There is a spark it can ignite, and all you gotta do is bring the light- cause a new light to shine... Shalom, everyone. Welcome to Episode 28 of the Light Lab Podcast. I'm Eliana, it's so great to be with you new listeners and old listeners alike. Coming to you from a very beautiful and sweaty August in Durham, North Carolina. It's so great to get to have these conversations about T'fillah, prayer, liturgy and spirituality and to revisit some interviews that I did earlier in the summer including this next one with my dear friend, an incredible practitioner and teacher of T'fillah and communal singing and a beautiful melodic voice- harmonies up the wazoo- friends, I'm so excited to share with you my interview with now rabbi, Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz. Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz serves the Hadar Institute as director of T'fillah and music. What an incredible title, the perfect position for the perfect person, an educator, practitioner, and facilitator of Jewish communal prayer. Deborah serves and supports communities and individuals who seek to deepen, sharpen and unlock their practice of empowered song and T'fillah. She has collaborated with a diverse array of different Jewish musicians. She's been on over two dozen albums. Incredible! Her first record of original spiritual music, the Narrow and the Expanse, such a beautiful album, that came out in 2020. She is also part of Joey Weisenberg's Hadar Ensemble, Rabbi Josh Warshawsky third chair friend of the pod, on the pod, he is the pod, Chaverai Nevarech band and New Moon Rising with our friends Elana Arian and Chava Mirel. Rabbi Sacks Mintz received Rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she also earned her MA in Women and Gender studies. She holds degrees in music and religious anthropology from the University of Michigan and you can learn more about Deborah's work at www.deborahsaksmintz.com. Don't worry, we will be including all of those links in the show notes. Listen to this episode and stick around to hear the title track from Deborah's album a beautiful version of "Min Hameitzar", which we'll talk about and please enjoy my interview with Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz.