Minyan Replay with Rabbi Lizzi — Parashat Terumah

New day, same inspiration! Join R'Lizzi every Wednesday for music, thought-provoking conversation, and insights into this week's Torah portion.

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https://www.mishkanchicago.org/series/morning-minyan-summer-fall-2023/

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

Transcript

Transcript

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Let's see. Good morning all of the screens of people who I can't see and all of the screens of people who I can see. And for all the people who I can't see, I trust that you actually are there. Because otherwise why would you be here? Like on a screen that I can't see, but you're here, and I'm so glad you're in your pajamas or your work or you're making breakfast or whatever it is that you're doing. And also here, I'm going to put on my talus here. Baruch atah, Adonai. No, no matter how loud my Cherokee gentleman means, whatever, Witzy vanderley, he heated tape, but seat seat. And if somebody's listening to this, somebody's listening to this later, I just went underneath my little, my little Tallis pretend blanket, little happy space. If anybody needs help buying or finding Attalus, I would be so happy to help you find one. I really, I've really, I've really enjoyed this Tallis over the last many months. I've missed you. Thank you for the thank you for the love note in the chat there. I have missed you. And I'm grateful to be back and I know it's a different day of the week. Now. I hope that'll work out for you. We can chat about it afterwards. Rabbi Steven said to me really been enjoying doing the Thursday morning tour study. And so you know, may little trade not that I won't also be doing Torah when we gather here, but but there will be more music. Alright, so. So let us begin.

Unknown Speaker  
Because this week is powershot

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
Truma. Oh my goodness, wait, I just want to say that there are all these names of people who not all these names, but a handful that are new folks here. And I'm so happy to see you. You know all the new Megan and Ethan and Sapir and then also like the old old, old Hans, Delia and Miriam and Susanna Roberta Morris, Sarah, Leah, Ari. Hi, Ellen. Ricky, Glen. Gayle, Irene, of course. Susan and Merle. Oh, all right. Well, all right, as I was beginning to say this week is Parshat Terumah. And per shot true my actually the first place I was introduced to it does anybody remember I remember reading the graphic novel mouse. Remember and like, and I had no idea what they were talking about the Parsha of Truma like plays a role throughout as, as characters remember significant things happening during this particular parsha. Both for better and worse, and I had no idea and then they spoke like Ashkenazi Hebrew. And it was purchased through my purchase through them. And I had literally no idea as a teenager, what they were talking about. And then of course, I grew up and I became a rabbi, and I named this community Mishkan. And Mishcon means traveling sanctuary. And that, of course, is the traveling sanctuary in which God places God's presence, and it's the Israelites as they wander throughout the desert, and they make gifts and these gifts are called trauma or to remote. And so the Parsha is all about the gifts that we bring to create the space that is our common shared holy space. So now that kind of makes sense for why we both why we named our community this but also why for this opening, tune, sanctuary, oh Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary me to be a sanctuary not to make a sanctuary but to be a sanctuary. Why We then added the Hebrew that was a gospel song that was inspired by this week's Torah portion, but of course, not written in Hebrew, I think written written by a Christian pastor, but then why we added the lines from this week's Torah portion by sulindac Dasha Shanti, Bhutto, ham. Put the words here on the screen. And I will also tell you, I am playing this morning with my loop pedal, which could go a lot of directions. I'm not an expert yet, so we'll see and we'll have fun. We'll begin we'll begin with these words here, and then take them into the words of this week's Torah portion. I want to invite you to set up a little bit three After what can I say if you're lying in your bed or if you're in whatever position you're in at your counter making coffee just to take a moment to be in the most optimized position of, of whatever position you're in. If you're sitting up just a little bit straighter relax your shoulders. Breathe deeply into your belly exhale for lying in your bed just feel yourself melting into your bed all your all your limbs and to breathe and if you're standing up to feel as aligned as you can stand shoulders over hips over knees over feet, relax your shoulders

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moda

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chi beanie smads

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grateful and

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as I said before Are you

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reading speed this saw you gave your great faith me IV grade IB they're asked to

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review

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their BA There they go. Can I ask how is the sound coming through its sound Okay, is it too loud? Is it not loud enough? Give me a thumbs up

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Ricky It's okay.

Speaker 1  
It's good. It's good. Me to be a sanctuary your tried and true and with thanks I'll be a sanctuary for you

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Hey

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hey

Speaker 1  
I hear ya. Ay

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
ay ay.

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Ay ay ay ay ay.

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All right enough

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
All right, it's really nice to be back everybody all right, I'm gonna just read just a tiny bit, just the beginning of this week's Torah portion as a way of framing all of the diving that we'll do. Okay, read along here

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
Hebrew English. You know there are an amo surely more God spoke to Moses and said, tell the Israelite people. V qu Lee trauma. Me It's called Isha Sherry Vetterli Bo T Qu et Srimati tell the Israelite people to bring me gifts. You shall accept gifts from me from every person whose heart is so moved. And these are the gifts that you shall accept from them. Gold and silver and copper and blue and purple and crimson and yarn and linen goats hair and tanned RAM skins and dolphin skins and acacia wood and oil and spices and lapis lazuli and other stones and let them make me a sanctuary. And I will dwell among them. The ASUW li Mikdash for Shanti Bhutto hum So, Rabbi shefa gold says freedom is elusive. When we left Egypt in search of it, we were blocked by the great, impossible sea and then we crossed the sea and fled to the wilderness and we encountered within us, the enslaving attitudes and habits of rebellion and complaint. She's recalling back, of course, to the Israelites who just wind the second they got out of Egypt. We're Thursday, we're hungry. Remember Egypt, they had so much cool stuff back there and the food was better. What did you bring us out here for Moses just to die?

Unknown Speaker  
Is this God? He

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
has a sense of humor. He couldn't just kill us back in Egypt. He had to bring us out here. What are the graves better out here? They were really snarky. Anyway, after we stood at Sinai, and received that moment of clarity, we still fell back into the busy habits of busy mind and cluttered heart. And so God says to us, make for me a holy place that I can dwell inside you. Yes, it is possible to stay connected with me at all times, in all places, even as you engage in the life of the world. When we make a place for God to dwell in our lives, and we will never again be trapped by the illusion of separateness God will be available and accessible to us in the innermost chamber of the heart. And in the innermost dimension of all creation. spiritual practice is about making our lives into a Mishkan a dwelling place for the Divine Presence. I'll read a little bit more, I'll read a little bit more later. But that is what we're doing. Every time we gather together we are creating inside of ourselves, and maybe in the little space where we've designated to be our our Macomb Koivula our special, you know, designated place for prayer a Mishkan inside of ourselves, that we can take wherever we go. So with that, that I feel like gives us framing for why do we have liturgy why we have songs and why we do this day to day so that we train ourselves to become a Mishkan.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
Saw that you have put inside of me God is pure. You've shaped it created it within me. Let me have it as long as as long as I can be of service. One day, it'll go away. But this morning I woke up so thank you, holy one for restoring life to my lifeless body.

Speaker 1  
ello Hain Shama Shan natok Tabby teho arrivee Ello Hi Anna Shamash and Natasha Tabby tickle ello Hi Shama Shanna Tata go ello Hi Shama Shanna terrible

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at Ohio Shyama Tabby

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Chen Naxa Tabby

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borrow Katara and I'm gonna

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
Shabbat with Gary my team Blessed are you who restores life to the lifeless

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
and let's just go straight into if you're able to stand great otherwise maybe just sit up a little straighter

Speaker 2  
by rule shamarpa Hi Yah ha Oh ALLAH. Bless it is the one who spoke and the world came into being blessed. It is the one who knows the power of words. Bless it is the one Who knows that our words can be gifts that we give and receive marucho savory sheets by RW Homerville say verrucas Aram came or wrote Maritima RS Pero mira hammock embryos Beruf Masha Lamsa heartedly Rahab. Barrow highly advocate I'm Lynette soft barrel per day amatsu. baru. Hi highly advocate, I'm Lenexa. I already said that one barrel per day on my to viral Shimo yeah, here hey, how old are meme? One is the life of the universe's man let's miss you back home for either chinwag a doll battle Katana and management hula British back home

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Srei your wash bay

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yeah Holly

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ah Srei

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yo che

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yeah hello

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hello I'm shadow my Aloha

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Woba shampoo

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that Tatiana Hallelujah

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Hallelujah

Speaker 1  
ah Srei your stay there

Speaker 1  
oh yeah they lose oh yeah hello

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
oh my goodness look at the time look at the time all right feeling still feeling the need to to raise the spirit this morning so we'll go into little Hallelu even though technically this is a song that you're not required to stand for. I just feel like it's nice because then you can move and also thank you for posting I read about Jules Harlow he he did absolutely revolutionize the accessibility to liturgy and meaning in the conservative movement and far far beyond thank you for sharing that may his memory be a blessing it is and it will be hallelujah

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my phone oh I skipped shofar

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my

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god honey show

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
praise God in the depths of the universe and in the human heart. Praise her for her power and beauty and for all feeling fathomless love. Praise God with drums and trumpets with guitars and string quartets praise God and the market and the work Ladies with the computer with a loop pedal with hammer and nails, praise God and the bedroom and the kitchen freezer with pots and pans praise her in the temples of the presence praise her in every breath praise God while making coffee and while making love and while making up praise God with your words and with your silence

Speaker 1  
Oh honey Shama je LL

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Cool honey Shama how they

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invite you to stem you haven't already go into very who

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let's turn and face east

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very who at I don't I

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don't I have our eyes now?

Speaker 2  
Bless you my friends for blessing me as we all bless the holy one together. Very ohata Hi, Alina Melaka Olam, yo Tara, Chef Jose Shanna Mowbray attacco Amira Allah is Valera Rima Lai, habra, Halim, of to Van Mahadasha volumes Hamid mas savory sheets, you light up the world and the heavens with kindness every day you renew them, and make them good these works of creation. May a new light shine on Zion, may we be worthy of its lights or huddle, Shotzi on tear in his care who Lana Mahira they will row by row Hi, Donna,

Speaker 1  
your Ser Jaime Oro

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
I want to I have IRA that I have Tanner. If you've got a tireless wrapped around you, I invite you to gather the four corners of your Tsetse together, because we think about all the relationships that hold us in, woven into their fabric. And some of them they're really close to us. Because Henry and my kids were getting into the car this morning, I was like, oh my god, you guys, I love you so much. You know, and it was just like that, because it's very close. And it's very real. And I wake up in the morning and they're right there. And it's a very present love. And it's a very present relationship. But you know, you got friends all over the country, you got people all over the world, you got Jews all over the world, you've got people that Jews are in relationships with and with in conflict with all over the world. And what we want to do is we want to send love, we want to be in relationship in love. And sometimes all of the other nuances and parts you might say the disparate strings of the relationship that really don't necessarily feel like love. Threatened to crowd out or negate the love or make you think that person is not worthy of love, or that relationships not worthy of love. And I just want to bring us back to this prayer that grounds us before we you know affirm the oneness of all things and people without exception, as we go into the Shema, that we are grounded in love in relationship across time and space and across this world. With Jews everywhere, and with all of the relationships in which our people are intertwined, the good ones and the hard ones, and we send love. That's what we do. So I invite you to sit up a little straighter if you want to close your eyes. We'll do this as a chant just this first line. I have I rub I have tiny

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Oh

Speaker 1  
eyeball demo you throw at

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
her and close her eyes for each word of the Shema

Speaker 1  
Shema Israel

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I don't die I don't die yes

Speaker 2  
yeah I have a whole love ha have a whole NAFSA whole Melda the how you who had very my ala share I know he made some ha haYom Alibaba but she Nan tam the Vanna having the bar to bomb this you have to have a beta we will have to have a Dara shabiha of omega will shorten the OTA Alia deca, the how you will later to vote bein a NASA, who could have ta M. Azusa would be Taha will be shy Rihanna.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
You shall love with all your heart with all your soul with all your might. And these words which I'm speaking to you today shall be on your heart. You shall repeat them to your children and speak of them. When you sit in your home when you walk on your way when you lie down. And when you rise up, you shall connect them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be symbols between your eyes, you will write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And really weird dream last night, even as I speak right now, I don't even know where this is going. But we were at some kind of convention in a space that as I walked in, I thought this space used to be a synagogue, like it was not functioning as a synagogue. But it was a it just felt like once upon a time this place was a shawl. And as I was walking into a movie theater in this place, I saw Mrs. On the wall. And I thought it was right. But of course Amissah does not necessarily connote synagogue, it just means Jewish space. Anyway, I wonder if that was a my subconscious beginning to think about Parshat trauma and the making of Jewish space wherever you go, conscious space, holy space, divine space. Because all space of course, is divine space, but the consciousness we bring to it. Well, that sort of determines whether it will or won't be for us. I want to go into me kombucha as a healing prayer, as well as as just going right into going right into a moment or two of quiet space. So thank you, Irene already for having your list ready to go. So many people you're sending love to have a sense of healing and companionship. I want to send a prayer of love and healing to everyone in this Minion. I adore you and love you, and I wish the best for you. And then all the folks that you're thinking of Jeff Tom, and as people begin to write in all of our brothers and sisters, that's right. I'm looking at you know, you're thinking about them to all the families we're still waiting for hostages to be brought home or to know what their fate is going to be for all the soldiers who are fighting for all of the people who are in Rafah who don't know whether they will survive the day for everyone who doesn't have a home anymore because it was burned or bombed. For everyone who is wondering if they will be okay God, let them be okay. And let their families be okay and recover and get the therapy they need to be able to recover from this awful time. Sending love and a prayer to everyone in this Minion and everyone on your lists on your long lists that I will not now read out because there are not too many names. But if as I'm singing you from your seat, I want to read them out so that their names are said so that they call on that little angel to ding their bell, please. I mean, Irene, I'll just read what you wrote here, your family who are serving in the IDF in the southern and northern border. My goodness, Israel's talking about expanding the draft to 17 and 18 year olds made this war and soon I mean, I mean, I'm gonna make

Speaker 1  
me fumble by Lee Maduro Nivea Come on now garba co dash no ROTC he loves Oh safer Nora she shot she get spa Thai I don't naive

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they put a man who died a lot and I told him I I

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i lied and i i

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Hi.

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Flashlight, complete

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
speedy recovery, and just sending prayers for safety and safekeeping. All right. Just take a moment as a homage to the enemy data, have a moment to breathe deeply, come back to your center.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
What I just put on the screen here, this is called a metta practice in the Buddhist tradition, where first you focus on yourself, and you pray that you may feel safe and free from harm, happy and free from suffering. Loved just the way I am, that you should feel strong that you should feel peaceful and full of ease. And then you insert the name of someone you love. And you send them this prayer. Which of course is easy because you love them. But the practice is that you expand the circle wider and wider. Such that you are eventually praying for the very people who you disagree vehemently with who you feel hurt by who you feel harmed by who scare you, which is a very, very hard practice. It's an advanced practice. I wouldn't recommend it because I think it can mess with your head. wouldn't recommend it until you've built the muscle that allows you to expand your sense of connectedness even to the people who need to make chuva you know or as far as you're concerned need to make Juba but we pray for them. Maybe they'll come around. Anyway, this is a good place to start. All right. I want to take us into You can see Chateau mourners Kaddish. Where is it? Hello? Oh, these are the psalms for the day. Go back and do the psalm for the day after Kaddish but I'm conscious that it's 835 And who is it that we're remembering this morning Lawrence ADA Feldman's my mother. Yes, Admiral. Euro corn was my mother.

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Yes Glenn Schumann

Speaker 3  
my grandmother tomorrow I'm not sure it'd be here tomorrow. Okay to ask

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
anyone else we're remembering this morning Okay, is there anybody who'd like to lead us in Scottish

Speaker 3  
nobody else's I can lead. Thanks me. Your skirt doll yes Kadar shimmy rubber. Jamar de Rocky was say the unbelief Mark who say okay you're calm of your Macron. UK the call basis for L but I go along with his man curry via Maru. Amen Yeah, he me Rabat Morocco the alarm or me on Maya yes rock we used to bark we use for obvious so obvious now say visa DA is Hello This allows to medical Shah repu the a la Macabeo cassava Shiraz to spur cassava NACA masa that Iran beyond ma B M ru Amen. Yeah. Hey Shlomo, Robert mentioned Maya for Hyeme Elena we are call you sir l VM ru AMI or say Shalom demre mov boo yah says Shalom. Elena if y'all call you sir LVR call Yoshi Tavia who M ru min min

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
min his or her anomaly Rahami their memories be blessings. And also just sending love to to David Gottlieb community member at Mishcon who lost his mom. Two days ago. Her funeral will be today. And he may be joining us in this Minion in days moving forward. They all have their memories be blessings. All right. So let's see. What is the song for Wednesday say? What? This is it literally it's that's funny. This is like you can tell when I was putting this together months and months and months ago. I thought to myself, I'll come back to Wednesday. How Yom Yom reveaI buzz Shabbat, today is Wednesday, the fourth day from the Sabbath Chabot, how you live ie marimba, bass, me Dash. And this is what the living room used to sing in the bass and Mikdash. And then I guess I just didn't include the Psalm. And I don't want to go hunting for it right now. So to be continued, it'll be the same next week as it was this week. So we'll get it next week. Instead, I'll read what Ricky wrote down here. He wrote, it's a great practice to pray for two weeks for the person you are in resentment or struggle with Reiki? Have you done it?

Speaker 4  
You know, I don't know if I was successful.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
You don't know if you're a try.

Speaker 4  
I don't know. Two weeks, but I, you know, like I was having an issue with my sister in law. And you know what, it actually really helped. And I've heard that actually, this. This guy, Father, Ed, was at a retreat. He's a Dominican father, I guess. And that was what he shared. And he really lived by that. And that's it, man. It's not a it's not an easy thing to do. But it definitely it ends up you know, if you think about all the things you want for yourself, like just exactly what you said in that reading. And that prayer. I have helped me they have helped me I have peace, they have peace and getting away in doing it. It actually, it's, it pulls you away from me. The Michigan us so yeah, no. Well

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
on. It's also like the definition of a prayer. No. I feel like sometimes we fall into the trap of wanting our prayers to be too literal and to kind of direct you know, like hitting hitting right on the nose of, you know, strategy, like getting into strategy instead of actually being prayer. You know, prayer is aspirational prayer is as Heschel would say it's revolutionary. It's it's praying for the thing, that's unlikely that's you know, maybe not possible but you pray for that's why it's praying Air, you know, and and when you're done with your prayer with your aspirational, you know devotion, like the creating the utopian world for half an hour in the morning for 40 minutes in the morning, through your words through your, you know, orientation attitude. Okay, so then you walk back out into the world and have to deal with geopolitics and strategy and relationships and sister in laws and you know, the all the all the nitty gritty. And that world might not be quite as utopian as the prayer was, that maybe the prayer gets you a little closer to helping create that or helping see that maybe just a little.

Speaker 3  
And also, obviously, recognize that your person you're struggling with his human like you are. And it just because it seems to me, especially today, it's so divisive that people tend to forget, hey, we're all human. Even though we disagree. You can respectfully disagree.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
And I mean, here let me read the rest of Elon ask the question, Where was I reading from? This is of course from the classic shefa gold Torah texts, Torah journeys, from parsha Truma. I'm gonna read. I'm just gonna read the rest of the blessing, I read the first half of the blessing. Now I'm gonna read the second half of the blessing. So here we go. The purpose of the Mishcon is to send us the space within where we can receive the mystery of the Divine Presence, just as a great poem points us toward a truth that is beyond mere words. So the beauty that shines from the Mishcon of our lives, illuminates the beyond that is within us. The portion of trauma begins with the invitation to explore and discern the true generosity of our hearts. For the Mishcon cannot be built solely out of a sense of duty, obligation or debt. Only the willing and the generous heart can participate in this endeavor. The willing and generous heart is fueled by love and carries the motivation needed for the spiritual practice. Hmm, the willing and generous heart is fueled by love and carries the motivation needed for the spiritual practice. What makes the artists choose one color over another? What inspires the composer to create a song that can open the heart? Where does the sculptor get her vision of the form that lies buried inside of the block of marble? What moves the writer to express the inexpressible, here is the blessing of trauma, when the heart is willing, and there is a commitment to work, when the divine spirit will show us the pattern, the blueprint, the plan, the inspiration that births beauty into the world will be felt. And the beauty is designed to send us back to the source of its inspiration. And so we're just in this kind of positive feedback loop with that source of inspiration, the creating of our own art music, words energy into the world and then that returning to its source, and then us being reinfused with more energy to create more art music love et cetera et cetera all right. I'm gonna close this out with an OC Shalom

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
see, oh, I'm gonna put it up way up here

Unknown Speaker  
Oh say sha Allah say Shalom.

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Me

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set shadow

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there

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann  
all right, I messed up the loop pedal

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ye they call your shade table. Name. All right.