Shalom my friends, welcome to the Light Lab Podcast. My name is Eliana Light. And I'm here with my good friend Cantor Ellen Dreskin,
Hello everybody!
and Rabbi Josh Warshawsky.
Hello!
Hi friends, it's so so good to see your faces, all of you. And it's so so good to welcome you listener to get to hang out with us a little bit. It's been, to put it mildly, a very challenging and distressing time. And as we do our best, as we do our best to push the world in a direction of peace and justice and security, we, it feels like we have so much, it feels like we have so little control in that. And so what can we do? We can gather together we can learn, and we can be in peace with ourselves and peace in our bodies and peace with our communities. I like that we get to drop into Shabbat whenever we're recording this podcast now. And you can too dear listener, drop into Shabbat a little bit so that when we come out of that Shabbat time, whether on Shabbat or not, we have a sense of what kind of world we're working towards. And we can do that together. So, for this week's question, I'd love to hear a Friday night memory that you have. Josh, share with us a Friday night memory.
Thank you for that opening. That's a really, a really grounding and centering way to start. I also really like jumping into Shabbat whenever we can. It's nice to be able to feel that Shabbat is always close by, and it's always coming soon, it's always, and we just left it too. And as soon as you, as soon as you pose this question or before we jumped on, I was brought back to a memory of of every Shabbat we ever had at my house. My, we would read a Shabbat prayer that we got from my grandmother. And my mom would read it off of this like, like it was on a note card and she had taped it to this piece of paper and it was a sort of like tattered, tattered old piece of paper. She had typed it up and printed it really nice, but she still always read it from the same piece of paper that she got in a letter from my grandma. And it's a Shabbat prayer with family and friends. And if it's okay, can I can I read the prayer? It was the way that we started every Shabbat and I you know, I brought when I went to Israel for the year on Nativ, and before college I would sing it, I would recite it with my friends, and when I went to college in New York, I would recite it at Shabbat dinners and even you know, it's printed in our wedding venture also it was a prayer that that I've been taking with me for forever and thinking of it every time I get to Shabbat. This is the prayer. We are grateful, Oh G?d, for the heritage of Shabbat and for the companionship of those with whom we have gathered. We are coming together, help to banish worry and anxiety, and enable us to share moments of true Shabbat joy. May the hands of those who break bread together be hands of friends who strengthen and support one another. Maybe the voices which chant and pray on this Shabbat be voices of kindness and truth at all times. Grant us the capacity to value our friends and to enrich the lives of those whom we love. May we deepen our concern for all your children and renew our devotion to our people and our faith. On this Shabbat which we share together. help us to feel Your presence, oh Source of life and love. And that was how we began every Shabbat.
Amen.
Amen. Wow, we could use all of that now. Amen, amen.
Wow, we sure could use that. I'm just, I just sunk into a space,Josh, I thank you so much for opening that way. It's funny in the house, in our household when I was a kid, I'm the youngest of three. And so I had the experience of two older siblings and in our house, Friday night was somewhat of a chaotic time. All three of us kids were in our high school marching bands, which meant practically every Friday night, there was a football game that we had to go to, to play in the marching band. Certainly we're not alone in terms of families with kids having Friday night activities going on. The rule however, in our house was you got to be home for dinner. No matter you know, you can go out afterwards, but you must be home for dinner. So sitting around the table with with these blessings and these songs became something very special that we didn't mess around with. And when I'm picturing it and thinking about it and thinking about this question, the one thing that keeps popping into my head is I think that maybe the only accessory, Jewish accessory that I have from my family's presence in Eastern Europe are the brass Shabbat candlesticks that were in my house, growing up the whole time. And now my siblings and I take care of them and steward them from place to place. And it really Shabbat always seems to me like this age old, age old tradition. And I always felt very connected to my ancestors every time we lit those candles. And still to this day, it rings true.
Ellen, I have a question. What did you play in your high school marching band? The listeners want to know.
Oh goodness, I was a flutist. I played the flute for years, since from seventh grade, oh up through up through my adult life. But while I still own that thing, I don't know what it would sound like if I tried to play it today.
Well, we, we are excited for the day when you bring your flutist-ing skills to the podcast in whatever way they have. Thank you for that.
Well be careful what you wish for.
Oh, I'm already excited. I am thinking about a very particular memory this past weekend. I was in Memphis, the JCC in Memphis doing concerts and singing and learning all weekend and I didn't see my mother until Saturday night because she had strep throat. And I used to get strep throat a lot as a child until I had my tonsils taken out. And then I didn't. But every couple of months, I feel, I got strep throat. And the joke was always that I always got sick on Jewish holidays. Like our pediatrician was Jewish. And at a certain point, he would just ask us, is it a holiday that I don't know about? Like yeah, sometimes it was like Rosh Chodesh. even the minor ones. But I have this memory of, of waking up really late on a Friday night. And like shuffling sick out of bed. And my mother making me Tabatchnik's chicken soup from the freezer, and sitting with her with the Shabbat candles lit, and just sick little me spending Shabbat with my mom who was taking care of me. And it's in contrast to what Friday night looked like the rest of the year because as the rabbi's family, we had people over all the time, we would have between like 5 and 20 people over for Shabbat. And anybody at shul who didn't have a place to go would just come home with us. And so we have these loud, beautiful, full of singing boisterous Shabbatot. And I love and value those too. But I was also thinking of the care that I felt from my mother and kind of safety and warmth of just doing Shabbat when I woke up sick and shuffled out of bed, and hoping that I can provide the same amount of care to my mom and to the people in my life when they need it. So yeah, that's what's been on my mind. And that frozen Tabatchnik’s chicken soup, that's like very specific. That's a sense memory.
Yeah, if we're going to the the frozen menu, the frozen Shabbat menu, the Kineret frozen challah. Oh my gosh, seriously, some of the best challah I've ever tasted.
Kineret also has frozen pareve chocolate chip cookies that you like, plop on like a tray and then they just like miush into like a melted cookie. And it's the most delicious chocolate chip cookie I've ever had in my entire life. Kineret, they know their stuff.
Wow. Well, I was just gonna say we need a whole episode just on our Shabbat foods.
We do. I was gonna say we didn't have frozen challah and pareve cookies because Memphis has Ricki's Cookie Corner which makes the best pareve chocolate chip cookies and challah like ever in the world. Listeners from the Northeast. I will die on this. Just kidding. I'm not going to die on this hill. But like, have some Ricki's, it's really good. As as you might be able to tell even if you didn't listen to last week, listeners, we are spending time on Friday night, Shabbat at home. Last week we explored the candle blessing. And now we're going to move into the song that might gather us around a Shabbat table, Shalom Aleichem, or Shalom Aleichem. We can talk about that too. Some sing it at synagogue as part of the services. Some sing it at home. But what we almost never, in fact, I can't think of a time when I've ever just read it or heard it read. So Ellen, why don't you read it for us? And we'll see what shines through today.
I'd be delighted to. And just because you just said that now, I'm wondering, oh, I didn't think about that, where to, and where am I going to put the accents? Is where I'm used to singing them or how would they actually is read? We'll see what comes out. Probably some kind of Ashke-fardic pronunciation of the words. Shalom aleichem, malachei hashareit,
malachei Elyon,
mimelech malchei ham'lachim,
Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Bo-achem I'shalom, malachei hashalom,
malachei Elyon,
mimelech malchei ham'lachim,
Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Bar'chuni I'shalom, malachei hashalom,
malachei Elyon,
mimelech malchei ham'lachim,
Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Tzeit'chem I'shalom, malachei hashalom,
malachei Elyon,
mimelech malchei ham'lachim,
Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
There's a pattern there, right?
There certainly is a pattern. And I love the kind of melodious way in which you read it, feels like a greeting, right? Hello there, or like, ahoy, sir. But then we like do three more lines about who the sir is. I don't know it felt kind of Dr. Seussian in parts of it, duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh. And that mi melech malchei hamlachim, a kind of mem, kind of at the end there, brings in a different kind of pattern. Yeah. What else do we notice just about the Hebrew, how it's being, how we hear it, how it's being read?
I also really noticed that transgression. And you know, we always sing this in the week in the beginning of our Shabbat, that Shabbat at home experience or, or maybe at the end of a Shabbat itn synagogue experience. But now that I'm reading it, it feels like this progression where we should kind of sing it at different points during our Shabbat, right? We sing Shalom Aleichim at the very beginning, we sing Boachem L'Shalom as we get gather at the table, we sing Baruchni L'Shalom after we finish eating, we sing Tzeitchem L'Shalom as we wish people goodbye, right. But each one of these is like a progression of our Shabbat experience. And here we have like the whole Shabbat experience all wrapped up in this one four little paragraph, four stanza poem. So you know, I want to like extend it, I want it to be sort of the framework of our whole and it feels like it could be a framework for our entire Shabbat gathering experience. And the other thing that I wrote noticing for the first time is the word Barchuni. And the fact that it's in the singular. And I've never sung this song by myself. I've only ever sung this with people. And, but it says bless me, and whenever we sing it together I wonder why it's, it's bless me and not bless us. And that, I've never really noticed that before and just hearing it read it, it's jumped out to me in a way it never has before.
It's so interesting because I know we're gonna get to it later. But that you know plays into this idea of who are the malachei elyon who are with us and are they with us as a community? Or are they, do each of us have our own that are with us during Shabbat? Our own little malachei elyon going on there. So I find that very interesting too. And I didn't notice that that was singular. You know only the first word, with the exception of the first verse Malachei Hasheret, only the first word changes, each stanza, everything else stays exactly the same. And the way it can trip off your tongue in Hebrew, malachei hashalom, malachei elyon, mi melech malchei hamlachim, and we've been talking about malachim, we get to that third line, mi melech malchei hamlachim. I have to say it's a pet peeve of mine in Hebrew grammar, because we've been talking about malachei, hashalom, that people say mi melech malchei hamlachim, thinking it's the same word. And it's Mi Melech Malchei Hamlachim, from Melech not from Malach. So you're either saying the ruler of the ruler of rulers, or else you're saying the ruler of the angels of the rulers or the messengers of the ruler. So pronunciation becomes really interesting here. And then the last line too I noticed the same thing. People tend to say HaKodesh Barchu, as if it was the Barchu. Or Barchuni. Hakadosh Baruch Hu as an address to G?d, or a name for G?d, is something quite different. And it's so interesting because I think so many of us grew up singing this long before we ever saw the text. And so these kinds of things get into our our heads and then we look at the text and say, Oh, that means something different. Can I mention one more thing lease that I'll cop to something cop to something?
Please!
As fully grown adult, cantor! I'm sure I was out of school, out of cantorial school for I don't know how long before I realized that it was malachei elyon mi melech malchei hamlachim, this was a messenger of the, on high, mi melech malchei hamlachim, from the ruler of the ruler of rulers. Now all my life, seriously, just about? I thought it was you know, bless me, malechei elyon, angels on high, mi melech malchei hamlachim, I thought was a question. Mi! Who is? Melech malchei hamlachim? Ah! Hakadosh baruch hu. That's how I always read it with, as a question: Who is this ruler? Who was sending down these messengers? Oh, it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And it wasn't till less than 10 years ago that I actually looked at and said, Oh, honey, that's not really what it says is it now?
I think it's a nice reading though. Like, there's actually something really beautiful about that also saying that the angels, the messengers, however, we want to say it, are not melech malchei hamlachim. Who is? Right, the Holy Blessed One. On that note, let's read a translation or two. Just so now we can all be on the same page about what we mean. I can start, I found a translation by Rabbi Jill Hammer that's in the Romemu Siddur. And I'll read us through. Peace unto you angels who served the One, angels of the Most High, from the Majesty of Majesties, the Holy Blessed One. Come in peace, angels of peace, angels of the Most High from the Majesty of Majesties, the Holy Blessed One. Bless us, interesting, us with peace, angels of peace angels, of the Most High from the Majesty of Majesties, the Holy Blessed One. Go in peace, angels of peace, angels of the Most High from the Majesty of Majesties, the Holy Blessed One. There any like differences and translations that be interesting to point out? That you see?
I think it's interesting that some place they're called messengers, and in the translation, I'm looking, they're angels. And I realized that we've already been using those two words, perhaps as synonyms in this prayer anyway. Both, I'm looking at Mishkan T'fillah and, which also says Majesty of Majesties, and that's a lovely, poetic term, which literally, we might translate the phrase is King of the King of Kings. Majesty of Majesites, sounds a little more ethereal, all encompassing.
Well I'm also thinking about how it plays on that M sound, melech malchei hamlachim, Majesty of Majesties, kind of keeps that poetic sound going, as opposed to King of the King of Lings, which would be playing on a different sound, I suppose. What else do we see?
I'm reminded of another Shabbat poem that we sing melodies to around the table often, which is Shabbat Hamalka. And this is a poem by Chayim Nachman Bialik. And he was in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and lived in Israel for the last 10 years of his life. I just read yesterday, I probably should have known that before. But this poem that says in English, the sun on the treetops, no longer is seen, come gather to welcome the Sabbath, the Queen. And it says, Behold her descending I'm now doing the English poetry, the holy, the blessed, and with her the angels of peace and of rest. And draw near, draw near and come abide, draw near draw near O Sabbath bride is the way I learned it as a child, but it calls on the Sabbath angels also to come be with us during Shabbat. And Bialik, actually, based the poem on this, these verses from Shalom Aleichem.
That poem was one of my favorites, I have a melody for that poem that I really love to sing and my was sort of introduced to those words by Aviva Chernick's beautiful melody for those words, the idea of using that Shalom Aleichem and bringing that welcome, right here in my Siddur Sim Shalom the Conservative Movement's previous Siddur these two poems come on the same page right before Kabbalat Shabbat. There's shalom aleichem and there's this Shabbbat Hamalka right here as two options to be able to use in this particular moment. And it reminds me you know, in, in the Talmud, and you're gonna share another type of thing a little bit later. But in the Talmud, there's a whole bunch of pages of what all these different rabbis would do to get ready for Shabbat. One rabbi would put on like nice white clothes, and one rabbi would go and get a chicken at the market, and one rabbi would do this, and another rabbit would go out and they would say, boi hamalka, boi kalllah, lecha dodi likrat kallah, and that line is just sitting there in the Talmud. And I think that was sort of the inspiration for possibly for I don't know if it was for both of these things, or at least for Chayim Nachman Bialik to take that line and expand this Shalom Aleichem and say, What else was happening in that moment? What were we feeling when the sun was setting behind the treetops? What are the things that we're wishing and how can we take a moment to prepare before Shabbat and say this is the intention I want to have for Shabbat? This is what I'm hoping Shabbat can be for me this week.
I'm feeling very connected now, kind of to, to the historicity of this and how Shabbat opens for me like a portal in time. Where we experience time differently going back to Creation, just the idea that a, you know, modern ish poet like Bialik is taking inspiration from the words of this poem that was written by the Kabbalists in like the 17th century, and that they're taking inspiration from the words of the rabbis of the Talmud, which goes even farther back than that, and that we're all just going back to creation. So now that I know this context, you know, when I sing Shalom Aleichem, it's kind of those different connective steps through the history of the liturgy, not even to mention the fact that it can help us feel connected to all those around the world who are singing Shalom Aleichem and welcoming Shabbat around the same time, even if it's not literally the same time, the same, like temporal moment. Let's go to that story about the angels because I know when I was a kid, we learned that I don't even think I knew that it was a story from the Talmud, but it's from Shabbat 119 B, and we'll link it in the show notes. And here's what this part says. Rabbi Yosei bar Yehuda says, two ministering angels accompany a person on Shabbat evening, from the synagogue to their home, one good and one evil. And when they reach their home and find the lamp burning, and a table set, and the bed made, the good angel says, May it be Your will that it shouldn't be like this for another Shabbat. And the evil angel answers against his will: Amen. And if not, if the house is not prepared for Shabbat in that way, the evil angel says, May it be Your will that it should be so for another Shabbat. And the good angel answers against his will: Amen. What do we think of this story? What is coming up for us?
Well, now I know where I got the feeling that there was a question of, who are these angels anyway? Because the Talmud is attempting to tell us who these angels are. Anyway, I think it says for me a lot about spiritual practice. Particularly, you know, what, what Josh mentioned in our last podcast, and again, today, this, this idea of, you know, you hold on to Shabbat as long as possible, and the minute that you have to let go of it, you start preparing for the next one. And that Shabbat takes preparation, these kinds of home preparations, internal preparations, if we don't take the time, if we don't take the time to prepare for it, it can just slip right by. So Shabbat does take some effort. And you know, if you want to have angels come visit you. It's worth it. The only other thing I want to ask y'all about and what I find so interesting is that they're evil angels, but that they may attack in a few moments.
That to me, I mean, it feels kind of cartoony, right, it's like, you know, I can imagine like this little kids cartoon of like these little angels on your shoulders kind of bopping around yelling at each other. I feel like I've seen that cartoon somewhere. And, you know, that, I think what it what it is trying to teach us is something about ritual and routine, right? And the more the more that we are engaged in an endeavor, the more easily we are able to continue to engage in that endeavor. Right? The more that we decide that something is important to us, the easier it becomes for us to do that thing. And, you know, the, I think the language of evil is, it's hard to like it's, in some ways, it's a scare tactic, perhaps or, or something that the Talmud is saying to sort of warn us from what you know, they actually there's a lot of, you know, interesting sort of spirituality and angels and demons and things going on in the Talmud. There's some crazy stories about, you know, different different angels and beings that are doing crazy things all over the Talmud. But at least in this story, it feels like the idea is to trying to tell us that the more that we engage in this, the more we're able to engage in it in the future. Which I think is you know, a beautiful sentiment for for any, any practice that we want to take on. And we I think we've talked about it in a previous episode, also, that you know, halacha, Jewish law, that word literally just means a pathway. And the more that we decide, we will however, we want to walk on that path of there's different forks in the road. There's choices that we make, and whatever practices become our practice are the ones that stick, which I think is it's a it's a beautiful sentiment.
Yeah, those are really beautiful and generous readings. And I appreciate you for that. Because when really because what came to my mind, reading it this time was kind of the gendered aspect of it all. Like I said they, but the Talmud says he, when a, when a man is coming home from synagogue, I don't know, did he make his table and light the lamp and make his bed before he left for shul? Or was there somebody else in the house that did all of that when he was gone that didn't get to go to shul, question. Right? And the other thing that comes to my mind is like in this day and age, you know, under late capitalism, do we have the time, do all of us have the time to do the kind of preparations for Shabbat that we would like to before Shabbat starts? I mean, we're about to go into daylight savings time, right? That's next week. And in some places Shabbat is gonna start at like 4:30. That is to say that in a place where Shabbat is starting at 4:30, if people don't get off work until five, how are they going to have all of this done? And so I think thinking about it in a spiritual way is actually really helpful for me, I just know that it can be so easy to feel like we're not doing Jewish correctly or properly or enough. That we, we don't see halacha as path, we see it as like a series of checked off boxes. And that imposter syndrome can be really, can be really big. And some weeks depending on what's going on in the world, lighting a candle is enough, or singing Shalom Aleichem is enough, or taking a big deep breath is enough, or wishing someone Shabbat Shalom, or ordering pizza, and FaceTiming your friends, you know, I, I want to take this in a spiritual way because I know how challenging it can become, to think that the only way to do Shabbat is a particular proper and, quote unquote, right kind of way. And the idea of just tending it and seeing what blooms from that. Yeah, that that feels, that feels better. And with that, we'll be right back.
Welcome back, everybody. As Ellen has been alluding to, we've been throwing around the word angel a lot. And messenger a lot. What are we talking about? Jewish angels? Is this a thing? What? Who are they? Where do they come from? Who wants to start? We're just gonna, we're gonna wrestle some angels as it were. Wrestle with the concept of angels as it were.
I have nothing factual or academic to add here. I only have emotion and and spirit to add.
Great, great! We like that. Yeah.
Well, thank goodness, that Judaism has so many differing views about everything that we can probably say that's Jewish. Oh, yeah, that's Jewish too. This idea of G?d having messengers, I'm thinking just, you know, chapter one of Genesis already, that when G?d's doing all the talking and considering of, of, particularly later in the days of creation, and the creation of humanity and, and the grammar of Genesis 1 is as if G?d is talking to somebody else about what G?d intends to do, and I know that commentators say, Oh, well, G?d was talking to the angels, was talking to the hosts of heaven, that were there with G?d at that time. So I figured from Genesis 1, we've got angels going on in the world. And then so many texts that say the angels go all the way from being up in the heavens to being right here, with us on Earth, and probably everywhere in between.
Yeah, I mean, if you keep reading through Genesis, you get angels all over the place. And each one, each one of the angels has like a specific task that they're supposed to do in the world, which I like that idea that they have this one mission, and then you know, they go back up the ladder, and they come down the ladder, there are all these stories of angels. And one of the things that I was thinking about is when you ask this question about the the angels are the ones who are doing the blessing. And often we think of the humans who are the ones who are blessing. You know, we blessed we bless G?d or we sanctify G?d, or we, so it's interesting that the angels are the ones who are blessing us here. And there were two texts that I've been thinking about recently. One is the rabbis asked a question about when the first time that people of Israel ever had a communal prayer, what was that first moment of communal prayer in our history? And they say it was back back in Egypt when they were struggling under their oppression and under all the all the work the bondage that they were doing. And they said, it says in Exodus Chapter Two, vaya'anchu b'nai yisrael min ha'avodah vayizaku vata'al shavatam el HaElohim min ha'avodah. They cried out, they're, and they're, they were groaning, and their cry, vayizaku, their cry called out, and G?d heard their cry, vata'al shavatam el HaElohim, and their cry rose up to G?d, vayishmah Elohim et nakatam. And there's like two trains of thought about what happened in that moment. One is that this like, this crying, this like calling out is the most, the truest form of prayer, and it's true and pure emotion. And one is that in that particular moment, some of the rabbinic commentators said that what happened there was immediately, the angels cried out Baruch Atah Ad-nai Shomeah Tefillah. And in that moment, when the people of Israel cry out, the angels say Blessed are You G?d who hears prayer. Which is one of the brachot in our Amidah, if you want to listen back to our Amidah series, earlier in our podcast. And it was the what they're saying here is that the angels are the ones who actualize our prayers. That they sort of move our prayers forward along the conveyor belt towards G?d, which I thought was a really interesting vision. Although I liked the idea of us being able to sort of use our own emotions to connect and reach out. And then the other story that it's that I really love is earlier in the Talmud in Masechet Brachot, there is a really crazy story where Rav Yishmael ben Elisha, goes into the Holy of Holies and has this conversation with G?d. And God says Barcheni, G?d says to Yishmael, Bless Me. And, and often we, you know, we think about G?d is the one who confers blessing to us. And the blessing that that Ishmael gives to G?d is to not let G?d's anger overpower G?d's compassion, the blessing that, that Ishmael leaves. But I think there's this idea that, that there's that anybody can offer a blessing. And then we have all these blessings that are around us. And sometimes when we when we see these blessings in our lives, maybe they're they're coming on the hands of, of angels or of, of messengers, and an angel can be both a sort of a spiritual angel, but also we use the same word for a messenger that could be a person who's coming in in any different form, giving us a hug, giving us a connection, those moments are angels in our lives also.
I was thinking of that too, the stories in Genesis about angels coming as messengers, whether it was the messengers sent to Abraham to tell him about the birth of his son. Or the malach that shows up right in the nick of time to make sure that Avraham doesn't sacrifice Yizchak, or the malach, the angel messenger that wrestles with Jacob, in, in that story, and, and the angels that go up and down the ladder, but I'm thinking in particular, of these malachim that are doing direct work. Right, this idea that HaKadosh Baruch Hu couldn't come down and like physically bar the door to keep Lavan and his family safe, but a messenger can do that, an angel can do that. And thinking about that spiritually now, we can be those people who are bringing love and compassion and protection into the world and kind of putting ourselves in positions where we can be those messengers. That's also a really beautiful idea that like angels, it's not just kind of like wings and halos and beautiful feelings. It's like getting, getting down deep and doing the work among humanity and trying to make things better and that can that can feel very powerful.
Yeah, I love the idea of that the the angels and the blessings can come in all these different forms, and they're just to give us what just one more text. There's a teaching in Midrash Rabbah on Bereshit, which is a bunch of different midrashim and stories that we tell to explain a bunch of different missing pieces in the text. It says Amar Rabbi Simon ein lecha kol asav v’asav, she’ein lo mazal barakia shemaceh oto, v’omer lo g’dal. Rabbi Simon says there's no piece, blade of grass that doesn't have an angel in heaven that's tending to it and telling it grow, I think feel like this is sort of like a cousin texts to the one about the angels on both sides. But this is the, the angels are always encouraging us. That the angels are always pushing us forward, are always rooting for us, and always sort of just nudging us in the, in the right direction, and just being by our side whenever we might need it the most.
I have a favorite poem about angels that, it's just, it's from Larry Kushner, it's in his book, Honey from the Rock. And it goes this way. He has a little introduction, says: There must have been a time when you entered a room and met someone. And after a while you understood that unknown to either of you, there was a reason you had met. You had changed the other or they had changed you. By some word or deed or just by your presence, the errand had been completed. Then perhaps you were a little bewildered or humbled or grateful, and it was over. Each lifetime is the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. For some there are more pieces. For others, the puzzle is more difficult to assemble. Some seem to be born with a nearly completed puzzle. And so it goes, souls going this way in that, trying to assemble the myriad parts. But know this. No one has within themselves all the pieces to their puzzle. Like before the days when they used to seal jigsaw puzzles in cellophane, ensuring that all the pieces were there. Everyone carries with them at least one and probably many pieces to someone else's puzzle. Sometimes they know it. Sometimes they don't. And when you present your piece, which is worthless to you, to another, whether you know it or not, whether they know it or not, you are a messenger from the Most High.
That's so beautiful. Thank you. Yeah, we get to be those Malachim.
I think that I've known that poem, well, when did the book come out? Probably sometime in the 70s. This book was published in 1977. And I think that I've probably known that passage since then. And it makes me watch every, it makes me wonder about everyone else's behavior, and it makes me watch my own. At the same time.
I'm wondering also, when we welcomed the angels in to our Shabbat, Friday night experience, welcoming them around the table with Shalom Aleichem, are we just thinking about these kinds of prototypical angels from the Talmud, actually, now that I'm saying that out loud, it's kind of interesting. If we look at that story, then we say, okay, there's a good angel, there's a bad angel, we're singing to both of them. Like they're both here, we're welcoming them both in just whatever is. However we started Shabbat, whoever might be around, we're welcoming that too. Like, I don't know, there's something kind of beautiful about not kicking out the evil angel, being like, eh, like you stay too, you get to be here, too. It's not like Shabbat comes and we have to, you know, imagine that all of our negative emotions are gone, we just maybe get to be more at peace or in peace with them. And there's something kind of beautiful about that.
That everything is aiming towards Shalom, even what you just said that each of these you know, requests, come on in, bless me, et cetera, is, is always L'Shalom. And when we think of Shalom is peace, but also reminding ourselves that the root means the inclusion of everything, that everything is complete and whole, and, and this, this, how did I prepare? What is my behavior do? Thinking about my spiritual practice, this is all what the quote unquote evil angel can help me to think about. How to balance these different parts of life, how to come to a sense of shalom, even with the challenges that every day can present to us, are we really able to treat it all with a sense of, of shalom? With a sense of peace? With a sense of equanimity?
If we, if we move from the angel messenger part to the rest of the text, I'm wondering about the different greetings or directives that we're saying at the beginning of each of the verses. I heard, I think for the first time in Debbie Friedman's beautiful Shalom Aleichem melody, which we'll definitely talk about more later, that she uses shuvchem l'shalom, return in peace, and I've never heard that before. So I'm wondering what we think about that return in peace.
There are so many melodies. Which one's the Dveykus?
The Dveykus is, and I think it's originally Breslov that, oh it's my favorite. Shalom aleichem, malachei hasharet, malachei Elyon, do you know that one? Shalom aleichem, oh it's beautiful.
Yeah! The beginning of it almost sounded like Tumbalalaika.
Yes. And every verse ends with nadadadadadadadada! And then Shalom! It's beautiful. And then the David Shneyer one is called often it's also called the Shalom Aleykhem. That's David Shneyer. He wrote it that, Fabrengen Fiddler's is the group that he was part of when he wrote that.
Looking at the structure of the poem itself, I'm thinking about the different invitations or actions, and how there's another one, not just the four that we shared, shuvchem, return in peace. Where does that come from? What does that bring up for us?
Well, in my understanding of it, I don't know how old that inclusion is. Although I did read that it's a couple of hundred years old, that people seem to be uncomfortable with the fact that the angels just got here. And at the very beginning of Shabbat, we're already singing tzeitchem, which means exit or go out. And I have to ask the question, why are we asking them to leave already? They just got here. So our commentators said well, why don't we not give them the rush out the door? Let's replace tzeitchem with shuvchem. Either return you know, we're going to sleep now or something but you'll return in the morning, or I've also heard and I think this is more modern, which is like, sit a spell. Come on in and pull up a chair and dwell with us a little bit. But this discomfort again with saying, oh please, you just got here don't leave so quickly. Why am I singing you, you should go away.?
Yeah, it's just it's just new fodder for my, my new minhag of saying one paragraph for each different Parshat portion of the of our Shabbat experience, so that we're only saying tzeitchem when we're actually kicking people out the door. But I like the idea of shuvchem because I think it takes us back to you know that that story from the Talmud about the angels. It feels like we're, we're saying to them, yeah, we did this really wonderful thing together, and we want to do it again. But come back soon! You know, this is, this is not we know that that we can't sit in this Shabbat experience at all times. And we hope that our Shabbat experience will happen again, that we'll be we'll be here, we'll get to welcome you again, and we'll be blessed by you, blessed by your presence, be blessed by being together, and we'll get to do it again. And then next time, we'll say shuvchem also. It's, it's, it's that this return feels like it we get to create a routine out of Shabbat, which I think is a beautiful thing. So I'm trying to read it in the positive too.
Yeah, with what's coming up for me, I guess I'd never thought of it that way, in terms of tzeitchem being like, bye, but sayng like, and when you leave, may you leave in peace. But also this idea that, you know, we could be singing to the metaphoric angels of Shabbat, the angels that come greet us. But what does that meant to teach us? Perhaps it's meant to teach us how we treat other people. So how can we make sure that the people around the table, whether that's guests, or whether it's just me, around the Shabbat table, how can I treat these guests, as I would treat angels, messengers from heaven, from the Holy Blessed One, who are coming to my table? What would it feel like to wish them Shalom when they enter, and to invite them to bring their blessings and to wish them Shalom as they leave, how can we frame it in terms of how we treat each other, and how we treat ourselves? So I'm thinking about, you know, the word shalom? I don't know. I don't remember if I mentioned this on the shalom episodes that we've done, but I'll say it again, is that we often teach kids that it means hello, goodbye and peace. But that's not really true I don't think. I think it means peace, but we wish each other peace, when we see people and when we are leaving from people. And how powerful that shift is. My dad used to say that he imagined like all the ancient Israelites as like hippies, in tye dye, peace man, which you know, is is great just to just to say and for the visual, but what does it actually mean to wish each other Shalom when we welcome people in and when they're back on their way? And how can we be inspired by Shalom Aleichem to treat people like that?
I like to think of the Barchuni verse. Bless me as also kind of a deputize me, to to to, for me to now be one of y'all's servants or messengers, perhaps to the outside world in the way that you just mentioned Eliana. I have used the melody a lot and done the first three verses at the beginning of the service and saved tzeitchem till the end of Friday night service. So that as people go out, you can say okay, now Shabbat has entered us, we have entered Shabbat, now we're all going out and we now are the angels. Go out and spread this Shalom, whether it's just during the next however many hours of Shabbat, or even for the entire next week. You've been, you have an assignment. Shabbat halom.
Welcome back, everybody. Now's the time where we get to explore some of our favorite melodies for Shalom Aleichem. And we just heard Debbie Friedman's beautiful melody and Ellen want to share a little more about it?
In my life, Debbie Friedman was the first person to write a melody, a contemporary melody that included shuvchem. And she would really make it a point never to sing tzeitchem. And this is also one of the, if not the final melody that we heard from Debbie Friedman, before she died. This was her latest composition. And that idea of for me, all of us being those angels that, this was a real gift that Debbie gave us, perhaps even after she passed, to understand that she gets to come and go, and and is now one of our angels, people do think of angels in that way, and very impactful that she should part on that note, shuvchem. Makes my heart feel good.
Me too. Want to share a couple other of your favorite melodies? We could play the recordings or you could hum a few bars.
Oh the two melodies that are coming up for me are just the first two that I've sort of ever heard, which to me I guess are the quote unquote traditional melodies and I don't even know where they came from. So if you know sources maybe you could jump in with them but there's the Shalom aleichem, malachei hasharet, malachei Elyon. Do we know the source of that? Yeah, Ellen does?
Oh, well. I know the composer's name was Goldfarb.
Goldfarb!
Eliana perhaps you know more about it than that? I know that it's Goldfarb.
It's Israel Goldfarb. I was, I was looking at up to make sure, to make sure that I, to make sure that I know. It's real cool.
Now we have, so that one's Israel Goldfarb's, and then the other one that is Shalom aleichem, malachei hasharet, malachei Elyon, ay yay yay, shalom aleichem, malachei hasharet - What about that one? Do we have a source for that?
Is that Brazil? When I say Shalom Aleichem Brazil?
Could be! So those are the two that I grew up with.
It definitely is, it definitely is now that you mentioned it? Brazil.
It's Brazil.
I also, listening to these melodies, I also, the quality of the angels changes depending upon what melody you use, when you're fling open the doors and let them in. They're either, very, one kind of shalom, you know, very peaceful, and then on the other hand, the shalom aleichem malachei, like if you just, I'm a three four kinda gal, I love the waltzes. Debbie's also happens to be in three four. But my other two favorites are also with three four. One of them is recorded by Dveykas. But I think the origins are Breslov. They say it's unknown, but they've mentioned maybe it's Breslov, and it's, shalom aleichem malachei hasharet malachei elyon, mimelech malchei hamlachim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And then the second part is Shalom aleichem, so hopefully we can give you a link. I'm sure we can give you a link to a whole recording of tha. Eliana, what's one of your favorites?
One of my favorite Shalom Aleichem's is by Nava Tehila, Nava Tehila. If we're trying to pronounce things in the, in the Hebrew pronunciation, as far as pronounciation, we and the musical services that I do at Beth El in Durham with this melody, and I think I learned it for the first time at Romemu and it's been such a powerful melody for me. Y'all I'll hum a few bars.Bo-achem I'shalom, malachei hashalom, malachei Elyon, mimelech malchei hamlachim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Definitely a favorite. Any other favorites?
Kendra Rochelle Nelson wrote a different kind of Shalom Aleichem than anything I've ever heard. And for some reason, I tend to use it in the summertime, because it makes the angels sound very playful. And we can put links to the show in the show notes of course, but it's a very plucky kind of beat on the guitar and it goes Shalom aleichem, malachei hasharet, malachei Elyon, mimelech malchei hamlachim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Bo-achem I'shalom, malachei hashalom, malachei Elyon, mimelech malchei hamlachim, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and continues in that way. And it just is bound to bring a smile and when you're doing services outdoor in the summertime, boy, you can just see everybody be in their angel selves.
Since we're secretly a Broadway podcast, that to me feels like a straight out of Newsies. That was the King of New York right there. Look at me, I'm - dah dah dah dah -
Put it on your bingo card, y'all. Music musical theater has entered the chat. That's so great!
That's right. Newsies as angels. There you go.
I mean, already, it's the best.
Messengers!
Messengers! They're messengers! Literally. Oh my gosh. The Newsie angels. Yes, please. I want to share another one that I love by Joe Buchanan also gives a very different feeling. I can't do it. Justice the way he does, so we'll play a little bit right here.
Welcome back, everybody. We're going to end today, I'm so excited to be led in a practice by you, Ellen. I'll turn it over to you.
Well, I'm just hoping that we can begin a little spiritual practice here if you don't already have one, of calling upon these angels, of opening our hearts to being aware of their presence. So I can invite everybody to sit comfortably. And if it's comfortable to close your eyes, feel free to do so. If you want to press pause and light a candle, feel free to do so. And we'll just take a few cleansing breaths here. And invite us to imagine. Were there to be an angel with me now. What would that feel like? Perhaps it would feel like something as simple as an inhalation taking the blessing of that inhale, to nourish one's body and one's mind and one's heart and one spirit. And noticing how on the exhalation, one's words, one's actions, one's thoughts, can bring shallow and healing and peace to oneself and to the world. So perhaps again, we can inhale the blessings, the angels that surround us, and exhale that shallow into the word. Once again, taking in the blessing. And wondering about what pieces do I hold to others' puzzles? How might I bring peace into the world? How might I open my heart and inhale the piece of Shabbat each week as if Shabbat itself were an angel? Come to visit me and bless me. And let me know that I too can be an angel. I hold pieces to the puzzle of peace in the world. May I present them, forthrightly, whether it be Shabbat or not, and my words and my heart and my thoughts, indeed be l'shalom.
Amen, amen, amen. I'm feeling some Shalom in my mind and heart and body right now even in this very unshalom time where we need to do all we can to bring more of that Shalom into the world. Thank you so so much for being here. Thank you, Ellen. Thank you, Josh.
Thank you Eliana.
And thank you so much for listening, dear listener. Our podcast is edited by Christie Dodge, Show Notes by Yaffa Englander, and produced by Rachel Kaplan. We are so so grateful that you are here, we can't wait to learn and sing and be with you. Tzeitchem l'shalom, dear listeners, may you go in peace.
