Episode 42: What’s Next? (Amidah- V’al Kulam and Threefold Blessing)

8:00PM Mar 30, 2023

Speakers:

Eliana Light

Josh Warshawsky

Ellen Dreskin

Keywords:

blessing

god

adonai

moment

prayer

melody

received

words

selah

bingo card

people

liturgy

torah

grateful

thinking

kohanim

threefold

service

translate

gratitude

Shalom, everyone! Welcome to the Light Lab Podcast. My name is Eliana Light and I'm here with my good friends Cantor Ellen Dreskin.

Hello again, everybody.

And Josh Warshawsky.

Great to be back together.

We're actually together, Josh and I are in the same room!

Woo!

Like a yearly tradition. When I come down to Bexley, Ohio.

Gotta record a podcast.

We do. It's quite exciting. your basement is lovely, thank you very much. We're here, co leading the SLBC T'fillah and Shira Kallah, that means T'fillah, which if you want to translate that you can listen to the first episode of the podcast, just kidding. Prayer and liturgy and song connective retreat. I was gonna say weekend, but it's not a weekend. It's over a couple of days.

Now we get to use it as a preparatory for the in-person conference, which will be in St. Louis, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday where we get to be with Ellen too!

So excited right now to see the two of y'all on my video sitting there together. I can't wait to see you on-site next week.

Oh my gosh, I can't wait for the three of us to be in the same room for the first time since we started this whole thing. Which is right, yeah.

Listener by the time you hear this, we will have taken a picture.

Together!

That was the revelation that we need to make sure and get a picture. I'm not sure that the two of y'all really exist in the flesh. But I'm happy for this virtual time we've spent so much together.

Oh, me too. It's been such, and, speaking of blessings Here's our question of the day! Can you tell us well, not a question, but you know, an opening to you telling us a story. Tell us about a time you received a blessing. Josh, how about you go first.

I was trying to think of where I specifically received a blessing as opposed to times where like, I felt like something was a blessing or things like that. And it was hard for me to think of a particular situation. And then there was sort of one moment that I guess, stood above everything else, which was the moment when I received rabbinic ordination. And I received smicha. Smicha, is like a literal, putting hands on on somebody and giving them a blessing and saying you have learned and you're you're a colleague now, at the Ziegler Rabbinical School where I went through rabbinical school, you always ask some sort of rabbinic mentor, to put your tallit on you and give you that blessing and bless you with the blessing that we're going to talk about a little bit later. So for my smicha, my ordination, I had both my father in law, who's a rabbi, and Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, who's the Associate Dean of the rabbinical school, jointly put the tallit on me and give me a blessing. So I had family connection, and also a rabbinic teacher who had guided me through the whole process of rabbinical school. So to have them carry me up to that moment, and be up with me on the bima in front of all these people and receive this blessing that says that, that you're going to be our colleague, in addition to our student, was a really powerful moment for me. And a real life changing moment also.

So beautiful. We're so glad that happened. So beautiful. Ellen, tell us about a time you received a blessing.

Wow. I remember distinctly, except, I don't remember what year it was. But it was in the late mid to late 1980s that I was on faculty at a kallah, summer kallah for the Union for Reform Judaism. And one of my co faculty was Debbie Friedman. And this is I think it sticks out because this is the first time I remember that is on Friday evening as the whole community lit candles together. The rabbi who was in charge, who was Rabbi Larry Raphael, zichrono livracha, said, find someone standing next to you, and ask them with what would they like to be blessed. And then bless with that. And then switch and you know, and with your partner, and I found myself standing next to Debbie, we've been very good friends already for 20 years. And, and I remember sharing a blessing with her. And I don't remember what I asked for. And I honestly don't remember what she said. But the reason I bring it up is because the next morning was Shabbat morning, she came to me and handed me a piece of paper. And it's a full page letter that starts with, last night I didn't know what to say, and here's why. And I forgot about it for a little while because it's been a number of years, but I was last week and I found the letter and was so appreciative of that and feeling so grateful to actually have something concrete, that is that blessing that Debbie shared with me. And so that, of course came right up front. When I saw the question for the day, I thought, Well, I must have found it last week so that I could share it with the y'all, very special and very special to have it in writing too.

Yeah. So beautiful just to hear that story. I think we both got chills a little bit.

That idea that we can give blessings to each, is, then I am going oh my gosh, we're allowed to do this! Hmm, I didn't know about that. And now as a common, thankfully, I'm grateful for that too that we spend a lot of time hopefully sharing blessings with each other now.

Amen. Amen to that blessing of blessings, wow, these are all such great stories. And listener, you can think about a time you received a blessing, whether you categorized it at the time as a blessing. I don't think I would have thought, you know, what happened to me would have been a blessing until much later. But this was already like 10 years ago. So I was 23 at the time, and I was at a conference. And as we were doing at the conference was, were hanging out in somebody's dorm rooms, we were at a college and it was late, and people were talking and I was like pouring out my soul to someone because at these intense conference experiences, especially if you don't know a lot of people, sometimes you become very close very quickly with people who you've never met before. And so we're just like pouring our souls out to each other. And I was sharing how I was feeling so insecure, and how I like didn't feel confident and I, you know, worried about friendships, and will I ever be in a loving relationship and like all of these things, to this wonderful person, Jewish priestess, a Kohenet from Australia, potentially not the Kohenet from Australia that you're thinking of, if you know, some Kohenets from Australia, she was wonderful. But she she looked me straight in the eye and she said, your 30s are going to be amazing. She stared, like right at me right at my face and my soul in my gut, that, you know, when I get older, I'm going to come into my own and I'm going to step into my power and my confidence. And I don't have anything to worry about, because it's just going to happen. And, I don't think I thought of it much then. But as I approached the age of 30, I thought about it all the time. I was very excited for my 30th birthday, because I had received this blessing, slash I don't know, prophesy that my thing. And they have been you know, I think all of those things have happened. Did they happen because of this blessing? Who knows? But they certainly the possibility for them to happen, I think became more expansive and wide once I was seeing my life in that way. And it allowed me to enter the next decade of my life with excitement, which I'm very, very grateful for. So yeah.

That's beautiful. Hey, can I add one more?

Please.

Eliana, what you shared about us having the ability to give blessings reminded me of a story from the Talmud about when God asks for a blessing. And I feel like we've talked about on this podcast before maybe that there's a story in masechet, I don't know which masechet it's in but Rabbi Yishmael goes into the Holy of Holies. And God says, barcheini, God says to Yishmael, give me a blessing and the blessing that Rav Yishmael gives to God is, yehi ratzon milfanecha, Maybe Your Will, sheyichbeshu rachamecha et ca'ascha, that your mercy vanquish your anger. I think that's just such a great plus one, a great blessing to give to God. Right? Rav Yishmael knew what to say in that moment. But the the fact that even God wants wants blessings and that every single every single being every single creature wants to receive and wants to be able to give also the sort of reciprocal blessings that we can share with each other.

Oftentimes, we think of blessings as hierarchical as if it has to come from someplace higher. And and yet to know that that's not necessarily the case. I also love that already, we've opened up the question the question of what is a blessing is a blessing a prophecy? Is a really good question, I think for us to ponder.

I was just looking up this quote I remember probably from one of my humor books, the internet is attributing it to someone named Ronnie Shakes, I'll look it up. But I fear one day I'll meet God, God will sneeze and I won't know what to say. So well knew what to say to God. I you know, that's another way thinking about blessings. Beautiful. So my friends, we are still on our Amidah journey, which is great. Isn't it great? That we've gotten to take all of this time to dig so deeply into our Amidah. We have taken three steps back and three steps forward, we have explored the blessing formula baruch atah yud hay vav hey and what that might mean, we have connected with our ancestors and the Holy One's powers and what holiness is, and the petitionary blessings, the yearning for knowledge and repentance and forgiveness and redemption and healing and abundant land and in gathering and justice and boo heretics and yay righteous ones, and a rebuild Jerusalem and the kingdom of David's slash redemption slash Messiah and what that even means, and what does it mean to have heard our prayers and accept our prayers? Last week in the podcast, we re-aired our episode on Modim Anachnu Lach which we did way before we knew we were going to be taking this journey and today we're going to close out, round out, this gratitude section of the Amidah. Josh want to read for us?

Yes, here we go. I'm reading from these Sim Shalom Siddur, Conservative Movement's former prayer book, and here we go. Ve’al kulam yitbarach v’yitromam shimcha malkeinu tamid leolam vaed. V’chol hachayim yoducha selah v’yehalelu et shimcha b’emet ha’el yeshuateinu v’ezrateinu selah. Baruch atah adonai hatov shimcha u’lecha naeh lehodot. For all these blessings, we shall ever praise and exalt You. May every living creature thank you and praise you faithfully, God of our deliverance and our help. Praised Are You Adonai the essence of goodness, worthy of acclaim.

Hmm.

What are we seeing? What are we experiencing? What are we noticing?

So many things. So many things. I feel like today, the word selah is calling out to me. Selah is a very interesting, linguists think that it was a, to call for the choir to halt. And so when we see Selah kind of in the Psalms, because the Psalms were sung in the Temple service, can imagine the holy conductor of the Levite choir asking for this held note. And then that held note has also come to mean foreverness and eternity and perpetuity. And so Selah coming twice here was this text part of the Temple service or, as so much of this kind of end of the Amidah has, as we talked about, kind of in our Amidah episode, I think two episodes ago 39 recalls the temple service. And what we're about to do after this paragraph also records the temple service, bringing in Selah, I think for me is connecting those dots.

I think I learned from Joey Weissenberg also that Selah could be an acronym for Siman L'kahal Haas, did that that's the moment where they like hold out and stop the note. That's exactly or saying it could be an acronym. And I'm noticing where the Selahs are placed. And I wonder if there's like a sort of reciprocity, again, with we're going to, v'chol hachayim, all these living creatures are going to praise, selah, praise, and then, al yeshuateinu v'ezrateinu, then God is going to be this salvation, hold that out. Right? That there's sort of this connection between the us praising and all these living creatures and the salvation that we're receiving and experiencing from God

And that those notes are held maybe singing in harmony.

Nice.

All of creation and God together.

Love that.

Love that too!

Beautiful. I went back and looked at the beginning of this prayer Modim Anachnu Lach, even though we did it as a separate episode, noticing that that now that we're looking at it in the context of the closing prayers of the Amidah, that from the get-go, it's not just about us, but about it repeats that Adonai eloheinu v'eolohei avoteinu modim anachnu lach, this idea of throughout all time, throughout all generations, and then we get there is gratitude or there should be this gratitude for the eternality of it all. So when we get to b'chol hachayim yoducha selah, I love, v'chol hachayim to me means the all of life. And not just the all of life in all of its forms right now while we're sitting here talking. But the all of life is this continuum throughout the ages, that it's in every generation, we're the broad things, our lives which are in Your hand our souls that are in Your keeping. It's it's what we all have in common. That we're now expressing. We're just the gift of life.

That's beautiful. I find, often, even if I am davening this, I'm praying this Amidah, that I stopped at the kulam. I find that those two words end up, like I can't just say them once. Usually, I have to say them at least a dozen times. They're really powerful for all for all of everything. And the translation that I'm looking at in the Lev Shalem says for all these, talked about all of these kinds of daily blessings, and just the acknowledgement and the gratitude that comes from that acknowledgement of being alive, and having souls and the days moving forward. But it doesn't say in all these blessings is just as for all of this, and what does it mean? How can I and I think that's what I take it as an opportunity to do, is right in this moment, even without thinking this big, kind of future way, but like right now, what does it mean to be in gratitude for all this? Whatever all this is on a given day?

Is there a melody for v'al kulam that repeats those words?

Yes. Yes. I was going to bring it up later. But let's bring it out now. No, this is good! This is good. We can we can play around with it. I think Cantor Meir Finkelstein, at least that's the one I'm thinking of: V'al kulam, v'al kulam, yitbarach v'yitromam, which, fun fact, I didn't know that melody until when I was working at Park Avenue synagogue many years ago, he came to visit. And I was assigned to do that as a duet with him, which was just, just breathtaking. Like he has a magnificent voice and a magnificent presence. So I learned it so that I could sing it with him. So maybe that's also why that repetition.

But I feel there must be I don't know if there was something intentional in his musical choice to do that. But I liked the idea of of choosing which words you're going to repeat in the melody based on where you feel the melody and the words are actually trying to say and that, you know, that vibes with with the way that you were experiencing, which I think is really beautiful.

What else are we noticing?

I was brought back to the end of this, this paragraph, this the chatima, the blessing that we close with, hatov shimcha u'lecha naeh lehodot, and that, if we're thinking about the way that the Siddur is put together, there's sort of this like inter Siddur weaving that's happening that's reminiscent both of the Kaddish, same with yitbarach v'yitromam, but also of Yishtabach, the prayer that we say to conclude our Pseukei Dezimra service and begin the Shacharit service, we say ki lecha naeh adonai eloheinu v'elohei avoteinu, because God, it's so pleasing to get to sing out to You, shir u'shvacha hallel v'zimra, songs and praises these melodies and beautiful notes, all these things that we get to sing out, it's just nice to get to do. It's really nice to get to come together in song. And I think, you know, at the end of this Amidah, we've, we've recited all these blessings, it's given us a moment to notice the blessings in our own lives and ask for the things that we feel like we wish to receive and set an intention for ourselves. And at the end of it, we say we look back and we say, huh, it was nice that I got to take the moment to do this. It was nice to be in this moment with you, with myself, with community and with God. And I think it's great to be able to name our feelings. And so that feels like a really powerful way to conclude this whole section of the Amidah, saying this has been a really nice experience, and I appreciate getting to do it.

I love that so much, especially thinking about when we're I'll be able to share in song next week. And I feel like also sometimes I can get pretty intellectual about prayer. I mean, that's what this whole thing is about. Right? It's like talking about prayer, and its efficacy and what does it mean to bless people? And where's God and all of this? But yeah, giving myself the permission to be like, it's just nice, like, sometimes, yes to all those other things. But it's also really nice just to sing and be together and that there is a positive inherent in that on its own.

I am of the school, the West Wing School of liturgy, always wanting to ask the question, what's next? Particularly when we come to the end of a section of our service, this word naeh to me, lecha naeh lehodot, I like the translation of the word as appropriate, or fitting. To be grateful. And I'm reminded of an Abraham Joshua Heschel quote that says: "It's gratefulness that makes the soul great." That because our gratitude how action on our part and so I'm left to to think what what does it mean to go out grateful hopefully, I want to print environment that I'm grateful for. I want to be kind to the people that I love that I'm grateful for. I want to practice self care because my soul I'm grateful for my soul. So this idea of gift really, that nu, so what are you gonna do about it? And I love that about Judaism in general, and especially when I see it in our prayer.

I love that too! And also if we take a step back even and look at the root Modim and it shares, right, and modeh and modaah and a lot of places where we use the word gratitude, Larry Hoffman translate it translates it in My People's Prayer Book as grateful acknowledgement because there's something about acknowledgement. I think we explored this a lot when we did our kind of gratitude series early in the podcast, the idea that there's gratitude that can arise from the heart just in the moment and outpouring of I'm so grateful that to that can arise intellectually of I am acknowledging I am choosing notice what is going on right now. And that is leading me to gratitude that, and then that gratitude leads to action. And I love that maybe we can track that road across this whole section. Right? We start with acknowledgement. Right? We start with Modim. And we end with lehodot. That's, as Rabbi Kimmelman would remind us, an inclusio, where it opens and closes with the same word and idea. And we've moved from a place of acknowledgement, through gratitude, into gratitude that leads to action. I love that.

I have a question that comes up for me a little lot of the prayers, but it came up for me here as well as that's the difference between blessing, and acknowledging or testifying. And I tend to think of or I'm in, in the process of thinking about is there a difference between barech, to bless, and hallel, to praise? So because kol haneshama tehallel yah, you know, every breath, testified just the fact that we're breathing, perhaps is evidence of something going on beyond us or within us. And that blessing is actually a more active, you give or receive. And I'm playing with that in my head of how much does our very active being a living thing, praise God acknowledge that there's something bigger going on here is the blessing is my being asked to bless or be a blessing, something different, in, in addition to that.

Fascinating, we were talking last night at our T'fillah and Shira kallah, about htat spirituality is about awareness and noticing the things that are happening in our lives. When you get when you give a blessing you mark time and saying this moment is important to you, it seems to me based on what you're saying that hallel, that praise can happen at all times. Kol haneshama, so kol hanishim, every breath can be a breath of praise. And when we make it more intentional, and we say when we give when we offer something, when there's an action that goes along with it, blesing. I love that, I love the distinction between those two, I think that there's something really actualizing in a blessing and that's different from just praise, which can be like praise can be all all the time, praise can be hallelujah is that you can just say all the time, but a blessing grounds that moment in experience and action. That's cool.

I like that too. Also looking at the closing blessing, hatov shimcha, which also just again, we could just talk about two of these words for a really long time. Hatov shimcha, which is translated as, in this Lev Shalem as, Your name is goodness, Your name is good, or we call you Tov, right, Tov is a name for you. And that's just so beautiful. Another way of thinking about God and God's name in the world, another suggestion of a nickname for Godm, and what does it mean to call out to God as goodness in a particular moment, especially when we have spent this section of the Amidah in our gratitude journey?

Earlier in the same prayer even it says hatov ki lo chalu rachamecha, that name whether it's a name or a job description, but it explains it a little bit. You are, You are good or the good one as like a title, because Your mercies never fail. And is the way that I grew up translating that, and I was reminded of other titles of God like I looked at other chatimot, I'm trying to think if there are other ones that say ha-baruch atah adonai, what comes to mind for me is hamaariv aravim. And it says hatov as a name for God. And I wonder, are there others where we say God is the ha, and then we have that action following?

Hamevarech et amo yisrael?

Yeah. And I guess, kind of the translate that in the English because just ha just that the, then we have to say like The one who is goodness, or The source of goodness or, but it's like Ha Tov like it's it's very kind of more straightforward in the Hebrew in a way that's really hard to translate.

I pulled out the Koren Sacks Siddur, which translates that phrase as Blessed are you Lord whose name is quote unquote, "The Good," to whom thanks or due. Right, and this translation I think, tries to be a little more literal, and hoping to call God that name. And sometimes we I think we have Broadway episodes, but we I was thinking about that and I, I immediately thought of Wicked where they sing the line that Glinda should be known as Glinda officially, wonder if God was upset about Glinda stealing God's name.

Checkoff on your bingo cards, we made a Broadway reference officially, I love that. And with that, officially, we'll be right back.

So we have a section of the service here now that we'll talk in a moment about where it appears when it appears and in which Siddurim it appears. But we're introduced now to this threefold blessing as part of the Amidah, and we're going to talk about it a bit. It has its own introduction read by the reader and it leads us into some Torah verses. It goes like this. Eloheinu v’elohei avoteinu barcelona bavracha hameshuleshet batorah haktuva al yedei mosheh avdecha ha’amura mipi aharon u’vanav kohanim am k’doshecha ka’amur. Yevarechecha adonai v’yishmarecha, ya’er adonai panav eilecha vichuneka, yisa adonai panav eileka v’yasem lecha shalom.

Ken yehi ratzon. I think you have to say that.

I think you do have to say that, it's true. I was hearing in the Hebrew that repetitive ah sound that ah, opening and vowel is all encompassing. I think I bring up the class I did with Victoria Hanna about the letters and ah, is everything. It's out, forward, backward, to the sides. It's an all directions. So that repetition kind of even leading up to the blessing. Bracha, Torah, K'tuvah, Dacha, Ha'amura, right, we're kind of like readying ourselves for this expansiveness. And then the blessing itself also has that ending in the echa, the you form. And as it's been pointed out by scholars and in the My People's Prayer Book, it made reference that it starts with three words, the blessing, and then it's five, nd then it's seven, right? It's, it's expand brachot, in blessings, even with feeling a lot of expansiveness.

Josh could, the two of y'all could, fill in a little bit, I'm a born and raised Reform Jew. Now, you could check that off of your bingo card that I mentioned the fact that I was raised in the Reform Movement, and I'm looking here at my Reform Siddur, Mishkan T'fillah. And I can't find what I just read this threefold blessing. It does not exist in this spot in the Amidah. So maybe y'all could talk a little bit about how this does exist in your services. And then there's this ritual associated with it, of the Kohanim coming before the congregation and actually, we talked about giving and receiving blessings actually giving this blessing. And is it I'm blessed. I'm now blessing you in God's name, which is different than my just giving you a blessing. This opens up a realm here, so can you tell me how this fits in, in your own ritual and outside of the Reform Movement?

Sure. So I grew up experiencing this blessing, the synagogue that I grew up at with duchan, which is where the priests would come to the people who identified as Kohanim would go up to the bima at the front, but offer this blessing on Festivals. So, Sukkot, Pesach, Shavuot, and on the High Holidays, they would gather and what would happen they would go outside and the Levi'im, the people identified as the Levites would wash their their hands and feet outside, and then they would come in, in their bare feet. That's what I always remember that they were just in their socks, and they would come up on the Bima. And then I would, I would get under my dad's tallied, and everybody would either turn away or would put their tallitot over their head, so they wouldn't be able to see it. My dad always said that, we should not turn away because you don't want to turn away from the blessing. So we just had to cover our so we wouldn't experience it because the priests would then put up their hands and the priestly gespok, and they would offer this blessing to the people. I think in different places around the world, this is said with differences. In Jerusalem, within the walled city duchan every day in many congregations.

Really?

Yeah, when I was studying in the Conservative Yeshiva, they would all there would be people who would some that would offer it, Kohens, and present with us, outside of Jerusalem. But in Israel, it's it's set in many congregations every Shabbat, like with the I mean, the duchanim where the priests would come up and actually do this sort of theatrical ritual. And then in congregations outside of Israel, it was said just on the these holidays. But even when the duchaning is not present, when the priestly theatricality of the ritual doesn't happen, the, the shaliach tzibur, whoever was leading the service, if they did a repetition of the Amidah, where everybody did it silently by themselves, and then we, the leader said it all out loud afterwards, this paragraph would always be included this sort of blessing, reminiscent of the priestly blessing. Even in a moment where we weren't doing the pageantry, the blessing itself still existed within the Siddur.

And what's, what's jumping out to me is the fact that it isn't part of the silent Amidah.

Right.

Because it's a blessing that someone has to give to you, or that you must give to someone else. It's not really part of the personal liturgy, right, this threefold blessing that comes to us in the Torah in Bamidbar, which is already being used, like the Psalms, and the book of Malachi mentioned this as being used. And in My People's Prayer Book, it says it was found written on silver in a burial trove in Jerusalem, from the sixth or seventh century, way, way back when, maybe before BCE, I don't remember but anyway, it's it's a known entity, and it's used as a blessing for the people in the Temple service. The Talmud talks about the Temple service kind of closing with this ritual. I grew up in a synagogue that did not do duchaning, that did not do the ritual out loud. But I really loved it when we went to synagogues that did. I understand, of course, and we've talked about it a lot the discomfort that we have harkening back or praying for restore Temple and a restored prayer sacrifice.

Hierarchical nature of it.

Yes. You know, to be a Conservative, egalitarian synagogue, where egalitarian, not just in terms of the genders being able to do everything. But in terms of, doesn't really matter if your family is a Cohen or a Levite. But I have really come to appreciate this, as a piece of ritual theater, which we don't do a lot of, like, we have the suggestions to do it in our Siddur. And there are certain things more or less, but many pieces of this Amidah have been harkening back to the Temple service, this is certainly one of them. And there is something just very powerful. When, when duchaning happens, when the Kohanim are there, the leader kind of feed words and whispers them - Yevarechecha, and the Kohanim say, Yevarechecha. And I think one of my favorite favorite moments, to be a prayer leader is that moment, I find it so incredibly powerful. This kind of cycle of blessings. That's like, you know, God is throughout the cycle, but I give it to the Kohanim and they give it to the people that gives it back to the Kohanim and back to me and it just kind of cycles through you. It can be very powerful.

But I think it really adds to the theatricality of it. It's really now they are saying that that's also one of my favorite parts is that like Eliana, like you were saying, with this blessing is a blessing that comes from God and and then the priests are giving it and there's something confusing about the directionality of that. But in some ways, the blessing only has 15 words, the priests could probably remember it by themselves, but they still receive every single word as if it was received from on high and then given to them to then give to the people, which I think is really powerful.

Received anew every time it's said, also, meaning that it's a different blessing even though we're using the same words.

Right.

That it's renewed in each moment.

I observed habits, to observe duchaning, once in my life, and I remember it. I remember though, it's funny, having with my grandmother years and years ago, where she would talk about being in Temple when she was a kid to experience this ritual. And the story that she said was, you can't look, this is about like turning away, Josh, that you mentioned that you close your eyes and and you can't peek. She said, Because if you if you peek once, she said the legend for her was you peek once, you lose sight in your right eye. You peek twice, you lose sight in your left eye. You peek three times, you die.

Oh no!

And of course, it was Grandma. If you're already blinded both eyes, how can you peek a third time? And the answer is always don't ask. And that was the end of the conversation - don't ask. But it was considered a very like a real peak moment in the service.

A peek but don't peek moment.

There you go, a peek but don't peek moment. Well done. Well done. Let's make sure and mention which I don't think that we have yet for everybody who's listening that this threefold benediction is, I mentioned that it was out of Torah, but it's Numbers, chapter six, verse 24, if you want to go look it up in the Torah text where God specifically says to Moses, and Aaron, here's how you list the people. Through me, here's the exact words you should use. And so here we have it.

I also just want to add one more thing to our bingo card, which is I'll bring up gematria.

Yes, this is such a bingo card episode!

Because, you know, you mentioned that it goes from three to five to seven. And that's, that's 15. Right, which is, which is God's name?

Of course it is.

It's Yah. This blessing is made up of words that actually equal the number that we connect with God. So this blessing that we're receiving from God is actually a blessing that is of God. It's Yah.

I love that. I'm also being drawn to the imagery, you know, we talk about the kind of modern discomfort with the Temple service. And we also have modern discomfort with anthropomorphizing God, with this idea of imagining God as having a human body. But this talks about God's face, panav, translated here as countenance, but it's face, right? That means, that means face. And the Torah itself, does not shy away from anthropomorphism.

Anthropomorphism.

Oh my gosh, is there a place on the bingo card for Eliana trips over a big word? You know, the Torah isn't afraid of that, right? God has a strong hand and an outstretched arm in the Torah, it's not afraid of using those words, you know, my Maimonides comes along and is like God doesn't have a body. And so we all shy away from it. But I've kind of come back around to it, knowing that it doesn't have to be literal, for it to be powerful. And what's powerful about God's face is that nobody gets to see it. Right? Moses didn't even get to see God's face, Moses is up on the mountain. They've had this, you know, heightened moment. And Moses says, Please show me your face. And God says, I'm going to put you in this rock over here between these rocks, and I'm going to pass by you, and you're only going to see my back. Nobody gets my face. And yet, we are blessing each other. And the priests are blessing us and the Kohanim are blessing us with, May God's face shine on you, that there's something about the mystery and the ineffability. And that which we cannot explain, force or even see, that is in and of itself, the blessing. I don't know. I'm finding that very striking right now. What does it mean to through the countenance of God?

And it made me think of when you just said, you know, that idea of God's face shining on you that we can't look at the sun. We can't see the sun, we it is blinding, and yet the sun's face is shining on us. You know, so, so we're asking that that that God's face shine that God be the God's face be lifted, that God turn God's face, and we don't get, we experience through our lives this idea that we're being watched over turned towards or acknowledged and paid attention to, you're right, being able to see and to give it visually. I want to go back to the let me trip over the word the anthropomorphization of Adonai, you know, the, the very fact that God speaks at all, would imply that God has a voice box and lungs and vocal cords. So there's our first clue from the moment for me that it says God said, we have to realize that it's not necessarily or exclusive speech, the way we think of speech. We hear God in, we're at command and Shema to hear God in so many different ways all the time, that this one is different and not different, perhaps.

There's also the tradition, and I see it in my Siddur, and I see it Josh's in yours. And maybe it's in yours too, Ellen, that after each of these lines, the congregation response, ken yehi ratzon. Right? May it be the will. Right? Or may this will be in the future. So, I mean, but it's interesting that we don't use amen here, we use ken yehi ratzon. May it be, saying, kind of like putting the blessing into motion, almost, just like giving it a little push forward? Like, yes, we agree, may it be, and that also continues the cycle of, you know, the Holy One, to the leader, to the Kohanim to the people and then back again. So we say ken yehi ratzon. And there are other times where this appears in the liturgy where we might not say can ken yehi ratzon, the priestly blessing is also the blessing for children, Friday night liturgy and, you know, stay to exploring that soon. But I also love that this piece of sacred text appears in different liturgical contexts, thus changing the, and the Midrash, the commentary around it. So yes, we're going to bring it up at other times, but it's, it might be completely different when we do and I love that.

I'm sure that many people are used to hearing this as the blessing that's recited for b-mitzvah, the blessing that's recited for wedding couples underneath the chuppah. You know, this blessing with a capital B, The Blessing, like HaTov, this is HaBracha, The Blessing.

May we merit say giving this blessing, perpetually. Sela even one might say.

Ken yehi ratzon.

Ken yehi ratzon.

Welcome back, everyone. This gives us a great opportunity to explore some melodies for this threefold blessing. As we mentioned, we're going to be bringing it up more in different contexts. But here are some contexts. Now Ellen, what's the melody that you like?

Well, the melody that I have really come to appreciate most recently is Chava Mirel's loving kindness blessing, which I believe you just heard a clip of during the break. And Chava has surrounded an interpretation of this priestly benediction English words about giving and receiving blessing. And I am so fascinated by it because Chava made the Hebrew more inclusive and actually changed the Hebrew. And that may be when we come back to talk about the blessing further in other episodes we'll talk about the Hebrew changes, listen to the whole thing. Both changes Adonai to Shechina, masculine to feminine, and at the same time, makes it instead of yevarechecha, You singular and masculine, to varchenu, that we be blessed. So it kind of raises all of us to that priestly level of being able to give blessings to others, and makes it grammatically correct for certain situations. And that leaves us with the question of when we take these lines straight from Torah, then do we have the permission when using them in different groups and, and calling God by different names? Do we have the permission to change the words to this blessing specifically? That's something for another episode, but I'm looking forward to it.

Me too! Beautiful.

I have a few melodies that I really liked for this one. And it was now that I'm at the High Holidays, where I'm at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, there's a really beautiful, four-part choral arrangement that we do for this piece with a little quartet. But the one that I thought of that I wanted to share is Happie Hoffman has a really beautiful melody, very just a sweet melody that I think really encompasses sort of this blessing that's falling as a fountain over the people who are receiving it. It's really nice, fun, so put in the show notes.

For my pick, I'd actually love to share a melody of mine. And we'll use that as our closing, as our closing blessing for the moment. I remember when I wrote this because it was my, my first staff meeting at Park Avenue synagogue, which was my first quote unquote, big girl job, my first full time job, many years ago already. And before the meeting, Cantor Azi Schwartz said, you know, it would be really nice to use a melody of yours in our service, maybe a priestly blessing. And we have the meeting up on the roof because it was a beautiful day. And while the meeting was going on, was I paying attention? Only kind of, because in my head, I was playing around with the words of the threefold blessing. And this melody came, and it was honor to hear it sung, but it was working with a teen rock band at the time. And they played it and they did such a beautiful job. And on my last Shabbat, they surprised me by, by playing it together. And so it reminds me of those teens who are all young adults now, you're probably at college or out of college. Having lives it's incredible! So we'll we'll leave us with a blessing, and we can invite you, dear listeners if you are able to take a deep breath, a settling breath, to feel yourself connected to the Earth through your feet or through your seat. Take a moment of relaxing, relaxing your shoulders away from your ears, softening your face, imagining your spine as a ladder from heaven to earth and earth to heaven. And beginning to follow the pattern of your breath in and out. I invite you in this moment to imagine, to imagine the blessings, these words. And what these words represent flowing through you. You can bring your awareness to the top of your head where the head meets the air, your crown space. And imagine the throne space you are receiving this blessing. Maybe you want to imagine as light or wind or water or something else, whatever you want to imagine it as, imagine these blessings flowing from the top of your head through your face, your neck and your shoulders through your chest, down your arms, into your fingers, through your belly, and your seat, and your legs, and out through your toes. Just a channel of this blessing the flow of which does not stop when we open ourselves to it we can become that channel and then the blessing flows through us and out in a way that only we can.

Yevarechecha adonai v'yishmerecha, yaer adonai panav eilecha vichuneka, yisa adonai panav eilecha v'yasem lecha shalom. You can take a big deep breath in, shalom. Shalom, veyasem lecha, shalom, veyasem lecha shalom, another deep breath, shalom, veyasem lecha shalom. Yevarechecha adonai v'yishmerecha, yaer adonai panav eilecha vichuneka, yisa adonai panav eilecha, v'yasem lecha shalom. Shalom, veyasem lecha, veyasem lecha shalom. Shalom. Veyasem lecha shalom.

May we feel peace, be a conduit for peace, and bring blessings of peace? Ken yehi ratzon!

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you so much, Ellen and Josh, for being together with us today.

My pleasure. Can't wait to see y'all on site in just a few.

Oh my gosh, so great to be in this room with you Josh and to get to sing and harmonize with you.

Amen!

What a blessing. Thank you to Yaffa for our shownotes. Thank you Christy for editing. Thank you, all of you for listening. You can find our very copious and detailed show notes wherever you got this podcast or at light lab.co and we hope to sing and learn and bless with you again very soon.