isn't decoration. It's cryptography, with something real underneath it. And the frame I'm playing into this week: being firmly rooted. Grounded. What it takes to stand — as a person, and all of us together — and to be pointed toward our own promised land, personal and shared. IN THIS EPISODE Why the order of the letters matters, and what that has to do with musicThe four words, opened up one at a timeThe shape you can hear without knowing any HebrewThe piece: standing strongA shout-out to a very good Instagram commentA NOTE ON TOLKIEN Someone commented on Instagram that this is the kind of thing Tolkien would have loved. I'm a huge Tolkien fan, so that one landed. Thank you — it genuinely made my week. HEAR A WORD YOURSELF Put in your own name, someone else's, or any word you're sitting with, and hear what's inside it. Free. alephonics.com SUBSCRIBE New episode every week, keyed to that week's parsha. Apple · Spotify · YouTube. ABOUT ME I'm Dan Berry — a jazz pianist and composer, a chossid, and a Princeton-trained musician (music theory and composition) with 18 years in Torah and Hebrew study. I built the Alephonic Mapping Method to learn Torah in the only language I've ever been fluent in.  alephonics.com

  3. Aug 23 ·  Video

    001 - Ki Savo: The Sound of Arriving

    This week: Ki Savo — כי תבוא. The parsha opens on arrival. When you come into the land. Not a journey, not a promise — the moment of actually walking in. So that's the phrase we mapped: כי תבוא אל הארץ — Ki Savo el Ha'aretz. Every letter has a voice. Put them in that order and you get a musical signature for the whole portion — and then something new gets built on top of it, live. Dan's frame for the week, as he plays it: the land isn't only out there. There's an inner one. Your own territory, your own desire, your own true will — and the question of what it takes to actually walk into it rather than circle it for another year. Press play, then keep it with you for the week. In this episode Ki Savo, opened up — what the letters of כי תבוא אל הארץ sound likeThe mapping, one letter at a timeThe piece: this week's soundtrack, improvised on the mapComing into your own landHear a word yourself  Put in your own name, someone else's, or any word you're sitting with — and hear what's inside it. Free. → alephonics.com Subscribe  New episode every week, keyed to that week's parsha. Apple · Spotify · YouTube. About Dan  Dan Berry is a jazz pianist and composer, a chossid, and a Princeton-trained musician with 18 years in deep Torah and Hebrew study. He built the Alephonic Mapping Method to experience Torah in the only language he's ever been fluent in... music. https://www.alephonics.com

  4. Aug 23 ·  Video

    Welcome to the Alephonics Podcast

    Welcome to the Alephonics Podcast, where every week, pianist and composer Dan Berry takes a phrase from that week's Torah portion, opens up the Hebrew letters, and plays what's inside — an original piece of music built from the phrase itself.  This episode is the whole idea in one sitting: what the Alephonic Mapping Method is, where it comes from, why a word can be played, and what happens when you spend a week living inside one. You'll hear all twenty-two letters, one at a time, aleph to tav. Then you'll watch a single phrase get opened up, mapped, and played. And then you'll hear the piece from the top of the episode again. Same recording. It won't sound like the same thing. That's the show. Every week from here: one phrase from that week's Torah portion, opened up and played — a soundtrack for the week you're actually in. In this episode Why the aleph-bet is an instrument and not just an alphabetWhat Kabbalah actually claims about the letters, and why it isn't a metaphorAdam's job description"Living with the times" — and what changes when the week has a soundtrackAll 22 letters, playedOne phrase, mapped and performedHear a word yourself Put in your own name, or pick a verse from this week's Torah portion, and hear it mapped. Free, and there's a Hebrew keyboard right on the screen — you don't need to know how to type any of this. → www.alephonics.com Subscribe New episode every week. Apple · Spotify · YouTube · or wherever you listen. About Dan Dan Berry is a Jewish pianist and composer with a degree from Princeton in music theory and composition plus 18 years in advanced Torah and Hebrew study. He built the Alephonic Mapping Method to experience Torah in the only language he's ever been fluent in... music. https://www.alephonics.com - @alephonics

  • 4 Episodes

About

Every week, pianist and composer Dan Berry takes a phrase from that week's Torah portion, opens up the Hebrew letters, and plays what's inside — an original piece of music built from the phrase itself. Ancient words, live improvisation, new piece every week. A soundtrack for the week you're actually in.

Information

  • Creator
    Dan Berry
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Alephonics Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Alephonics Podcast