Episode 38: Words from my Heart (with Evelyn Goldfinger)

9:31PM Jan 23, 2023

Speakers:

Eliana Light

Evelyn Goldfinger

Keywords:

prayer

praying

god

people

kids

eliana

aleph bet

words

jewish

beautiful

book

listening

heart

theater

guess

child

world

connect

connection

adult

Shalom my friends, Eliana Light here, welcome to the Light Lab Podcast, our place to play with prayer and hold the gems of our liturgy to the light. If you are seeking to enter the world of Jewish liturgical wisdom and prayer practice, and help it be more accessible and meaningful to you, then you are in the right place. And I'm so glad you're here. Before we move on to today's awesome interview, a couple of announcements. First of all, have you checked out our new site yet? Light lab.co. We're still working out some of the kinks but y'all it's a really beautiful site. I'm so grateful to Hannah Perlman, designer extraordinaire. Also check her out, we'll link to her shop in our show notes. She makes beautiful stuff really made it shine. And you might see there that our deep dive Shema series has begun this week, but don't worry. First of all, it's lasting for three weeks, and there are two sessions each week, and you don't have to come to all of them. So you can sign up so you'll have the zoom. Come to as many as you would like. Wednesday's sessions are with renowned liturgist Rabbi Reuven Kimmelman. If you haven't listened to his episode of the pod, definitely go back and check that out. Those sessions will be focusing on the themes of the biblical texts, the connections between so much wisdom. And Thursday evening sessions with me are going to be using the light lab methodology to dive into these prayers and small pieces of text from these prayers for ourselves through partnered study, and through discussion, through reflection, and response. We are going to attempt to, as we say, alchemize liturgy into prayer. And we really hope you will come! Link to sign up is in the show notes and wherever you're listening to the podcast as well. I also wanted to share that I, with my like, Eliana hat on, am making two new albums of original Jewish music this year. And I'm seeking support in that endeavor to bring people along, to help make this a reality. The first album is Ora Hi, which is prayer songs, liturgical melodies, and niggunim. Last week, I had the absolute honor of recording the music for this album with an incredible group of musicians in Atlanta, we did a live concert, which you'll be able to see in a couple of months, which is super exciting. And singing with everyone was just so amazing. And there's a lot of post work that needs to happen. And I'm excited to be able to pay my musicians what they're worth. I'm also working on an new album of holiday songs for kids. And keep listening to the podcast over the next couple of weeks and months, when we have new things to share, you'll get little sneak peeks of the music right here. But you can find the link to support in the show notes or wherever you're listening to this podcast or on light lab.co. All right, on to today's interview. Today, we have the honor of listening to my interview with the amazing Evelyn Goldfinger aka Ms. Eve. Ms. Eve is a spiritual leader, performer, author, storyteller and Jewish educator. Her company is called Torahtron, which is a portmanteau of Torah and Teatron, Teatron the Hebrew word for theatre. It's a professional theatre ensemble, engaging children and adults through shows, workshops, and interactive videos. You can check them out at Torahtron, of course we'll have the link right here. And she has engaged thousands of spectators, she is also the kindest, sweetest, most creative, open person, she really brings Jewish values and stories to life for young kids and also the child in everyone in a really powerful way. She's the author of the best selling books, The Shabbat Treasure and new this year, Words From My Heart, the Hands-On Jewish Prayer Book, which we talk a lot about in our interview because it's really an incredible, incredible resource. If you have, or work with young children, or if you've ever been a young child, definitely keep listening. Evelyn lives in sunny Miami where she serves as a cantorial soloist, while studying to be ordained as a cantor, enhancing spiritual practices by inviting individuals and families to join in singing tradition, stories and prayer. You can find her at evelyngoldfinger.com or shalomeve.com. Instagram, Facebook, of course we will have those links in the show notes. Enjoy our interview with Evelyn Goldfinger.

Welcome, Ms. Eve, to the Light Lab Podcast!

Hi, Eliana, I'm delighted to be here. So honored.

I'm so grateful that you are here. You are doing so many innovative and exciting things in the T'fillah space right now. But before we get to right now, as we like to do on the show, let's rewind to then. Tell me a little bit about your childhood growing up? What was God for you? What was T'fillah for you?

So let me, I come from the theater. So let me share with you that is in four short acts. So act number one, I'm five years old. And my family decided along with other families to host Shabbat dinners, they would rotate. But before that, we would go to a Conservative synagogue in Argentina, which was a very liberal in Buenos Aires, which means there were, you know, musical instruments and singing. So I'm there, I'm five, and I hear the singing and the Hebrew words and the joy and the musical instruments and the people singing in the community. I just fell in love. I just love that, and then we'll come home and seeing more and ay, di di di di, di di di di, We had like a whole shtick. And the brachot, the blessings, and to me that was the most, it is still my favorite day of the week, Shabbat. And that's like, my first memory. Act 2, I'm 12 years old, and I go to a sleepaway camp, aJewish sleepaway camp, and they're the girls in my bunk, they will say the Shema Yisrael before bedtime. I probably knew about this because I did go to a Jewish Day School. But that's my vivid memory of saying, oh, that's something, that's a practice I want to pursue. Of course, not in this words, right, and especially not in English, because remember, I was thinking in Spanish back then, mostly. So I bring that home with me. And ever since then, basically, I've been doing that. But at some point, let's say I'm 12 and a half, I guess I realized I'm a morning person. And that's when my connection with God awakens. So I begin praying every morning, with the words from my heart, with my own words, maybe probably I say the Shema, but I remember going in my house, we lived in an apartment, and we had the blessing of being able to do a little bit of the river facing east. So I would face the East next to a window, next to the light, or maybe I will go out in the balcony and just pray and pour my heart, heart out for however I need it. However long I need, even you know, before going to school, the first thing that I did I, before talking to anybody else, I would just have a conversation with God or pray or connect or however you want to say that. And come to think about I did talk a lot with God about things that I did not want to happen. And this is interesting, I focus on sort of the negative, like I don't want this to happen, please keep us from this and this and this, like I have to be very specific, I guess at 12 I need to make sure that God understood. So that's my second act. My third act, I am an adult, I moved to Miami, I'm a contorial soloist, I connect with the words, the songs and because of my theater background, you know, an interpreter, it's it is a person who translates but it's also a performer. It's someone who takes somebody else's words and make them their own. And I heard here at your beautiful and amazing podcast, somebody explained that being a cantor or even praying, it's about, it's like getting the music from Mozart or Beethoven or just playing that, you know, beautifully composed music. So the streets are so so with such intentionality behind those compositions, but so complex, and just trying to do that, right. So I guess because of my theater background as an, as a performer, I'm used to doing that, taking words that are not mine, and making them my own. And I guess that easily translated into prayer. And I was able to put myself out there. And yes, people will come and say that I sang beautifully and my voice and this and that. But my most beautiful thing that anybody ever said to me was when they would come and say, you know, you invited me to sing along. I wasn't singing that, I will sang with, you guided me. I was uplifted. I was able to pray. I was able to speak to God, I connected and to me that was like - That's it. That's what I want to do. Right? That's I want to be this vehicle, this channel, this this connector between prayer and spirituality and God and all these wonderful things and people. Right? To be this bridge. And so another thing happened there, which was that I started to understand that prayer did not come as easily to everybody as it did to me. Which brings us to Act Number 4, I become not only a control soloist, but a teacher and eventually a mom. And even though prayer was so special and so natural to me, how do I pass on all these love all this, feeling, good and joy and an uplifting sensations to the young ones? How can I do this? Because I can, even if I modeled for them, is that enough? How can I make this accessible? So prayer began to be a question again. And as I went through that journey on which brought me to this new book that, you know of, I began to question again, my own relationship to God, and my own relationship to prayer, and actually being much more active, are in analyzing and reflecting and intentionally doing all these things. So it's like a circle, I'm back to that five years old. Well, I think it's a good time for you know, for praying, like to put our words where our words are. So. So okay. Dear Creator of all that is connection, and energy, we thank you for this opportunity to connect. And if this is good timing, for us, for you, for the universe, let us continue this conversation. And if not, let us find another time where this conversation might happen, for the order of everything. And we thank you for this and all the challenges in our way. And we hope that all the challenges are as sweet as this ones. And we pray for everybody who are really in need of internet for bigger challenges to get that connection.

Amen, that was beautiful.

Thank you, it came from, well, you know where it came from.

Did it come from your heart?

It came from my heart. Yeah, it was like, this seems like a theme. Yeah, I'm gonna figure out a way to keep that in. Because I think that was really special and just evocative of the work that you do and the way you are in the world. But but I'd like to go back to the first couple of Acts and tease out some things there.

So just one more thing, once you do, you might want to, and we can talk about this later on, how we like to walk the walk, because sometimes we are prayer leaders or song leaders, and we talk a lot about prayer. But are we giving us that space? And how do we feel when we like just me saying these things and trying not to say, oy, am I sounding silly? Saying it out loud? Maybe I can try and manage on my own. But here's Eliana, she's listening to mee, she's sharing these, many more people, well, am I, am I really allowing myself to fail in this thing called prayer? Am I really allowed to have a conversation, a private conversation with God in public? And am I really allowed to call God by other names and to pray about some things that you know, there's no script for? Because I guess there wasn't really WiFi 3000 years ago? We don't know. I think that was the greatest connection ever. But so maybe, maybe we can address that at some point.

I mean, it sounds like this is what's on your heart so we can totally address it now. We don't have to go in any particular order. How do you find that permission and that space to pray, to pray? Not just in a leadership capacity, but in a personal capacity?

So it's interesting because you did mention that you would ask me about you know, my memories, praying as a child as you usually do in the podcast. And that got me thinking. And with these 4 arc stories, if we come back to that, I have lots of experience praying. Now it's like oh, no wonder I can connect easily. No wonder people say I feel like you're really praying out there and you can do it in front of people because I've been practicing my whole life without knowing it. I don't know if that if it is that normal for a child to be like in the middle of their living room, which I should have probably say that it wasn't in my room that I was praying to God like, I would, I was such a an old child, like the elder child or the privileged child because I would just stand in the middle of the living room whatever is happening, I didn't It's not like I asked people to be quiet, but I would just stand there facing the window and praying. So I was in open view. I don't recall that I minded at all and, and to my family. Yeah, that's the thing that she does, like singing in the shower. You know, that's what Evelyn does. So I guess there is that. But in writing this book, Words From My Heart the Hands-On Jewish Prayer Book, I really had to walk the walk and say, with each exercise, with each which is direction, with each in the dictation to see how that reflected on me because I was the one who was going to, to, you know, behind this and find the answers. And I guess what ended up happening was, I said, You know what, if I'm inviting kids to do this, I need to allow myself to do this more often. So I find myself praying a lot more actually. And in my car, and praying for small things, and big things and try it out, trying out new combinations, and trying not to say God all the time, but to really look for that name that inspires me and really look for that connection, not only praying for myself, but for the other people, and not only praying for the world, but also coming back to myself. So to me, this has been an amazing ride. And whether it is that I'm presenting the book, or you know, doing a workshop with educators and our parents or even kids, it's an invitation to, to really check in and say, Wait, how am I doing this with prayer? You know, how authentic can I be? How can I try new things? And how can this be? And I'm going to borrow your phrase, a lab, you know, trial and error. So I'd like to say in Spanish rehearsal in theater, it's called ensayo, which means trial, trial and error. It's like a lap. So how can I, how can this be a practice? And a practice is not perfect.

I'm seeing so much of my own experience in your story, because it was kind of as an educator, as I started realizing how I was talking about God and being self aware of how I was talking about God and prayer to kids, that A, that invited me to look back on my own life and start to see it coalescing as a journey. And it made me conscious and aware about, you know, if this is how I'm teaching this to kids, what am I doing in my life? And also, what am I doing for adults? So you know, I, my kind of, a piece of my prayer awakening, I don't have to get into the whole story here. But I really I realized, all the stuff that I was teaching kids about prayer, as an invitation into gratitude, and awe and connection, like, I could do it too. Like, if I think it's something that could make your life better, then I also have to believe it can make my life better. So why aren't I doing it? So yeah, that that really speaks to me.

I hear you, when do we lose the magic? Right? When do we decide that Disney is only for kids? And if you don't like Disney, fill in whatever you think it's magical, and beautiful and honest and true. Maybe this is not the best. But when we decide that same place, I'm thinking it's just for kids. When do we decide then hats are just for kids? When do we decide that, that, that believing in miracles or you know, being fascinating, being fascinated by a butterfly or a rainbow? When did we decided this is just for kids? And when did we decide to become grumpy, gray grownups? And I don't mean gray in about way, like it's a beautiful hue color, whatever it is. But when did we decide to lose that? Why are we are we really creating a world in which kids are taught one thing and then its surprise! Everything, you know, was untruth and feeling another stronger word here. Everything was just a charade. And the world is actually nasty. And people are not nice to each other. And we don't strive to be our better selves. And we never say please, and thank you.

I think it's also about the way wonder works in the world. I mean, you know, when we do prayer with little kids, they love it. And they want to talk about God and they want to sing, and everything is so wonderous to them. And I think one of the, the roles of the Siddur, one of the goals of the Siddur, and Jewish prayer practice, is to help us maintain a sense of wonder, throughout our lives. No one when I do workshops, I always joke, there's a reason that they don't call it teenage-like-wonder. They call it child-like wonder for a reason, even though developmentally it does make sense for it to be maybe lost or diminished at a certain age. And then it might come back around at a certain age and adulthood. There is something to be said about carrying it through. I think my mother has taught me this more than anyone, like she still loves Disney and cute, you know, it's Hanukkah time when we're recording this and she has her Hanukkah decorations and all these, like playful things that bring her joy. And I realized, yes, like, that's how to do it. It's no fun to be like, Why are you still doing this? You're an adult, you're an adult. So you get to choose to do things that bring you joy. So I think, I think that's a really good point to think about.

I agree.

I love how you're able to look back on your story and see those themes. And you say that it was always so easy for you to pray and to connect. I'm wondering if we look back on like, your 12 year old self praying on the balcony? How did you feel and think about God at that time? Where did you think your prayers were going? Did you have an intellectual understanding about God? Or thoughts about God,, kind of, in that way? And did that change throughout your life? How did that change? If it did?

That's a great question, Eliana. I think that, on one hand, for me, prayer was about expression. And actually closer to the l'hitpallel Hebrew terms, which is reflective and really go deep inside. On the other hand, there was God and it was maybe more structure-like entity. So yeah, it did definitely my relationship with God and my concept of what Divine is changed a lot. It was more traditional, you know, maybe it was closer to what is it the dude in the sky with a beard?

Yeah.

Exactly. But in a good way. I mean, I have yes, even if, if God is the dude in the sky, with the beard, it still works, you know. But at some point, I needed to expand, and I had more questions, and I couldn't let God have the whole responsibility of what's happening in the world. So to me, when I think of war, or situations where humans are directly responsible for, at some point, I had to say, you know what, God is not responsible for all of this, we have freewill. And that's the beauty and the danger of it. And so I pray that God helps us to bring light and to, to have strength to face whatever it is that we need to face. Particularly, it's harder for me when there's like a natural disaster or illness or some things that can be prevented. And I guess in time, what I'm learning is to ask for healing, and to ask for compassion, and to ask for guidance. And honestly, to ask for, for radical trust in God in a way that we can let it go and, and let go of our ego and really understand that we're having a spiritual experience in a human body. And there are some things that are just beyond our understanding and control. So acceptance, I would say, that's a big one. But that's as I grow less younger, I would say.

Yeah, I think the reason I stressed - Did you have an intellectual idea of God? Is maybe that the older, the older that I get, I become less interested in what I think about God and more interested in what I feel about God, if that makes sense.

It makes total and complete sense. That's what I was going to tell you also, it wasn't always about talking with God, in a sense of Oh, hi, God, I'm talking with you. It was definitely about a feeling, a sensation, something ineffable that you and I think that, that's the spiritual experience, because you cannot, this just makes sense. You cannot put it in words. It's beyond words is a being, it's a state. So it is a state, and you're in flow. And you, it feels like things are the way they're meant to be. It's like being in love. And things just make sense. And this is what it meant. Like this. This is what it was meant to be, you know, when something it's like, yeah, this is besheret. Yes. So I guess it had to do more with that. And for me, prayer has to do more with that than, you know, sending out a message to someone. It's about the whole experience.

Right. I love that you mentioned that part of your journey was expanding your God vocabulary, your language, your God nicknames. Are there any names for God, that you're finding particularly resonant or meaningful these days?

Yes, thank you for asking that. So in the book, I said that one of my, and I said that to my introduction to kids, not to adults on purpose. I wanted kids to hear this. One of my favorite names for God nowadays is the Greatest Artist, because I believe that this world is a work of art. And we are part of this art with the beautiful gift of making amazing things ourselves. So we are a work of art by the greatest artists and we can emulate that and also create wonderful things. And to me that speaks a lot as an assumed artist, which was not always the case in my life. I it was hard for me to say you know what? Yes, I show up as an artist. This is how I see myself how I express myself. This is my heel, this is my collar. This is how I show up in the world. And also in creating this book, I shared this with you, I did not only do the words and and the concept and work from my heart approach, the words from my heart approach, but I also did the illustrations are all handmade. And I had to give myself permission to do that, to try that, I didn't even know it was the final decision. But it was a whole process. And it had support of a great friend and my husband. And they said, Why don't you try it, you have a clearer idea of what you want to manifest? I would say, so I did. And I guess that part of me saying, You know what, I am B'tzelem Elokim, I am in the image of God. And if God is creating me and allowing us humans to create, I'm going to take that chance and see what happens.

I love that. The Greatest Artist connecting our creative impulse to the creation, the spark of creation that is still in all things that have been created. That's beautiful. I want to also pick up on a thread you mentioned in your beautiful 4 Acts about the connection between prayer and theater. Would love for you to share a little bit more about your theater experience, how it connects to prayer, God and spirituality in your own life.

Yeah, so Judaism and theatre are my two big passions. And that's my background and how I grew up. And as I became an adult, I started working that field and merging with some of my companies. I ran Torahtron, which is a Jewish Educational Theater Ensemble that started in Argentina, and now it's here in the US, and I perform with Jewish themes. So I do, like, mini musicals. To me, you know, they said when, they say that, when talking is not enough for you sing, when walking is not enough for you, dance. And I would say that when singing and walking is not enough for you, pray. I always say that dancing is praying with my feet. So I dance as I know that you do. I don't know if this is public information, I guess. Now it is. And when I dance, I am praying, this is what I'm doing. I'm giving myself in the moment. And especially when it's Israeli dance, and you have like this beautiful melodies and yummy Hebrew words. It's just the soul is dancing. And so just the body follows. And it doesn't matter who's looking at you. And hopefully, you can, on the contrary, spread that energy and that joy and let everybody bring their dance. I guess from ancient times, ritual, and, and all these sacred components of tribes. They were a very performative and our tradition is also very performative. I remember you saying that we have prayer aerobics, but it's also a prayer choreography, I'm sure you will come up with a great name for that, pray-ography, where we bend and we bow and we sway, right, so, and there's a disposition and we have a little stage called the Bima. That some people, rightfully so, I tried to get out of some of the clergy, are, but if we don't have the Bima, we have like, you know, the circle theatre. There's always something, there's always a place where we are seen and heard and be seen and heard, because we pray in community. And when we pray alone, is that performative? Well, I guess it's up to you. There are those who will argue in the theatre research world in the academic world that, free to be in theater, there has to be an actor, some thing that that actor is doing, not necessarily an actor, actor, but someone who is performing a performance and somebody who is watching. And without that someone who's watching, there is no performance. So sort of a question. If the tree falls in the forest, and nobody's there. Does it make any sound? So I guess for some people in terms of theater, the answer is no. Which brings us back I guess, to prayer if we pray, and God forbid, but God is not there. Right? You see what I'm doing here? Is it really prayer? But I think in that, in that aspect, the answer is yes. Because we do what we do more for us than for God, I believe. And for doing that is for us. That's how we are taking care of God's creature and we're doing this regard in a way. But I think prayer needs to change us, ourselves, and our communities so that we can make this a better world and we can be better partners for God and this beautiful work of art that we get to live in.

Amen. That was so beautiful. So many of your thoughts on these questions, sound like prayers, they are prayers, there's prayer nests in them. And I think it's just such a deep part of who you are, that you share with everyone through your music and your theater. And also, as you've mentioned, before your book, and I'd love to know like what your hopes and dreams are with this book? How do you hope it might be used by a child in, at home? How can it be used in a classroom? What are your - Yeah, what are your hopes and dreams for it?

Thank you, Eliana, for that question. Wow, my hopes and dreams. A very simple question, right?

Of course.

I hope that, like anything that I do, whether it's a show or a video on YouTube, or a song, or one of my stories or, or, or my books, I hope that people, I hope that they can be useful to people useful, not in a practical sense, but that they either get to someone's heart, or ignite something. I like to think of myself as a Shamash, especially in this season of Hanukkah when we are recording this, but really to give that spark and to start questions and conversations and, and just to, to give tools that people can use and, and be able to be inspired by hopefully, to take their own journey. So if we can go back, let me tell you a little bit about this book that we've been talking about, Words From My Heart, the Hands On Jewish Prayer Book, how it came to be.

Yes, please.

So three things happen. You want to call them three short acts, let's call them three short acts for the sake of being cohesive in this conversation. So the first act is I am a mother, I have a six months old, and I pray in front of the kid because I want to expose this kid to prayer. So I do it out loud very consciously, but it's still me praying, because this is a baby. Now my kid is three years old, and my kid wants to pray with me. And then there's the question that I had also in my classroom, how do I pass on all this love, and all this connection and this that comes so easily to me in a way that is accessible to keep my kid and the kids, right? So that's act number one. Number two, I listened to a story. May I share this story with you and the audience?

Yes, please.

So this is a story that is attributed to the great Baal Shem Tov, zichrono livracha. It's the holiest day of the year. Everybody's at the synagogue. Praying, nah nah nah nah nah nah, oy yoy yoy yoy yoy, very focused, concentrating on prayer, saying each word, saying at the right time, right rhythm. Amen. Oh, yoy, yoy, yoy, yoy, and then, aleph bet vet. What is that? Gimmel daled hey. Everybody looks around, a little kid, caf zayin, saying, Hey, you little kid. What are you doing? You're interrupting our prayer. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. But I'm also praying! Oh, little kid, you're just repeating the Jewish alphabet, the aleph bet. I'm sorry. I'm too young, I do not know the prayers. But - But I do know the aleph bet. So I repeat the aleph bet. And I hope that God will listen to my aleph bet. And we, and God will rearrange the letters to form the words that my heart wants to pray. Do you think that God understands? And everybody agreed that God was listening, that God understood, and that that was one of the most purest forms of prayer. And through that story, I remember that, that T'fillat Halev, the prayer of our heart that avodat halev, the service of our heart is pure, and it's well received and not only in the story, but if we go through the Tanakh to the Hebrew Bible, right, we have Hannah with spontaneous prayer, we have el na refah na lah, which is in the book when Moshe is praying for Miriam his sister to receive healing. So I wanted to look for something that allowed kids at their level to discover prayer. And the problem that I had is I - I found wonderful material, but not what I was looking for. I wanted for the kids to have a hands-on experience, an immersive experience, a prayer book that will tell them not only about prayer, but what is prayer? Why prayer? What is, what is this conversation with God? How do we address God and also to be able to expand the notion of God? And so I didn't find the book that I was looking for. So I decided to create it myself, and it was a whole process, it took well over a year once I decided to actually do that, but with all of these other projects, so it's years in the making, but I did decide then that it wasn't about making it a Siddur with the order of the prayers, because I think that see the room are so beautiful and so intentional. And in this first podcast, you've been, you know, deep dive into why this prayer has this connection to the Psalm and the psalm, if you go to the verse before and after, you know, it's so deep and so beautiful. But I wanted to make something different for the kids, another entry point, if you will. And in theater, one of the things that I've learned is that when you become a character, you can do it from the outside in, or from the inside out. And both are valid, there are people who transform into an old lady by putting on a wig, and wig and, and glasses and pearls, and just adopting that bent posture and a little voice, right, just from the outside in, and there are some people who just tried to connect with their personal experiences and how that character will feel. And that's also valid. So to me, these words from my heart approach, as they call it, I wanted to go from the inside out, I want them to experience the core concepts of prayer, right and, and to have an opportunity to learn a little bit of what that is. And then to bring them to the Siddur, or liturgy or traditional prayers, if they wish to do so. Because to me, again, it's valid, just and some people will just and I say just, you know, in between air quotes, for a way from their hearts, and why is that not valid? That's beautiful, and needed too. So Words From My Heart, the Hands-On Jewish Prayer Book, works with four of the main prayer concepts, which are todah, thank you, gratitude, bevakasha, please, asking for help, and it also works on slicha, saying sorry, but also learning from our mistakes and the concept of teshuva, and hallelujah, which is awe and wonder and just saying, wow. And there's a fifth word, which is Shema, because it's about listening to the words in our hearts. And because now you know, from my story, it started all it started with Shema, with listening. So the other part, the other act is that I dived in. And I tried this out with different real kids, and with talking with colleagues, and it was just an immersive experience for me. And through the illustrations that I mentioned, first of all, a friend helped me with a mock and then the graphic designer helped me to put it together. But still there was more than I wanted to do. So I took a lot of time and intentionality, in making this inviting for the children and to be hands on for a hands on project. So I guess this is how the book came to be. And I wanted to really dive into the kavannah, into the intention and intentionality of prayer. So my hope is that, that it will be useful for them that, that it will be inspiring, that, that it will create a spark.

I definitely think it will, I have my copy at home, thank you for sending me one. And we'll link in the show notes, how you can get a copy for a child in your life, whether that's a child in your family, or if you're a teacher, or even just for you, because I think one of the threads that has been running through this conversation for me has been how powerful it can be to ask the questions that we ask of the kids in our lives and our students to ask them of ourselves and to reflect on them ourselves. And to allow that spirit of playfulness and discovery and curiosity to nurture that in ourselves as well.

Absolutely. I love that thread. And that's why in my workshops, I also make sure that when we dive into this concept, we start at an adult level, if I'm working with educators or parents, because I cannot teach, I feel, personally that it's very hard for me, I wouldn't say cannot but it will be very hard for me to teach something that I do not connect with, that I do not experience, especially if I want to enable this for my kids, whether it's at home or at the classroom. So I think it's really great when adults can do the work. And another thing that I did to help that is in my book through QR codes. You can go and see some of Ms. Eve's videos with my puppets and I modeled for them, one way of saying these prayers and also maybe a song that connects with that, I tell the story that I just shared with you. So it's about a rippling effect, where it's just the beginning of something hopefully beautiful for you, your family, your students, and yourself.

And yourself. Amen. Amen. Amen. So important that we can experience these things ourselves before and while we're teaching, the best teachers are excited to share the gift of whatever the material is, even more so if it's our Jewish heritage and our prayer practices. So speaking of the amazing resources that you can access through the QR code, I would love for you to share a song of yours, we've talked about a couple of options, but whatever song is coming to your heart right now if you would tell us a little bit about it and then sing it for us.

Thank you Eliana for this wonderful invitation. I really appreciate it and I hope that you will enjoy this song, as many of you know, I create my materials in English with Hebrew words and also in Spanish or with Spanish words because I also want to honor that part of my heritage, the culture that brought me up, so this song is an El Na Refa Na La, and it's called Na Na Refa Na, it's in English in Spanish and in Hebrew and it follows Moshe's words, spontaneous words, when asking God for healing for Miriam, his sister. Na, na, na, na, el na, na, na, na, na, refah nah lah, na, na, na, na, el nah, na, na, na, na, refah na lah. Fa nah refah nah. Heal her please. Heal him please. Heal them please. Heal us please. Na, na, na, na, el nah, na, na, na, na, refah nah lah. Na, na, na, na, el nah, na, na, na, na, refah na lah. Sana sana.

Thank you so much for that beautiful prayer. So simple. And the feeling comes from our hearts. Thank you so much Miss Eve for being with us today.

I am honored and delighted to be here and your amazing podcast I am. It's really truly an honor. Thank you for the space. And not only for today, but for all the space that you create with this wonderful opportunity to learn, to connect, to reflect. Thank you, Eliana.

Wow. Wow. Thank you so much. And thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much, Christy Dodge for editing. Thank you Yaffa Englander for our show notes. You can find full show notes at light lab.co. Just click the podcast button. They're very beautiful and easy to read. A little easier to read now. So definitely take a look at that. For all the resources and the things we talked about in this episode. Check the show notes also to support the creation of two new albums of original Jewish music. I really appreciate your support, to sign up for the class, and we can't wait to see you again here on The Light Lab. Thanks everyone.