Getting The Seder Ball Rolling

Are you looking for a seder? We are so excited to announce that thanks to the generosity of Builder volunteers and our partners at OneTable, Mishkan is able to offer Community Hosted Seders this year. If you want to spend an inspired, down-to-earth evening with fellow Mishkanites, we would love to have you. These seders will be hosted in the homes of Builders all over the city (and one virtually). Deadlines to RSVP are fast approaching and tables are filling up, so register now!

https://dinners.onetable.org/partners/mishkan-chicago-seders-2025

The song in today's episode (Lizzi's greatest idea!) is "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim.

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://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

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Transcript

Transcript

I think before I put this on, I wanted to read a I wanted to read a poem or two from this book to bless the space between us. I'll ask everybody to mute, just because, since we record this particular minion, all the little sounds like they all come through, obviously unmute, to speak freely, but keep yourself muted otherwise. So someone came over this week to have a chat with me, and they brought me this book. So thank you, Rabbi. It's a book of blessings by the author and poet John O'Donoghue. So this is in the beginning chapter called beginnings. I invite you to sit up a little bit straighter, to take a breath into your chest and let it really sort of fill your body. Imagine the oxygen traveling down your fingers and down all the way to your toes up to your head. So I arise today in the name of capital S silence. And now you need to know, before I read the rest of this, almost any noun in here is capitalized. Okay, so in the Jewish tradition, we tend to capitalize the name of God. If we're referring to God as a he or a she, we like capitalize the H or the s, you know, as to as if to say, like, this is like, not just any old person. This is God. So I just there's a lot of capitalization in here, in the name of silence, womb of the word, in the stillness, home of belonging, in the name of solitude, of the soul of the Earth, I arise today, blessed by all things, Wings of breath, delight of eyes, wonder of whisper, intimacy of touch, eternity of soul, urgency of thought, miracle of Health, embrace of God. May I live this day, compassionate of heart, clear, inward, gracious in awareness, courageous in thought, generous in love.

And then I'm going to jump over to the poem on the next page called a morning offering I'm going to jump to halfway down I place on the altar of dawn the quiet loyalty of breath, the tent of thought, where I shelter waves of desire I am Sure to and all beauty drawn to the eye, may my mind come alive today, to the invisible geography that invites me to New Frontiers, to break the dead shell of yesterday's to risk being disturbed and changed. May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love, to postpone my dream no longer, but do at last what I came here for, and waste my heart on fear no more. So I actually thought it would be nice. I'm gonna say the blessing here for putting on a tallit, but I thought it would be nice to take a moment and think about if you were speaking to God, to you know, higher higher presence than ourself, higher power. And giving God a description more than just, Oh, my goodness, this hand thing, don't you don't know better than me, my hand is not up. Just, I'm just using my hand. I'm Jewish. Anyway, did you guys see the little hand thing? It like comes up and then it'll be so he has all these descriptions here, clear in Word, gracious in awareness, courageous in thought, generous in love. And they're all names for God. We have the same thing in Jewish tradition, names of God, like sower of greatness, mighty in wonders, healer of flesh, like they're all these different names. You know, you capital H, healer of all flesh. That's the the name we give God when we do our like. Thank you for my ability to go to the bathroom prayer in the morning or anytime. So my question to you is, you can put this in the chat. What's a name for God? You. So you could imagine, actually, like an like an actual address or description or name that you would like to relate to a higher power using that language. It's not and the idea is, it's not an all the time thing, or it's not an everybody thing. It's just a you right now thing. Because, of course, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ways to describe the infinite, infinite ways, in fact, to describe the infinite. And then go ahead and add, ooh, yeah, source of life. And then go ahead and add, if you want, a little morning intention, you know, just like, just like the author does here, may I have the courage today to live the life that I would love and waste my heart on fear no more. So send a prayer out to an address that is an intention for your day. Hmm?

Source of life, Bucha, near EOR. In your light, we are bathed in light. Baruja, Aron, Elohim, lihita, teith, petit Blessed is the one who is the creator and sustainer and infuser of the universe, who shows up in our lives in so many ways, and invites us into relationship with every Mitzvah, including this mitzvah, to put on a talus to wear Tsitsi, take another few deep breaths, just to sit up a little bit straighter and inhabit your body with greater confidence and ownership. This is your body in this lifetime. Woohoo.

I mean, I love all these. Love, all these descriptions. So far, so far, no intentions, so far, no prayers. Oh, wait, no, no May I be able to support all I have promised without burning myself out. Amen. Amen. Amen. Oh, wow. Oh, there are so many I didn't see, all of these. Source of Life, light giver. Provider of clear vision, hope, provider may I feel peace, serenity, comfort and joy. Source of serenity. Comforts with love. Softener of leaders, recalcitrant hearts, a main Amen companion on this journey. Oh, that's beautiful. That's really beautiful, covering of light and comfort tether in the vast unknown. Oh, these are so good, y'all. These are so good. All right, I'm gonna turn us to turn us to our morning davening here, here. And in fact, since I, since I referred to this one earlier, we'll just do this one now. This is in honor of anyone who has gone to the bathroom this morning and everything came out okay. And here you are on the other side of it, in in public, in a service, and we say thank you for the gift of a body whose openings open and whose closings close all at the right time so that we can continue to exist. Baruch atah, Adonai, elohinu Melech, halam A share yet. Adam Bucha, COVID

Ro fair. Cobasar uma flee la asot

Amen. Susan nur love, may I stay present in a time of incessant distraction. I don't know how many of you listen to the Ezra Klein podcast. He did a interview with Jonathan Haidt, the author of a couple really good books, but one of them called the anxious generation recently about how childhood is being rewired by smartphones, and how kids who are growing up in this environment, oh, my God, you saw him at uh. I see you. What's that? Because it's probably not the intensive care unit. UIC, got it, yes. UIC, that makes more sense.

Yeah. Sorry, I have coffee yet today. I'm sorry. No worries,

we got it. We got it. I mean, now I got it. It took me a second, yeah. And he talks about, he writes in the book and describes how, you know, children, once upon a time, used to play outside, used to go roaming around the neighborhood, used to, you know, play in groups of mixed age kids, and used to be social. And that when you develop a brain over the course of your early life that does certain activities, it wires your brain for the rest of your life to be primed for those kinds of things, and for you to have skills and talent at doing things like being a little more adventurous, being social, being, you know, able to talk to different kinds of people. And that if you give a kid an iPad at age two, because it helps them stay quiet, so that you can do work, so that you can, you know, focus on your adult life. You may temporarily have quiet, but you will be raising a monster. And at least for a time, people didn't know any better. You know, people didn't really realize what the long term damage was but now you're getting like 18 year olds who can't even sit through a movie. So it's not even about screens. It's about needing to be constantly titillated and having our dopamine receptors hit and hit again and hit again and so by and we do this to ourselves as adults, the more we feed that particular thirst or slake that particular thirst, the thirstier we get. And so anyway, your prayer that you be able to be present in a time of incessant distraction, I amplify your prayer, I support your prayer. And also I wonder what we could do to support each other. I think we're doing it now, like, actually, you logging on to minion and being here and actually being here, I can tell them, like, for the faces of the people in the room that I'm seeing, you're actually here, like, I can tell when people are off doing a different thing and, like, actually doing work, you know, and but I can tell you're actually here. And it's not just heartwarming, but I feel like it's training. It's training for having a spiritual practice, which you know what, like you can only do, what you can do. And I think it's a really positive thing that you do. So yashko, I am going to blow through this and find ourselves here at Kohen.

Koha Mishkan Hallelujah. Hallelujah,

hallelujah.

Ha, oh,

yeah, as I'm singing this prayer and praise that comes through every breath. Gail and Rebecca, I wonder if there's anything that you heard last night or anything that was said that was particularly moving or important that you wanted to share you could put in the chat and expound on it later.

Thank you Megan. Thank you. Thank you

hallelujah.

Ah hallelujah

o zeva Zimra via hilishua via hilishua O Z, a Zimra, hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Oh, yeah, hallelujah,

hmm, all right, if you're able, invite you to rise in, in whatever way you're able, mind, body, spirit, turn and face east. Ah.

I'm very who at

I don't know Ed, but I don't even call I mean you Ira arts, a lot of email. Abraham, me move to VA Mika da Mima, savory sheet or a dash out. Deon to ear. Venice Keith, who lar me here all a row. Bar, Oh God, I have a rabbi. I have to

I don't know he knew him like $1 Adonai, here's another I love. I love this, like cascade of names for God here. So this is a verb, or, yeah, I have Tanu, we have been loved. Ahava, Rabbi, great love. This is a great name for God. Great Love. Adonai, Eloheinu, okay, you've heard of those before, our God. You know elohinu, our again, Adonai, my Lord, elohinu, our God. Here are some more great words that could be euphemisms for godla gadola, sort of like great mercy. Avinu, malkeinu, you've heard this one before my father, my king, our father, our King, before Abu tenu Shabbat, who Bucha the till I'm deme, who? Keith, can Deena than Deena. Avinu Ava Raman, ham racham, the Compassionate One, the One who is like a womb. A racham in womb us, wrap us up in your safe and nourishing embrace the 10 billion so give us the ability place in our hearts to understand, Oh, look at that. I have that. I have that two times the havin Well, the skill Lish. Moa have the ability to pay attention, to listen, Lil mode, to learn ulama also to teach lishmor, to observe the last so to end, to do ULA came at colvita, mutar, Teja, be ahava. I can't help but notice the way in which that dovetails so beautifully with what Rebecca just wrote here, the need to remain curious and neither sink into despair or just pin ourselves to hope, but the need to remain curious and kind of constantly trying to pay attention, you know, to things as they're changing and us as the changes are swirling around US, and actually not necessarily jump to conclusions about you know anything, but to take our time, learn, pay attention and teach what we know, such that our eyes may be enlightened before and our heart may cleave to what is good for us, but Meet the head level. Veinula, I have VA, will you and our heart will be brought together in love and also in your in awe, and even in like a good, healthy sense of I don't know if fear is the right word. What's a better word than fear to describe kind of healthy awareness of the reality, the reality of the world. Ah, you say? Ah, perspective, perspective, ooh, lahava, will you Ra, love and perspective, love and discernment. Yes, in, in the presence of in the presence of what is real, in the presence of God, and then the lone VOSH le om van, and we will never be ashamed. Keep a Shem COVID ha No. Rabbi Taku, your great and awesome name. We will place our trust. Mini SMA. Rabbi shuataka, so we gather the four corners of our seat. Seat. Oh, respect. That's a nice one. Eric vigilance, the hobby. Anu li Shalom. They are back in photo arts, but totally clean up all you should have to tell van ever hotter come on the show Bucha be ahava, bringing it all together. The ahava in love, which is another name for God, Baruch ata, I don't. I have Bucha Israel, the ahava, blessed are you the one who chooses us with love? Hold up all these four corners. Right. Seat, seat. Close our eyes. She may.

Israel, Adonai, I don't know. I don't I Sham COVID. They are after eight, I don't know the whole of our national They are. You had a very my, LA,

Bucha petaha, um, Amazon, Susanna

asks if current circumstances are hazardous to human life, if and status quo Auntie was far from perfect. Um, what does the world we want to make look like and what must we do to create it? You know, the next thing I was going to ask, the learning I was going to do, was actually going to be a question of, like, what's a good opener go around the table at your Passover Seder, question to ask that's a pretty good one, were you asking that rhetorically or hypothetically, or were you actually asking or maybe, do you have a suggestion? Susanna,

no, it's not rhetorical. I you know things are awful right now in many ways, but Wisconsin is a ray of hope. Cory Booker's way of ray of hope. And you know, yes, this is political, but we also have an opportunity to look at this as an environment where we could imagine a world that is better than it has been,

yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm struck by the story of the Exodus, tis of the season, and the Israelites did not simply go from a bad situation to a better situation. You know, like the 10 plagues were a descent into worse and worse and worse and worse. And you know, it certainly wasn't pleasant for the Empire, for for Egypt, but I doubt it was pleasant for the Israelites either. You know, like nobody, even the people who were, you know, the least to blame, so to speak, got out unscathed and and then there's this great opening, but it doesn't come without working toward it like the Israelite doesn't just happen to them. There's risk taking involved, there's bravery, there's marching out. I talked about this a few weeks ago at services. Most of the Israelites didn't leave because they didn't believe it was even possible. So to Ellie's point here, Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson and her new book asks, What if we get it right? Do you want to say what she means by that? I have a sense, I have a sense that I get it. But do you want to say what she means by

that? Ellie, well, she is looking at the future, and what are the possibilities and looking at potential, and where that we have so many of the solutions at hand, we just have to have the will to use them. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. So, okay, more on all this momentarily. Susanna, thank you for your question. I'm going to I'm going to take us to a healing prayer so that we can take all of our intentions for healing the world and healing our spheres and our circles and the people who we love and the people in this room and our family, and sending everything, sending everybody who needs a prayer, a prayer. And in the way that I use Mika mocha quite often as a healing prayer, because it's about moving through something and coming out on the other side of a narrow place with great expansiveness and a sense of possibility and joy. So that'll be the prayer today. Please put the names of the folks you're thinking about in the chat, or you can say them out loud as as we sing, as I sing, I and all the people who are working in health and human services, devoting their careers to service, yes, and people right here in Chicago who have lost jobs, I'm sure, friends and family members of ours in many different government sectors. Scott Gary Donna, Keith. Nancy Shannon, Sloan, Matthew leonski, David Hi, Zelda, about Miriam, and we are already Nancy. Everyone on Leah Ari's list, on Glenn's list here. Bonnie Levin's list, Robert's list, Sarah Levine's list, Jonah Freeman's list. Morris Fisher, Aiden Gilbert, we'll do this one this morning, sort of like the lullaby version of this prayer. Yeah. Mija, moja,

Miha Moha Bailey, Madonna, Mika. Moha na DAB ko dash, no right to heal. Oh say fallen. No right to heal.

Oh say fallen. Shi,

be, Hu, ye, holy, le, she, Ma.

Me wrong. I don't know him. I don't know him. Lord flush Lima to everyone who you're praying for, everyone on your list, everyone in Gaza, everyone of the hostages still alive and waiting for their government to take seriously their plight. Anyone who's withholding care from somebody else for some reason because they think it's more powerful, my God, let's just take care of each other and try that as a strategy. You

we say the blessing at the Bottom.

I don't

before Shalem, everyone, okay,

we need to do one more thing before we say mourners Kaddish. So I wanted to envision, let's see, a week and a half from now, it's going to be Saturday night. It'll be the first night of Seder. And so there are a group of Mishkan hosts that have opened up tables if anybody in our community needs a place to go for Seder, and so you'll be seeing the sign up for that. If there's anybody who you know it's like you want to do Seder, but you don't know where or who it's relevant to say for anybody who's listening, there is a learner Seder happening at Mishkan in our office. Rabbi Steven is leading it, and that's always a great I think it's like a great place both to learn about the traditions of the Seder and have a, you know, traditional Seder. Anyway, we got together with all of the hosts of the Mishkan sort of the home hosted Seders, and talked the other day about how to create what feels like, known, inclusive, welcoming, quote, unquote, Mishkan feeling Seder. We talked about like, what would that mean? And one of the things we talked about is like, certainly everybody at the table feels like they have a voice. And feels like they're able to share. And so what would a good opening question be to begin to set that tone? And so I just kind of wanted to, I wanted to show you this screen to remind you of where, you know, where we will be, and also what the different kind of themes are throughout the night, and get your memory going, get your jog your memory. But for the future, where can you find a list of the home hosted Seders? They will be coming out, I think in today's email. Yeah. Will the sign up link be in the newsletter? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, yeah, and we expect, you know, we expect it to be a very last minute thing. Because obviously, you know, what everyone would prefer is like to go to a friend or to go to a family member or whatever, and even if, at the last minute, you know, we got a couple, a couple tables that are wide open. Okay, so this is a real question. What is a good opening question? This doesn't have to be the quote right answer, just an interesting way to open up the table and hear people's voices and not just be like, yeah, Lizzi, I use she her pronouns, and I'm from North center, you know. But that elicits an answer that is an interesting but short, you know, obviously tell people like we're talking about a sentence here, because we're going around the table, but just to begin to get the wheels turning, what's a good

opening question? Julia, what are you looking to get out of this Seder that's so good. How has your experience of freedom changed this year? When do you feel free?

Maybe one or two more. I'm going to close out at the end of minion today with with what I think might be my most brilliant idea that I ever came up with. What does freedom mean to you? Oh, my God. Carla, that's right. Last year I asked what was the best thing that happened? And last year my grandson said, Mishkan, oh my god, oh my god. Oh my god. I feel like there's a there's an age. Was he three? When that happened? Carla, he was four. He was four. I feel like there's five this he's going to be five this week. There's that sweet, sweet age between, like, three and five, when kids are just like, like, whatever Rachel Milan's doing on the floor with the kids. And it's just perfect. And I know Jeremy and Allison, you know, bring the kids into the main service too, and they bop around on the you know, it's just great. Okay, I'm looking at some other ones. What are your What are memories of Seder traditions from your childhood Jed? What can we do to pursue justice? Ooh, what makes you feel oppressed? So we had like the flip side, what makes you feel free? What makes you feel oppressed? What was your best Seder ever? If this is your first Seder, what do you think will happen? Is this your first say, these are all great. These are all lovely. What was your worst Seder ever? I also, I also think, like sometimes an entire experience gets colored as, like, the best one ever, or like the worst one ever, not because the whole thing was terrible, or the whole thing was amazing, but because of one thing that happened, like one particular thing that was, like, it ruined the whole thing. But if that hadn't happened, actually, it would have been fine. And so to get even more specific, like, what is one thing that has happened, you know, at a state or you've been to that was, like, just an amazing idea, or just actually bombed, and then, you know, the rest of the night was off the rails. But yeah, I love these sort of aspirational questions that are also personal. So not, not necessarily asking about, like, how would you fix the world, but I know you're not going to, but like, what? But like, actually, about your own history that tells everybody at the table something about you. Because, of course, you're going to get into, you're going to get on into all the big stuff as the night goes on. Okay. Oh, what was the best place for hiding the afikomen, that's great.

Lizzi, did you all come up with something at the Did you also just have a list. Are there things you all came up with to share? Not

like, not like the authorized list of Seder questions? No, these are, these are great. In fact, like, I might share these out with the hosts. These are all great and and actually, like, if any of you are hosting or attending Seders and have the opportunity to influence what happens at the table, I would say, like, think about that. Like, think about what answer you actually want to hear. You know, not, not like, just what's a good generic question, but like, what, what are you actually curious to hear people at the table share about, I love these, some of these, like Seder stories, because it really does tell you a little something about. On people's upbringing. You'll learn things about people that you know that probably wouldn't come up in any other other context anyway. These are all great, and I'm happy to share out and, you know, like, copy these and put them in the Slack channel. I'm happy to to do that. What was I going to say? Okay, it's 836 so I want to do this was also great. This was a learning and on the heels of learning, now we can say Kaddish, and then, and then I will share with you my most brilliant idea. Okay, so thank you, Miriam, you're saying Kaddish for your mom. Teresa. Mark Nur, love you. Oops, who else are we remembering today? As we say, Kaddish, Joan Carlo,

anyone else? Val Kilmer, Stanley Davids, is there anyone who would like to lead us in Kaddish today?

I think I can, if I don't start coughing. I'll try.

Thanks. Susan, great.

Okay,

it's good all the youth could also may Rabbi Amen be on my rocker via Mishkan Bucha me con UK, the whole beat. Israel. Bagala with Maru, meet Barack, we used about the RV Raman vietnase, vietcaleb Lizzi will scroll up.

I have down. Okay. Leila mi COVID, shirata, tomata, Rabbi, Mishkan, mishmaya ko Israel. Amen, oh, say Shalom. We are say Shalom. Aleno The ako Israel, the ako Yoshida

limaru, amen, livracha, may their memories be blessings, you know, and like, it's interesting, right? Last week, Sintra said Kadesh for the last time of the 11 months of saying Kaddish for her dad. And now, I mean, like, I don't think she's here this morning, but just to say, like, there's this life cycle that kind of happens, and we've, we've seen each other through these times of people, you know, being here for one purpose, to say Kaddish, and then sticking around for inspiration, and to Say, I'm mean to somebody else's Kaddish. Okay, so, somebody in the Seder training said, Okay, real talk. Holle, after the meal, especially, I never know what to do with that. So what is, what is that? First of all, like, raise your hand if at whatever Seders you've been to, you never even did any of the stuff after the meal anyway, because the meal was over, and then it was like, right, okay, I'm seeing a few hands. Part of what comes after, part of what comes after the meal is like, all the thank yous. It's the it's Hallel. It's, you know, it's the same service that we do in a prayer service called Hallel. It's a series of Psalms, which, if you know them, and you know lots of tunes for them. It's super fun. You know, Min Ha, mitzar, karate, ya Oz, vazira, ya, you know, whatever. There's all kinds of good stuff in there. But however, if your table doesn't feel super comfortable with all the music, and it is a lot of Hebrew I suggested, and I came up with this idea totally, totally in the moment, but now, as as I said, I think it's my best idea that I've ever come up with. I said, Well, the point is, is Hallel right? Praise. So maybe instead of sitting at the table and like breaking your teeth on words that mean nothing to you, even if they are praise E, you know, in Hebrew, maybe you need to put on some specially chosen dance music, and everyone needs to get up. And do a little dance. So here is how I am suggesting people in the app you like if you don't feel like doing the if you don't feel like doing the traditional one, here's what I'm suggesting, put on this and everybody dance around. Tonight's

performance be the best performance. Feel free to join me in dance right now,

like the official video for this song, which is so fun

we've come through the hard times. I have to celebrate you, baby. I have to praise you like I should you.

I love this. It says it's the official video. It may or may not be, but I think this is Amazing. You

good, and now I have a crazy range.

All right, Seder, ecstatic dance. I mean, basically, basically. So anyway, that's, that's my wild idea for your Seder. Take it or leave it. All right. I'm going to turn off the recording. Let's see, oh, somebody else did what, you know. I'll leave on the recording, whatever, not as much. Isn't after dinner when we bring in Elijah, yeah, totally, yes. There's a bunch of good stuff that happens after dinner. You open the door for Elijah, you have, like, the dramatic end to the Seder. All the good singing happens afterwards. I'm just saying, like, there are tables where people like that. They don't, it's late, whatever. And I think, yeah, a lot of good stuff happens after. And I would invite and encourage everybody to, like, stick it out till the end. But the question is, how to make it fun? You know how to make it fun and how to make it interesting? So, yeah. So there you go all right and stop.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai