October 7th Anniversary: Choose Life

One year after the October 7th terrorist attack, three hundred Mishkanites convened virtually (with dozens more in-person) to commemorate this painful day, as well as to envision a peaceful future. Thank you to everyone who joined us in this profound, unique moment as we held each other in community.

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/

For High Holiday registration and information on pricing, schedule, venue, and more, head to https://www.mishkanchicago.org/high-holy-days/

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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

0:43  
all right, so friends, there are a couple extras chairs over here, and I didn't hear from that many people. I was like, we'll have 10 people here in person, and then a bunch online. I love that we have so many friends who are with us across the country. If you haven't already shared where you're joining us from this morning. Tell us so that we can know how you know how big this circle of love extends. Welcome to people who are long timers. Welcome to people who are here with this Minion for the very first time. This is the second time we've done this Minion in person. Otherwise, this Minion has been exclusively online since the beginning of the pandemic. And then we have moments when it makes sense to gather in person. The last time was for a buffet for somebody who was in from out of town on a Thursday morning, and then today. And so we're really glad. We're really glad it came this feels really good.

1:41  
Rachel Goldberg, Rabbi, Rachel, are you there?

1:46  
Yeah, I see your prayer hands,

1:48  
but I want to make sure you're actually there.

1:51  
I'm here. Hello. All right, great.

1:59  
We may need to set up a few more chairs, and will is here to help make that happen. But if you don't see him in this room, you can just go behind the little folding thing back there. So what I'll share with you this morning is we really we wanted to have this be a chakra prayer service in which we in which we do what Jews do every day, which is start mornings with gratitude for our lives, with songs with connection, and then we'll kind of leave, we'll leave this day throughout the service, and then at a certain point, actually kind of move in a More focused way. But if you just look at page one of the little prayer sheet you got here, we're going to start with a modami, gratitude for being alive, for being awake this morning. This is a prayer that's on the lips of Jewish person waking up every single day, and this tune is one that Rabbi Rachel Goldberg Set

3:13  
shining through my window across my queer and bright clear and bright, I wake up in the morning, give thanks and laugh again cuz I was strength To rise. Oh

3:38  
god, Me.

4:02  
Me, Each mighty.

4:40  
Ella. This is a different tune for the same prayer that comes from this song in eshka. Thank. You. And sometimes we begin with a modami tune that sounds more like this, a little more mournful, a little more offensive. And so we're going to do them both, and then go like move into in Mishkan line. This sort of expresses the sense of connection that our people in good times and in bad have always felt with the city of Jerusalem and everything it represents for our people and really for all peoples who have a connection with that city. So It sounds like This. Vodani,

6:20  
be See garu Shala,

8:05  
me and His

8:17  
girl shall Go

8:39  
me seem fancy.

8:48  
Over to you, Rachel,

8:57  
it's really good to be with so many people. I like this image whenever we're online, of especially when I'm far away geographically, here in Yerushalayim and all of you, mostly across the US, to kind of imagine, like, imagine a map, and then like, each of us as little lights across that map with like lines of connection beaming all around the world. So it's sort of like we're one big circle. So we have our big circle in the Mishkan office and us here. And this next song we're going to sing is, it's a teaching from Rabbi Nachman of bratzlav. He said, Koha Ulam, Koha Olam, kulo geshermayod, which means the entire world is a very narrow bridge. And then often what's said, which will actually sing, because it's how I know to sing. It is verha. Car, the high car, Lola fare cloud like the main thing is, don't be afraid at all. That's how the song is often sung. But actually, what? What Rabbi Nachman said wasn't Lola Fajr. He said lo Lehi paked, which means it's reflexive, which means don't freak yourself out. So fear is something that can actually be informative. It's part of how we survive and protect ourselves, but don't freak yourself out. And for sure, one of the things that that has proved useful living in Israel over the last year in a war time, and also war aside, just navigating life when, when there are times of crisis, a really important thing to do. When we're on a narrow bridge and we feel like things are closing in on us. Let's not freak ourselves out. Let's take a deep breath. And one of the things that we did here in communities I was involved in leadership, was we would get together and sit in a circle and sing songs to help ourselves calm down and not freak ourselves out. And so this is one that we would sing in the early weeks of the war, when we were meeting in bomb shelters to sing and support each other in not freaking ourselves out. And let's, let's sing it together. Now in the love embrace of community. And it goes to this niguan, which is from

12:01  
yada. Do your best To sing along with Me.

13:00  
I Hear

13:31  
Cool.

13:41  
She

14:14  
Kola,

14:22  
Oh, hello,

14:43  
oh. I.

15:00  
Ha, Lo,

15:14  
SA,

15:20  
lo.

15:36  
We move into Psalm 30, which is kind of a standard morning song, but it's the one. It's the one that ends with the words, you transformed my sackcloth into, you know, into royal garb. You transformed my grief into mourning. Excuse me, my mourning into dancing. M, o, u, r, N, I N, G, and we, this is part of the morning service every single day. But then it's like, on certain days you understand why you know, like some days you're saying it for the person next to you or along with the person next to you, and some days you realize you're saying it for yourself and for your community. And there's a almost like a, I don't know, cruel. Cruel is maybe too harsh a word, but, but maybe like an insensitivity, when somebody is in the midst of grief and you know, somebody thinking they're being helpful says, Don't worry. Like, it won't always be like this. And it's like, well, yeah, I'm not sure, but like, right now I'm feeling sad. Like, let me be sad. Um, however, it's like the, you know, the when, when a person's drowning, you don't jump in the water with them. You hold on to something stable, then you throw them a line, you know. And so I feel like this psalm is that line from the tradition saying like we've been in, we've been in dark, hard places before, and throw you a line our people, you know, our people climb back out. There were lots of different stories of what that looks like, even after absolute abject tragedy, and one, one line that some of my my friends who are active in peace building when I talk to them this summer, you know, and for people for whom a silver lining is always Like, you know, it always helps to think like, what good could possibly come of this awful tragedy? Like, which is it feels like an awful thing to even ask, like, Oh, my God. How? How can you even think in those terms after something so horrendous has happened? But also, how can you not? How could it? How could it just be for nothing? And so when one thing my friend Leah Solomon and I've heard others just remember, is that when Israel and Egypt made peace, when begin who was like a, you know, a right wing Prime Minister made peace with the Egyptian Prime Minister, the majority of the Israeli public was not supportive of peace talks. They did not think it was possible. They did not think they were a receptive partner. They did not think peace was realistic, that it would just be a trick, that it would be, you know, that it would, that it would play out badly for Israel. And they went behind closed doors, had a bunch of long conversations, and arrived at a peace agreement after the Yom Kippur War. So you know what Leia said was like? I just have to hope that if things are going to get this bad, it has to lead to something shifting, like a fundamental transformation. And I don't know what that's going to look like and who's going to lead it, but I just have to hope that that's possible. So

19:39  
I will die,

19:46  
therefore, gain me.

20:30  
Ever Shall

20:39  
battle

20:55  
you're able to stand you're going to Marvel.

21:00  
Invite you to stay up with us. Otherwise, just

21:06  
focus energy, bow and bless call response and we can know it. Can we unmute everybody so that we can hear them too many years? You can all unmute yourselves

21:19  
consensually.

21:24  
So we can all hear each other in this moment of call. Response.

And turn the page over and if you're wearing a tag list, I invite you to grab the four corners of your seat, seats,

22:06  
lovingly gathering in our people,

22:13  
all of our people and all of our fragmentation, and holding us with the ahava with love in one hand,

taking a moment to just sit up a little bit straighter. The prayer that comes right before the Shema is a reminder of the love passed from God to our ancestors, and it says they trusted in you. Help us also feel a sense of trust in you and a knowledge of being loved. And then, if we can really feel that we will never feel shame, because we will always feel grounded and feel connected to you and to one another, we will have a safe place to land, so we just take a moment to breathe in a feeling of being connected and being loved, in a tradition by a higher power, connected to all creatures, all beings as We go into the Shema, A breath for Everyone. Shemale.

24:14  
Ah Vera

24:31  
who left a

Will be. One of the fun things we do in minyan is on different days depending on who's leading, we make our healing prayer, we sort of adapt it and change it depending on the mood. So some days it'll be Mika Mocha, because Mika Mocha is really about having, you know, crossing through a narrow strait from narrowness into expansiveness. And so we want to take this moment now also to recognize folks in our community who are holding a person who needs prayer. And, you know, kind of going from a narrow circle to an expansive place, because we're all, I mean, for a full year, we've been holding in our hearts the awareness of a shrinking number of people who are being held captive in Gaza, Jewish people who, as the calendar has gone On, and also not Jewish people, you know, people from Israel and people from all over the world, frankly, who are just in the wrong place at the very, very wrong time, and praying for them to live, praying for them to stay strong, praying for them, you know. And so we'll do that now. And also anyone who feels unsafe where they live, anyone who doesn't know if they're going to wake up tomorrow morning, anyone who doesn't know if they're going to make it through the night, which includes, at this point, Gazans, folks of West beng, Lebanese people you know connected to this conflict, and then also people who you're thinking about, people in your own life. So before we go into Psalm 122, and then a prayer that people be brought from darkness to light, from narrowness to expansiveness. We do this on behalf of everyone who were really just holding this morning. So yeah, for folks online, go ahead and put names in the chat. And for folks who are here, yeah, Is there anybody You're thinking about? I

Keith Schnabel, Amy Schnabel, Sarah hasidova, Debbie verifica, all the folks in our union every day who show up, Eating, healing, eating, Love.

May I we've been singing this one for Senate. Also in the spirit of a flesh, layman, complete healing and recovery and also a release for Everyone who is bound.

Amen. Spirit and the freedom of body and spirit.

32:37  
All right, Rachel rabbi, Rachel, over to you.

32:53  
I'm asking Hashem right now for help to find the right words of Torah, both the Torah that's written and Torah of our lived journey, of my lived journey, to give each of us a bit of comfort and hope today. So it's it's looking back on the year. Those of you who don't know me, I'm a long time mishkanite And recently ordained rabbi, and I've been living in Jerusalem for the last four years. So I was here on October 7, and I've been here throughout the year and and I have another home, I have another country, but many times throughout this year, it felt important to me to make the choice to stay. I don't know why. Just when I listen in my gut like I can rationalize all kinds of mean reasons, but inside me, I felt like this is this is the choice I'm making to be here, to be with everyone in this land while we're going through this. And I'll share a story of something that happened last week, because, as we all know, for better and for worse, for better, because we're all alive to share in it, and to and to come together and hope and for worse, because the reality is this war is still ongoing. October 7 was the start of a lot of of terror and suffering for for many, both in this region and rippling out throughout but the story I'll share is, is that less than a week ago, last Tuesday night, I I can now say I am a survivor of the largest ballistic missile attack in history. There were about 180 or 200 ballistic missiles sent directly to Israel from Iran and. And and I I was right here, like literally sitting in a corner right there, because here in my apartment, I don't have a shelter, there's like a stairwell, but I would need to, like, go outside and run around the building. And so actually, the safest thing for me to do, if there are sirens and missiles is to come to the most internal wall that's farthest from any windows and and take cover until the sirens and the booms stop. So less than a week ago, I got a text from the national home front that said, take cover and stay there until we text you, it's safe to leave. So I, like, grabbed my bike helmet and came and sat on a cushion in the corner here, I grabbed, like, a water bottle and a bag of chips, because I didn't know how long I'd be sitting there and and then I had the thought that this painting that's behind me, if the wall started shaking, it might fall down and fall on top of me. So I took the painting off the wall and I and I actually, I thought, Oh, this is great. And I set it in front of this table that I'm sitting at, because I thought, even though the windows are very far away, if something happened, glass shattered, this, this painting right here, could also protect me from glass. So then the sirens start, and the explosion sounds start, and I'm just sitting here, like looking at my phone, looking at the live updates, seeing what's unfolding, getting texts from people. Okay, you're inside, you're you're with people, great. And I had a really profound moment, because I was just here by myself in my little fort with this painting, which is a painting that I did a couple of years ago. While I was coming out of a depression, I had just gone through a really profound heartbreak. And and I did this painting. And so this painting, for me, is like the light that comes through the storm and, and I just was like feeling it, and feeling filled with gratitude, like I was remembering the friends I was with the day that I painted this and and thinking what a miracle it is that we can go through personal heartbreak and depression and wars and and like come through it and create art and beauty and light through that and and I just felt like so content and filled with gratitude. And and I'm just sitting here by myself in my bike helmet, like talking to God about how grateful I am. And I had this moment where I thought, like, should I say Schnabel right now? Like it like at like, something I might do liturgically. Should I do the liturgy that a Jewish person does right before they die? And I was like, Don't be dramatic. It's okay. You're going to get through this. This is going to end soon. And so I opened the bag of chips and started eating the chips until, like, my gut said in that moment, like that choice I made in that moment. Half an hour later, the siren stopped and and it passed guru Hashem, all the people I know, Israelis throughout this land, Palestinians throughout this land, all the people I know and and other than one tragic loss in Jericho, a man was was killed from one of the missiles. All 10 million people who had sheltered were were safe and and for me, what's profound is in that moment, I made a choice. I could have acted like I was about to die, but I made a choice that that that's not happening here. That's not what I'm doing. And it was the night before Rosh Hashanah, when we start in all of our liturgy, it's us talking to God, pleading to God, please, please God. Write us in the Book of Life. Write us in the book of life for good and and we even remind God of God's words to us, we say, God, remember you're that God of compassion. El Ram gahanun, like all like you're you're this Good God, like, Please God, just do good for us and and you could get confused in the high holiday liturgy and think that, like, there's something good of there. On one hand, we're reminding ourselves, we're humbling ourselves that that we're not in control, that something beyond us is in control. But if we were only reading that, we might think that it's only beyond us. And I had a moment sitting in my fort with my bike helmet on my chips and this painting blocking glass from any missile explosions that would impact this building that I'm in, I made a choice, and. To live, to be in the to write myself in the book of life. And it's it's profound to me, because in Parshat nifavim, the Torah portion that we read the week, the Shabbat, before Rosh Hashanah every year, there's a verse that says, from the heavens and the earth, I am giving to you. Kaim, the mavet, life and death. Abraha, ukla, the blessing and the curse. And the most profound word is actually like the conjoining, the VAV there the and that presents these things as a package deal. It's not life or death, It's life and death. Are this package deal? Blessing and curse are this package deal? And then the next words that Torah, that God tells us in Parshat nizamim, is uvahar tabafini, choose life. Choose life, knowing that it comes along with death, choose life, knowing that it comes along with blessing and curse, with heartbreak, with coming overcoming heartbreak, with depression, with overcoming depression, with war and with peace that please God, We will see today, tomorrow, we will build together in a way that lasts and sustains. And a lot of that's up to God, and also a lot of that's up to us. And so I want to share from you know, mixion from from here in Jerusalem, just my story of of that moment where I chose life, and all the moments throughout this last year and throughout my life that I've chosen life, knowing all that it comes with as a package deal. And I want to give each of you some strength, some courage to choose life this year to continue to choose life each day, each moment, especially the ones that feel like That curse that comes along with the blessing.

42:21  
Thank you. Rabbi, Rachel, we wanted to take a moment for everyone who's here. How many folks are with us online? Oh, my goodness, there are 200 people online, yeah. What a what a gift. Rabbi, Rachel, you are a gift. Thank you for folks who have not experienced like she leads our Minion on Mondays every week. So if this is your first time in our Minion, we invite you back. We do it Monday through Friday. We have different among us who lead it, lead the minion. We wanted to give all of you an opportunity to do a little bit of what Rachel just did on your own, which is to recognize where over this past year, it has hurt, and also where, where you're choosing life, what it means today, on the yard side, right? This is, this is when you let go of a depth, not to, you know, sever the cord, but to figure out how to integrate the reality of what has happened into life and live, and it's obviously hard because it's ongoing. Rachel just described sitting wearing a bike helmet in her shelter last week, so it's not that this has happened and is over, and the the particular date we have assigned, you know that the date that this began on in the way that it has unfolded, it's now been a year. So what does it mean at this point to choose life to want to give you three or four minutes right now. If you want to pen, you can do it on the back of this sheet here. These questions are down here at the bottom of page two for folks online, and you can see like, where, where has it hurt, or does it still hurt? And what does it mean to choose life?

44:45  
So take a moment.

44:51  
Anybody wants a pen, I'm gonna take one. Thank you.

You hang

On. I Yeah, there's so many beautiful things that people have written. I'm just going to read what Nancy wrote on here. So grateful to you to express how can we choose life in the midst of times when it might be destroyed, even in those moments as we continue to breathe life and God beckon us to preserve so we're going to transition into honoring the memories of all The people who were lost, who were killed. Does that anyone in this room actually, like, know anyone or have a personal relationship with anyone who was killed on October 7 or since? Do you want to share who they were? My cousin. Hi. Your cousin. Hine. Where was he? Barry? So sorry.

49:29  
Anybody online you

49:32  
had a personal relationship with anybody who was killed on October 7, the second family, the more family

49:38  
friends I

49:44  
Eitan

Vivian silver rota. Nussbaum,

Dudi turgeman, a family neighbor from Moshe Nitzan, yeah, I think even if you didn't necessarily know an individual, you probably are one degree of separation from Someone who did Shahar Hirsch, Goldberg, Poland, Sharona, Harel

50:33  
Yeah,

50:43  
so we're going to stand I'm going to light a yard site candle.

50:51  
Yeah, oh,

50:52  
there's somebody online who knew Haim. Yeah, Eliezer Sterling, I also have a connection to Haim. His family were neighbors in pediatric when him and my kids were in elementary school. Yeah,

and just holding as I light this candle here in this room, in a minion of Jewish people, remembering it sounds like mostly Jews family friends who were killed on October 7 or since, and remembering that like now, this circle of grief is Hundreds of 1000s of people, big every single person killed in Gaza or in Lebanon or in the West Bank also has family all over the world who are remembering them. And tal shoham still in captivity. Ricky lipitz, cousin and emmett's family, and Emma, who has friends in Lebanon who are displaced, just just really holding. It's so hard to do this all the time because it's just so much pain to hold. But in this moment, as we light this candle, we can hold it, and we'll say amaleh Rachamim, a prayer that their souls ascend into the firmament and be held among the spirits of the holy and the pure who have gone before them, and that they rest in peace. And if you want to join me, you can, otherwise, you can just listen to me. You

just so folks online can see that we lit a yard site candle here, and Rabbi Stevens just gonna scroll down. These are all faces of people who were saying El Malay or and just a fraction of them. I

53:23  
has Schnabel, the malot kedoshi, mutori, kezohara, Keith,

53:42  
Schnabel,

54:00  
haste rahe masa

54:08  
At nishmata, we

54:12  
are

54:18  
new Shalom. A Mishkan God who is mercy and dwells on high grant a true rest on the wings of the divine presence among the holy and the pure who shine as brightly as the brilliance of the sky to the souls of all who were killed on October 7, and since we have gone to their eternal resting place, may the Garden of Eden be their final resting place. And we ask you to forever guard them under the shelter of Your wings and. And bind their memories up in the bonds of life. You Hashem, are their eternal heritage, and may they rest in peace, and may their souls be at peace. And we can all say, amazing.

55:28  
Is there anyone whose name we're adding to say Kaddish, as we say Kadish? Atone Elliot, Mayor,

55:40  
Jason, anyone online? Okay, yes, lots of people online who were remembering this morning, mothers, siblings, fathers, children, you

56:20  
Keith Schnabel,

56:25  
is there anyone online who would like to lead us in Kadisha at Home in Warner's Kaddish?

56:37  
I can hear that.

56:41  
Thank you.

56:48  
All right, may all of their memories be blessings. Do

56:50  
you want to bring up the thing so that she can see it?

One second, we'll give you the text,

57:05  
me Rabbi Lizzi Yama, who say the alithma, who say

57:20  
the Emre AMei. Amen, amen. Yahei, Schnabel, Rabbi, alum or may or Maya, yes, Barak weishtabach, we are made. Rabbi,

57:56  
amen Shamaya, buchaim, Eleni, vial, yes, rail be in Rue, amen, amen, shalom. Bimro, Mav, who ya? I said Shalom. Elena via call Yes. Rail via call your Schnabel V in Rue, amen, amen. You

58:23  
I thank you Irene. Thank you Irene, and we'll close out now with another

58:33  
line from Psalm 122, praying for

58:40  
praying for peace, Niki, shalom, shafab, al minotai,

58:46  
may there be peace in your ramparts and shalom in your in an equanimity in your citadels, and may one day we not need ramparts and citadels, May we one day actually experience a peace born of partnership and mutuality and dignity and in which all have the sense of safety of shalom and shavan, the takes away the need to take it away for or perpetrate violence on anyone else. May we live in a May we live in a world where that maybe soon a rabbi a Manu, even today,

We're so grateful to all of you for being here. This was a very special way to do this, from what I've seen in my email, you can spend the rest of the day being on October 7 webinars and commemorations and analyzes, and you can do that if you want. And I'm also so grateful that we have a prayer space here that allows us to do something that I think is a very unique thing in this world and in the city. And I'm very grateful to all of you for holding this community together and for all 197 screens that were with us. 211 My goodness, we're gonna close out with with this batta levy tune at the bottom. And folks can feel free to feel free as you're saying goodbye, as you're closing out says you're saying goodbye to you know, unmute before you before you leave, just to say goodbye after we're done with this,

1:02:58  
we rise. Eyes, humbly, heart and

1:03:10  
rise won't be divided

1:03:16  
with Spirit to guide us.

1:03:29  
Eyes in hope in prayer,

1:03:31  
we find ourselves

1:03:38  
here in hope In prayer. In hope, in prayer, elders,

1:03:54  
with wisdom.

1:04:00  
Rise. Hope, in prayer.

1:04:26  
Hope. The wreckage, the racket with tears and with courage, fighting for life we rise.

1:05:00  
We hope in prayer, we find ourselves here in hope in prayer. In prayer, we find ourselves here in

1:05:13  
hope in prayer we're laying

1:05:33  
with Spirit to guide us, right? To guide us. Yes, your class.

1:05:50  
Everyone, see you all Friday night. I

1:05:58  
hope Thank you, hopefully in person or online on Friday night. Rabbi Rachel Goldberg from Jerusalem, thank you for being with us. Thank you for spending this time with us and sharing your wisdom with us. We're so grateful to you. Free.

1:06:21  
Feel free to

1:06:26  
go lots of love, sending you into the day with love. Hi,

1:06:38  
everyone. Oh,

1:06:44  
everyone, thank you so much.

1:06:49  
Take care of yourselves today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai