Episode 29: The Torah is Your Business (Live at NewCAJE)

Eliana Light54min

Eliana Light

00:14

Shalom y'all, Eliana here. Before we jump into this week's episode, I just want to share that it's another one of our live episodes this one was recorded this past summer at NewCAJE. NewCAJE's mission is to connect, inspire and affirm all Jewish educators to build a stronger Jewish community. It's a pluralistic organization for Jewish educators of any age from anywhere doing any sort of education. Its flagship program is a conference over the summer, we've had it online the past few years, but I for one, I'm so excited to be back in person, but they also do learning throughout the year. If you're a Jewish educator, I highly, highly recommend that you check them out. I have also had the privilege of being the director of LEEP, The leadership for emerging education professionals fellowship program for the past few years, which is for educators in their first five years of doing this as their job. Happy to talk to you with my LEEP hat on if that is something that you're interested in, please let us know. It was such a delight to record this at NewCAJE, you'll hear us responding to people in the chat. The live episodes on Zoom are so fun because we get to really engage with people and bring their voices into the podcast. We're hoping to do more of these in the future both through the light lab and with partnering organizations. If you'd like to bring us in to do a live podcast recording either over zoom or in person, let us know - you can now email us at podcast@light lab.co That's podcast@light lab.co And now we take you to this week's very special episode.

Eliana Light

02:12

Shalom everyone! Welcome back to the Light Lab Podcast! My name is Eliana Light, and I'm so thrilled to be here with my dear friend, Cantor Ellen Dreskin.

Ellen Dreskin

02:22

A pleasure to be with you again Eliana.

Eliana Light

02:25

So great to be with you our first two person captaining of the podcast, we send lots of love and joy to Josh at home. And we hope you do too as well, listeners. And as per usual, we like to start with a question. So Ellen, here's today's question. What's a piece of Torah that you've learned recently that you're still thinking about?

Ellen Dreskin

02:46

Oh, there's a piece of Torah actually, when I knew this was going to be the question that I've actually just started thinking about. Being a cantor by ordination and profession, my attention is already going toward the High Holy Days. And I've always loved this idea of Rosh Hashanah being the beginning of the year, Shanna. And I also like love the Hebrew idea that Shanna is the same Hebrew root, as the word for change. And rosh being head. So the New Year helps me to develop a head for change. And very recently, it's been called to my attention that don't we also know that Shanah also has to do with repetition. And repeating something like v'shinantam, or doing something probably from shnayim from, from doing things twice. But I love it, this whole idea that we make things new by trying them over and over and over again, and learning from them every single time and this is how change happens. And so it's all swirling about in my head as as we head into the season. Maybe I'm jumping ahead a little bit, we're heading into it.

Eliana Light

04:06

Never, never. Friends, I'm not sure when this will air, but we're recording this in July, which is certainly an appropriate time to begin thinking about the High Holidays, as a Jewish professional, if not earlier. I love that. I'm going to be taking that Shana Torah with me as well. Of course, as often happens, I wrote the question down and then sat in the chair and was like - Wait a second. I don't have an answer. But here's the Torah that I looked into last night. There have been images coming out yesterday and today from the James Webb Space Telescope. I'm not sure if you've seen those pictures, but if you Google James Webb Space Telescope, they will probably come out and the picture that was unveiled yesterday. It's really incredible. It's a picture that takes us back 13 billion years to some of the earliest galaxies that were created that exist in the universe. And they were saying in the article, that if you imagine putting a grain of sand on your finger, and then stretching your arm out as far as it can go, that little grain of sand is the miniscule piece of the universe, that this photo captured. Even though there are galaxies upon galaxies in the photo, it was almost too much to stand. Really incredible. And then I wanted some sort of way to respond. Because we have just learned and seen something new about our universe. And so of course, I went to Safari, and searched stars, like, what do we have for stars, besides the stars of the sky and sands of the sea thing, so I found Psalm 8. I'm just going to read lines, four through six in the English. When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place. What are humankind that you have been mindful of them? Human beings that you have taken note of them, that you have made them little less than divine, and adorned them with glory and majesty? And those lines really spoke to me even though I think the true Torah was the picture itself. How human know-how has allowed us a glimpse in to the deepest and most wondrous universe that we have. That's kind of where my mind is today. We'll put those pictures in the show notes if you haven't been able to see them yet. And you can think for yourself, what journey do they take you on? We're thinking about Torah today. Because Ellen and I are not the only ones in the zoom room. In fact, we are live at the summer of NewCAJE, everybody wave. I love doing that. It's a podcast! No one could see you wave, but we can feel your energy with us. I've been involved in NewCAJE for the past 11 years, which shocks me honestly, that I could have been doing anything for 11 years. And yet, NewCAJE means so much to me. It's the place where I performed my Jewish music for an audience for the first time, a place where I taught other teachers for the first time. And I love getting to learn from all the folks at NewCAJE, including Ellen, who I've taken her sessions, at NewCAJE in person before, but in honor of being here at a place for education, we decided today to explore the blessing for studying Torah. And we're going to talk a little bit about what that means anyway, but Ellen, why don't you just help us dive in to the Hebrew of this bracha that we'll be exploring today?

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