Morning Minyan with Rabbi Lizzi — Dayenu! Transcending the Sanitized Story

Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan.  You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

https://www.mishkanchicago.org/series/morning-minyan-spring-2024/

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

Transcript

Transcript

As I went down in the river to pray studying about that good old way and who shall follow Rose's path Oh Lord, show me the way Oh brothers let's go down let's go down come on down brothers let's go down down in the river too?

Yay All right who doesn't want to get up and dance now. Good morning everybody. Oh, there goes my pick.

Good morning.

Good morning Good morning. Nice to see everyone Volker toe people I want to invite us you know what I'll pull the screen down for a moment I want to invite us in feel like that was very energizing. I was energized by that. Go ahead and take a few breaths here. of energy, Banjo energy to hallelujah energy hallelujah energy, which just means praise This was actually where I wanted to begin this morning. Take a few breaths, deep in your belly. Let those breaths elongate your spine and let your shoulders relax. whatever position you happen to be in. Someone wrote to me last week and said, I'm listening to you from the train, just like you, just like you said, you know that sometimes we're listening to you from the train. And maybe nobody, maybe you think like, people are gonna look at you funny. When you sit up a little straighter, breathe deeper, close your eyes. And then I said, I promise you, nobody cares. Nobody's watching you. And she wrote, she was like, You're right. Nobody cares. Nobody's watching me. So whether you're alone at home, or whether you are in a crowded place, remember that you get to claim your own space here. And you know what, even if there is somebody who out of the corner of their eye, who's noticing your posture, get a little more ally, and watching you become a little more relaxed. Maybe you will inspire them. Right, maybe you will inspire them, maybe, maybe seeing you adjust your posture is just the reminder, they needed that they can also adjust to their own internal or external, you know, emotional or physical posture. And that is what we are here to do in the morning. And that is what Jewish ritual is, you know, he's sort of taking the raw material of us and our life. And then through words, through motions, through values, through texts, through holidays, trying to help us arrive at new ways of seeing things, new perspectives. And gosh, Passover is a big one, a big one but so is Jewish prayer every single morning, every single morning. And so we arrived here no matter how, how we got here, how we got to this morning this moment, and try to bring ourselves to a point of moda mme mme awareness. And just breathe in awareness of your body. Any places that might still feel tension or hurt? Go ahead and roll your neck, your head, relax your shoulders. And then ashtray and baru blessing and joy. And finally, of course, hallelujah. And our friends from nephesh mountain brought us on that whole journey to Hallelujah. And so I wanted to pick up from hallelujah, that's where I wanted to pick up. Because Ha, somebody just asked me here, do I have the fan running? Or the AC? The original sound is picking it up? No. So I wonder actually, if there's somebody who has their like, who is unmuted themselves, who isn't me? I'm not hearing it. Okay, all right. I wanted to look at a different text of gratitude. Oh, it's better now. Very good. I wanted to look at a text a different text of gratitude this morning, that we will all be staring at on Monday night. And that is Diana. And so I want to first show you I want to I want to do with a tune. That's different tune from when you may be familiar with. But the reason to share this tune is because it actually makes use of the entire poem, which is longer than the usual. Isla hertziana Maybe it's Ryan Luna timeline. Oh, it's a tour de Loup, like nuts on Lana went to Shabbat de Dayenu. That's the song that I sang growing up in the song that I feel like is most done at Seders. There are other tunes. And some of them are far less happy clappy because as it turns out, this piece of text, well thanking God for bringing us out of Egypt and giving us Torah and giving us Shabbos also recounts the hard parts, the things that were gruesome and unglamorous. And not altogether good. And I wanted to look at this together. I'll read it out loud. And I want to I want to sort of harvest reactions, because we'll see if maybe singing with a different tune this year, or maybe just, you know, for yourself to have this as a recording feels meaningful this year. So here's how Dayenu actually goes the whole thing. Allah had come over karma. Tova Khufu, la Mikkel fell at Lemak. Chromolaena each one of these good things would have been enough to earn our things Dayenu colon Scholtz Yanomami meats rhyme, the ASABE ahem Shiva team, the Asad Elohim. Diana. The harangue at Birmingham vanetta and Lando, at Malmo, Nam Dayenu. The Carolina ATM, a very new bit to hoe, the Hava bahawa. The Sheikah Cirino bit oho Dayenu. I'll start at the beginning here. God took us out of Egypt, punish the oppressors humiliated their gods exposing their futility to you know, God killed their firstborn. When the Egyptians refused to release Israel, God's firstborn and gave us some of the Egyptians wealth, just compensation for our labor. There you can hear and see how the author here is editorializing a little bit Dayenu God divided the Red Sea for us bringing us across on dry land, well drowning our pursuers in the sea, Diana. The sea parrots are a phenol. The midbar are by him Shana. They're Filipino. At Tarman God supplied our needs for 40 years in the desert feeding us mana. The Nutan la new atta Shabbat, the caravan leaf NIRC nive and Atlanta Torah. God granted us the Sabbath and brought us to Mount Sinai to receive Torah. The Heasley celerity Surah Al verbonden Allah new at beta Biffi era, the repair out of Otieno God ushered us into Eretz Israel, and later built us a temple, the chosen place to atone for our crimes and misdemeanors Dayenu. How does how does this change the experience or the idea of day to day New Day Diana? Yay, Diana, we would have been enough for us. You brought us out of Egypt and you gave us the tour and Shabbat Dana, we're so happy. Thank you. How does this change that particular ritual that we're all going to be doing on Monday night?

Thinking about a lot like in a more context, which is that you know, I think among liberal progressive Jews, there has been a real effort to kind of sanitized in some ways parts of what we what we're seeing in what we learn to make it you know, not as as vengeful. And the problem is that that I think, as we're seeing right now, it leads us to not understand in some ways parts of our own tradition and really grapple with them right really grapple with this right, but also not understand. But Jews who seems so crazy, like the more fun sorry, um, let me think of a better way of saying that the the more fundamentalist Jews who are actually really reading the text

note who know the texts are reading the text and taking it literally. Yeah, exactly.

Like, this speaks volumes, hmm.

I'm just gonna read what Susanna said here, this seems to have us as Rabbi B'nai Lappi puts it own our shit takes him the whole story. When else

and thinking about how that effort to sanitize our, our, our totally tax than our tradition, like it also sort of feels feels like it feeds into internalized anti semitism and the need to be the perfect victim. And how that sort of can feel like a very self protective stance in the immediate aftermath of trauma, and thinking about how the Haggadah was kind of put together sort of, at a very tenuous time in Jewish history as well there, you know, after the Bar Kokhba revolt, and then into the Middle Ages, things were not so great for the Jews. And that like by denying these excerpts of text, we are also sort of like denying ourselves the fullness of our own trauma response, which then in turn makes healing from that trauma kind of impossible, because like, you can't tend to a wound that you don't acknowledge exists. Yeah.

I have a friend, who I just talked to you for the first time in a long time, although you've heard me saying her name during our healing prayer. I met her when we did our gap year in Israel in 1999, and 2000. And so she's my age and she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. And I asked her, What from the Passover story. She's starting chemo next week. And I asked her what from the Passover story feels like, it might be helpful, spiritually for her right now. You know. And she thought for a second. One thing she said is something I've heard Elon bank, say, here in this space, which is, you know, the Jewish people, often the narrative we tell is one of persecution and oppression, pain and suffering. However, if we are here to tell the story, it is because our ancestors also had incredible resilience, creativity, and strength. And so rather than focusing on the parts of the story that are about our victimhood and our oppression, I need to focus on the parts that are about our creativity and faith. You know, not every Israelite believed they would get out of Egypt. And so some of them didn't leave. I don't know if we know this part of the story. But actually, like in the Torah, it says that the Israelites left humble sheme, which it's not clear what that means. Exactly. So sometimes it's translated as laden, like laden with the the goods that the Egyptians had given them in reparations, to sort of like settle accounts so that they wouldn't be angry. But Humble Shem also was related to the word Hamish. And so some Rabbi say, no, no, 1/5 of the Israelites in Egypt actually left 1/5 That's it, the rest of them didn't believe. They didn't believe they'd get out. And they spend, they stayed. And they went the way of the Egyptians. You know, it was really just a fraction. And so it's, it's from that 1/5 that we are descended, you know, that tradition of strength, creativity, faith, believing in the impossible, or in the highly improbable. So she said, but that's hard, because like, you know, just by default, I feel like I am actually like those people. I'm not the one with the vape I'm the one who kind of like, de wants to hedge my bets, you know, I don't want to get too excited about this treatment, what if it doesn't work? You know. And so, one option, based off of my having just come from the bench Academy, and watching the kids, we baked matzah. So, you know, Nathan started the timer, they added the flour, they added the water to the, to the candidate into little things, they took a little fork made the little things in it and stuck it in the oven and took it out within 18 minutes. And then the kids took their first bite of matzah, you know, like actual just flour and water from the oven, you know, without time to bake. And they were like, black, this is disgusting, you. And I said to her freedom doesn't necessarily feel good, or taste good. You know, like we make it tastes good now. But I think you know, this process you're about to go through, it's gonna hurt. And it's gonna be uncomfortable and hard. But you got to believe that it's for your benefit and for freedom for you and for your body. You know, and so, like, I wouldn't wish this for anyone. But it's like, like Diana here says, our, our, our Freedom doesn't come without the dark side, the hard side. And obviously, God wouldn't be amazing and wonderful. If the world could just be all flowers and sunshine all the time for everyone. Yeah, of course. But that isn't the world we live in. And so, you know, I, I agree with everything that you've said here, you know, that there's something so important about acknowledging the truth and reality of all of the parts of our story. So, I'm going to sing, I'm going to sing this for you. And and by the way, all of the parts of our story that have really painful and hard implications for other people in their story, right, someone else's Dayenu is going to sound really different from ours. This is ours. So feel free to sing along with me from your seats if you want. And here's what I'll say actually. This is a this is an important opportunity and a beautiful opportunity to use this as a healing prayer to that somebody might go from meets regime into openness into freedom. To release from addiction, from pain from suffering from loneliness so if you've got people that you're thinking of go ahead and share their names

karma Mahalo tovo llama calm Elaine. E Lu hotsy. Mimi to the LA Sava ham shipper team.

I'm going to change the key that's a horrible key for the morning for me woof woof let's fix that oh, that's gonna be better.

Calm mama Hello tovo llama comme la you know, in Lou Holtz Z do me miss him the last time Sava ham Chifa team together dying in New Hampshire fit below XIV Hello Hey ham dying oh he was The End Hello Hey ham below I gotta hurry day in Prague at the hood a long timeline who had my day dying when not

dying come to love llama calm malling wear tie you know heavier no butter dyeing heavier on Omaha loves Chica sorry no Beto dying dying dying dying dying well I'm gonna go into the next page. Emu not timeline. Let's hash SHA bat. care by nuleaf nanhai RC nine dying with a caravan nuleaf Neha RC nine below na timeline Tata aura dyeing timeline who worked hard to know his Nissan arity sobre el de day to me son will add see Sarah who loves Hira dying calm mama calm Ali dying dying dying dying dying dying DIE DIE

revoir Schlemmer that every single person in your heart this morning you're thinking about in your life who needs to be released and needs to be given a sense of enoughness they know reflashed lemme

I guess going to very efficiently do our basic biblical so you have to fulfill the saying of the Shema and then we'll do Cadiz Chateau mourners Kaddish and then I have a little bit of a little bit of learning for me but like we just did a little bit of learning but I brought another thing if anybody wants to stick around for another five or 10 minutes. Thank you. Yeah, I believe that that tune is Sephardic. I learned it from Hillel T gay, the Hassan at E car in Los Angeles. And and Korean answer to your question I've recorded it on a not good recorded probably as good as the recording here from minyan. And I could try and find Hillels I feel like his is out there somewhere when e car produced their CDs that had this on it, I think it was pre Spotify. So I haven't seen their music on Spotify, but I will I will look for it because it's just it's so it's just like so spot on, isn't it? It's like the right it's the right feeling for the piece of text. All right, let's just our posture to whatever it is that's gonna let you take a deep breath in and connect with the oneness of the universe. The oneness and connectedness of yourself to all beings past present and future in that beautiful mystery we call God and oneness

Shema eastren Don't die I don't mean don't know why.

Yes

there are Haftar eight I don't know.

The whole love huh? Hola Shakira, home Melda the high you had very him her ALA. Share. I know he mitzvah ha ha Yom I love other. Vichy Nanta I'm the Vanessa de Barta bomb, but shift to have a Jaffa who will lead us to have a Dara Shaka with cometa. Short term the Alia Dafa. The higher literature for Veneta who Kitab Cha Zuzo tassa vicia Raha and you shall Allah with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind. And these words, which we speak together today shall be on your heart. repeat them to your children, when you speak of them. When you sit at home and when you walk along the way when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign in your hand and they will shall be symbols between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gay

how, just thinking this morning about the the symbolism of the Mezuzah on your gate, of course, in light of Passover, which is the holiday when we remember the Angel of Death passing over the houses where there was a mark of sheep's blood painted on the doorposts of your house. And there's something very, like weird and McCobb about that, to think like that Mezuzah is a callback to that moment. But God also how powerful to think every time you walk into a home, you could be a force for healing for being the angel of life. Wouldn't that be amazing? You know, and so that would that's what we do. Now you see them as those of you kiss it, you know? It's like taking that love into your heart and walk into the house. Let us be let us be that force of love. All right. We are going to go into Khadija tome because it is 830 Here my have the time flies when we're singing DIE YOU KNOW

WHO ARE WE remembering this morning

I'm remembering my mother Muriel corn left

anyone else? Here's your finale Raha Glen Are you interested in leading us in Khadija tome this morning?

You'd get all the Kadesh ma Raba the Ahmadi brothers who were taking the unbelief mouth lotay That is on of your megaphone of a failure to filebeat Israel, by the law of his mind carry the Maru. Amen. Your haste may rob them of a roughly along the Lummi on Maya. You tuberosity east of the harbor, Utah Romain Vina say betta dar Rita Leia, Vitola, Shamir Dooku shoppers let ala mean called beer flattop is sure to spell sativa and F atma tadami. Ron B Ahmadi Maru I mean, your haste llama Raba means Shamaya the Athena Lena they'll call your star LD Maru. Amin was said Shalom be more of who you are says Shalom. Elena via Call us right l they'll call your straighted LD Maru on the main

he's ihana Libra ha he's her name Libra ha yeah. And I guess for the sake of ending on a high note

E Lu hotsy hotsy annual Z annual Mimi Thrive mode Z. I mean, it's right. You die da, di di, di di, di Di. Di Di, di, di di, di di Di Di die no die. Have a great rest of your week everyone. Thank you so much.