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 July 27th session fell on Tisha B'Av, so Rabbi Lizzi took some time to make space for people to grieve the latest tragedy to befall Israel — the ongoing judicial coup and democratic crisis.
****
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
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 July 27th session fell on Tisha B'Av, so Rabbi Lizzi took some time to make space for people to grieve the latest tragedy to befall Israel — the ongoing judicial coup and democratic crisis.
****
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
All right, well, good morning. For those of you who were here last week at this time, you'll remember that I started with playing guitar during moda at knee beautiful tune and then like three quarters of the way through playing that prayer and doing it with music and you know, sort of the usual way that I began morning minyan on Thursday, I realized that we were in the nine days, the nine days being the first nine days of the month of, of the Hebrew month of Av. And the traditional custom during the nine days is not to listen to or play music or do joyful things. Sort of, you know, it's like an on ramp into this day to Shabbat up the night of up today is the ninth day of the nine days, we were like on day two of the nine days last week. And those of you who were here saw me kind of wrestle out loud with like, ah, but I love playing guitar, and like the world needs more music, but also, it's the nine days and like, we're actually supposed to adjust our posture during these nine days. To allow for mourning, to allow for the space of not distracting ourselves from grief, sadness, disappointment, but but actually going there. And so much of you know, so much of music is like being in a different headspace. And so I put down the guitar and I said, you know, what I'm in a long term relationship with, with God, and with this community. And for this week, I can actually experiment with being in a different, you know, a different relationship, putting down the guitar, which for me is kind of it is a very different way of interacting with Judaism and interacting with you. Anyway, today is T Shabaab, which for for anybody who didn't grow up in a Jewish summer camp where this was done, or didn't grow up in a traditional synagogue, where you would have done this, this is like an unknown holiday to many Jewish people. Because it's like, not during the school year, and, you know, unless you're like going on a, you know, like, unless you're looking for it, you're not going to bump into this holiday. And it has particular resonance this year. And I think it's a really important counterpoint on the Jewish calendar, to so much of the joy and the buoyancy that our tradition has brought to a world that is broken, you know, so much of our response to a world that is broken and disappointing. Is, is joy, and is figuring out how to make the best of things singing in the face of sadness, you know, dancing in the face of disappointment. Not today. Not today. On this one day of the calendar, you know, and the nine days leading up and then, you know, sort of the three weeks leading into those nine days, if you're really if you're really wanting to kind of mark time on the calendar, intentionally. This day is for recognizing loss and not denying it. It's, and it's for looking back and saying why it literally Ha ha, which means how why and not pointing the finger elsewhere. As Rabbi Alan Liu writes in his book that starts with this chapter, it's a high holiday book that begins with Tisha AB is the beginning of the high holiday season. You know, it would be very easy to say, Oh, the Romans Oh, the Babylonians. Oh, there's other people outside of us that hurt us and oppressed us. That's why we're suffering. When he says no, that's not how the Jewish tradition. That's not how the Jewish tradition looks at the Jewish story. We always have to look back at ourselves and ask, how did we contribute? How did I contribute to what I'm going through now. So there are some practices we lean into on this day. Many of them are quite similar to young people, we're not eating or drinking. I'm not wearing like fancy clothes, leather shoes, you know, that kind of thing. Refraining from sexual relationships, relations. You know, now putting on fancy lotions, basically, like doing things that take you out of that sense of sadness, and rather leaning into it. And, you know, unlike Yogi Porter, where I think the fast and all of those practices are very cleansing like it's uplifting it's you know, it is part of the Atonement process at The end of which you feel buoyant, you know, and then like you can go into this year and do anything and like chuva is possible to have a being, you know, transformation. We're gonna get there. But this fast has a very different quality. And, and I almost I almost feel like the the fast part of this, there's, I don't know if it's if it's punitive, but because the the holiday really is asking us to look at ourselves in a critical way. It's less of a hopeful fast and, and more of a more of a way of doing what we call sometimes like sacred theatre, but sacred theatre, that gets us to a place of sadness and suffering, that helps us identify with suffering. And so makes us suffer a little bit, maybe a lot, certainly not to the point where you're in any danger. Nobody should ever put themselves in danger to, you know, observe a Jewish holiday. But I'll just read to you from this is the rabbinical assemblies, see your party Shaba Ave. So soon, we're going to read from limitations. And in this, this is just an intro to the book of limitations. Limitations appears to be a book with a clear sense of itself. It's very well organized, each chapter has 22 verses, except for the third chapter, which has double that and there's like a sort of an on ramp in where you know, it's sad, and then an on ramp out where it's hopeful again, but all of the all of the verses are organized alphabetically. Says under the surface limitations is actually filled with contradictions, inconsistencies and confusion, the same feelings we have, when we mourn the death of a loved one, the same feelings we have on tea Shabbat, have a closer examination of Aicha. The book of Lamentations shows anything but unity is destruction, a fair punishment for what the people have done. On the one hand, it very much is, and this is a line from limitations you'll see. Of what shall a living man complain, each one of his own sins, the guilt of my poor people exceeded the iniquity of Sodom. Ha ha puts the blame where it belongs on the nation of Israel, which has sinned beyond description. Jerusalem and her people have gotten what they deserved for their disobedience and their disloyalty to God. On the other hand, though, and these are other verses, the Lord has laid waste without pity all the inhabitants of Jacob, God has raised his anger against fair Judas strongholds. The Lord has acted like an enemy. See God and behold, to whom you have done this, alas, women are eating newborn babies, why have you forgotten us and forsaken us for all this time? Very graphic. very troubling. While the people may have sinned grievously, this response says, the author may have gone beyond what is in fact proper from a loving, caring God, should we not cry out to God to see us in our affliction? The author offers contradictory messages. There is an appeal to God Remember us, oh, Lord, what has befallen us to see our disgrace. And yet we are also told, it is good to wait patiently till rescue comes from God. What we sense is contradiction and confusion, the very feelings we would expect from someone who has just seen and been part of the destruction of a place they love. Under the surface, a sigh reflects the shock, depression and disorientation that the destruction of Jerusalem must have posed. So I'll leave that there right now. And we're gonna go into the beginning of our service, the customer has to not do even Jewish things that are joyful today, you know, so for those of you who are on when I was, I was admonishing somebody in the most loving way, we don't actually wear Attalus in the morning, on Tisha AB, or put on to fill in, because those are like, loving, connecting, uplifting, joyful ways of being in relationship with God and like part of part of the spiritual technology today is a little bit of alienation, the even from our, even from our Jewishness.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
We don't like sing the prayers with all of our voice and you know, amazing harmony and music. It's more subdued. would, I'm not going to do like all the davening we usually do, it's going to be pretty bare bones. And then we'll transition into a phi. And I want to thank Sarah Weinberg for helping with some of the chanting. And we'll read a lot of it in English as well. We won't read all of it. And then just to see, like Jewish tradition encompasses the fullness of the human experience. And this is like the nadir, the bottom, you know, this is in some ways like hitting rock bottom as a people, which forces us to ask ourselves, what do we want to do differently so that we can live the lives we want to live so that we can create the world we want to create, which is the work of the next seven weeks leading into high holidays, right seven weeks from now will be Russia. Okay, so I want to invite everybody to sit up a little bit straighter if you're able or if you're lying down to just lie and close your eyes. Relax your shoulders. Last night at our observance we did at on che Hemet red Mimi Michelson did a teaching on you know the idea of having an address but not necessarily having a home and explored what home really means to each one of us. And she asked a bunch of questions. So you know, just here listening breathing Think for a moment of all of the different addresses you have lived at that you can think of like going back as far as you can go back different addresses
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
you don't have to write them down or anything. But the question is, how many of them were home which one of those places really were home
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
what gives you a sense of being at home the most important feeling I need to have at home is fill in the blank the most important feeling I want to have out in the world is
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
I feel at home in someone else's home when I feel or see fill in the blank
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
I feel I feel uncomfortable in someone else's home if I feel or see
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
I can't live somewhere that doesn't have fill in the blank
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
three things you can only do at home are
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
what does my body need to feel? Safe?
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
What does my soul need
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
she reminded us that when children are playing, they are fully inside of the game. You know, they inhabit the universe that they're playing inside of and then you know, when it ends, they step back outside of that universe and you know live in the real world. Teesha but OB is asking us to step inside of a feeling. And that feeling is to imagine that all of the answers to those questions are things that your your soul in your body needs to feel safe that your home allows and makes possible. Imagining that all of that disintegrates is destroyed. You lose it is taken away and living for a day. Now that truthfully by the end of the day, we're sort of already beginning to look for the few Get your butt but in this moment last night and into the end this morning really living with the discomfort of that vision imagining all of all of the things that you just imagined and identify it as important to feel safe and whole and cared for disappearing which is incredibly uncomfortable and so in the space of that discomfort we enter into morning prayer I'll share my screen
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
wanted to do a different opening this morning I don't know if we've ever done this before but it felt appropriate
Speaker 2
IV me Scott Ed nang ha Dark Evil me sky knees bad I see him that kinda hey hold the VA add me SCON as name the hi ha ha dark it over me Scott. These banks seem their card holder Oh time is costly. At ha que le co creative flow at Nachi Yeah, he da Lynette hair tie me that Ca me as a SHA que da. Record of en aakhri creepy even though ad nah, she has she
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
in my heart I will build a little Mishkan a sacred dwelling place. A place of divine splendor and on its altar rays of glory. As an eternal light. I will take with me the fire that saved Isaac. The miracle of a moment of grace and as a sacrifice in my heart. I offer my soul my one unique soul
Speaker 2
Yeah, he he Shiloh. They're Shailesh Chava they are men or tidy. Yay. Yeah, he SHA lOn. Then say that Chava bear. Amen. Otter ye Yeah. Hey SHA though. Best. They are man or tai chi. Yeah, he Shiloh, Beth Chava Bay, amen. Otter, ie, you need i, i and i i get it. i i i had i
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
that whole psalm, Psalm 122 is considered a psalm for Jerusalem. When there's a lot in the whole song line by line by line that prays for the peace of the city. May there be peace within your ramparts and equanimity in your citadels and something that's a theme of this holiday and really a theme of this whole arc of time between teashop Aven Sukkot is the holiday starts with a citadel Well, you know, with the temple and if you've been to Jerusalem, you've seen the stones. They're big, they're heavy, they're like, immovable, you know, except they were movable. The temple, this incredibly stable structure, you would have thought could have never been destroyed, was in fact destroyed. And wait somebody's unmuting Alright, I'm gonna mute you, Marian. And all of the security that came with that, and all of the, you know, not having to think about it, because, you know, why would you have to think about it, it just is it's, as it turns out, you have to work to preserve the things that keep us safe, whether that's structure or infrastructure, you know, whether that's a building or whether that's, you know, a construct, like democracy. And the holiday cycle ends with Sukkot, this little nothing structure this, you know, blowing in the wind, you know, you can make the walls out of blankets or sheets and the roof is made out of leaves. But the point is what gives us stability and structure is actually inside, not the walls on the outside. So may there be peace in your ramparts and equanimity in your citadels because it's not actually about the ramparts and the citadels. It's about how we create the sense of stability and cohesiveness on the inside that allows us to be strong out in the world All right, if you're able to stand with me, I'm gonna go into part of who I am feel free to answer to my call. I'm facing east
Unknown Speaker
barrier who adds I don't know I
Unknown Speaker
don't I haven't. And I will
Speaker 3
tell them you're over a hotshot Oh say Shalom Google Ray at coal. Mature the article that I read may have referred me moved to Vama Kadesh Mahadesh Mahadesh it's beholden to me and my savory sheets or Hadash mazziotta Irani scaffold rally or row by row ha now you'd say to me Oh, wrote
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
I have read that I have to I know. You love us with an unending love. Hemlock get Dola via Tara hamata. Alina, you heap upon us. Massive amounts of loving kindness and grace of vino melki know that of wherever Tina Chabad who Baja on behalf of your answer our ancestors who trusted and believed in you, but till I'm Dame hookah Hi, I am keen to connect with lambino a view of Rahaman Hamra hemraj him Elena, you taught them, life giving ways of being laws of life, also teach us invite us into that our Father who is compassionate our mother who envelops us like a womb put in our hearts the ability to discern, to learn to know to understand to use our intelligence, our innate wisdom to listen, to teach, to learn, to observe to do to uphold to be an upstander for all of the words of your Torah ahava with love. The hiring native Vittoria to high enlighten our eyes through your Torah, the Beckley Bay Nouba Mitzvah and let our hearts cleave to your meats vote yeah head live Avena we'll have our all your extra Mecca and Let our hearts be united in love in awe and reverence of your name. The lone devotionally olumba EB and then we will never again feel ashamed. Ki the shame code shefa hagadol the handle Robert tough new because we placed full faith in your great name Nagi Lev and nyssma Fabia Shu attacca, we will joyfully await your redemption. The heavy AngelList Shalom in our back and photo aren't, but totally fine, we'll come and meet with large Zeno gatherers from the four corners of the earth. Bring us in uprightness into our land. Key l poll your shoe out that's how Vanover hearts and Michelangelo shown because your main activity is redemption and if it's not it should be and you chose us among all the peoples and all the tongues of the earth, to bring close to us in love and in truth, so that we would be thankful to you so that we would be grateful to you and so that we would unify you in the world with love that ahava
Speaker 3
Baruch atah Adonai have a clarity Emily Israel that I have
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
cover our eyes and close them
Unknown Speaker
Shema I don't know why
Speaker 3
they have to add I don't know how sad the whole Nevada overhaul NAFSA overhaul male Deha the how you had very high pressure on agreements of ha ha Yome Alibaba, Vichy Nan tam the Vanessa de bar to bamboo shift acaba V Tessa we will have to have a Dara will be shocked by her of comesa short term like oh Delia Dhaka value letter followed by an NFL NASA book to halftime Amazon's beta movie Shah Reza.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
worth repeating today, like every day, but especially today because if see Natalina if senseless hatred is what we believe led to the crumbling of our people. So then, senseless love should be the antidote should be the healing. And you shall love with all your heart, with all your soul with all your mind. And these words, which I'm speaking you to do today shall be on your heart, you shall repeat them to your children and speak of them when you sit in your home and you walk along the way when you lie down. And when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be symbol between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Okay, and I'm going to transition now into our reading of limitations. Recognizing we have limited time, so we have to make choices from among our favorite things, well, some of my favorite things, which are all of our different prayers. So we're going to mostly do English because I really, I feel like it's evocative and powerful, but so is the davening. Like so is the the meaning of it, the sounds of a Ha, you will hear it, it has a different trope than the trope you would be used to hearing in, you know, in reading Torah, on Shabbat or even on the High Holidays, where historic trope is, you know, has that kind of has like a major key quality to it a bounciness Eva, as you will hear, has a mournful quality to it. So you can do this in one of one of a few ways. One way is to read on the screen as we're going you know just to see every line the English the Hebrew and really follow closely. Another way to do it would be to close your eyes and just kind of let the feeling wash over you and you'll hear a lot of English you know, if Hebrew was not your first language as I imagined it is not for many of you, and you'll hear English you know, so to be able to just let the sounds wash over you and then you'll hear the parts that give a sense of what it's actually saying. So without further ado, I will share my screen here
Speaker 2
ha ha yeah Schreiber died. Hi era by T Haitao comma na Rabbity bahagia heme sobre Teva MIDI know how you tie them? Last?
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
Alas, lonely sits the city once great with people. She that was great among nations is become like a widow. The princess among states has become a mockery. Bitterly she weeps in the night, her cheeks wet with tears, there is no one to comfort her. All of her friends. All of her allies have betrayed her they have become her foes. Judah has gone into exile because of misery and harsh depression. When she settled among the nations she found no rest. All her pursuers overtook her in the narrow places. Zions roads are in mourning, empty of festival pilgrims. All her gates are deserted her priests sigh her maidens unhappy. She is utterly disconsolate. Her enemies are now the Masters her foes are at ease because the Lord has afflicted her for her many transgressions. Her infants have gone into captivity before the enemy. Gone from fair Zion are all that were her glory. Her leaders were like stags that found no pasture. They could only walk feebly, before the pursuer. All the precious things she had in the days of old Jerusalem recalled in her days of woe and sorrow when her people fell by enemy hands, with none to help her when her enemies looked on and gloated over her downfall. Jerusalem has greatly sinned. Therefore, she has become a mockery. All who admired her despise her, for they have seen her disgraced, and she can only sigh and shrink back. Her uncleanness clings to her skirts, she gave no thought to her future. She has sunk appallingly with no one to comfort her. See, oh Lord, my misery. How the enemy cheers. We're gonna go into chapter two, which also starts the same way. A fan. Alas. God and His wrath has shamed fair Zion, has cast down from heaven to earth the majesty of Israel. He did not remember his footstool on the day of wrath. God has laid waste without pity. All the habitations of Jacob. He has raised in his anger, fair Judas strongholds he has brought low in dishonor the kingdom and its leaders. In blazing anger, he has cut down all the might of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand in the presence of the foe he has ravaged Jacob like a flaming fire consuming on all sides. We're gonna go into chapter three. Let's see here. My eyes are spent with tears. My heart is in tumult, my being melts away over the ruin of my poor people, as babes and sucklings languish in the squares of the city, they keep asking their mothers, where is bread and wine, and they languish like Battle wounded in the squares of the town as their life runs out in their mother's bosoms. What can I take as witness are likened to you? Oh, fair Jerusalem. What can I match with you to console you? Oh, fair, maiden Zion. Your ruin is as vast as the sea who can heal you. Your Sears prophesied to you delusion and folly. They did not expose your iniquity so as to restore your fortunes but prophesied to you Oracle's of delusions and deceptions? All who pass your way clap their hands at you and they hiss and wag their head at fair Jerusalem? Is this the city that was called perfect in beauty? The joy of all the earth. All your enemies, Jarrett, you they hiss and gnash their teeth and cry, we've ruined her. This is the day we hoped for we have lived to see it
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
is there anybody who knows the the unique trope of chapter three, just to be able to hear it a little bit? I only know it's sort of
Unknown Speaker
okay
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
this is the chapter that kind of goes dark and then kind of comes out of that darkness into hopeful kind of tone. I'm the man who is known affliction. Under the rod of God's wrath he drove on and on, in unrelieved darkness. A nun but me he brings down his hand again and again without CES. He has worn away my flesh and skin. He has shattered my bones. He has made me dwell in darkness, like those long dead has walled me in and I can't break out, has weighed me down with chains and when I cry and plead, he shuts out my prayer. You he's broken my teeth on gravel, ground me into dust. My life was bereft of peace I forgot what happiness was. I had thought my strength and hope had perished before the Lord. To recall my distress and my misery was wormwood and poison whenever I thought of them, I was bowed low, but this do I call to mind? Therefore, I have hope. Has day and night kilo Tom No. Key low calorie Rahama the kindness of the Lord has not ended. His mercies are not spent. How to shame the VA Kareem Rebecca and when I tell her they are renewed every morning. Here we are. Ample is Is your grace the Lord is my portion I say with a full heart, therefore, I will have hope. Tov i don't i? The covalent nephesh to Shinto, God is good to those who trust in Him to the one who seeks Him. It is good to wait patiently till rescue comes from God it is good for a person when young to bury yoke to sit alone and be patient when it has been laid upon him. Let him put his mouth in the dust there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to the spider let him be sir fitted with mockery. For the Lord does not reject forever, first afflicts then pardons in his abundant kindness for he does not willfully bring grief or affliction to a person crushing under his feet, all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man his rights in the presence of the Most High to wrong a man and his cause this, this the Lord does not choose
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
All right, getting close to the end of this chapter here. My eyes have brought me grief over all the maidens of my city my foes have snared me like a bird without any cause. They have ended my life in a pit and cast stones at me water flowed over my head. I said, I am lost. I have called on your name, oh Lord, from the depths of the pit. Here my plea Do not shut your ear to my grown my cry you have ever drawn now when I called you you have said Do not fear you have championed to my cause Oh Lord, you have redeemed at my life you have seen oh god the wrong done me. Oh vindicate my right
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
give them oh lord the deserts according to their deed, give them anguish of heart your curse be upon them. Oh pursue in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.
Speaker 2
Ha ha you I'm Zaha. Yeesh ne hacat I'm at tea shop escena I've Nico dash. Roche co Huzzah. Binay et Cie on hire Kareem Hama Sula, e ba pas. And if ah, next shovel, let nev lay Ferres my car die your hood say
Speaker 4
the doll up on but um, he said hi fuqaha Moraga Villa Haleiwa Zach goon is your honey shallow exactly who may have Adam XM evening name sapi Eric he's right. Scotia make sure to aramony Kuru ba Huzzah. Safar or arm is Maha MIYAVI Ah ha ha Tov him how you holiday. Macaulay? Share him he Azubu Madhu Karim mutiny vote sada I'm yeah de na she Mahamaya Bish Lou yell de Han. How you live out Lambo Bechet there but AMI Killa i don't i It's got my toe shafa Corona oppo way it's it h Bezzina Hoen Vatsal ha ha this low hit me no monthly error EDS call Yoshi key votes are ya have Bish ra Shala in May Allah toads Navia Avanos Kohana Pasha Creamback yerba. Siddiqui him that will you remember huzzah Nago? Below you flew you do beautiful Shanghai siru time A ka Rue La ma Subaru Subaru Artega Gouki Nakatsugawa I'm not I'm Aruba going loyal seafood hug or pin a I don't I feel calm low see if the habito pin Adhaan him love NASA. Loose Kenny Ames Ohana Oh Janu see Atlanta ain't a new LS writing new Hava Bitsy PT nude CP new algo I love yo she saw dudes I Dino me lead berhow votes a new Corolla keep saying New my Louis Armando keep I keep saying God Liam hi you wrote failure I mean he Srei SHA mine elaheh Hurry dal Eukanuba amoeba our Udaan Ruaha Paynow Misha Hara and I kneel God usually taught I share Amanu beat slow my going CC verse simply but go home yo Chavez parrots moods got my life to have our covers teach curry but it's every time I've on air but Sirhan loyal see if the hello to Picard have bought the home Gila aparthotel
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
so this is one of the one of the shorter, maybe low. It's one of the shorter books of the Hebrew Bible. It has five chapters. And here we are, sort of toward the end of the fifth chapter. Let's see.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
Sara, do you want to read the last, like from from?
Speaker 4
Just 21 Just scroll down. Just that 21 and 22. All right, great. Okay. Hi, she Vainio Otto and Isla have in us UVA holidays sham Andrew. Okay, good. And key emails, my Stan do cuts after on a new admin. And then if people want if you want to unmute, and we often repeat this last line together, asking to renew us back to our days of old and then the good from the past, as she vedo.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, sir.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
So you can see, I'm glad I read that introduction, before contextualize and kind of a confusion in here, because there are a lot of ideas in this book that you might look at and think, Oh, those aren't Jewish ideas. Like turn the other cheek, you know, just sit in the dust and wallow. And yet, like they're in here, we give voice to that instinct inside of us that when we feel completely decimated. You know, we're bargaining, you know, we're confused. We're in grief. And I think it's some it's this holiday, by the way. It commemorates, or it started off commemorating the destruction of each temple in Jerusalem, the first temple in the Second Temple. This limitations is describing Yasha Kok, Sara, thank you really. Limitations is like, attributed to Jeremiah describing the destruction of the First Temple. But I mean, it describes also very well, what Jerusalem looked like after the destruction of the Second Temple as well. And where Judaism comes from, that we practice today comes from the rubble, so to speak, of the destruction of the Second Temple. That's where rabbi is, you know, kind of walked out of that space and said, Well, I guess we need something that's not going to be based on a physical location in one place. But something that is portable, something that is that you can keep mostly up here and in here, that we can take with us wherever we go, because now we have to go. And they, and they created a narrative around the destruction of the temple that it was our fault. Which, you know, that's rough, because actually, like the Romans came and destroyed the temple, that's what happened. However, as you can see, as a people, we look back and we say, we really screwed this up, because of our transgressions, you know, and, and I feel like in the modern American Jewish context, and this is where I will kind of transition us. Yeah, there, there are some Bear, I'm seeing that there are some who will use this, you know, sort of religious framework for the destruction of the temple and apply it to other tragedies. And by the way, they don't stop with the Shoah that, you know, Hurricane Katrina is because of the sins and iniquities of, you know, etc. So we have to hold in balance, obviously, you know, the instinct to say like, oh, it's our fault with, you know, the actual actual evil and perpetrators that are not us at all. That said, it would also be easy to say it's only their fault. And I have no culpability in my situation, zero. And so this is the holiday when we go to that difficult place of saying, what was our role in this? What was my role in this? And what I was about to say, and this is where I want to transition into more of a conversation is, you know, for the past many decades, 75 years, say, you know, that the nation of Israel has existed this precarious, tiny little country in the Middle East that existed against all odds, you know, first of all, on the heels of 2000 years of exile, and a kind of yearning to return to this land, and you see, like, the Jewish relationship with the land of Israel is what we would call like an indigenous one, like we lived here, we grew up here, we, you know, have history here, we, etc. But like, also, we've lived in other places for 2000 years, and at the very same time, you know, another indigenous people has lived in that land for a long time as well, you know, it's not home to only one people, it never has been opened up the Torah, you can see the Hittites and the parasites and the Jebusites, and the Canaanites, and all of the different peoples that have inhabited that land. It's been a beloved piece of real estate. For as long as the world has existed. It's, you know, kind of the intersection of all three continents and, you know, it's like the heart of the world. It has a very sacred and special place in the Jewish heart, the fact that there was a, you know, we Creek, we, we, with the governments of the world, on the heels of the show on the ashes of the Shoah created a Jewish Sade was miraculous, and the Jewish people rightly have been very protective of this place. And because we're protective of it, when because it's a nation state with a government, the government makes choices that we think are against the best interest of the country. There are those who will speak out. However, the prevailing sort of attitude of the Jewish people I would say institutionally has been no, don't speak out too loudly. It's Shonda for the goyim they shouldn't hear you. It gives fodder to anti Semites who will say those things about us we should not be saying those things. They need our support, they need our love. We aren't in a position to criticize them from the diaspora, who are we to say any of those things, let them work out their problems. Our job is to support and, and here we are in this moment, right now, fast forward 75 years. And we are where we are very right wing, extremist government, sort of a Jewish supremacist Nationalist government has I mean, it's, as you say, they say nationalist, but it's really not in the best interest of the country at all the things that they're doing, are undermining democracy for the express purpose of creating what they you know, will be a sort of Jewish supremacist state, what Israelis, what secular Israelis and many religious Israelis are worried about in this moment, is having rights taken away, you know, like women's rights, LGBTQ rights, Palestinian and Arab rights in the State of Israel, you know, in this place that for as long as it's existed, it has, you know, been the pride of the Jewish people to say like, there's a Jewish democracy in the Middle East. If you ask a Palestinian or an Arab, they might say it's more Jewish than democracy. But in any case, you know, to have at least that structure, and, and not to question it and not to criticize it. And now here, we are suddenly watching Israelis themselves coming out in, you know, by the hundreds and hundreds of 1000s saying, this, this isn't what we want either. And American Jews, we need you to speak up American Jews, where are you? Are you with us? That's what they're yelling. That's what they're asking. I was at a protest outside of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv a couple weeks ago. And that was, I mean, that was the message. It was like, this is the thing, like, sort of, like from from their vantage point, like, We're sorry, if we didn't, you know, we were paying attention to you before, but we are now please pay attention to us. Please care about what's going on here. Please speak up on our behalf and what they mean is criticize our government on our behalf. And we are not well practiced in this as an American Jewish community, because we're told that we need to be quiet, and we need to support and we need to love and now all of a sudden, patriotic Israelis are saying, we need you to criticize and speak up. And I think this is a very confusing and sad time. For Americans. I mean, like, obviously, what's going on in Israel? Like, there's a lot to work out there. I'm not there. You aren't there. We're here. And and so the conversation I really want to have is one of this like this Aicha you know, that comes right out of the language of Asa Aicha how, why what, you know, the confusion. Whatever it is that you might be feeling sitting here, you know, and this isn't an action conversation, this isn't like so what can we do? That's like, that's this afternoon, you know, the end Energy of the morning actually still to be sitting on the floor in a posture of grief. That's kind of the choreography of the day the physical choreography of the day begins like still not wearing a Tallis now putting onto film and sitting on the ground. So whether or not you're sitting on the ground I am in fact sitting on a chair. But that's but that's sort of where we are. So I want to invite you not to be in problem solving mode, as we so often are, with anything that's hard. Or like what needs to happen is although I welcome in the minion channel we have we have a Slack channel if you want to drop me an email to get into the minion channel often we like pick up on conversations we start here with follow up there. So I want to open it up to just share like a Ha, how how are you doing? And I think we'll probably talk for you know, 1520 minutes I'm gonna I'm going to pause the recording now. And I welcome your comments let's close out with a prayer for world peace. You know, for unity for love, for love to win Yeah.
Speaker 2
Oh say Shalom beam row man. Who Yes, a shadow mele new. There we go. Yes. yisro v uncle yo che che Val them Rue ya say Shalom yah say Shalom. Shiloh Moline or Alko you throw away yeah session awesome. Yes. Hey, Shadow. Shadow money. No of alcohol you throw away. Yeah, as a shadow. Oh, um, yeah, I say Shadow. Shadow money. No. Alko you throw away. Yeah, say Shalom. Yeah, see Shalom. SHA domani. Know of alkyl you throw away. Ya say Shalom. Guy has a shadow. Shadow money new. The alkyl. He's throwing the alkyl Yoshi Tae van, the Vemma rule. And me.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
All right. Thanks, everybody for being here. I appreciate you. Yeah, thank you. Oh, yeah. Feel free to thank you. Yeah. As you're signing on mute. Thank you. All right. Hi, everybody.