Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay of our service last night, June 23rd, which marked our annual Pride Shabbat! If you are looking for the powerful drash delivered by Builder Ronan Goforth or our "Born This Way" rendition of Lecha Dodi, check out the timecodes below.
Timecodes:
[00:00] Intro + Shalom Aleichem
[05:03] Welcome from R’Lizzi, Roe v. Wade Yahrzeit
[08:42] L’chu Neranena
[11:30] Mizmor L’David
[14:38] Ana B’Koach
[16:58] R'Steven: "Born This Way" Lecha Dodi (YAAAS SHABBOS KWEEN)
[24:32] Barchu
[26:00] Debbie Friedman Tribute + Mi Chamocha
[30:33] R'Lizzi Message
[35:10] Hashkiveinu
[37:32] Announcements
[39:26] Drash by Builder Ronan Goforth
[51:03] "We Rise" by Batya Levine
****
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
Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay of our service last night, June 23rd, which marked our annual Pride Shabbat! If you are looking for the powerful drash delivered by Builder Ronan Goforth or our "Born This Way" rendition of Lecha Dodi, check out the timecodes below.
Timecodes:
[00:00] Intro + Shalom Aleichem
[05:03] Welcome from R’Lizzi, Roe v. Wade Yahrzeit
[08:42] L’chu Neranena
[11:30] Mizmor L’David
[14:38] Ana B’Koach
[16:58] R'Steven: "Born This Way" Lecha Dodi (YAAAS SHABBOS KWEEN)
[24:32] Barchu
[26:00] Debbie Friedman Tribute + Mi Chamocha
[30:33] R'Lizzi Message
[35:10] Hashkiveinu
[37:32] Announcements
[39:26] Drash by Builder Ronan Goforth
[51:03] "We Rise" by Batya Levine
****
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
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
Last time we were here on this FEMA two weeks ago. Like how this is a FEMA now, for the next hour and a half is a FEMA. We talked about how we have Mishcon we're treating this whole month but specifically this weekend like it's the High Holidays as Pride weekend. So hog pride, Samia and Shabbat Shalom, feel free to turn somebody near you to somebody near you right now who you didn't come with to say, you are fabulous and beautiful. And Shabbat shalom.
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Thank you
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Thanks
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
so much of this month is and this week and this weekend in particular is about stepping out into the open in public, and not actually even necessarily even needing to do anything special other than be yourself, which in this day and age is actually pretty freakin special. If we can be that and do that. And we started doing these outdoor Shabbat apps during the pandemic for health reasons, the summer of 2021. And we came out here to this place and we soon realized that as important as it was to be able to sort of breathe freely outdoors, something else was happening, which was that we were coming out here with a sense of trepidation about our safety for other reasons. Did we actually feel safe being out as Jews in this country in this moment? Did we feel safe and and I think like that first weekend, we we came out here and we sang and we sang just like we are right now. And we were a little nervous about it. And with every passing song and every passing moment, there was a sense of pride. There was a sense of joy and satisfaction and meaning and having come through something over the generations to be able to be out here and be celebrating Shabbat singing in Hebrew together and not to feel afraid. And I also want to just thank our security team and our staff and everybody who is creating an environment for us that also helps us feel that way week in and week out thank you but it's like we always say the antidote to feeling like there are some people who might want there to be less of us are fewer of us in the world is to make more of us. But that is to say more joy more love more music, more Shabbat more in public more out more pride. So welcome to Michigan is there anybody who is here for the first time put your hand in the air welcome welcome Heather Moran, Executive Director of six and I so fun to have you here and and for everybody who's visiting to the Jews of color fellowship that are meeting here and checking out different synagogues all over America and here in Chicago with us tonight. Welcome. We're so happy to have all of you. I'm so happy that Ronan Goforth will be dressing later. So happy the weather is beautiful for us. And I think without further ado let's Shabbos this new neuron and
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Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
if you're feeling like you're able to stand and you want to move around a little bit the custom is in Psalm 29 to stand these Moylan daddy have
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my God
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really fast I've been tiring And again
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me set up a little straighter, a little deeper down exhale
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relax your shoulders
Rabbi Steven Philp
so the one of the Theses of Shabbat, by by disrupting our work week by telling us to set aside all of the doing and the tasking. And the accomplishing that we normally do outside of this space is that you are enough that what you bring to this space is exactly what you need to do this thing called Shabbat. If you are feeling joyful, there are songs for joy. If you are feeling heartbroken, there are moments for holding that if you are feeling angry or frustrated, or whatever it might be, there is space to breathe. And to let it out a little bit. The reason that you are enough on shabads is the radical, but also fundamental recognition that each of us is a reflection of the Divine. that I believe is also the thesis of pride as well. That not only are you enough, but that you are sacred that you are holy. That how you love and whom you love and how you express your joy and what you find your joy in is enough and it is sacred and how you mourn and the wounds you carry. And the scars that are maybe still healing are also sacred as well. That the righteous indignation that you might feel right now about the state of the world around us also has space here at Chavez in pride, because that is also sacred, because that moves us forward. And so in a moment we're going to sing la Hado de we're going to welcome in what we imagine most of the year as the Shabbat bride but tonight tonight folks, she is a drag queen and she is fabulous. So as we welcome in Miss Shabbat, drag queen will all stand and will face one direction I also want you to welcome in every part of yourself, the joyful parts and the broken parts and the angry parts and the tired parts and the distracted parts. The parts that feel in love and the parts that have fallen out of love the parts that you love and the parts that maybe you are still struggling to learn how to love to welcome all of you into this space, walking hand in hand with fabulous Shabbat recognizing that you are enough and you are sacred and you are loved. One of the words that we've changed in Lecanto D for this particular service. If you look three stanzas down is usually we say Kim So Scott's on I'll collab just add As a groom and the bride rejoice in one another and we've changed it tonight to Kim says live by Hava as the heart rejoices in love as a way of saying that regardless of where you are in this beautiful rainbow hear that you have space here that you are loved and you belong just as much here in this text as you belong anywhere else in the world
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Rabbi Steven Philp
Delia and then
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we stand to greet the Shabbos Queen you know from whichever direction in theory she came in which
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
would have been a lot of directions so I invite us to deal with it davening team is doing right now which is faced the setting sun and welcome her as she walks toward us as the sun sets and we bring in the holy shot is
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we're gonna stand for keep standing and turn to page three
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Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
As we go into me from Ohio now we're honoring all of the seeds that we have crossed all the difficult places the narrow places that we have stood as communities, as Jewish communities as queer communities. And the particular tune that we are going to use tonight for this was written by Debbie Friedman. I don't know if anybody's ever heard of her. Have you heard of her? Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And so they actually wrote a book about her, they someone whose name I forgot wrote a book about her recently a children's book. And it's a beautiful children's book. And it talks about how, you know, here's this person who grew up, you grew up, like wanting to sing and dance and go into summer camp and feeling all the love and going to Israel and being on a kibbutz and seeing people singing and dancing together, and then coming back into synagogue, and seeing people sitting with their hands folded, being quiet and being bored. And she was like, where's the love? And so she knew how to play guitar. And she sang. And she had no qualifications. She couldn't even read music, but she started writing music, to the prayers and synagogue, and started sharing it at camp. And it turned out people really dug it. And these tunes spread like wildfire. And in synagogues across the country, she was told and people were told, Don't sing those songs. They're not the tradition. And she faced a ton of sexism. Not to mention the fact that she was lesbian, which she could not tell people for the most part that was a secret that only toward the end of her life, which ended tragically about a decade ago from cancer that she shared with people because what she was doing was so out there so Renegades so awesome and different that she felt like she couldn't be too different. And so we want to sing Miriam song tonight. Marian was different each one of us is different and we should feel like we can sing and dance and that the waters should park for us. Thank you for demonstrating and then we should raise up a generation of Debby Friedman's so feel free to rise and to dance?
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To dance and dance
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
I was reminded on the walk over here tonight, and by a few of you tonight, that last year on this night, we were about celebrating and also grieving, you can take a seat if you want. Because last year on this weekend, as we were celebrating pride, we had just learned that Roe versus Wade had been overturned in the Supreme Court. And it is exactly a year later. And in states like Illinois, where abortion is still legal, thank God, we are making it possible for many people who can't get health care that they need in the states in which they live to get it here. What that means is somewhere between 25 and 40% of providers are being you know, providers are providing somewhere between 25% more and 40% more abortions to account for all of the people who have to come from out of state, which means there are that many people who probably can't make it from out of state because they don't have the resources to get here, and are therefore being forced to have children that they didn't want to bring into the world. And it is dangerous. And it's unfair. And it's scary. Let alone, the hundreds of bills in every state across the country, some of which will pass some of which won't. Targeting trans people, trans children 10s, to trans teenagers, their families trying to make life harder, trying to make it harder to get health care or illegal. Trying to make it considered child abuse to actually give your kid the health care they're asking for and want and are working with doctors to try to get trying to pretend these people don't exist, or trying to make them illegal. And the result, of course, is deep emotional distress and depression and sometimes suicide. So as we move into this prayer for healing tonight, on this day, and on this weekend that is full of so much of a sense of joy and a feeling of progress of having moved forward. And thank God for the forward which we have made. For the progress which we have made for the forward we have come and the progress we have made, there is still moving backward. That is actively happening. People are working very hard on trying to move us backward. And so what we can do in this moment is pray. But what we can do and Shabbos is over his work, to try to work equally hard to be an equal opposite force to try to move us forward into a world. Thank you. Yeah. So I want to ask you now to just close your eyes and think of a person who you know, who needs support, who needs love, who needs care who needs healing. And maybe it's along the lines of what I've just described, and maybe it's somebody who's just feeling a little down a little lonely maybe it's somebody related to maybe it's just somebody you know, send them a prayer, send them a well wish, send them a refresh, lay my healing of body and spirit. There goes the sun
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
the way that the way that we choose to do prayers for healing is we don't just think about them. We actually say names out loud. So I'll ask you if you have somebody you're thinking about tonight, to actually turn to whoever it is that you've already made friends with, to let them know who you're praying for. And allow them to also pray and allow all of us to pray for each other's people. That's what community does take a moment.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
Refresh li ma reflect her nephesh reflects had goof sending healings of body and mind and spirit to every one of those folks. And everyone who wonders whether they will get the care they need the health care they need get the love they need sending a prayer that they in fact can and will
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
we're on page four
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Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
I want to say welcome to everybody again. And being June. We've already covered that it's It's pride month, but it's also the beginning of builder renewal season. And thank you. But that means that if you have not already heard from us, you'll be hearing from us inviting you imploring you inspiring you to once again, recommit if you have been part of the community and you've been a builder to rejoin because it means something to you. And because you benefit from it and you like bringing your friends and sometimes when we do things like this, you pull out your phone just to show people on social media, this is the show like go to. Don't forget to tag us when you do that. And, and if you have not been part of this community, officially, I just want to extend the loving invitation to take that step. And if and when you do, I guarantee you that it won't just be like clicking a button on a website and nothing changes. We will call you we will want to learn more about you, we will try and figure out which small groups to hook you up with so that you can meet people who share interests or life stages or go to a Shabbat dinner. Maybe you'll meet your partner here. I've done like six weddings. I didn't do my own wedding. But I'm one of those people. So So anyway, the month of July, we're spending in kind of a low key way. This is our last service like this for a month and then we'll we'll be back in August again doing this but for the month of July we'll be meeting in wells park for tourists study on Shabbat morning. Without mics just like say Rabbi Steven and some Torah. Yeah. And there'll be some kids programs on those mornings as well. You can check our website for all the various for all the various goings on in July, which is a lot of small groups actually like a lot of small group meetups and Shabbat dinners. And we'd love to we'd love to do with you. All right.
Rabbi Steven Philp
Great. So, before I hand over the mic to Ronan, I wanted to share a short prayer that is in this beautiful, beautiful prayer book the sea door from congregation baits in Cateura, the LGBTQ Synagogue of New York, there was a prayer that we sang for him and on Hanukkah, called the honey scene that talks about the miracles that we experienced in that time. The miracles that we experienced today and this cedar contains a special one for pride. Oh honey seemed bellhop work on the OG of a row. It's valid shorts for all hmil commode. Chest Sita love attentively maintained by Nima ambas. Man Jose, we thank you for the miraculous deliverance for the heroism and for the triumphs and the Battle of our ancestors and other days. And in our time. In the wake of the civil rights movements, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people, people of all backgrounds began to organize for the dignity and justice that all of us are do as human beings on this earth. Those who profane your name claiming that they hate us in the name of God rose up to criminalize us pathologize us, brutalize us and erase us and you and your great mercy stood with us in our time of troubles you fought alongside us vindicated us gave us the courage to stand together to open our eyes and eyes, the world around us to see that the freedom and the right to love belongs to all of your creations. You have given us the strength to witness and to create wonders, to be who we are and to love whom we love, not only in the safety of our homes, but outside in the light of the world, to live as Jews and Jewish adjacent folks in the abrasive community to sanctify our unions and celebrate ourselves before each other and before you. Even my assumable name Hi Tala Rosh Pina, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And in particular, all honey seem a particular miracle blessing that I get to experience is when one of my students becomes my teacher. And this is very true run and go forth, who was one of our amazing exploring Judaism, alumni. And also, if that's like, that's a big deal folks who would like also like, has probably handed you a mocks or a high holidays, or Seedorf Shabbat at some point that you visited us is becoming a phenomenal leader in our community, and a teacher of Torah, deep Torah in their own right. And with that, I'm gonna hand it to you.
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Well, I've already cried in front of Rabbi Steven once before, so let's try not to do it again.
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Shabbat shalom. Happy Pride everyone. Does everyone want to like take a really deep breath with me?
Speaker 5
All right. Cool. All right. So my name is Ronan. And like Rabbi Steven said, if you have been to a high holiday service, or a Saturday morning service in the last couple of years, I have probably greeted you or handed you some kind of prayer book. I'm very thankful to be here. I'm a little bit nervous. So please forgive me. So this week, we read from parsha Cora, to give a quick summary where in the book of Numbers, things have not really been going very well for the Israelites lately. They've been exiled, exiled to the wilderness and denied entrance to the Promised Land, we're told they wander the desert for 40 years as a consequence of their lack of faith. And then on top of all of that, Cora, a Levite, decides to rebel against Moses. You may recall a couple of weeks ago, Moses was complaining to God about how much work it was to be the sole leader of the Israelites. So God said, Pick 70 elders to share your burden with Korok. And like 250. Other people did not like that at all. They did not like that division of power. And they felt like they'd been passed over for these important positions. You've gone too far. They say, all of our community, our holy, every Israelite is holy, why have you raised yourself above us? And being confronted, Moses is said to literally have fallen on his face. And he tells Korok and his followers bring offerings to God the next morning. If you're accepted, then great. Couric was right. Moses was wrong. The Israelites are all equally holy, and Moses will reevaluate the distribution of power and influence in the community. And Moses says, this rebellion is taking things too far. Isn't it enough that you are Levites that you have special duties in the Mishkan? And in our society? Are you trying to make yourselves priests to Moses is reminding Korok here, he is not just an everyday rank and file Israelite being squashed by Moses and Aaron and the elders. He is literally part of the establishment he already has power. That's not enough for Cora. The next day, Moses and Aaron gathered with Cora and his followers at the Mishkan, the spiritual center of the camp, and lo and behold, God's presence shows up. God speaks through Moses to say God is condemning Korok and his followers to death. The ground opens up underneath them and swallows them, their homes and all of their belongings. All in all, about 14,000 people die. In the Talmud, in parrocchia, vote we are told about mock look at the Shem Shem. I am an argument for the sake of heaven. If the purpose of an argument is for the sake of heaven, that is like with the goal of arriving at some kind of truth swear the arguing parties can treat each other with love and respect and friendship. That argument will be remembered as something that we can learn from. What if an argument is based on singular selfish motivation with the goal of hurting others or gaining personal power? It is not for the sake of Heaven. The Talmud literally cites Korok as the example for this type of argument. Now that we have some context and background, what is Korok have to do with pride month? A lot. While I am not going to say in a public forum that they get some transphobes should be swallowed into the earth. I do think their ideas should be Korok to me shows us that some ideas are dangerous. And not every argument is worth listening to. Rabbi Lauren Grable Herman says there can be no debates over dignity. We have a right to say I will not entertain your argument. As Jews, we are told that all people, yes, all people, every single one of us is created in the image of the Divine. That is not up for debate. The exponential increase in transphobic hate speech and legislation over the last three years has prompted me to set some boundaries and question public figures true intentions. When JK Rowling a billionaire with an enormous influence says she is trying to protect lesbians, by excluding trans women from public life, that is not the kind of ally ship I want. When Joe Rogan and Matt Walsh part of the establishment even if they pretend not to be on all of their podcasts, compare the existence of trans people to the oppressive society of The Handmaid's Tale, as a way to say adolescent girls are at risk of being forced into being trans. Maybe they don't have any children's best interests at heart. In that vein, I've been thinking a lot lately about the concept of what we owe to each other. This was originally posed by the philosopher Tim Scanlon in a book of the same name that came out in 1998. I genuinely can't find out how popular the book was when it first came out, partially because I was about two years old and could not read yet. But the TV show The Good Place definitely gave it a bit of a bump in popularity, I'm gonna spoil a little bit of the good place now. It started airing in 2016, and it ended three years ago, please do not get mad at me. In the first season, there's an episode where the concept of what we owe to each other is introduced. GT the anxious philosophy professor who died from his own does indecision gives a copy of Scotland's book to Eleanor, as a way to try and teach her how to be a better person. Without giving away the show's ending. Eleanor finishes reading the book at the very end of the final season, after the main characters have not only worked to improve themselves as individuals, but come together to save humanity and reform the afterlife system because they feel it is their moral duty. The idea behind the book is the philosophical and ethical theory of contractual ism, which in a nutshell says we should fulfill our moral duties to one another, by creating and living by moral rules that no one person can reasonably reject. As part of a community, it's my duty, my moral duty to look out for other members of that community. As a queer and trans person of relative privilege. It is a moral imperative for me to lift up and support my queer and trans siblings, especially those who live in states or countries where they are under attack. Unlike Korra, denying privilege in favor of gaining power, I can and should acknowledge my position and use that privilege for good. I grew up in Virginia, and when I came out as queer and trans in high school in the mid 2010s, I felt relatively pretty safe actually, we had a Democratic governor who was not perfect, but who ran partially and one partially on his support of gay marriage. My parents were and still are represented in the state legislature by a trans woman Danica Roem, I was able to get my name legally changed without a whole lot of hassle and for about 40 bucks. It's pretty easy. If I was a teenager in Virginia today, I would not feel safe in my home state, I would not come out until I could safely leave my home state. In the most recent legislative session, 12 bills were introduced, they would ban trans youth from accessing gender affirming care. They would require teachers to tell parents if a child begins to identify as anything other than their biological sex assigned at birth. They banned trans children and youth from participating in sports, particularly trans girls. They banned schools from using children's preferred names. And most egregiously, they banned the use of the words abuse and neglect when referring to children whose parents will not allow them to transition. These laws, no matter the reasoning behind them, are not and will not ever be for the sake of heaven. It is our duty to stand up to the people writing these bills. To say this debate over dignity has no place in our society. The reason I keep coming back to what we owe to each other is because it seems so simple. I owe it to trans children to use my voice and whatever privilege I have to protect them. I owe it to myself to exist joyfully, and to make it known that my existence is not up for debate. Our existence is not in my head the sham Shamaya it is a truth to be realized. Trans people are not Bigfoot. We have always been here we will always be here. Trans people will outlive transphobia just as the Israelites outlived Cora May every law that places a trans person a trans child in danger be swallowed into the earth like Korok and his followers leaving nothing but our joy our resistance and our beautiful resilience behind Thank you
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
turn to page five and sanctify the end of the sermon with with this prayer this song by Bhatia Levine we rise every day got a snap though
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spirits
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all children
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Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
ancestors around us
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Rabbi Steven Philp
in home and
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with tears and with courage
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fighting for life we're
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