Etti Ankri on Faith, Music, and Teshuvah: Finding God in Creativity and Everyday Life

Etti Ankri is an Israeli singer and songwriter.

An interesting experience you had or took part in?

“When I was a child, I dressed up as an Indian woman for Purim. Indians wear a garment called a sari — it’s a long piece of fabric wrapped around the body. When I got home, I realized the fabric was coming loose and about to fall. I started crying and held onto it so it wouldn’t slip off. Suddenly, three women who were new immigrants from India, appeared in front of me, all dressed in saris. They immediately understood what was happening, and without saying a word, they helped me fix the garment and then went on their way.”

Something meaningful or moving related to your family?

“A few weeks ago I released a new album — an album of children’s songs, called Sholem La’Olam (‘Peace to the World’). It’s very closely connected to my family. I wrote the album when my daughter was little; it was ready when she was eight. Today she’s eighteen.

“I tried to convey a message of calm and tranquility, gentle ideas, and I hope that comes through. For example, there’s a song about how to help children reach a state of focus, and how to encourage them to tidy their room in a positive atmosphere.

“In these songs, I tried to enter the inner world of children and bring them thoughts of order and calm. In addition, the album includes simple, sweet songs — for instance, a song about a child who doesn’t want anything that’s offered to him and only wants his mother; another song about a child who dreamed yesterday that something good would come tomorrow — and today, the good has arrived.

“It was important to me that the album’s atmosphere be pleasant, so the songs are accompanied by gentle instruments: guitar played by Erez Lev Ari and Adi Hillel, cello by Karni Postel, and flutes by Eyal Sela.”

In light of the new album, how do you see the parent-child relationship?

“I see children as guides. Children show us where we need to improve and grow. A child comes into the world carrying an entire world within them. This obligates the parent to step outside themselves and truly see the child and what they need — not only materially, but emotionally as well. Through this, the parent completes themselves.

“For example, if a child needs attention and someone to listen to them, and the parent realizes they find it difficult to truly listen because their attention isn’t available, the child will confront the parent with this gap and help them understand that they need to improve their capacity for attention.

“I see children as people. The younger and softer they are, the cleaner their perspective. In a sense, the world belongs to children — they are what comes next. They are the future of the world. They have things to teach us. Of course, we also have much to teach them, but certainly we also have much to learn from them — like flexibility and the ability to move simply and easily from one state to another.”

How does the current global change affect your creative work?

“Like everyone else, I’m mostly at home. We had planned to celebrate 30 years of creative work with a performance, we rehearsed, and then everything stopped. God willing, everything is for the good.

“A great deal of what shapes my path in life comes from the studies I learned with my teacher, Yemima Avital of blessed memory. This learning teaches one to focus on things that strengthen us and to distance from our thoughts those things that weaken us. It’s natural for unpleasant feelings to arise, but it’s like childbirth — when a woman in labor is told that although the contraction is painful, if she thinks of the pain as advancing the birth, she’ll have more strength to bear it and to grow stronger with joy and anticipation of meeting the baby.”

What does the world of teshuvah mean to you?

“I see the process of teshuvah as a journey in which the Creator guides us like an infinite therapist on a long, unknown journey in which new things are renewed every day. For me, it’s important work to include every area of life in serving God: relationships, family, friendships, writing, music, household tasks, and more.”

A meaningful experience connected to a mitzvah you fulfilled?

“When we lived in Neve Tzedek, we built a sukkah. Somehow, it filled with guests. I remember looking at the group gathered in the shade of the sukkah and sensing something extra. We could have sat the same way under a pergola, but in the sukkah there was something special and new. To me, the sukkah felt like a gate that invited additional holidays and Shabbatot to enter.”

A prayer that was especially meaningful to you?

“On Rosh Chodesh Elul about a year and a half ago, I was invited to a prayer gathering in a hospital in Jerusalem, where nurses were inaugurating a women’s prayer service and singing Hallel. The nurses played, sang, and led the prayer. In the audience were staff members — doctors, nurses, and hospitalized women. It was a moving and deeply instructive prayer.

“At the end, there was a natural urge to clap and thank the women who had stood on the stage and sung. Because it was Hallel, it powerfully illustrated for me to whom praise, song, and thanksgiving truly belong.”

What moves you most in connection with Judaism?

“There are many things, of course. In moments of awakening toward inner connection, I’m grateful to belong. In the book of Bereishit, in the account of creation, it says: ‘to distinguish between day and night, and they shall serve as signs for seasons, days, and years.’

“To walk through life in relation to the appointed times that God set from the very beginning — from the creation of the world — to live by the Hebrew calendar and the meaning within each time, feels like clothing oneself in God’s will. When I manage to grasp that, it deeply moves me.”