Shalom, everyone! Welcome back to the Light Lab Podcast! My name is Eliana and I am here with my good friends, Cantor Ellen Dreskin.
Hello, everybody!
And Rabbi Josh Warshawsky.
Good morning!
Good morning! No matter what time you're listening to this. Also, if you are one of the 30 ish people who listen to the podcast before 7am when it comes out on Thursday, a special good morning to you! I always wonder, you know, the podcast comes out between 5 and 6am. Like who are the 30 people that listen? Big, big yasher koach to you. I mean, we love all our listeners. But yeah, shoot, shoot us a message, be like hello, I'm one of the early ones.
Tzrizim makdimim l’mitzvot. Those who are running quickly to get to the mitzvot are are uplifted. It's always nice to get to it first.
And I always wondered how to say the early bird catches the worm in Hebrew and -
That's it! Tzrizim makdimim l'mitzvot. The earnest ones.
I love that so much. Also, the earnest ones - I also bet some of the people are listening to this while they're running. So tha, a whole 'nother layer to it!
More ways than one.
More ways than one. In any case, friends, we're so glad that you're here on our little show exploring Jewish liturgy and prayer practice when we hold the gems of our heritage up to the light, what can shine through. And we are recording this on the third day into 2023. So our question is about looking ahead into the future and thinking what are we excited for? Even though you know we did our New Years back in the fall, which honestly I feel like makes a lot more sense for a New Year's, in thinking about changes when the leaves and everything are changing. But what are we excited for in this new year of 2023? Josh we'll start with you.
I'm excited for a lot of things! I'm excited for, I'm still feeling really excited about gathering and what it feels like to just get back together with people, and intentional gathering, and gathering with with special - with special people, with communities. I'm excited for growth and trying to explore where professional journeys lead, where family journeys lead. I, you know, we have a almost six month old now and every day is something new! And so that is a nice way to internationalize whatever day in 2023 could be also. It's an opportunity for something new, an opportunity to open our eyes and notice something else. And I'm hoping that we can do that for ourselves and also for the whole world. Because when you notice new things, then you can actually actualize intentions to do something about it. So open to more, for some more actualization this year too.
Amen, I love that so much. Jona Liba teaching us new things every day. She's the best. How about you, Ellen? What are you excited for?
I had the opportunity yesterday, to hear the song, I don't know if people know it anymore, called Let There Be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin with Me. And I think going into the new year, while I am an optimist by nature, and I tend to gravitate towards and immediately see the good and the gross, etcetera. Sometimes it's challenging to feel that in the outside world these days, but I'm feeling it. And I'm definitely feeling it in terms of looking at how I can start it with me. And just those little tiny daily ways of paying it forward and trying to make a difference. I want to concentrate on that because it keeps me afloat. And I think there are plenty of opportunities. I'm looking for the tipping point. I think if every one of us goes at it as individuals that we're going to be able to bring about great change. I've always believed that. And here's to 2023.
Amen. Oh, that's so beautiful. I know when I'm thinking about the new year, I say I feel good things personally and communally, if not politically and worldly. But it starts in the personal and the communally. And we can take care of each other. Throughout whatever happens in the world. We can take care of each other. I'm very excited about 2023. Josh, like you I'm very excited for all the different kinds of gathering that is happening, hopefully with as much safety and taking care of each other as we possibly can. I'm going to see both of you at Song Leader Boot Camp in February, which is very exciting. First, Josh, I'll be I'll be hanging out with you in Ohio! We love that! The basement together, so great. And then the three of us will be in St. Louis and we'll link to that in the show notes. Come join us! It's a really incredible time. Really, words cannot describe as all good things are, words cannot describe the feeling of praying together in that black box theater and raising our voices. I'm so excited. I'm also making new music this year, which I haven't in a long time, recording music. So perhaps by the time this is out, I will be inviting you to be a part of that by fundraising for these two albums that I'm making. So I'm putting this here in the hopes that when this comes out next Thursday, you will have a way to do that. Recording a live album in Atlanta, of my liturgical music, and working with my friend Uri on a holiday album for kids and families and everybody that we're calling Eliana Rhymes About Jewish Times as a companion to Eliana Sings About Jewish Things, which is very exciting. So more information on that hopefully - come on, Future Me -will be in the show notes. It's so amazing to be back on this journey! We are actually rounding the bases towards the end, not of the Amidah as a whole, but towards the end of our middle petitionary prayers, bracket. So Ellen, can you give us a recap of where we've been on our Amidah journey?
It's a little bit from episode to episode I feel like we're adding on like you have to say the first person's name and then add the second person and then the third person as you go around to learn names in a circle. So we're adding blessings each time to this progression. So we started the Amidah with our ancestors, with a connection to strength, and natural strength, and the forces of the world that give us strength. And then we connect the two. Can we be in holy relationship with God and these things. We then go to a lot of bakashot, a lot of requests, that we've spoken about here so far for, for knowledge, for repentance, for forgiveness, redemption, healing, blessing of the years, in-gathering of the exiles, wise judges, and the euphemistic blessing of the heretics, converts. And we arrive today at rebuilding Jerusalem. And traditionally, restoring the line of David in the traditional sense. And that's a really intriguing way, I hope to look at today's prayers and to spark your interest because excuse me, rebuilding Jerusalem and restoring the line of David. I know that as a born and raised ReformJew, that all of a sudden my ears and my heart perk up and saying, hmmm, what's going on there? So I'm excited to get into today's blessings.
I'm also very intrigued at all the various versions that we will get to share and explore what this means to us. Josh, can you share the text of the prayer, of this T'fillah, and from whence are, will you read your version to us?
I'm reading from the Conservative Movement's Lev Shalem Siddur. This is their Shabbat and Festival Siddur - the Weekday Siddur is forthcoming I hear, but they happen to have some weekday Amidah selections in here. So this is the Yerushalayim Ircha blessing, it sounds like this. V’leyerushalayim ircha berachamim tashuv v’tishkon b’tocha ka’asher dibarta u’veneh otah b’karov b’yameinu binyan olam v’chise david mehera letocha tachin. Baruch atah adonai boneh yerushalayim.
In translation in this siddur: In Your mercy returned to Your city Jerusalem. Dwell there as You have promised, reveal that permanently, speedily in our day. May You soon establish the throne of David in its midst. Baruch Atah Adonai, who rebuilds Jerusalem. What do we hear? What are we noticing?
I want to give a shout out once again to the Lev Shalem translating Baruch Atah Adonai as Baruch Atah Adonai. We just like, we did a whole episode about it. So if you haven't - if you're like what does that mean though? What does it mean to make a blessing - it kind of leaves it up to all of us? I - I don't know, I was feeling the kind of, the hard, I don't know if they're technically linguistically called hard vowel sounds but like that's what I was hearing right? Your cha, and tocha, dibarta, otah, these kind of hard hitting, yeah, tocha, these hard hitting vowel sounds kind of nudging at something or pushing at something.
It all of a sudden to me takes on a very physical nature. Not physical so much as concrete nature, to dwell and build and establish and structure, that we're not necessarily talking about something internal here, although we very well might be. It sounds to me like we're talking about something very historical and very concrete.
In some ways, I think based on what you were saying, to me, what popped up was, it feels like this is like the infrastructure bill of the of the Amidah. Right, we have to get, we have to get the nitty gritty, we have to build the physical space, in order for us to be able to live in this imagined, you know, messianic society, which we're going to get to in the next blessing. But here's the structure, here's what has to happen first, here's the thing that might not be, you know, quote, unquote, the sexy things, but we got to make sure that it happens in order for us to get to the place we want to be.
Something that biblical scholar Marc Brettler points out in our good friend, My People's Prayer Book, is that there was a common Ancient Near East idea that God literally lives in the Temple, right? That the deity literally lives in the temple, even if the deity is also somewhere else. Right? Hashem is here, Hashem is there. Hashem also might be physically in Jerusalem. And what does that mean? Right? I'm thinking, what popped out to me, again, I've looked at this so many times, but it's like, what does it mean return to Jerusalem? What does it mean God to return? God isn't there now? Right? What does it mean for God not to be there? Is there a difference between God in the Temple versus God in everybody's hearts? God in everybody's lives? The Shechina, kind of on the ground? Why are we asking for return here?
I love that, I think specifically is something interesting about the way we're asking God to return to, right? We say verachamim, right, with mercy. And there's a lot of different ways to return. Right? If we're if this is being set out in exile in Babylon or something, they might want to return triumphantly or militaristically. But if, but to specifically say returning with mercy. There's an interesting read there, which is, you know, we want to go back, but we don't, we're not going back with anger. We're going back with hope. We're going back with prayer. We're going back with that with anticipation and hopefully success.
That's really beautiful. And I'll say what it brought up for me is right, like, if we're asking God to return in compassion, what does it mean for us to ask people to return quote, unquote, or if they're building some sort of Jewish life in that land, to do it with compassion? I mean, I'll be honest, y'all, Bibi Netanyahu and his far right government, don't seem very interested in rachamim, in compassion in their actions. And I think their ideas and things, like, I'm scared that the terrible things that they've been doing and are continuing to do, is kind of like the natural end point of what we've seen there. And it's hard for me, you know, when Jerusalem and Israel comes up in my prayer life, in this kind of idealized way, of a light unto the nations, and a place of compassion, and my house will be a house for all peoples. All of that kind of contrasted with what's actually going on, leads me to yeah, I don't feel great about that. I feel really sad about that.
I think about the idea that, you know, when these prayers are being written, and when we're reciting them originally, we're in the land out of the land in the land out of the land back in the land again, and I find myself going towards the idea of dwelling, and tishkon, because of that Shechina reference. Of the idea that each time we left, yes, God was still there. And Shechina and that presence which dwells close to us, which we can access most easily, went with us, cried with us, lived with us, helped us get back. And that inner presence, and again that, that merciful, comforting presence, be returned, is, is comforting to me, quite frankly, that we carry God with us. And at the same time, there's no place where God is not.
There's a really nice, there's these nice little kavanot, intention pieces on the in the margins of the Lev Shalem Siddur. And the one for this one says, the Hasidic master Naftali Rophsitser asked, why is the blessing in the present tense? And he answered, because each day we rebuild Jerusalem. And, you know, each of these brachot are, the last part is in the present, but for this one, everything else is in the, is in future tense. Come, right, tashuv, tishkon, tachin, right, come back, come back eventually. But the idea of, of doing this rebuilding every single day, is something that I often need to remind myself of, especially given what Eliana said and how hard it is to picture what's, what's going on there and the government that's coming into place this week. I am very guilty of this. I often disengage from the conversation and disengage from thinking about Israel and Jerusalem entirely because there's so much else that's going on here in American Jewry, in American society, in the world. But I think this, this is telling us to, to be engaged in the conversation not, not just related to Israel, but to wake up and, and notice what's happening, like we were talking about earlier in the podcast, and just be engaged in the world where it is. Not just in the future.
That's beautiful. I really love that reading. And it reminded me of a song that I know from Saturday Night Seudah Shlishit singing, which is the line that's kind of painted around in the chapel at the synagogue I grew up, with Beth Shalom Synagogue, kind of around the room. Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, which means I will build a tabernacle in my heart, which again is in the future tense, but that idea of what is, how do we make this personal? What is a personal Mishkan, a personal tabernacle, a personal temple, look like? Feel like?
Of course, these blessings were not really blessings that, that I grew up with as a Reform Jew. And that is purely because these references to Jerusalem being the center all the time and, and the in-gathering of the exiles all to return to the land, and the rebuilding of the temple. This was not something that early Reform Judaism was necessarily promoting - the rebuilding of the single Temple at which everyone will gather. And so I'd love to share with you the, what Mishkan T'fillah, the Reform Siddur, has as this blessing. Because it really is quite different. It says in Hebrew:
V’yerushalyaim ircha b’rachamim tifneh. As opposed to returning, to turn toward it. Asking God to turn toward it, vehishav, and then it goes into a blessing basically, that I know the lines from the, the blessing for, for Israel. Vihi shalom b’shaareha v’shalva b’lev yoshveha. That there be equanimity in the heart of those who dwell in Jerusalem. B'toratcha mitziyon teitzei, and Your Torah will come out. Ki mitziyon teitzei Torah, but it's not a statement. It's at that time, you know, may Your word go forth from Jerusalem. Udvarcha miyerushalayim. Baruch Atah Adonai, noten shalom b'yerushalayim. So it becomes not one about building, but one about giving peace and bringing, bringing peace, turning toward that with Jerusalem at its center. And it's very helpful. And it says to me very much, we're not there yet. And those who dwell there, the onus is on them to begin to build that. And I'm still holding out in 2023.
I really liked that read, I like the shifts that that, that the authors there have made to. Because to me, in some ways, the original kind of feels like a parent: you promised to take me to Disneyland and I want to go to Disneyland with you. So go back, this is where you said we were going to be and we gotta get there, and are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? As opposed to moving into both being about the Torah, the lessons that we've learned coming out of that place, but also putting some of the onus back on us, which I think is the move that therefore would oftentimes with some of the liturgy is the onus is on us to make those changes and to do that, and that that obviously makes anything a lot a lot more clear.
Eliana, you mentioned in our, our outline for today that we tend in translation to use this word about rebuilding Jerusalem, but really, there isn't a Hebrew word for rebuild. So it's definitely a translation. Are we building it? Because it hasn't ever existed up until now? Do we continue to try to build it? Or did it exist in old temple times? And now, then the prayer becomes one for rebuilding that, and that temple? And I guess, theologically, historically,Jewishly, there's room for interpretation there.
100%. And it's bringing up for me, I think, an issue that is on my mind a lot, especially as we're kind of taking these deep dives and close looks into prayer, which is, what do we do with a T'fillah that I - or what do I do? I'll say what do I do with a piece of liturgy that I can't mean, literally? And I find a lot of joy in looking at the poetics of it, and the metaphors in it and what it could mean. And so here, it seems, especially along kind of the line of the petitionary prayers, we've been looking at that all of them, at least for now have been almost like farther and farther reaches, like the farthest away from what could actually be and that, in fact, maybe we need each of those things to come, come true, quote, unquote, each of those things to be made real in the world before we get the next one. And then that kind of distances me from this. And I don't have to think about it in literal terms. But if we change the language to make it both more universal, and more personal, and more present, and that we're talking about the people who actually live in the modern state of Israel, that's actually asking me to confront, what is the goal of this prayer now? What do my words actually have the power to accomplish? So that's just what's kind of like running through my head as we explore this. And with that, we'll be right back.
I'm really glad it shook out that we were able to look at both of these middle blessings together because they do feel like a literary unit. In fact, Marc Brettler says that many scholars consider what we're about to read to be the 19th blessing, which is born out of the previous one, which I didn't know. I thought it was the one against heretics that we had studied before. And maybe there's a machloket, a disagreement on that. But Ellen, why don't you take us into this next blessing and we can explore and discover what there is to explore and discover.
Okay, happy to do that. The blessing in Hebrew, and I'm reading right now from the, the Siddur Hashalem, from Birnbaum Siddur. And it says: Et tzemach david avdecha meheira tatzmiach v’karno tarun bishuatecha ki lishuatcha kivinu kol hayom. Baruch Atah Adonai matzmiach keren yeshua.
And the English here says: Speedily cause the offspring of Thy servant David to flourish. And let his glory be exalted by Thy help, for we hope for Thy deliverance all day. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who causes salvation to flourish. And I think that it's, it is interesting in a unit with the blessing before it, I'd love to hear what y'all have to say about it. Where's this one going in light of the one before?
Once again, I'm being struck by the sounds of the words and the repetition poetically, the tzemach, I think especially with those kinds of hard vowel sounds in the previous blessing, the recurring of the tz tz, and the recurring of different words in different ways built on the root, tzemach and tatzmiach, and matzmiach, you hear those roots together, and bishuatcha lishuatcha and yeshua, and how those words are repeated, in the end bracha in the way that we see in a lot of the other T'fillot, the pieces of liturgy that we have, that the ending blessing takes words from the blessing as a whole and reinstates themes, not every petitionary blessing and the Amidah does that but this one does that. In kind of a beautiful, mirroring sort of way.
I also am loving the the different word formations. And here we have one of my favorite grammatical flares, which is the plausal form. Right, from Bishuatecha and bishuatcha. Bishuatecha only because the end it's the end of the phrase, otherwise, it would be bishuatcha. Like, like it is in the previous phrase. It's what happens also in yedid nefesh, which we have, why we have the argument about the ends of the, of all the different phrases, not masculine or feminine, it's just pausal, but we could talk about that on a different podcast.
Oh, that's really cool!
Yeah. It just changes the way you know, it's an interesting way to to make sure that this language is a beautiful sing-songy language because when you say the word, when it ends a phrase, you actually change the way that you say it, so that it fits better in the flow of your sentence. Love it. Hebrew's amazing. And at the same time, I also was really struck by the tzemach. And why that metaphor is the one that we're using. This sort of offshoot. And again, I just, said shoot in my shoot in my Siddur not off-shoot. But I think that there's something to be said about this, if this blessing is the one that's added when they were like the farthest away in, in exile, to be like, they were feeling like they were the offshoot who needed to be reinstated. And so this was a blessing that they're really saying for themselves to be able to come back to whatever their former glory could, was and could be.
That's a nice way of thinking about it. Here and My People's Prayer Book, the translation is blossom, which I really like as well, to imagine, what does it mean when we're waiting for Messiah, as this prayer is really putting us in mindset that there is a blossoming that has to happen, right? What does it take for something to blossom? It takes care, and it takes rain, and it takes connection, and patience, all of those things. Even if the blossoming itself, we're asking to happen quickly, you know, you can not look at a flower for a day and the next day, right, it's blossomed. But it took a lot of work to get there.
It says, you know, here, offspring, and in other translations that I looked at, it was flourish. And to also think that, and all of this starts with seeds, that we can't see, that get planted somewhere in order that the blossom and in the springtime, when you look just that tiny little bud on the branch, like you say, and then the next day, it can open up, if the conditions are right. And so this is like setting up the system, these past few blessings, and maybe even this one, so that yeshua, salvation, that that's the ultimate goal, that that is what we want to flourish. Not just the system itself, but what the system will bring. I can't help but notice, David here, David, there, King David, David everywhere in this part of the Amidah. And - And this idea which I read about that it's about the throne of David and establishing the Davidic dynasty perhaps once again, and then we have this lovely sentence, ki lishuatcha kivinu kol hayom. Lest you think that we are idolizing or, or dyasizing, whatever the word might be, King David, that we make it clear right here in the middle of the blessing that it's not, that it is lishuatcha, it is really for God's salvation. That we are hoping that King David in the return to throne etcetera, is really just a symbol for being able to attach to God's salvation.
I love that. And I also want to bring in some inter text that was again pointed out by our lovely friend, My People's Prayer Book, Jeremiah 33:15. Bayamim hahem uva’et hahee atzmiach l’david tzemach tzedakah v’asah mishpat utzedakah ba’aretz. And in those days, at that time, I will you know, etzmach l'david tzemach. Sefaria here translated it as I will raise up a true branch of David's line. But we could say, I will cause to blossom, a tzemach tzedakah, right, which could be a blossom not just a true branch, but like a blossom of righteousness, of blossom of justice, and do justice and righteousness in the land. Again, I think it's this connection which we see with God, and now we're seeing with an idea of Messiah, that power does not come in dominating others. Power is actually what we use to do righteous and just righteousness and justice in the land, reminding us, again of like how we get on that path. I also wanted to mention, I remember when I was a kid, I saw a book on my dad's shelf, looks like it came out in 2005, that makes a lot of sense, called There is No Messiah - And You're It. And I remember him saying that like the best part of the book was the title, like you really didn't, like, it has a lot of other things in it, the, I looked it up on Amazon, it's by Rabbi Robert M. Levine. And the tagline is the stunning transformation of Judaism's most provocative idea. But, right? The idea that are we waiting for someone specific? If we are it could be you, right? Isn't that why there's an Elijah's chair, when we welcome in a new baby into the Jewish people because Elijah is going to herald the coming of Mashiach. It might be this baby, right? Elijah comes every Passover because it might be this year, Elijah comes to every Havdalah because it might be this week, and it might be you, and it might happen at any time. Does it change how we live, if we imagine our actions and our words leading to this, that we could be kind of the tipping point on the scales towards a better world?
Well, I will say that in Mishkan T'fillah there's no mention of David. This is not surprising in the Reform Movement. I mean, Eliana you said the magic word there Messiah, all of a sudden we're talking about salvation and Messiah. And so to distinguish a Jewish interpretation's of that from other religions of the world. We - it can make us a little comfortable. We have made some changes over the years. In Mishkan T'fillah, this blessing in particular, as well as the one before it, no mention of David. Mishkan T'fillah begins it actually with a line from Psalm 85. Psalm 85:12 starts with emet me'eretz titzmach v'tzedek mishamayim nishkaf. Translated as, may truth spring up from the earth, still that titzmach, that same root of blossoming and flourishing, may truth spring up from the earth, may justice look down from the heavens. And then instead of the the, the keren of King David or the Messiah, being part of this, it says, v'keren amcha tarun vishuatecha, the, the flourishing or the horn of plenty of Your people will bring about this time. And then it continues about salvation because we, Your deliverance we continually hope for. And the chatima is the same but no mention of King David and every mention of, it's about truth, it's about justice, and it's about us helping to bring it about.
Can you remind me Ellen? How does the Mishkan T'fillah Translate keren? Or karno? Those words.
It doesn't translate the word itself. It says v'keren amcha tarum. And it says: May the strength of your people flourish through.
Yeah, it's interesting. Something that is pointed out in My People's Prayer Book is that keren has a lot of translations. Keren can mean a lot of different things, in a lot of different poetic ways, which opens us up to a lot of possibilities. It says keren can mean a horn like a shofar perhaps, blowing a shofar to herald the coming better days. A keren is a ray of light, you know, this is also how we get people in the olden times drawing images of Moses with horns is because keren or could mean ray of light, but also a horn of light. Right? That's, that's how we got there. And also said financial fund. Right? Now I'm thinking, right, JNF, keren kayamet l'yisrael. Like what does that have to do with a ray of light or collecting money? Or planting those trees? So it can mean so many different things. Does it change anything to think about keren in those different ways? Or is it just kind of mixing all of those images together, an offshoot, a flourishing, a ray of light, a horn. What that might mean.
I don't know why, and maybe it's from something I learned in my childhood, that keren, whenever I hear the word and I think of it as a horn, I see in my head, a cornucopia. This horn-shaped big basket almost like with the widest shofar opening you could have at the end and always filled with produce and vegetables, and it's a beautiful thing. The word reminds me of bounty, and overflowing and flourishing. And it must have been something that a teacher, or many teachers said to me when I was young, that that's my idea of this overflowing bounty when I hear that word, and the vision of the cornucopia.
I think now now that I'm thinking about it more and thinking about keren kayemet l'yisrael which is also where my head goes when I hear the word keren, in terms of financial, Jewish National Fund is a terrible translation for keren kayemet l'yisrael. It's like this, it's this, it's especially in terms of thinking about matzmiach here with this word about sort of the growing. It's a it's financial fund, but it has to be kayam, it has to be established, it has to be constantly being kayemet is like in the present tense. We have to be continuing to build this, this horn, the Cornucopia doesn't happen by itself. And so I think that's where the sort of this growth metaphor comes in is there's, there's some sort of thing that we need to be doing here to be lifting this up, to be to be making this happen, to be planting and watering and watching the seeds and doing something with it and holding on to it and caring for it and being patient. But all of that comes from this, this keren that has this natural bit to it, as opposed to it just sort of existing on its own.
Yes. And connecting it to the rachamim from the previous blessing, like how do we do all of that with compassion for the earth, with compassion for the peoples that live there? Because because there are some there are some not great ways, you know, we think: Oh, of course, let's build lots of, let's plant lots of trees in Israel. But sometimes those trees are planted on land that doesn't belong to them to try to kick some people out. Like it's all. It's all complicated once we bring it into the modern, once we bring it into the modern day, it's hard. I want to be praying and hoping for a world of justice and righteousness, not just in the land of Israel, but everywhere for everybody. How can this get us there? I know you mentioned Ellen in the notes, like, what do we do with this T'fillah? Right? These words that you know I've been saying since I was little. And I think I have always thought about it in this more metaphoric way, though now I'm remembering. We did a project in like third or fourth grade, where we interviewed another student in the class and wrote a little book about them with illustrations. And it was a kid named Adam, I believe, who wrote a book about me, and I have it somewhere. But what I remember something he took from our conversation, apparently, was that I believed that someday the Messiah would come. And when he did, he would come and riding on a snowy white donkey. I just remember the phrase, snowy white donkey, and he drew like a picture of a man on a donkey. And it's like, when I was in third grade, was I that concrete about what I thought the Messiah would be? It would make sense developmentally, honestly, for me to think that. To take it literally, the things that we were saying? Or did he take that, kind of, well, if you believe in x, then you also believe in y? I'm not sure. But now I have that image of, of the man on the donkey in my mind. I don't know, Josh, do you have a sense of? Or does it go back to actually we were saying it, we didn't really think about it all that hard, which is also true for me.
That's what I was gonna say is that as a kid, I was not actively engaged in the translation of the text. I think the goal for the day school where I grew up was to build fluency, and prayer leadership without necessarily building understanding. And so I could read and I can lead and I could get up and do it. And I wouldn't necessarily know all the things that I was saying, or think about any of the things that I was saying. And over the last couple years, I think I've been turning back towards prayer as an exercise in engagement with the self just as much as with divinity, which was a change and a shift for me. And that, that led me to moving everything into the more into the more metaphorical realm and thinking about how it applies to the way that I walk in the world. But that's a relatively recent shift for myself.
It really is quite interesting to me that I don't know that I knew at the time until I was maybe in high school or so that there were all these intermediate blessings at all. And so just this morning, I went back, not to Mishkan T'fillah, my Reform Siddur, but I went back to the New Union Prayer Book, Gates of Prayer, which came out when I was in high school, and I said, I need to know what this this Siddur did with the intermediate blessings of the Amidah. Because I don't remember ever having anything to do with it. I've found one page that combines about 10 of the intermediate blessings into one. And these two blessings that we're discussing today had one line. And it says, v'yismechu tzadikim b'vinyan irecha u'vitzmichat keren yeshuatecha. Translated as: Let the righteous rejoice in the building of Your city, and the flowering of Your redemption. And, and it it makes it very metaphorical, very poetic. It doesn't mention David. Again, it doesn't mention Jerusalem, a nod, perhaps those who understand will understand, but this is what the Reform Movement did with these blessings. It was easy for me or others praying from the book, to to pass right by this idea of salvation, and the Messiah. Knowing that early Christianity was being born, while these prayers were being codified and put in order. And there was a lot of anxiety amongst Jews of the time over what was going to happen with this new talk of Messiah, this new talk of how salvation might occur, different from what us Jews had been saying all along. So I think it's important to recognize that our prayers spring out of our historical context, certainly, as much as they do from our hearts. And that revision and reflection is, is always important.
Yeah. And to think that brings up for me the line ki lishuatcha kivinu kol hayom. Like, we're still waiting, right? You say that Mashiach, Messiah, has come and will come again. We're still waiting. And it reminds me of a Jewish joke. I read a lot of Jewish joke books as a kid, this probably came from one again, that was in my dad's office with all the books. A man is approaching a new town and sees a dude sitting by the side of the road and he's like, hey, fellow, what are you doing here? And he said, Well, this is my job. The rabbi of the town appointed me to sit here and wait for the Messiah to come. And when the Messiah comes, I'll go to town and tell everybody. And the visitor says, oh, you know what kind of a job is that? That's bizarre. And the man says, well, it doesn't pay that well, but it's steady work, right? It's the idea, right? He's gonna keep sitting there we can't, we're waiting for this thing to happen. And it's the understanding that we still believe that it will. That a world of justice and peace, and love, and lovingkindness, is actually possible. I remember in a session once that Rabbi Shai Held was giving, or he talked about the notion that the world could be better than it is. He says: Where, Where do you get that idea? Where does it actually come from? This notion that you look around the world and you think, this could be different, and it could be better. There's something there that hints at the idea that we are part of something greater than ourselves, that the world can be made different. It's the prophetic impulse. I think it's the prayer impulse, saying out loud and yearning for the world to be different. And it's the tzedakah and tikun olam impulse, that it requires change of us in real action in the world, whether we think about it as a real person or not. But connecting it to David I think is important because to me, in connecting the Messiah to the line of David, we're also connecting it to Ruth. Right? Very specifically, it says at the end of the book of Ruth, that Ruth is the direct ancestor of David, which means Messiah is going to come in the form of not just kind of kingly and earthly power, but of kindness and a friendship and of connection. And of a woman who wasn't even born into the Jewish people and chose it. And chose to be a part of it. I think there's still something very powerful in that idea. Even if we don't take it literally.
I was going back to the image of of blossoming at that point. And, and from that seed, and from Ruth, you know, entire forests can blossom. And, and again, back to the role that each of us plays, and blossoming from our heart in that bringing about, you know, what does salvation look like? There's a, there's a question, what's it gonna look like? And how will we recognize it? And this idea, of course, you know, from, from time immemorial, where everything's future tense. I know that we all say in our English, we have all these verbs in future tense, as Josh mentioned before, and yet the chatimot, the final blessing lines are present tense. This is happening now. Can we stay awake? Can we water the seeds in our hearts? Can we water the seeds in our land? And actually bring about, do whatever we can each day to bring about this flourishing, to perform little acts of salvation perhaps every single day. Just just watering the plants here, doing, trying to do my part. The task the the old, the task is great, and we may not see the result in our time, but that does not give us freedom to desist.
Amen. And with that, we'll be right back.
Welcome back, everyone. So excited that we get to do a small music segment. There aren't a lot of musical pieces inspired by the petitionary blessings in the T'fillah. But we have a couple. Yerushalayim Ircha, a couple of melodies come to mind. One which I believe is a Carlebach melody. When I searched on YouTube, I found a great video of Moshav Band playing it. So I'll post that. U'viyerushalayim ircha or berachamim tashuv tishkon b'tocha, tishkon b'tocha, ca'asher dibarta. It's a really fun one to sing. U'veneh u'veneh u'veneh otah, right, when I heard it first, right, just dancing around. I was, you know, didn't even strike me that that line was from the, this blessing of the Amidah just because, right, the Amdiah is something that I say, like, to myself really quickly, or that the leader says really quickly. The other one I was wondering where's it from, but Josh, it seems like it is from Ramah Wisconsin, and you're going to tell us all about it!
I don't know so much about it. But I learned it when I was at camp and I'm pretty sure that it was a camp original. I think it was written by a an amazing Jewish musician named Brian Gelfand who did all the music at camp in the 90s and early 2000s. U'virushalayim ircha v'rachamim tashuv, v'tishkon dibarta ca'asher dibarta, ca'asher, ca'asher dibarta, u'vneh otah b'karov, b'yameinu binyan olam, v'chiseh david meheira, l'toch hatachin. Positive, joyful, hopeful.
Yes! Positive, joyful, hopeful! I love it. I was definitely in a place where I sang that as an acapella arrangement. Maybe it was Ramah Nyack, maybe, I don't know, listeners: if you know either of those two versions, let us know and if there are other ones that you know and that you love, let us know that as well. Those were the only ones I could come up with. And then, et tzemach david avdecha, the only sung version I know is one that I did in high school choir. I don't know who wrote the original, we'll have to find it. If you know listener, let us know. With an arrangement by Daniel Hanken, which I could find from many people online but I'm going to try to get a recording. I'm going to try to get a recording, with my high school choir. And we're going to put a little snippet of that right here. It was one of those where we we always did that one. It was so fun and energetic and upbeat. Right, I ended up bringing that arrangement to Nativ to, we had a little acapella group for Thanksgiving and we sang it together. It was always a crowd pleaser. And it was easy to do very well. It was a lot of fun. And listeners, if you know of any other melodies for those, let us know. It's time now for our closing, prayerful personal practice. I'm going to turn it over to Josh.
Okay, everyone, we're going to try and take a moment to ground ourselves. So if you're in a safe place where you can plant your feet on the ground, do that. See if you can make your back as straight but as comfortable as possible. And try and find a through line from the top of your head all the way down to your toes. Feel that grounding. Feel that planting here at the beginning of the year. With these blessings of redemption and salvation and hope for the future, what are the things that you're holding on to? What are those things that you planted in this past year for yourself, for your community, for your family? Are there things that you planted that you were hoping to achieve but weren't able to this year? And if you get the chance to, that you now might want to try and resoil, replot, and rewater again. Try to picture and internalize what those things may be. Just think on that for a minute. Now, what are you hoping to newly plant this year?What little seeds do we need for ourselves to be the best version of ourselves this year? What seeds do we plant for the world? So they can be in it can be the best version of itself is here? What are the ways your two hands can till the soil and water it? What are the ways that your feet can stomp the ground firm in a safe place for the seeds to grow? What are the ways that you can lift it up and help shine some light on those seeds? And what are the ways that you're going to need to ask for help. Who can you ask to take care of those seeds when you might be away. When you might need an extra hand. How can you go and help your neighbors' seeds grow? What does it mean to walk around and find somebody else who might need a little bit of help? And give them your hands, give them some of your water. Give them some of your light. As your feet are planted take one last minute in the soil, in the sand. Wiggle your toes and feel all the ways in which you are connected to it. Let that connected feeling come up your legs, all the way up into your torso. Make it shoot up all the way into your fingers, wiggle them too. Let them feel and know whatever they need to utilize each little piece of ourselves. Let it fill you up, let yourself grow and blossom. Take those seeds with you. When you're ready, open your eyes into the new year as you plant again.
Wow wow wow. May we blossom, may we plant seeds, may we water, may we grow. Thank you so much, friends. Thank you so much, Ellen and Josh for being with me today.
My pleasure. Happy New Year everybody.
Happy New Year. Make sure, there will be a link in this episode to sign up for our three part slash six part deep dive on the Shema with Professor Rabbi Reuven Kimmelman and me. So definitely sign up for that so we can learn together. Thank you so much, Christy for editing. Thank you Yaffa for shownotes and we will see you again very soon.
