"This Well Will Not Run Dry!" — Rabbi Micah Shapiro

At our December 9th Friday Night Shabbat service,  we welcomed back Rabbi Micah Shapiro, Mishkan's Musician-in-Residence. This episode is a lightly abbreviated version of the whole service. Check out the timecodes below if you’re looking for a particular song or moment.

[00:20] “Down the Well”
[01:35] Welcoming Message From R’Lizzi
[05:08] “Nekadma Fanav” (Psalm 95:2)
[10:48] “Tiferet” (Psalms 96:6)
[15:10] (Mizmor L’David) “Havu L’Adonai” (Psalm 29)
[18:30] Message From R’Micah
[20:15] Lekha Dodi
[28:36] Drash By R’Micah
[38:45] “We Let The Love Wash Over Us”
[42:25] Topical Message From R’Lizzi
[47:37] Mi Chamocha
[50:48] Hashkiveinu & V’shamru
[57:21] Oseh Shalom

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

Have you been inspired this year by the songs, sermons and services from Mishkan on this very podcast? Then we invite you to consider a donation of any sides to help us bring more inspiration in the new year. There's a link to donate in the show notes from all of us at Mishkan Chicago Thank you ring me Hello and welcome to contact KY today's episode of Shabbat replay is from our Friday night service on December 9 When we welcomed musician and residents Rabbi Micah Shapiro for an extra song filled surface this episode is a lightly abbreviated version of the whole service so there are time codes in the show notes if you're looking for a particular song or moment now take it away Rabbi will rock me die and I will go down I feel like it is fully late fall in Chicago complete with the rain and gray skies and sleet and mud and puddles all that you know the character building stuff that you know gave rise to the actual phrase finding the silver lining is for weather like this. So I actually was like, Okay, what's the silver lining? Okay, what is it? Hey, we're all together inside and that feels even better on a day like this. Thank you. Yes. Do you know how many days it is until Hanukkah because my five year old son does. Tell us. Thanks, Violet. Nine days until Hanukkah ready? Oh soup on a day like today is especially delicious. Oh, having nothing to do with the weather. But enjoying it. Rain or shine. Rabbi mica shows up. I'm so glad you are here. That was a good segue. Thank you, Gideon. I do I want to I want to welcome back Rabbi mica Shapiro. For our last Shabbat of the year, we've been building this beautiful relationship with Rabbi mica since Passover 2021. So Passover 2020 was kind of like a free for all. If you all remember that April 2020. But then by by March of 2021, it was like, Do you remember this? The vaccines were just beginning to roll out but everybody was still mostly doing stuff online and in their homes. And so we we created a musical Seder together. Rabbi mica was still at Penn Hillel, and I was here. And we were and we were here, there and everywhere. And it was the like the beginning of this beautiful partnership. And so this is like the fourth time this year Rabbi Mike has been here. Yeah. More than that. If you count Passover, maybe it has. I've lost count because they're so great. And Rabbi, Mike is going to be leading us through services tonight. And if the music doesn't sound familiar, which, if you you know, if you haven't been to Michigan in a long time, or ever, it doesn't matter, because his music is mostly original Rabbi mica compose music. And so if you're like, oh, I don't know this. That's okay. Nobody here does. And so like, and so I was thinking, like, let's go into it the way that you go into a downpour that you kind of get caught you got caught in without an umbrella, were the best way to approach it is just to like, open your mouth, take it in, enjoy, lean into the moment, you're here. And and I feel like if we all do that we're gonna have a great night. So we're going to transition into Camelot Shabbat, there's there's a lot to celebrate tonight in this room. And also I know we have folks who are here who are also struggling. And so this is this is how we enter into Shabbat in this space of knowing we don't know exactly where everybody's coming from in this room, but we're here in support and in love. And that'll carry us Far So shall we we open up to page to guide my fun is Mira these men these these these These fees and fees prayer for beauty sanctuary strengthened Majesty in our communal spaces and internally there Oh show me. dash dash dash dash dash really have to say? Navy Day. The original couple that Shabbat was that Psalm 29, which is one of the oldest songs that we have and lado de this poem from the 16th century. And basically it's how do we how do we greet how do we enter into Shabbat? It's really really hard to enter into Shabbat and we're trying to get our second soul and that's what we're singing when we say Ricardo de lado de Kola Peninsula button Acaba, la second soul expand our soul. So we're going to oscillate between the sixth stanza, which is low TiVo, Shiva Lotte, call me shed our shame. We're good as we are. And then we're going to come back, we're going to keep coming from that back into Luxardo D, let's get our second soul. Let's expand our soul. Let's expand our soul. We're gonna build this chant back and forth. And then it's going to open up into a knee goon, a wordless melody, into the ninth stanza, bow, Eva Shalom, and that's going to be the moment where we get crowned with our second soul, the sheffey. Now, the feminine indwelling presence of God will enter the room and crown us all with second souls as the mystics teach. And that sounds a little lofty, but really, I think the grounded question Students how do we chill out how do we like just feel good in our bodies feel good as we are how do we breathe a little deeper how do we breathe a little easier and so, what this piece that I wrote for legato D is meant to give us a little support in that the chorus was either D is on page eight and then the verses are on page nine do me because at the crime D take your stuff out to lunch me Shiva Take Me me me me mad at me see God Sheila take me back here man no table Shiva tea guy me mean the jockey around Rising body Spirit stanza nine believe this shallow my dad John Bessie NadeShot Vasco de Gama this shadow my dad gone missing got a shot sharp today shop turn back around Shabbat Shalom that is I'm a nervous public speaker. So I'm going to lean on some music to help me with this. So we're actually going to turn back to the first song that we did and I'm going to do what's I guess called a DEVAR TFI love I'm going to give like a word of Torah on the, on the verse that we that we prayed together and it's my hope that we're going to I'm going to kind of take us through some nerdy Hebrew decoding, that's meant to give us a very deep relationship to the verse and that will have unfurl hopefully unfold into a blessing for all of us. So What page are we on? We're on page two, we're on the third line. So we're gonna dig into the third and fourth lines of page two and let's let's start just by let's sing that first. The first three words together that we did before it was like this all singing and we can all sing it back NiCad not fun. Bid toda NiCad man find it so my fun bit Ah the other three words these mirror Nivea is mirror let's try one more time from the time they cut my bed find these near these cool, very beautiful. So it's nice to sing it kind of quiet or like that together. So we have the translation which I didn't look at and not going to look at no offense to the CTR. I'm sure it's lovely actually, what is it in someone call it out? What does it say? Great. So that is a totally good translation. So what I want to do is I want to hyperlink each word for us. So we're going to start with Nicoma. And what we do in Hebrew is we find the shoresh we find the three letter Hebrew root and the three letter Hebrew root of nicot, mais Cuf Dalit men Kedem. And sort of, I guess the most common understanding of kiddin would be the modern Hebrew word of Kadima, which is forward, and that's sort of the connotation of Nicoma, it's a NiCad, Ma, let's kind of, I don't even try it, let's Nicoma together, it's like, kind of let's sort of scope forward, let's, let's kind of step forward, let's sort of put our shoulders back and stand proud forward kind of it's sort of that's the, that's the way I think of NiCad Ma, it's kind of almost like to turn towards and the way I want to complicate this for us and enriching it is that Kedem is also a reference to the Garden of Eden, it's a reference to ancient times, sort of primordial times, simpler times rooted times where we come from. And so this idea that it means the opposite of itself as well, right. So Kedem is Nikola is going forward, but inside of it is routing deep down into who we are and where we come from. So So the idea being that the way we go forward is by this by digging into to who we are, and understanding sort of a depth of where we come from, who our ancestors are, and where our roots are. So there's There's Nick AdMob, coming going forward from from a rooted, grounded place. The next word fun of God's face comes from the word Panem. And this is a really interesting thing, we're going to go towards God's face. The Torah, basically teaches us that Judaism basically teaches us that we can't see God's face. Maybe Moses saw God face to face, but that's unclear. And actually, Rabbi Lizzi was pointing out to me that in this Torah portion, Jacob sort of claims to himself that he saw God face to face in some way or another, but barely survived it. Right? So at the very least, were you to sort of confront God's face, it would be treacherous and more likely, it's, it's impossible. And my favorite teaching about this is why can't we see God's face because if we were to see God's face, we wouldn't be able to see God in each other's faces, we wouldn't be able to see God in the world around us. And in fact, being in these concentric circles is, is intimate, and there's a vulnerability there. And there's a connection there. And I think that oh, seeing God in each other's faces is a little could be like a cheesy platitude. Or it could be like a really, really badass prompt, right? Like it's like, it's like really hard to do. And so that's what we're charged for to do from that rooted place, Nick, kind of my let's go forward from a rootedness and let's turn towards each other. And let's see the divine in where we're in where we're looking. But toda ingratitude. This word also, the root is very, very rich, it shares a root actually with the word of Dewey, which means confession. Meaning, I think that so when, when words share root were asked to sort of find their common point. And I think the common point here might be that gratitude is actually quite vulnerable. Just like confession, right? Because if we're, if we're really grateful for something, and we really, really value something, that means we could lose it. That means that we depend on it. And I think in our individualist society as a as someone who is socialized male, like I think there's a lot of different ways in which we just want to be independent and don't actually want to necessarily lead with depending on people and I think Gratitude has An edge of that there and I think that's why I might share a route with confession. So from a rooted place we go forward towards God in each other. And we from there. From there we sort of meditate on profound gratitude from that from that place. So those are the first three. The first three words and now we'll try the second three words with the with the B part of the of the chant. B's Me, me, though B's me, you and me and me Bees Bees, Bees Bees, bees. Bees me, Ariana Nari. B's Meera Tammy yellow B's me. Rihanna. And so it's meant to kind of we have all this substance to work with. Now we're NiCad mine. Were fun loving, right? We're turning. We're seeing God into the space. We have this profound gratitude. And now we're ready to cathartic with his me wrote, right? As we wrote it so often now you hear about like Shabbat, and he wrote, and it's actually about singing. But I think the Jimmy row in the biblical context is actually about the Levites in the temple, who are this amazing band of musicians basically making incredible music and circles to God and with the sacrifices and so we're supposed to be me Brothers is a biblical word. And we're meant to kind of tap into like, the ancient ritual of like, music and instruments and sacrifices and just getting big and big with our sound that lets it really that nothing can stop us if we really have are seeing God and each other are have that deep sense of God into that deep sense of rootedness. Now we're ready to make real big music together. That comes to the next word, which is Maria. And Maria comes from the word true, ah, the blast of the shofar. And this is the verb that we're doing together. We're not singing, we're not praying ordinariate. Together, we're blasting out a sound a cacophonous again cathartic sound that is the foundation of our Smee wrote of the music that we're making together, low to God back to God right low and again, low has a masculine object suffix. So it's to, to him, it would be most directly translated, I think that's a good prompt for us to think intentionally about how we want to picture God in our life, right? This defaults to him in the in the Hebrew language, we get to do whatever we want with that low actually, you know, give you permission to do whatever you want with that low and think of God in the most expansive terms. God is a tough word. I think it's a Nordic word. So Judaism has like hundreds of words for God. So really to think about what kind of God you need to be having this catharsis towards from this place of rootedness. So it's my blessing for all of us that were able to dig into these words together this Shabbat and feel like we know we have a profound sense of who we are, maybe not totally, but like an inkling maybe is more. There's like there's something that we really know about ourselves. There's, there's a gratitude that we that we genuinely feel this this connection that we know we have with other people, and that we're ready to, to be whether it's through music or some other means we're ready to be big and joyous with all with carrying all of that. Shabbat shalom. Let's try it Nick cannot find we enter into the part of MarieTV that is all about love and radical unity. So we start with Have I told them that we are loved with an endless love, we finish with via Haftar that we are commanded to love and in the middle we affirm the schema that we are all one we are connected to each other that it's so love is the trigger that drives that sense of, of oneness. And so, we're going to sing the song actually comes from the, the gospel tradition written by Ricky Byers Beckwith and the words are we let the love wash over us. We let it be and if you want to dive in the words on the page, please do as we wash over Add me live show we page 16 for the Shama Shama? We show so if you're paying attention to the headlines today you wouldn't know that something absolutely extraordinary and historic happened yesterday and multiple extraordinary historic things happened yesterday. And so I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that Congress passed protections for same sex marriage in this country. Like it's gonna go to the President's desk he's gonna sign it. Are there issues? Yes. Are we done fighting the battle for LGBT Q equality? No, we're not. But is this an absolutely unprecedented? And historic thing? I think it is. I think it is. And something that the author Rebecca Solnit says about progressives is that we don't take time to celebrate the victories. We don't take time to celebrate the wins because there's still so much to do, and so many imperfections in the wins that we have. And we you know, and then we say, well, it was wrong. For this reason, I just want to say, this is a really big effing deal. So So I want to take a moment to celebrate that. And in the context of the set of prayers that we are about to go into right now. Because in every in every service in the morning, and in the evening, there is this prayer Maha Maha. And it is quoting the Torah. It is quoting from the Jews who who were liberated from Egypt and watch the sea split. And they watched through on dry land, and they watched Pharaoh's army drown in the sea. And, and then they sang and they danced for the first time, in hundreds of years. And that moment was the culmination of 1000s of hours of negotiation behind closed doors of people despairing and not believing it was possible, but many working toward the possibility of freedom and justice for an oppressed people anyway, even though it seemed unlikely. And civil disobedience and collective shift of consciousness such that a group of people actually could pursue a visionary goal and then actually get there, and many people did not live to see it. Right. There were 200 plus years of Jews who were slaves in Egypt who did not live to see that moment who wondered if they would get their butt didn't but didn't actually live to see it. And so I just want to hold for a moment that we are living in historic times. Sometimes those times are very scary. They still are. But you know what, in moments like this, it is important to remember that with 1000s of hours of negotiation behind closed doors, and people working tirelessly toward the cause of freedom and justice for all people, whoever you are, whoever you love, and civil disobedience and protesting in the streets, and collective consciousness shift, things do change. And it is important to recognize that, and the Jewish tradition puts this prayer into the morning and evening prayer service to remind us that it happened before. And it could happen again. And so don't you dare despair. Despair is not a strategy, the tradition says. And then on the heels of that sense of possibility, that the miracles, what would appear to be miracles could happen. And by the way, they're not miracles, they're human beings working their asses off, to make these things happen. But on the heels of the knowledge that the world can change, and improve and heal, we then pray for the people in our lives who need healing, and for the places in the world that need healing. And so, as you see, we're on the bottom of page 18. I'm thinking tonight as we go into that prayer for healing about the people we have been praying for, you know, for many weeks, maybe months, maybe years. I'm thinking about Brittney Griner. Thank God that she is back in this country, and the healing process that this poor woman is going to need to go through after the nightmare she has been through. And that that's often how healing works is that you actually get to the other side of something. And then the healing actually like the healing journey begins. And so just the stages and the process and the prayer that we can offer and recognition about for the people who we love. So as we transition from Yamaha into Hashkee Bay no into praying that people should come and go in peace that the world should be free of famine and play against sword and violence. That that I've seen, the people we love should be healthy, should be able to live with dignity, to be able to love who we love. We'll pause in the middle of the transmission of those songs. And I'll invite anybody who's holding somebody in your heart to stand there and share the name of whoever it is you're thinking about. And we'll hold all of them with love as we transition from Yamaha into Hashkee vanno so we're at MI Hummel on the bottom of page 18 Come on me Come on me my dad name Moshe Debbie Lee fleshly man healing a body mind and spirit all of them may be enveloped the wings of the ship enough binds to come small it's a small it's a teh destroyed Sangtae shadow mats Shilo start saying stay away smile is shallow and shallow shallow and shallow Sally's response AJ will go away soon shadow shadow shadow Manta shallow body or spirit 20 As a team Jeremy Assad Shan Shan? Tom berry Sasha long been laid over shall we say shall go Luke whistle solo is the receipt of peace recognize that shall shall lay new DACA you say just Rabbi Lizzi here we go Shabbat replay is a production of Mishkan Chicago, our theme music was composed and performed by Calvin Strauss, you can always see where and when our next service will be on our calendar. There's a link in the show notes. And if you appreciated the program, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts. I know you've heard it before, but it really does help. On behalf of Team Mishkan. Thank you for listening