Dvar Tefillah for Shacharit: Kedusha, Ahava Rabba, and Shema

Kedusha

I understand the liturgy of the Kedusha (specifically the short Kedusha that appears in Shacharit between yotzer or and or chadash) to be invoking three main aspects.

First, responsibility -- obviously, accepting the yoke of heaven is a huge responsibility.

Second, inevitability -- it is my experience that the yoke of heaven lands on us whether we want it or not. In my interpretation, the angels aren't DECIDING whether or not to take on the yoke. They're going to receive it no matter how they feel about it. But the burden is easier because they're together, and they're receiving it from each other.

What is Creative Nonfiction?

Writing is service.

That is to say, a writer's duty is to bend herself toward building human wellness on every level: individual, interpersonal, local, societal, and global. This is the potential that lies within creative nonfiction: to draw from the wellsprings of the personal in order to illuminate the inner workings of the systemic. And the primary tool of nonfiction: truth.

Before we can come to understand truth, we must be able to recognize its three servants.

Yiddish and Hebrew

OK, I'm writing this in English as a sort of "neutral territory." (Plus, that way it will not take five hours to write, and non-Yiddish-speakers will also be able to read it.)

I'm starting an intensive Hebrew class on Monday. I've been aware of this date coming all throughout my Summer of Yiddish. I've been thinking of it as the date when I will have to break up with Yiddish. The reason is because I sort of think that I have to be serially monogamous with languages at this point, since I don't know any of them super well, and because a big way that I learn language is by "clicking it into the slot" of the language that I automatically think in, talk to myself in, listen to music in, watch movies in, etc.... in other words, I create a small immersion environment in my head. And I also learn better when I fall in love with the language ... which seems to happen in a serially monogamous way.

Yikraeni V'e'enehu (Two-Part Round)

This text is from Psalm 91:15.  I wrote this chant because it's been a hard semester and I've been having a really hard time motivating myself to do basic household chores (although let's be honest ... I struggle with that at the best of times), and I've been needing to feel support from Something/Someone bigger than me.  And guess what -- the chant really helps.

Ki Karov Eilecha (Two-Part Round)

From Parashat Nitzavim, one short week before the Days of Awe begin.  This text is important to me because, as I've written about before, the High Holidays have a tendency to call forth a pretty intense dose of perfectionism for me, which doesn't feel helpful on any level.  It's so helpful to be reminded that t'shuvah is not always a matter of effort -- sometimes it's just a matter of assent.

Nachamu, Nachamu (Two-Part Chant)

Text taken from the Haftarah of Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat that follows Tisha B'Av.  I wrote this chant in response to what I was thinking last year about Tisha B'Av -- from a sense that I'm finally coming out the other side of that stuff, and can now take some time to enjoy the comfort and release that comes after breaking free.

Umatok HaOr

I wrote this chant because I've been feeling sad a lot of the time, and I think sometimes the best medicine for sadness isn't saying something sad (because that can create a downward spiral), but saying something positive that keeps life moving even through the sadness.  And where better to look for a text like that than Ecclesiastes?  😛