Contact Chai
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Contact Chai episodes

  • Overcoming Vengeance: Esau and the Maccabees

    Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay of our Friday service on December 13th. Rabbi Lizzi recounted the ancient tale of the rivalry between Jacob and Esau in light of the Festival of Lights. Just as Jacob learned from his youthful mistakes and Esau put aside vengeance, the rabbis learned from the mistakes of the Maccabees, and their rather loose retelling of the Hanukkah story continues to this day to urge us to rethink what was and what can be.

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    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript













    28 min
  • Setting Intentions For The Day — Minyan With R'Lizzi

    It is nearly the end of Mishkan’s 13th year of creating inspired, down-to-earth Judaism. If you value the work that we do, help us to sustain Mishkan for another year by making a donation by December 31st. Are you a Builder? Come celebrate 13 years of Mishkan at our BMitzvah Bash on January 25th. Register now! Sponsorships are available if you can give a little extra help us ensure the next 13 years of BMitzvahs, services, and Morning Minyans, at Mishkan Chicago.

    Donate:
    https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/donate

    BMitzvah Bash:
    https://www.tickettailor.com/events/mishkanchicago/1371556

    Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

    https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

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    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    33 min
  • Seeking Small Wonders

    Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay of our Saturday Morning Service on December 7th. Rabbi Steven delivered a sermon in which he made us all jealous of a recent trip to see the Northern Lights, and also edified us on the nature of awe from both a theological and neuroscience perspective. How can we cultivate this profound and uncanny sensation of the divine in our daily lives without vacationing in the northernmost city in the world?

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    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    18 min
  • Waking Up To God's Presence — Minyan w/ Rabbi Steven

    Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

    https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

    ****

    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    33 min
  • Creating Community To Fight For Our Rights — Sarah Garza Resnick

    At our services on November 22nd, we were honored to hear a guest drash from Sarah Garza Resnick, Mishkan Board Member and CEO of Personal PAC, an organization dedicated to advocating for women's rights and abortion access. How can we meet this difficult political moment without getting overwhelmed with dread and defeatism? The answer lies in our tradition and in our community.

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    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    17 min
  • A Traditional, Meditative Minyan with Rabbi Steven

    Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

    https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

    ****

    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    32 min
  • Saving Ourselves From Being Like Sodom

    At our services on November 15th and 16th, Rabbi Lizzi sermonized on the sin of Sodom, which, the rabbis tell us, was primarily their failure to share their abundance with others. In contrast to Abraham, whose hospitality toward the three messengers opens the story, Sodom is portrayed as operating from a scarcity mindset which drove them to selfishly hoard resources and turn away the needy from their city. And when the odd stranger does make it into Sodom, things don’t go too well for them, to put it mildly. How does our society today echo the evils of this cautionary tale of the dangers of inhospitality?

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    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    24 min
  • Will You Sweep Away The Innocent With The Guilty?

    Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

    https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

    ****

    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    45 min
  • This Is Not The Time To Give Up

    Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay of our Friday Night Shabbat service on November 8th. Rabbi Steven connected our post-election despair to the difficulties endured by Abraham and Sarah who, yes, were given a blessing and a mission by God, but that mission entailed enduring years of work and wandering and hardship with only the promise that someday their labors would eventually lead to the founding of a blessed nation long after they had passed on. How can we keep hope alive when it feels like our struggle is in vain, like our work has no impact, like the world to come is taking its sweet time?

    ****

    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    20 min
  • The Way Forward is Showing Up

    The day after the 2024 presidential election, Rabbi Lizzi led us in a minyan dedicated to processing our anxieties about the future.

    Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

    https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

    ****

    For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar, and see our Accessibility & Inclusion page for information about our venues. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook for more updates.

    Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

    Transcript

    53 min

About Contact Chai

From the publisher's feed

Contact Chai is Mishkan Chicago’s podcast feed, where you can hear our Shabbat sermons, Morning Minyans, interviews with Jewish thought leaders, and more.

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