Bob Schwartz

“Compassion does not enter into anything without beautifying it, and is not removed from anything without making it ugly.”

Spotify created a 50-track Yom Kippur playlist for me.

Among a wide array of tracks, it included one bizarre surprise, a North Korean patriotic pop song, Are We Still Living Like in Those Days.

Joyously it also included a great surprise, Avinu Malkeinu from the album Compassion (2014) by Lior and Nigel Westlake, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Lior is an Israeli-born singer/songwriter whose family emigrated to Australia when he was young.

The notes to this song cycle explain the rich mixture of Hebrew and Arabic songs, including an essential High Holiday hymn like Avinu Malkeinu, all centered on the title concept–and the Yom Kippur concept–of compassion.

Compassion: IV: Inna Rifqa (The Beauty Within) is taken from a Muslim hadith:

“Compassion does not enter into anything without beautifying it, and is not removed from anything without making it ugly.”