Album Notes

Balalaikas, guitars, a bittersweet flute
and a lush & lyrical alto voice, grace these 13 gems of spirit,
each unique in texture, philosophy and Jewish mystical wisdom.

The songs give you something to think about.
Secrets are embedded within the layers of original music
and historical text.
A young King David asks his mother in the title song.......
"O mother, tell me why to my soul.....you opened?"
A courageous Ruth reveals the truth of women in the world
in a ballad soulfully Celtic, and definitively Jewish.
and Rachel, from her desert grave, takes time to weep
for her own children, Jewish children, who were 'cruelly taken through the ages', From out of the grieving her voice and truth expose the beauty and strength of Jewish light.
All the lyrics are included on a poster of the rabbi within the sleeve of the cd. The cover itself contains information as well.


Rabbi Leonard lives on the island of Hawaii
on the slope of the most active volcano in the world. She attended New England Conservatory of Music yet sincerely believes she received her truest and best musical education from her grandparents, who sang and comforted her with cradle songs in Yiddish. Her spiritual community is known as OR YISROEIL located in Volcano Village, though she frequently travels to the mainland to design and officiate private Jewish spiritual life cycle events.

In 'Throne of Sapphires' the rabbi fearlessly enters the dark corridor of time there fashioning what she prays will serve as a timeless portal for all the brave, the wounded, the hungry to enter.
A place to restore and heal for pondering the ultimate questions of who we are and from where we herald.....stronger and more real than ever. Thus 'Throne of Sapphires' contains the purest and oldest of chants, with original ballads intended to open the heart, written in the old classic Yiddish style, and instrumentals for meditation and healing in singular line and rich layers.

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