Shavuot & Rabbi Deena Send-Off

On Friday, May 26th, Mishkan Chicago wished Rabbi Deena a fond farewell as she embarks on her journey to New York City where she will serve B’nai Jeshurun as Director of Family Life and Learning. We are proud to present this lightly abbreviated audio version of the entire service. If you’re looking for any song or moment in particular, check the timecodes below.

Timecodes:
[00:00] — Intro
[02:40 ]— Welcome from R’Lizzi
[04:25] — Shalom Aleichem (Welcome, Angels!)
[07:11] — Min Hameitzar
[12:12] — R’Lizzi on Shavuot
[15:40] — Yaaleh VeYavo
[19:26] — R’Lizzi on transitions and God’s plans
[22:54] — Halleluyah
[24:52] — Announcements! Summer plans
[26:42] — R’Lizzi says goodbye
[30:56] — R’Steven says goodbye
[34:00] — R’Deena’s farewell sermon
[49:14] — Crowded Table
[52:54] — Bar’chu
[55:06] — Veahavta
[57:10] — Hashkiveinu
[01:02:15] — Closing remarks
[01:03:02] — Oseh Shalom

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

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

Transcript

Transcript

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guys

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good shot Shabbos everybody

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Chavez Welcome to Mishcon at North center Town Square.

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Welcome. I feel like this is a reunion, it's it's been so fun to walk around and say hello to so many people who I haven't seen in a very long time or in person in a very long time.

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It is also the holiday of shuffle vote, which we'll say a little bit more about later. Which means that Camelot Shabbat is a little bit different tonight. So we're gonna sing the the beginning of the service is not the same beginning of the service as it usually is on a Friday night. And also, we're holding a lot, not just Shabbat and not just Shavuos also saying goodbye to Rabbi Deena tonight.

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The microphone doesn't seem to like that.

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Maybe it doesn't like the FedEx truck.

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So it's a lot to be holding. And it helps that the weather is absolutely gorgeous and we have popsicles.

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So, we're gonna begin by welcoming in Shabbos and welcoming in the angels who are all of you and all of the angels surrounding us. Is there anybody who is here at Mishkan tonight for the first time, raise your hand?

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Welcome, welcome. Welcome, welcome. We're so happy you're here. What a great first time to join us.

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I'll invite you to take out the little sheet that went around earlier the little two sheets that has all of the words of all of the songs and prayers we'll be doing tonight.

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We'll begin with Shalom LFM

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blessing the angels among us and around us.

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Shiloh

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Bala hey hi Shari.

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Early on

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my

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god

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About

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a

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day

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funny

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day

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shine

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Hey

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let's move right into Minami.

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You can repeat after

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me and Nate's Saqqara T

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ah.

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Mean Hi mates

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man

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Nike Joe

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good

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Day

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Mae Saqqara.

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Nike

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Go

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Down

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key

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you a man

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night

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so we thought instead of doing a traditional Cadillac Shabbat, we would put in some songs that have something to do with the holiday of Shavuos.

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So the holiday of Shabbos, of course, celebrates recreates the moment that the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai, I imagine it looked and felt kind of like this. Honestly.

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This morning and minion we read chapter 19 of Exodus and we read how Moses went up the mountain and God came down the mountain.

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And the mountain was on fire and smoking and quaking. And God is speaking from within a cloud and God says, set boundaries for the people, so they don't come near me, and then says, Tell the people to come closer. And then Moses says, but you just told me to set boundaries. And God's like, all right, and the people are terrified. And from within all the commotion and discomfort and uncertainty and even fear suddenly emanates a voice.

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If you're sitting near somebody leaned to them and say what you imagine, God said, with God's voice in the tone of voice God used.

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One is God's voice.

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Don't be snarky. I know you're being snarky over there.

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And God says,

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I know.

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I'm here God says, I know he had an iOS I'm here I'm the Lord your God, followed by nine more commandments, making a total of 10 starter pack. The rest of the 603 are in the chapters that follow. You sort of have to wonder that what really happened at Sinai, did that voice reveal the commandments the way they're written in the Torah, you know, that we have in our hands today to God reveal, maybe like all the religions all at once, and the story that we tell the Torah is just our version of it,

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to God maybe reveal something timeless and eternal, something much more like a feeling or just an awareness

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of God's presence more than any kind of specific instruction.

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We'll never know. We'll never know. But Shavuos is here to remind us that Matan Torah the giving of Torah didn't just happen once a couple 1000 years ago at a mountain in the desert.

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It happens every time we open ourselves to new learning. Every time we open ourselves to feeling moved, and that learning by the way, like Sinai might be fraught with commotion, discomfort, uncertainty, and even fear.

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Annoyingly, learning is often like that.

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Right as Dr. Brene Brown puts it, when we find ourselves surrounded by chaos, discomfort, uncertainty, pain, sadness and fear.

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It might be an AF go you know what an AF go is another effing growth opportunity.

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In other words, Sinai assign a moment which means that if we can stay with the presence of all of it, and ask in every moment where is the torah in this for me? That moment is Sinai

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could be right now.

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So, as we go into yeah Alafia Vo This is a plea that we be seen heard noted all the way back to our ancestors

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that God do that for us and that we show up with our full presence as well for the learning that we need to do. Whatever Torah might mean for us this year.

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You can sort of do a little repeat after the first few words.

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Yeah.

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They are.

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They are gi Bagheera a Rothesay that ye SHA ma HIPAA K.

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E

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pico Naina si

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je vais EBO je

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ne ne

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ne Thank you

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big

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believers

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name is

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Ben daddy

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yeah

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Aggie

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he's

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zero Naina Vigo Naina ibeji

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be

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mushy

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hey hi gi

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era

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that he shall get back a day he's

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been gone as well a busy

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Oh

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thinking about all of the lines of connection that we've us together. I'm thinking about how about 25 years ago, there was a young rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary, who took an internship at a flagship synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York called Vinay gesture in

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which is what many of the best and brightest rabbinical students do and they, they go there and she learned and grew as a rabbi and then she moved far away to the opposite code.

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was and created a community in Los Angeles a few years later called E car, which would become a launching pad in a similar way for other young rabbis to train there. And about 10 years after that, a young Rabbi on the West Coast, took an internship and a fellowship at Carr and learned there and grew, and then moved far away to the Midwest. And a few years later started a community called Mishkan.

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And Mishcon would also become a place where young rabbis would come and learn and grow and spread their wings. And for those of you who haven't heard, if you have been living under a rock,

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Rabbi Deena is going to be spreading her wings, and flying back to New York, to be rabbi and director of family life have been a gesture in that very place. That very flagship synagogue and the birthplace of so much creativity and innovation and on the modern American Jewish scene, we are so proud of you.

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In a few moments, we will really, really pause to reflect on the blessing of Rabbi Deena is time here. But before we do, there is a psalm that asks us to consider the magnificence of God's plans.

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How you know, when you're going through them, it is often hard to see God at work. And then you stand back and marvel at all of the lines of connection and possibility

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that are made manifest sometimes we get a glimpse of the poetry and the beauty and the pieces fitting together. And to just kind of Marvel for a moment how but for BJ e car would not exist and but for each car, Mishcon wouldn't exist. And but for the last three years at Mishcon, you might not be going to this place of so much creativity that has made so many of our stories possible.

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And also, if you had not been here all of us would be the poorer for not having shared so much of your Torah and the deep relationships that you have brought here.

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So I want to take a moment to appreciate first of all, God's plans at work

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and how the unexpected twists and turns of life can turn into an invitation to behold those mysterious plans and I want to say hallelujah, for that

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and for all of you right now wherever you might be sitting in the midst of a plan that you can see or maybe one that you can't

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take a moment and think if there is a way to step back and marvel

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at something that has brought you here

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to this moment

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here under this sunshine with this community on this night

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to take a step back and say hallelujah

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we sing

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we're at the bottom of the page saying my god Lou

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my gun

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my

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god

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hey

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machete

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man

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my

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god lose

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much

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so in welcoming you back, just to say this is our plan for June

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Excellent, let's hope the weather makes it as beautiful every Friday night that we're outside as this moment is now, for the month of June, we're doing Shabbat mornings on the, you know, Shabbat, mornings and Shabbat evenings on the same schedule. As usual, if you're not on our calendar, don't get our emails, go to the back table there, there's a little QR code, and you can get on our email list and find out about what we do. And when we do it, we would love to see you. And also the end of June is when we start inviting our builders our members to rejoin it is one of the very quirky features of our beloved database show cloud that every year we recommit. And so I just want to invite everybody, when you get the email about it, just do it. You'll feel good. And Ron and Amy will feel good, and everybody will feel good. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, because you have not yet joined our community, think about it. This is a wonderful place. And you're being part of it makes this possible. And so just to shout out our staff, I can't see all of them. But Zack and Anna, and Nathan and Eli and Seth, and like all of these various people. And where is Ashley? There she is, and Rachel Cortes over here and of course Rabbi Deena and Rabbi Steven over here and they're actually full 15 full time staff people another 15 or so part time and the part time like our Shabbat coordinators, Jordan and Nick and Jordan and your which is just to say all of this takes human power to make happen. And so thank you for all of you who helped make that happen by being builders in our community.

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We love you.

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Okay,

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so

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I got the pleasure of being present for Rabbi Deena is last morning minion this past Friday, where we spent about half an hour after the minion ended, saying goodbyes, and people shared about Dina's impact on their life. And just so you understand minion is half an hour and for the past two years, Rabbi Deena has been doing half an hour, once a week. And in that space, the amount of inspiration and connection was just

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inspiring. Was, was magnificent. I just listened and felt for a half an hour as people said things like,

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Rabbi Deena, I'll miss your strong and gentle voice. I'll miss the music and high level teaching you always do in this space. Rabbi Deena, thank you 10,000 times for guiding me through my conversion process, and toward my own capacity to claim life again.

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Rabbi Deena,

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you are always so warm and supportive and enthusiastic and encouraging.

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And for those of you who have not yet gone to the back table there and written a little card, you can do that tonight. There's also a Kudo board. And if you have not seen the Kudo board, there's still time to write on it, it's online. And you'll also see what others have written. And they wrote things like you bring a calm and grounded presence to so many situations that have would have otherwise been scary and anxious.

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And if this sounds familiar to you, maybe it's because you had a similar experience.

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So just over three years ago, Mishcon posted our first ever job posting for a rabbi, because up until then, we had had this fellowship running with the Jewish emergent network. And we had this whole process with seven other shows around the country of placing rabbis for a two year fellowship. And so we were looking for someone with a deep soul, a towering intellect. Someone who came with a strong Jewish text chops and who could hold their own in a class or service, someone who loved and wanted to work with our growing community of families,

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and B'nai Mitzvah students, and who brought a sense of humor and lightness to the role. And out of the 80 candidates that applied, you were the only person we wanted.

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And somehow you manage to convey all of that through zoom exclusively because by March 2020, we could not fly her here for an interview.

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And

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you have brought depth and wisdom and moral courage. And I have asked you sir Ale, a love of Judaism and a love of people to absolutely every interaction you have had here and it has not been easy.

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The entire first year of work as a rabbi was virtual no one trains for that in rabbinical school.

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And yet,

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your warmth and intelligence and creativity shined through the screen as it has shined in person for the past two years. Whether doing an online Harry Potter as a sacred text class for teens or a virtual exercise class, or giving a stirring high holiday or Shabbat sermon, whether it

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was in mourning minion or teaching adults, Hasidic texts or Jeremiah, whether put guiding our conversion class or teaching dozens and dozens of our B'nai Mitzvah kids in our key lobby mitzvah program or supporting the parents of babies or teens, you have brought your entire self to absolutely everything you have done here, and it has been transformative.

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It was over a year before many of you actually got to meet Deena in person and discover that her entire self is actually probably a foot taller than you are.

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So, on behalf of our board, our staff and the whole community, we will miss you and Ben, a gesture in New York City is very lucky to have you.

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Yes, Rabbi Steven has a couple words to

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Rabbi Deena

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for those of you don't know, actually, Deena and I started at rabbinical school at the same time. So we met during our orientation week, so many years ago now, not knowing where our paths would lead, and

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you go to school, a lot of people and you just you kind of assume that you will all go off into the world and your paths might cross every now and then. And what a blessing it's been to actually get to walk our paths side by side, for a few years now.

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We've all received an incredible blessing from you. In that you both show up with your incredible strengths and talents. And they are many, as Rabbi Lizzi mentioned, thrashing and teaching and your incredible Hologic knowledge and your ability to read Hebrew and ln Torah on the fly. I don't know if you know this, every time that Rabbi Deena has read Torah, in front of all of you, on Shabbat has been because somebody was supposed to read the Torah portion, and did not show we still love you. But

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that's an incredible skill. Like, that's an incredible skill, but more so I think

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the blessing that bringing your whole and best self inspires us to be our best selves is also the blessing of you bring your vulnerable self as well, your ability to quite literally sometimes get on the ground with our little ones, and see them eye to eye, you're your ability to show parts of yourself that are raw and vulnerable, or still in progress, like playing guitar, in front of all of us for the holidays, which also allows us to bring ourselves that are also raw, or vulnerable, or growing edges and reminding us that God is perfect, but may not perfect. And that is very okay, and a blessing in itself. And so, I want to invite us actually, just for a moment, if you want to like take your hands and hold them up towards towards Rabbi Deena feels karmic. Karmic. Because you've asked people to do this at weddings, and bar mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs. It's true.

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And I want you to channel blessing

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for Rabbi Deena to be feeling a thought, a hope, a dream, a wish.

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Dean, I hope you carry these blessings with you wherever you go.

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And wherever you are, and whomever you're with.

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I hope that you feel loved and celebrated and uplifted

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in your whole being

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both your growing edges and your vulnerabilities and your incredible talents, all of you. Because all of you is a blessing to us.

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So I thought about maybe playing because I'm leaving on a jet plane. But that song was too hard for my guitar skills. Still. Since that, I'm going to just tell you something else. What you might not know about me, my mom and Bobby excluded is that I am extremely stubborn.

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I'm a Taurus for those of you who are going to now nod like yes, yes.

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I have almost always, I think been extremely stubborn.

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I've gotten better. But sometimes I enjoy pushing back on things just because I can for example, in rabbinical school, we were supposed to go to prayers to shotcrete in the morning to minha in the afternoon in the winter to Maariv when it was dark enough. And I did not consider communal prayer. One of my spiritual technology

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Use of choice, so I wouldn't go. And then I would get called out by my dean who said, Why don't you at least come to minha? On the days you're at school and you're just sitting in the lounge 12 feet away.

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So I went to minha. But I would not pray because I'm too stubborn to acquiesce like that. So what did I do? Instead, I sat in the back, and I played Words with Friends with my mom on my phone.

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This too, is torah.

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So of communal prayer is not where I find my connection to God. Where is it?

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The first time that I felt God incredibly close and present to me was the first time that I did a wedding in 2017. For some friends, it was also the thing that made me decide I was interested in congregational work, and not the kind of international justice work I thought I would do. I stood under the Hapo with two friends of mine, and I watched them face each other and I invited the Shanina God's presence to come and witness them, uniting their souls as one married couple, and then it happened. And I had a huge power trip, and I felt God's presence with me.

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I felt God's presence and a few other times, the first time that I joined to have recognition in preparing a body for burial, washing and saying Psalms and prayers over the body.

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But the times that I felt God the most with me, we're in the Beit Midrash at school, the Beit Midrash, the Hall of study, where we sit in front of a table, and we each have our text on the table in front of us and we bend over the text towards each other. And when we do that we are recreating the most sacred image in Judaism. we're recreating the image of the crew Veeam, the two cherubs but don't picture what you think cherubs look like, because they look different in the Torah, sitting together over the ark, with their wings facing each other like this, and their faces facing each other like this. And it says at the end of the book of Exodus, that when that work was finished, God's presence came to sit between them, that the two crew Vehm facing each other with their arms and their wings. outspread created a throne for God's presence to come join them.

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And they sat on top of the two tablets of stone that Moshe got on Mount Sinai, that we recreate on many arcs with the images of the 10 commandments. But they also contained the broken tablets,

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that these two crew veem, which provided a throne for the literal manifest presence of God, we're facing each other over the version that Moshe broke in anger and the version that the people held on to.

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And that image is what we create when we study together.

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So to those of you who have joined me in doing that, and sitting together over a text, and leaning towards each other on a zoom screen,

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holding what has been broken in the world, and also what we have intentionally taken on together, thank you for helping me welcome God's presence into my life, the last three years.

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There are other ways that I feel connected to God, like in the marathon,

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when I turned the corner at mile 20, in a very poor moment in my own mental state at that marathon, and I saw you, Barb and Sarah.

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And I started tearing up.

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That movement, that choice that I had made to do something hard all of a sudden I was not alone in it. You who I had mostly met virtually had shown up for me in person.

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The Israelites in showing up to Mount Sinai, as Rabbi Lizzi said, they were invited to get close, but not too close, but close enough but not too close. And they had to do this dance of moving towards and away and towards and away. And that exact movement was what allowed them to be in God's presence. So those of you who have shown up for me to cheer for me,

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who she showed up to do reps with the rugby with me, which is among the more bizarre things I did in my three years at Mishkan. And this is coming from someone who's been walking around with a sloth on her arm for three years.

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Thank you

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for doing that dance at the base of the mountain with me for looking at the thing that we are trying to do and saying we're good here together.

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And the most amazing thing for this incredibly stubborn Taurus, who spent all this time in rabbinical school thinking she knew what was up for herself.

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have

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is that one of the things that attracted me to Vijay was their strong culture of communal prayer and music.

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That I have learned to love this, not because of me, but because of you that it is so joyful to be on the stage with the davening team.

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To be facing all of you,

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to watch you dance, to watch you picnic,

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and welcome yourselves into the space.

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That sacredness is found when we put the brokenness and the wholeness together. That is the lesson that I think shovel out teaches us.

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The Torah says that at the moment of revelation, God wanted all of the people really close, and the people got close. And then they kind of were like, it's too much I can't handle it. The Torah says that the people saw the sounds and they heard the colors. They had an experience of synesthesia. And they said, We can't do it, Moshe, we need you to go do it for us. And Moshe was like, Okay, I will.

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That the people were there for revelation, and they needed a guide, thank you for letting me be that guide for you.

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Thank you for showing up at the base of this little teeny, tiny mountain.

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Thank you for moving with me for bending towards me, for allowing me to be that guide for you for coming to me with the things that are going wrong in your life big and small, and for coming to me with the things that are going right in your life. Little and big

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for allowing me to stand under your HIPAA with you

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for allowing me to be there as you welcomed babies into your family. And as you said goodbye to your friends and family and loved ones.

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For going on walks with me when your teenagers are hard.

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And when your relationships are falling apart.

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And when you're having a crisis of faith and when you need help finding a therapist. And also when you realize that when your kid asks you about God, you don't have a great answer.

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All of that has allowed me to find and feel God present in my own life. And just like the Torah says that all of the people stood at Sinai and they heard what they needed to hear in their own way

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that they heard the broken and the whole together.

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Thank you for being broken and hold with me.

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It's really scary to do thank you is because you're so worried you're gonna forget someone. So I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you. And thank you to all of the families who invited me to your baby namings, who let your kids jump on me at Rise and shine. Truly, it's a joy.

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Thank you to those children who welcomed schlumpy into your lives with love.

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Don't worry, shleppers cousin is going to be coming in from out of town soon with Rachel Milan and he's excited to meet you. She's excited to meet you they slippy is going to New York with me.

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Thank you to those of you who have learned with me, individually and in groups who allowed me to create series of classes and to try things out to teach a little bit on sobriety and Judaism and finding difficulty in

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Judaism and connecting to prayer and two, we call the age coded class.

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Anyone okay for learning the age Kodesh with me whatever cute thing we called it and for learning Jeremiah with me and the spiritual power of fetching and so many other things.

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It was so amazing to see you all put your hands towards me because it feels like I have been doing that for so long. And I have felt so met in that moment

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that I reached out my hands to you and you grasp me and welcomed me in.

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And I really feel like

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while we will not be sitting together over tables virtually or in person anymore. You will have always been a part of my raising and training as a rabbi part of my table of people.

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And of course, I couldn't say thank you without saying thank you to the incredible staff of Mishkan who

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allowed me to be a completely different version of myself. When we did a staff goodbye on Tuesday, many staff said that they loved working with me because I was game and down for anything and ready to flex with the moment and this Taurus was like really

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amazing.

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You have made this experience fun and funny and showing up to work fun and funny and you have handled all sorts of things with joy and lightness and creativity.

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and it is truly an honor to have worked with all of you.

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And, of course, to my rabbis,

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to my co Slavs

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thank you for being my teachers for welcoming me and listening to me and teaching me for covering for me when I needed it and trusting me to cover for you when you needed it.

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To my thing to

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it has truly been an honor to be a rabbi with you. And that has been

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one of the saving graces on the days where I thought I didn't know how to do it anymore, that you were there doing it with me.

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And so Lizzi

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Thank you for trusting that this person you've never met in person

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was someone you could welcome into the thing you had built.

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And for trusting me to hold the people that you love with love.

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And to lift them up from lifting me up for letting me lift you a little

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I'm carrying a lot with me as I leave not just a sloth

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The thing about shovel vote is that

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it happened. And then the people woke up the next morning.

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And they had to pack up camp and schlep onwards. And they thought in that moment that they were not that far from the land of Israel, because they weren't.

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And then they fell a little on their way. And they took 40 years to get where they were going. And even when they got there, the work wasn't done and the work is still not done.

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So it's really hard to have this moment that feels like goodbye and then say what next.

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And when I did my first chaplains a unit, one of the lessons I learned was that saying goodbye and pretending it's not goodbye helps no one.

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I feel for those Israelites who woke up the morning after showboat

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with a little bit of a spiritual hangover.

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Not knowing what was going to come next.

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So I could end by saying this isn't really goodbye, I'll see you I'll be back. But I don't know if that's true. And I don't want to make false promises. And I don't want to create expectations that are not something I can live up to.

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Experiences and

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so what I will say instead

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is that you treated me like I belonged.

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And it was an absolute honor to help you belong here

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that you made me feel like I could take on the world

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that I could take on you and Judaism and God when I needed to and I wasn't doing it alone. And that I could be broken and whole and full of commandments and ideas and ideals.

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And that will always stay with me.

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And of course, thank you to my family

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who saw me through this and everything else and who knew when I gave my Hebrew school valedictorian speech in high school, that someday I could be a rabbi, though it would take me another 10 plus years to make the same decision.

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I hope that you all know that I am on your side even if I am not here. And I hope that you all have people on your side who are as much on your side as my family has been on mine.

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Shabbat Shalom Hexam

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Can we get a standing ovation for Rabbi Deena right now?

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told me I was playing guitar in this moment.

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This was requested by Rabbi Deena a good one from high holidays. If you're still standing, turn the page to page two. Join us

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you can hold my hand when you need to let go.

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I can be round 10 When you're feeling fairly low.

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I can be

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showing you the way home you can home

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where you need to let go

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On a house with a

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table and a place

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for every

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navel and bring us back together when the day

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if we want a guy

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we're gonna have to sow the seeds

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and a little happy

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leather boots right

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love that we that

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we re everyone's

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gonna have to so

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well

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as

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everyone's a little bro can and everyone belongs

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with the

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table and place by the fire

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together

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what a house

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we face ease

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by

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now

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you can take a seat as you'll see we've abridged some of my ribs some of the evening service. So we're just going to collect ourselves be seated. Go ahead and close your eyes

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feel the wind on your face feel the temperature changing. Hear the sounds all around you the sounds of children and cars.

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Your own heart beating your own breath

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as we connect to the connectedness of all of the what was is and will be

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who we were who we are and who we are becoming

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connected to everyone around us. You can close your eyes you can close or cover your eyes even as we go into the shimmer

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shimmer.

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Bla

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Sending refreshed lay man every one of them every one of you

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turn to the top of three

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Hashkee

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there

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passkey named

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Dana

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gray rain

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spread the shelter, spread shelter and ERPs

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guide us with

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compassion and drive

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Hashkee

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save us save

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for the sake of Your Name shield us from a threat and sorrow and pain

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invite you to stand as we move into

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beginning to round out toward the end of our service

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anybody want to do the calls for my actually Louisa

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Hey Lauren

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All right

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we repeat

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their high shave

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shave?

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Bye

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bla

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can be seated

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I don't want this service to end but there's nothing that comes after Cadiz Chateau mourners Kaddish

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but for a closing song

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the next service we're doing out here so we're on June 3 in our office which is just yonder a couple of blocks and then on June 9 We'll be back out here and we're doing a builder dinner afterward at

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Don Pedro I'm Mexican place right over there

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and we we invite you if you haven't signed up to sign up and if you're like wait but is it just for builders well then great time to join because then we'll all have dinner together next week.

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Let's sing ourselves out I want to invite you to stand and we will pray for world peace. Oh say Shalom be

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my name

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name

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is

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Day.

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Guys

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Good?

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Day

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Good Shabbos

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