Minyan Replay with Rabbi Lizzi — Behar-Bechukotai

Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. Our Thursday sessions are hosted by Mishkan's Founding Rabbi, Lizzi Heydemann. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai!

Our May 11th, 2023 session covered Parashat Behar-Bechukotai. This portion includes instructions on shmitah, the sabbatical year where the land gets a Shabbat of its own. How can we apply this fascinating, liberating concept in modern society?

Next Friday, May 19th, we will hold a special Morning Minyan send-off for Rabbi Deena who is leaving Mishkan at the end of the month. We invite you to join us to lend your goodbyes and well wishes to R'Deena!

****

For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

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

Transcript

Transcript

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  0:17  
Hello and welcome to this half hour dose of weekly Jewish spirituality brought to you by Michigan's Thursday morning minion. Jews have a tradition of praying three times a day and at Mishkan we have a daily minion at 8am Central to get your day started. folks join us from across the country and world as we begin each day with words and songs of gratitude, inspiration and Torah. If you miss us in the morning, join us here every week for the replay of our Thursday minion hosted by me Rabbi Lizzi Hayden without further ado I invite you to breathe a little deeper connect a little more with yourself with God with Torah with this community and with the world around you wherever you are whatever your timezone


Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  2:56  
I want to begin with just breathing and grounding in the moment and in awakeness and in our body and in just before we get into singing, sort of adding another layer of our incredible or incredible ability to do something with that voice and that breath I just want to feel it this morning. So if you're in a whatever position you're in, if you're seated, I invite you to put your feet flat on the floor. sit a little straighter, relax your shoulders. Allow your spine to be aligned one vertebrae on top of the next with your head as if being pulled toward the ceiling or the sun. Even as your shoulders relax. I'm letting my eyes gently close and just take a few easy breaths. And if you find yourself holding or grasping or tightening anywhere, just notice it and loosen. And if you're discovering like a pants button or belt or something that's making this breathing annoying, go ahead and undo it loosen if it's appropriate where you are just free and easy. And instead of going through every single blessing of the morning from the beer kata shofar. I'll just take us through a kind of body scan. Blessing our toes. You can wiggle them say hello to them. Bless it are the feet that take you around the world. The ankles, the calves, the knees. can give your knees a little Hello the thighs the booty. Say hello to your hips bendy forward. For blessings to pick things up sort of moving. Moving up the body we're like going in reverse order of, of the spirit that we have been moving down as we go through the Omero. We're like going the reverse direction from bottom up. But noticing your belly where dozens of feet of intestines help you digest food and assimilate nourishment so you can live what a blessing to not take for granted on this day your ribcage, your shoulders, again, sitting up straight, relaxing them. Your arms hanging at your side. elbows, wrists, fingers. Go ahead and just like palpate each one crack or whatever you do, to just say hello to your fingers. And then finally, your throat your face. They score gorgeous thing that you get to smile at strangers and make people's day or the people look at on zoom your window to the world your eyes, your cat's hair, your crown. This whole being connecting each one of us to the world beyond us and to the God inside of us and beyond us. Breathe into this radiating, pulsating, vibrating, heart beating, automatically breathing, incredible vessel that our soul gets to live in. For as long as we're lucky to have a soul that gets to live in it

Speaker 3  7:15  
and then go into a celebration of the pure soul that is emanating from within each one of us

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  7:27  
from the standard A minor here, so this is an A and a B and of course I can't sing both but I'll sing the A and I'll sing the B and then from where you're sitting you can sing the one on top of the other and then you can hear the harmony even if everybody else cancer if I can't see here's Parque de

Speaker 2  7:43  
ello Hainish Shama Shanita Tabby to home, he ello Hain a sham match and that data B to home that's a Hello Hi Anna Shama Ginetta, Tabby ter Hello Hainish and mush and Netta Tabby to home. He hears Part B ello. Hi Nisha Masha Natta tabby.

Speaker 2  8:26  
Hello, hi Nisha mesh and net. Debbie

Unknown Speaker  8:39  
ello hain, Shamash and Natasha tabby. ello Hain Shamash and Netta Tabby Hello, Hi, Nisha. Tabby to

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  9:10  
like it's been long enough, since I've shared this story with you about this particular prayer, God, the soul that you have placed within me is pure. And you know, I grew up saying these words Hello. Hi. Nisha mash and attached to be Tahara. You might my rabbi did a lot of praying out loud in English. And he was this like gruff old man. And so he would say, God, the soul that you have placed within me is pure, you know, and so, a lot of it didn't land when I was a kid. But it got into my psyche. And and then it was years and years, you know, that I wasn't around my childhood Rabbi moved away, he died. May his memory be a blessing. And I was in rabbinical school and I found myself at a juvenile All detention center like a juvenile jail in Los Angeles doing an interfaith service as a rabbinical student. And I was, you know, as is often the case, in interfaith settings, the only Jew, and, you know, there is a, there's an unspoken, I'll take the screen down, there is an unspoken thing that happens in interfaith space, which is that you're not supposed to proselytize. You're not supposed to use interfaith space to proselytize, it's supposed to be a space of respect for where everybody's coming from sharing your own experience and tradition, and not trying to rope or convince anybody else to join you. But just to share, and this, I think he was Catholic, I'm not I'm not totally positive, some some version of a tradition that says that people are stained from birth, you know, and so this, this clergy person, got up and said to all of these teenagers, you know, you're in here, because you have not yet washed the original sin off of your soul. You know, your souls are stained, you're damaged, and the only way to heal yourself is through God and through Jesus. And so I just, I want to invite anybody else who, you know, may want to join me in that, you know, join me over here on the side of the room after the ceremony is over. And, and I remember being mortified, first of all, because I just thought, like, what a damaging thing to say, first of all, to all of these people here who are trying to, you know, rehabilitate themselves and heal, but second of all, like, what poor interfaith modeling, you're not supposed to do that. Even if I live, disagree, disagreeing with a theology completely, but putting that aside for a moment, you're just not supposed to do that. And I it was actually my turn to go next. And, and so I stood up, and I said, with respect to the brother, Judaism sees it very differently. And I invoked my childhood rabbi, Rabbi Arnold, Jacob Wolf, yes, Ricky. And I said, as far as we are concerned, your soul is pure, pure, complete, beautiful. You know, we all have a little dust or grime, you know, that collects on our soul over the course of a life, but we have the opportunity to, you know, kind of dust it off and see it afresh every day. You don't need to do anything to you know, you don't need to convert to anything in order to do that. That's just already in you. And I don't remember what I said after that, but I was just thinking about the soul that you have placed within me is pure, you know, and my gruff childhood Rabbi saying that in a way that wasn't exactly resonant with the words themselves, but sometimes you actually need somebody to say to you unflinchingly and convincingly you are good underneath everything you are good at your whole period full stop before you can get to all the healing that needs to happen. So we say that every single morning Hello Hi Nisha Masha Tata betta Hora he God the soul that you have placed within me is pure is good. By rule attached I don't I have my husband Nisha both if Gary meeting him bless it is the one who returns every single morning our souls into these bodies. I mean, I mean all right. I'll go into a little hallelujah

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  13:41  
Okay, where's There we go. And obviously, I'm glad I'm so excited about your to fill in. Congratulations. It's really a big that's like a big step. Big Move. I feel like we should say do you want to say shehecheyanu on behalf of these two villain that you're wearing for minion?

Speaker 4  13:59  
I did? I did Sasha Fiano and I put them on but I would if it's kosher I'd be done for saying it again with everybody. That would be cool. Can

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  14:08  
you all hear obviously I'm Ha because I cannot. Yes. Yes. No, I can't hear you. Did you just say it

Speaker 4  14:20  
yeah, I'll say it now. If you're new versa i don't i Okay, new. New Vicki.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  14:33  
Hey, everybody, unmute and say I mean

Unknown Speaker  14:39  
me name amazing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Speaker 2  14:57  
Arabic good show. Hallelujah. Who you will be carrying? I was a big boy wrote about ello Keiro Good Lord. Hallelujah

Unknown Speaker  15:11  
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Unknown Speaker  15:21  
protect gastrobar

Unknown Speaker  15:24  
beneva have a female hallelujah

Unknown Speaker  15:27  
but tofu mahal Halle have

Unknown Speaker  15:30  
been Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Unknown Speaker  15:46  
Shama Hello.

Speaker 5  15:48  
Let you go to hell

Unknown Speaker  15:51  
Lilia garnish Amanda Hello

Unknown Speaker  15:54  
Guy Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Unknown Speaker  16:35  
that tune was

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  16:35  
adapted for that prayer from from Brazilian capillary tune. I don't know what the original tune was for but you can hear you can hear the way that Miriam Margolyes adapted it on her CD or on her album who talks about CDs anymore? Okay, I'm gonna stand if you are able I invite you to stand stand up a little bit straighter. Route yourself in your feet on the ground. Stand up face east, welcoming the rising sun facing Jerusalem. Praying for peace praying for a new dawn every single day

Unknown Speaker  17:18  
Barry who adds I don't I love aura

Unknown Speaker  17:27  
rule

Unknown Speaker  17:30  
add by ricotta

Speaker 2  17:33  
muter or Rubery Hoelscher Jose Shalom Vare attacco

Speaker 3  17:36  
Hi Mira the art of a lottery money hemraj me move to vana Fidesz boho young to meet my savory she or her Dasha? Do

Speaker 2  17:48  
you have a new scaffold that I'm here rally or row? By row Hurtado? nyiad? Ser hammock or row? I have our rubber I have time I know. I don't lie. No, no,

Speaker 3  18:01  
I'm not gonna do Olivia Tara multiline who? VENA machina but avora routine of Shabbat hookah? Tell them damn, okay. Hi, I'm Ken honey with lambda No, have

Speaker 2  18:11  
you ever FML and hamre Sam, Ross hammer Lee new.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  18:17  
I'm going to share something about about this prayer that I feel like Ellen you're, you're gonna resonate to some of you also. So somebody just shared with me a podcast called Jewish ancestral healing. And I'm just listening to the first one, I'm just listening to the you know, I'm in the I'm in the very introduction by Tamar share. And yeah, one of the things she talks about is that the Jewish story we tell often is the story of near survival, just again, and again, they they came for us, and we almost were decimated. But here we are, you know, and what that reinforces like, we have a number of a number of holidays, in which that's the, you know, essential story. And if we tell that story again and again, and again, we will walk through the world terrified. However, it is not our only story. Right? We also have other holidays, I'm thinking about Shavuos is coming up, you know, we have the holiday of Sukkot, we have two but um, we have Jewish bats, you know, any number of holidays that have nothing to do with escaping persecution and oppression, but actually are about celebrating nature, connecting deeply to the natural world, connecting to our to our ancestors in the natural world who are surrounding us all the time. And that, you know, depending on what story we tell, depending on how much energy we give to a particular narrative. We amplify that in ourselves and we create you know, more of that in the world. And I just want to point out as we go into the Shema every single day We tell a story of the love story of our ancestors. And so because we don't have the translation written right here, I have Vyra bat I have Taniel Adonai Elohim no so the first love just coming from God just being pure grace, God's love. Come like a doula via Terra Malta, Elena, you have just given us beyond beyond Grace beyond love. Thank you, that you have heaped on us a vino volcano, but a volcano Chabad. Hobeika, God our parents, because of our ancestors, who trusted in you and so now we're thinking back generations, generations generations. You taught them these life giving laws who que Hyeme Kenta honeynut lambino So to grace us and teach us life giving life ways and love ways, you know, and then it goes on line by line by line but this idea that the inheritance we get from the generations does not have to be one of trauma, it can be one of abundant pervasive powerful love you know, as communicated through Jewish laws, who gave time laws that should guide life laws that should enhance life laws that should give life so as we gather the four corners of our seat seat we hold on to that life that life support literally as we go into the Shema

Speaker 3  21:37  
Raha I don't I have a hair but I'm Elise for alle the I have a

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  21:42  
Blessed are you who chooses us with so much love

Unknown Speaker  21:49  
Shema Yisrael

Unknown Speaker  21:57  
I don't die

Unknown Speaker  22:01  
Hello Haney I don't know

Unknown Speaker  22:05  
Hi ever had

Speaker 3  22:14  
the after eight I don't know if I'll ever behold Lucha Hall NASA Hall Noda the HeyYou who had very him her ala share I know he mitts up ha ha yo malaba machine and Tom Lydon as the barter bomb, the shifter hub of a Tesla we will have to have a Dara chef will have comesa short term low to Alia data. But how you a little tougher to bein a NASA who could have ta Mama's is owed their data, V SHA red hair

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  22:47  
and Avi Simcha for you in particular today since you're wearing your tota fo to beta ANSI, you know your Odelia DeHaven, tota Fotini nessa the sign on your arm and the symbol between your eyes. Just take a moment to appreciate you're doing it you're doing the thing you're doing the thing we say every single day, multiple times a day. And for those of us who aren't like wearing an actual physical box on our arm, or between our eyes, or you know, sort of at your third eye, as it were. There are ways in which we communicate this love that hafta through the work of our hands through the way we see the world through the way we internalize the world. So even if you're not wearing a physical box, we can still be observing this every single day, multiple times a day. All right. Want to go into a healing Prayer?

Unknown Speaker  25:00  
RF.

Speaker 3  25:30  
Sending them reflect a nephesh and reflect a goof healing of body healing of spirit. No Myra mean, sending prayers of healing? I mean, I mean,

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  25:42  
all right. So with two minutes I thought I would read from a commentary book that I don't think I've broken out so far here in this group. This is the women's your commentary, I feel like it's maybe. I mean, it's, it's at this point, not new anymore. This is copyrighted. 2000. So this is already over 20 years old. You know, I've read from Torah queries that Twitter had query to our commentary. So anyway, this has lots of different lots of different reflections on the Torah portion, from different female rabbis, which to be honest, 20 years ago actually was kind of a big deal, because 20 years ago, you know, only recently had the conservative movement started ordaining rabbis for movement, Reconstructionist movement longer, but there were not nearly as many of us out in the world. So anyway, they're they're just, you know, a few different reflections for every single parsha and I thought I would read the one for wealth one in this week's parsha this week's parsha talks about shmitah talks about shmitah for the land, you know, that the every seven year process of the land laying fallow to regenerate and rest, and not just for the land, but also for the people who farm it to have other things to do have a different way of interacting in the world. And, and then it's also about the idea of Shmita for you know, society so that every 50 years, there's a kind of holistic rest and forgiving of deaths. And you know, it's the whole kind of very unrealistic, unlikely but kind of utopian vision for what might be possible in the Jubilee Year. And so it says Proclaim Liberty through throughout the land. That's that is in this week's Torah portion, which I think is on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia drawer you crack excuse me, with kratom drawer by RX. So the same language drawer, I gotta turn off that little dinner the next time Alright, so the same language drawer is used by the prophet Jeremiah to describe the Shmita year in in the book of Jeremiah, if you go look in there in the Midrash, the rabbi is asked why the Torah uses the unusual term drawer liberty. With regard to the yo Val and Shmita, the Jubilee Year and the Shmita year, why not just use the more common language of freedom roots? Rabbi Yehuda answers that the origin of drawer is dira dwelling, same as the word for like an apartment in modern Hebrew, and that one who is truly free is one who dwells in a dwelling. In his commentary on Leviticus 2510 Rashi explains rabbi who does illusive response, he writes, one is truly liberated. When they dwell in any place in they wish and desire and is not under the authority of any other person. One medieval Rabbi writes, all strife originates from the attitude of mine is mine. And of course, yours is mine. But even mine is mine and people claiming their prerogatives, but in the seventh year all are equal, and this can indeed generate peace, the shmitah and the yeoville. Each bring true freedom to the people freedom from imposed authority, freedom from materialism, freedom from oppression, freedom from equality inequality, then you shall blast the shofar in Leviticus 29. Nine Jewish women are holding their breaths for the great shofar blasts, that guarantee is our freedom. The shmitah and yeoville are times for radical redefinition of what exists and redefinition is one of the major tasks Jewish feminists of Jewish feminist as we reimagine ourselves, our relationships, our Torah, tradition and God. While the Shmita is still observed every seven years in the land of Israel, the date of yeoville has been lost the date of the Jubilee or has been lost. We need to imagine a new kind of yeoville in which we have a whole out the mamas of Jewish people, gain our freedom and claim our inheritance. That is a jubilee we would be glad to celebrate. And I think I would extend this to anybody who has not been in the position of making the rules and enforcing the rules, but just been subject to the rules that this be a prayer this part should be a prayer of sounding the great shofar of drawer of liberty, that no one should feel beholden to anybody else's authority, but really feel empowered in one's own space and dwelling. And we'll close out our learning with Khadija tome, mourners Kaddish Is there anybody this morning who is saying Kaddish for a particular individual whose name you want to say out loud?

Unknown Speaker  30:48  
Florence fell Florence ADA Feldman, my mother Thank you. Judy Paik is in her first 30 days

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  31:06  
is there anybody who would like to lead us in Kaddish this morning?

Speaker 6  31:09  
It could all be at Kadesh shimmy robot and then jumping around the ALMA div Rafi roti I'm leaf muscle tape Ohio Home who Johan side the whole beit Yisrael Naga la voz mind carry the Maru. I mean, yeah. Hey man, my good for Rafi Shabbat fee. Our Viet Romain Vietnamese say the DAR via Talay via Talaash made dequeued a shop around LA ala Miko their Hotstar the Shara tab to Chicago tab and the Hama tadami. rhombi. amavi Maru Amin Yeah Hey, Shama. Raba min Shemaiah the Hyeme Elena VL Coleus Rael the Emerald Amin o ser show a mineral ma who yeah I say Shalom la Dobby alcohol use ra LV Alko yo che Tae Val, the roof. I mean, and then,

Unknown Speaker  32:07  
man, may their memories

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  32:10  
be blessings. You've been listening to Kontakt five miscounts podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a rating on Apple podcasts and help us rise in the Jewish charts. And if you appreciate what we do, I invite you to join as a builder or make a donation on our website Mishcon chicago.org Shabbat shalom.