Setting Intentions For The Day — Minyan With R'Lizzi

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

Transcript

Transcript

0:02  
Mmm, and then also original sound. All right, here we go. And while, while we're doing this, I'm going to put on my talus, wrap it around myself. So if you've got one and you have not yet put it on, invite you to do that as well. And I think what we have also figured out here is that if I make the screen bigger, if I do the full screen, you stop being able to hear it for reasons I don't understand, but I'm just, I'm just gonna leave it in the small screen here. Tell me if there's a problem In the in the chat. Oh,

1:02  
O, let alone. How Can

1:42  
I mean, Oh, how can

2:22  
i? I How can I feel a little more

2:40  
connected today? A little more connected today? Oh,

3:20  
Oh now, grounded Today,

3:45  
now. Oh, Ooh today, OH. Hmm. So I like those intentions. I like those intentions as a way to begin the day. How can I be a little more soft today? How can I feel a little more connected today? How can I get a little more grounded today? How can I be a little more free today? And we often say, like, what are, what are intentions you're going into the day with that you're sitting down at minion to try and, you know, be centered around to begin the day. If you have anything you want to add to this list, how can I how can I be a little more something today? Feel free to drop it in the chat. I'm going to jump us all the way to hallelujah.

7:00  
How can I be a little more focused today?

7:11  
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Elbe coach o Hallelu, Keith Oh, hallelujah. Hallelu, quiero, good alone. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, take a show Fire.

7:52  
Hallelujah,

7:59  
Hallelujah Hallelujah

8:09  
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah cohana, Shama

8:34  
Talib,

8:40  
yeah,

8:53  
as we go into baru, which, if you're if you're able to stand great, if you're not able to stand, You know, in body, stand in spirit. Stand in attention. But I'm going to bring in some of these other intentions here as I stand.

9:10  
How can I be a little more kind today? Oh, how can I how can I? How can I be

9:26  
a little more woke literally and figurine figuratively today.

9:38  
How can I? How can I? How can I be a little more unconditionally loving today? How can I? How can I, how can I be a. Little

10:00  
more accepting, connected and open today.

10:10  
Ooh,

10:16  
we've got two people in this Minion, at least, that I can think of that I know, of Allison and Irene, who are recovering from surgery and trying to treat themselves right, and trying to just be kind to your body and recover and gain independence and feel the gift of having a body that can be opened up and put back together again. Oh, we'll

10:47  
do

10:50  
a healing prayer

10:52  
after we do Shema,

10:55  
all right, I feel like set a bunch of good intentions there,

11:00  
my facing east

11:04  
very Who after an eye

11:14  
on me

11:19  
for Coronavirus. Shalom. Move. Go into ahava rabbi.

11:40  
Um, we're gonna go into ahava Rabbi avtanu right now. And so Allison, I saw your face. I don't want to necessarily put you on the spot, but I a little bit want to put you on the spot. If you're around still. I don't know if I still see. Are you still there? Are you still around? Will you unmute?

11:57  
I am here. Yeah, I'm here. Hi, as we go

11:59  
into this prayer about unconditional love, about being loved so that you can give love, and thinking about your kidney donation, and I wonder if you want to just say something about the act of doing that, and what like like, what that meant to you. I know I'm totally springing this on you. It's just that I saw your face here, and here we are davening and talking about love.

12:29  
I donated not directly to but for the sake of a friend who is not a direct match for me, but who I love very much, a friend since I was eight years old, who lost both of his kidneys to congenital disease, but, but in the three and a half years of journeying towards the donation, I I just started to really feel like I I had this, this surplus in me, this, this, these riches of health, and that while I couldn't give a lot of money or time to all the causes that need me, that this was one thing in my body that that I could give pretty relatively easily. And so I just feel really grateful to be in good enough health to have afforded it.

13:20  
That's amazing. And, and also just the language that you use, like, Okay, I couldn't give money or time, like, but I, but I had health, and I could give, and I could give from my body, and I it's, there's a beautiful kind of resourcefulness, of friendship and love that's, you know, I can't give this, but you know what? I do have something else to give. And not everybody's going to be in the position or able to give a kidney, but some might, and some might hear you in this moment on this call and be inspired. And so anyway, I just call her COVID, all the respect. And rifu Ash Leymah to your friend.

14:02  
Yeah, thank you. Yeah. And if anybody is inspired and curious, I'm happy to happy to talk to anyone

14:10  
who's interested.

14:12  
Wonderful. So I want to invite people to gather the four corners of your seat, seats together, 1234, if you're wearing a tallit, gathering the four corners of your seat, seats, embodying and holding all the love from all the directions that have been poured into us in life, such that we might make choices to love others in all the ways that we are able that looks really different, Depending on who it is and what we have available. But there's some way to give. There's some way to give love. But first, first, we have to take it in. Ahava, Rabbi, ahav Tanu, we have been given love. So just take a moment to breathe in the ways in which you are held up. You are a. Continually breathed and loved into being by a force much greater, a power much higher, much more vast and

15:25  
I said something before the Shema over the weekend on Shabbat, where, after the service, you know, an hour and a half later, someone on the davening team came up to me and said to me, Oh, my God, I had a revelation. I had an epiphany right before, right before she met, when you were speaking, that we are like God isn't separate from us. It's like we are a part. It's not we're not apart from God. We are a part of God. And like, we come into existence and out of existence, like cells that that get born in the body and then eventually die, like every seven years, our full body is different cells than it was seven years ago. But we're the same, you know, but we change, but we evolve, we grow, we get older, we get wiser. She said, God is like that. God isn't this one thing apart from us. We are a part of we come into being, we learn, we grow, we evolve, we adapt, and we are just like a teeny weeny cell in God's, you know, cosmic body. What do you think of that? And I was like Amen sister. Amen sister. So for all of us, as we say this blessing, for love, for being loved, for giving love, and then going right into the Shema, we we we just affirm that we are a part, a part of something much bigger than we are that holds us in our lives and gives us what we need to grow and evolve and Change and give Baruch hat and I Bucha, Israel, deava, have

17:04  
close my eyes and

17:05  
take full breath For each word of the Shema

17:11  
Shima, Yisrael.

17:20  
Adonai,

17:22  
hello, Adonai.

17:36  
They have to eight. Adonai, the Whole nav Shaha over

17:53  
little tough. Ba, how you let her Bucha Tom,

18:06  
Amazo, PETA moving, he share and

18:12  
I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump to Miha Mocha, and Miha mocha will be our healing prayer this morning, just as we pray for schlaib, for Allison and Irene. Allison, Irene, drop your Hebrew names in the chat so that we can, oh, Sherry, you too. Post rotator cuff surgery. All right, great. Put all y'all, put all your Hebrew names in the chat so that we can, I can say your names, you know, for you. And then anyone else who you want, who you might be thinking about this morning, who needs a healing prayer. Go ahead and put their name in the chat so that we can turn all of our loving attention toward them. Is God, and God of our ancestors send a refuge. MENA bat masa, Yehuda, Halevi, Jacob and pia and Allison James, Misha, Charlie, Quincy, John Glenn, Roberta, Tali and Jessica. Sherry, Rajo, Bucha, pennina, Allison, Billingsley and her family, Theresa and her family, everyone on Lori's list, Cliff and Laurie Marie, Dan Jay, Sadie, Kim Scott, Sherry, Linda Shira, but Eliana Anda, everyone on irene's long and beautiful list of long and beautiful people, healing prayers for everyone in this Minion, everyone on Delia's list

19:34  
and Sarah and Lauren and her family. Erica. Erica Barton, let's the Volk family,

19:45  
Howard Friedland, Bob Tanner, Michelle about Malka, labash, bemoishen Mark, Mindy Wayne, Judy, Neil, Malka, but Liba, minion members, Yes, Mama B and all the minion mamas, everybody on Martin's list. Miriam liat green, Miriam, but Abraham. Avinu asari menu, Aiden Shalom van Avram Avinu Vasari menu, Winifred or Winnie Gottlieb, who just had esophageal surgery and is a newborn baby, just came home from the NICU and Sintra and everyone in this room, and anyone whose name you haven't said but you're thinking about or holding in your heart, also just sending continued strength to anybody who's struggling with recovery, with addiction and recovery, sending shizuk strength to anybody who's going through a process of fertility, trying to get pregnant, struggling, anybody whose body is not working in the way that they want it to, and trying to just gently and lovingly coax it, sending love and a prayer To everyone who is suffering, anyone who is scared. I forward

21:05  
to all our brothers and sisters and cousins in Israel and Palestine who continue to be scared, who continue to feel fear. May they not feel fear anymore? May there be no more reasons To feel fear, even Mika

21:28  
Na

21:47  
nor,

21:53  
to he loved, oh, load, or say fellow there,

22:15  
she moves. She muha Asif, I am

22:40  
we

23:02  
Hope I don't

23:12  
know God,

23:41  
Blessed are you the redeemer of our people? Blessed are you the one who helps us cross from what seems like the narrow place to the expansive place? Blessed are you the one who helps us cross to new vistas and horizons and possibilities? Oh, thanks, Felicia. I'll take it for those listening on podcast later, she wrote, dearest and precious rabbi, I'm praying for your health, well being, rest and restoration as we go into this season. I don't know if by this season you mean like the next four years or like the winter in Chicago, but I'll take it. I'll take all of it. I'll take all of it. All right, we have two minutes, technically, until the end of until the stated end of minyan. And I know Ellie is here this morning to say Kaddish, and I want to welcome you. I wanted to before we before we go into Kadisha tome, which is also often we use as a kind of a See, you a cap on doing learning. I wanted to just point at the Parsha. I know that often on Thursday, you all also learn parsha with Rabbi Stephen and. Me, but I wanted to just point out something that I thought was kind of cool, and that is here we go.

25:16  
So this Parsha, this week's Torah portion is vaish lach, and it begins with the first word of the Torah portion, vaishlach, Yakov, malachim, lifnay, el ESAV, achav, arts, sit ear, Sade a dome, Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau, in the land of sit year, the country Adom, and instructed them as follows. And so the scene is set. Basically, Jacob knows he's going, for the first time, to see his brother, Esau, from whom he tricked out of a birthright when they were kids, and then stole his blessing like Isaac was going to give his eldest son, and Esau came out first a blessing, and this is when Rebecca said to her favorite son, Jacob, go in there. Pretend to be Esau. Put on this furry jacket, you know, because Esau was like Harry and so, like, put on this furry skin. Go in there. Pretend to be your brother, you know, trick your blind father into giving you the blessing. Then you'll have it and and, you know, then, then the prophecy that God had, which is that you will continue the line, you know, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then, you know, things will be as they should be. And so Jacob does it, and he goes in there wearing the skin. And Isaac is confused. He's like, Wait, hang on. The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the skin is, you know what it feels like? Is your Esau, and he's blind and he's old, and so he gives the blessing to Jacob. And then Esau comes home and says, Father, have you no more blessing for me? And Isaac is like, what? I'm sorry. I Oh, my God. I you know that everybody feels bad, and Esau literally wants to kill Jacob like it, like his life has been destroyed, as far as he can tell, and Jacob flees for his life. And so like last week, we kind of we, we pick up the story. He's like, going out and finding a wife, and he's, you know, going basically like building his fortune away from his family of origin. And so now, for the first time, after both of them have spent the last few decades getting married, having children, growing wealth, they're going to see each other for the first time. But Jacob is mortified. Jacob is so scared, and so he sends these messengers ahead to and instructs them, and says, My Lord to my Lord Esau. You know he's really like genuflecting and being very deferential. Thus says Your servant, aka brother, but your servant, Jacob, I stayed with Lavon and remained until now. I've acquired cattle, donkeys, sheep, male and female servants. I sent this message to my lord in hope of gaining your favor. Basically, like, like, he wants to send an email before he just shows up on his doorstep, letting him know he's coming. And he's not coming with all of these things to scare him. He is coming with all of these things in the hope of gaining his favor. The messengers return to Jacob. You have to imagine, like, you know, a week has gone by, or something, you know, between like, leaving, going and delivering the message, coming back. We came to your brother, Esau. He is coming to meet you and his retinue numbers 400 like he's coming, and he's coming with 400 men. So you can understand that Jacob was greatly frightened. He divides the people with him in the hawks and the flocks and herds and camels into two camps. And he thinks like, Look, if Esau attacks one camp, the other camp may yet escape. So you can just see, like he he has lived with fear now of his brother his whole life, and now it's crystallizing in a moment where they're actually going to see each other. And he is strategizing on how to not, you know, be completely decimated by, you know, like actually physically decimated. But he's thinking strategically about this moment, and he and he prays to God, and he sends his he sends his family across the river. I'm doing some fast forwarding here. And Jacob was left alone, and a figure wrestled with him until the break of dawn. And I'm actually, I'm going to pause here, because it's 833 we're going to say coddish, but I have, I have a kind of theory I'm working with that I actually, I want to, like, run by you, but it's going to be a little bit of a cliffhanger, because we're going to do coddish First. Imagination is powerful. Oh, Susanna, already I want to know what you're what you're cogitating on. Let me go back to the coddish page. And Ellie, I want to say welcome to you. Do you want to let us know who it is you're here saying Kaddish for i.

30:01  
Thank you, Rabbi, so nice to see you. I'm seeing cottage for my mother. Joan curlo, she's born and raised Chicagoan and passed away the end of October.

30:12  
Well, welcome. Would you like to lead us in Kash this morning?

30:18  
Sure I can. I also want to thank Ellen for inviting me to this Minion and being part of this

30:23  
group. Oh, well,

30:26  
I'm I'm glad too. I'm glad about that also. And then, of course, I also see people beginning to put names into the chat for folks who are thinking about this morning, Bernie madow, Jennings and Harold Jennings, markner, love, Nathan Pollock, Sylvia, herring, Sheldon tobolsky And Nancy Jacobson. Anyone else for coddish this morning?

30:55  
And I also want to acknowledge my aunt Lori Tia, Laurie rodich, who's also born and raised Chicago, and same Kaddish for my my mom,

31:05  
her sister, yeah, oh, sister, Joan curlo, Joan curlo, sister, Joan curlo,

31:11  
and then Nikki Giovanni, the poet Felicia, if you know, if, as we're saying, Kaddish, you want to find, like a, you want to do a quick search and find A Nikki Giovanni poem that you want to, you know, read to us this morning. Feel free putting it out there. I'm not going to do that, but if you want to do that, that would be beautiful. May all of their memories be blessings, every single one of them. So if you are saying COVID this morning and you want to stand, invite you to stand. And thank you, Ellie, for leaning

31:41  
Okay. Dash me. Rabbi divra heute via Mishkan of your Mehron of Keith halbate, I can't see the words Beth, Israel, bagala, uzman, kareeb, the rule, amen. Rabbi, from mom beat, nasevita darvi, Taleb, Kusha, Layla, Mikko bircha, vishiratha, tush, Bucha da Miran Balma, the imrou red Hey, slum Rabbi mishmaya, call Israel bimu

32:28  
Amen, amen. Jose shalombi,

32:31  
Rabbi, who ya say? Shalom alenu, they'll call Israel. We

32:39  
easy for Anam Libra a their memories be blessing. Felicia, do you have a poem that you might want to read? I don't know if you heard me when I when I asked now, oh, I did, but I have so many favorites. I I'll do it another time. You'll do it another time. Okay, fair enough. Sorry, Ellen, if people want, I mean, you should. I'm in a if you go to the Poetry Foundation, they have pages for, you know, for different poets, like hundreds and hundreds of different poets and some of their better known poems, and it's worth looking up Nikki Giovanni, and there's a lot of, like, real strong ones. So yeah, alright, next time, maybe next Wednesday. Alright, I'm going to turn off the recording now, and I'm sending you wherever you are listening on your way with lots of love and a day to be more free, more open, more connected, more attentive, more focused and fulfilling all of your intentions that you began with this morning. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai