Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. Our Thursday sessions are hosted by Mishkan's Founding Rabbi, Lizzi Heydemann. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai!

Our May 11th, 2023 session covered Parashat Behar-Bechukotai. This portion includes instructions on shmitah, the sabbatical year where the land gets a Shabbat of its own. How can we apply this fascinating, liberating concept in modern society?

Next Friday, May 19th, we will hold a special Morning Minyan send-off for Rabbi Deena who is leaving Mishkan at the end of the month. We invite you to join us to lend your goodbyes and well wishes to R'Deena!

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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

At our May 6th Saturday Morning Shabbat service, Rabbi Deena reflected on the difficult verses in Parashat Emor which ban people with certain physical disabilities from serving as priests. In the light of the disability rights movement, how can we do better?

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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

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!

Our Thursday Morning Minyans are hosted by Rabbi Lizzi, and in our May 4th, 2023 session, she had a lot to say about the whole "only people without blemishes can serve as priests" thing in this week's parsha. What kind of person does God want serving God? Do our "imperfections," physical or moral, really disqualify us?

On Friday, May 19th, we will hold a special Morning Minyan send-off for Rabbi Deena who is leaving Mishkan at the end of the month. We invite you to join us to lend your goodbyes and well wishes to R'Deena!

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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

At our April 28th, 2023 Friday Night Shabbat service, Rabbi Lizzi connected the ancient nation-building project of Moshe in the Torah to the 20th century foundation of the State of Israel, and examined the losses suffered by both Israeli and Palestinian families to create it. Seventy-five years after the day which Israelis mark as a joyous Independence Day and Palestinians mark as a mournful catastrophe, can we now work together to build a world safe for everyone?

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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

At our Saturday morning service on April 15th, Rabbi Deena argued that the Torah's food laws are more than just an all-or-nothing, take-it-or-leave-it obligation — kashrut is also an ancient mindful eating practice we can all learn from!

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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

At our final Shabbat service before Passover, Rabbi Steven left us with some words of wisdom on the spiritual and practical dimensions of kashering your kitchen for Passover. Does your soul need a little spring cleaning, too? What can you leave behind in Mitzrayim?

Join Mishkan for our third annual virtual seder on Thursday, April 6th at 7:30 pm.
https://www.mishkanchicago.org/event/from-me-to-we-virtual-passover-seder/

We invite you to a virtual panel on the Pro-Democracy Uprising in Israel on Sunday, April 9th at 10:30 am.
https://www.mishkanchicago.org/event/perspectives-on-the-pro-democracy-uprising-in-israel/

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This sermon is from our April 1st, 2023 Saturday Morning Shabbat service at JCYS. 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

On March 24th, 2023, Mishkan participated in the Lakeview-wide Mental Health Shabbat. Rabbi Steven delivered a drash on breaking the silence around suicide in the Jewish community. Please be advised that this sermon contains discussion of suicide.
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This sermon is from our March 24th, 2023 Shabbat service at Second Unitarian Church. 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

How do Sephardi families' Seder plates differ from their Ashkenazi cousins? How do different Sephardi communities' observances differ from one another? And how has American Ashkenormativity erased those differences? And what even is Ashkenormativity?!

In this very special Passover episode of Contact Chai, Rabbi Deena explores how her Sephardic heritage shaped her family's Seder traditions, and shares how you can make your own Seder unique to your background — even if you are Jewish by choice.

Mishkan Chicago's Passover Resource Round-Up
https://www.mishkanchicago.org/shabbat-holidays/holidays/pesah/

From Me to We: Virtual Passover Seder (Thursday, April 6th)
https://www.mishkanchicago.org/event/from-me-to-we-virtual-passover-seder/

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This sermon is from our March 17th, 2023 Virtual Shabbat service. 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

Rabbi Lizzi explores the spiritual technology of the Passover Seder, which, every year, forces us to reckon with our past to understand our present and imagine a radically different future.

Mishkan Chicago's Passover Resource Round-Up
https://www.mishkanchicago.org/shabbat-holidays/holidays/pesah/

From Me to We: Virtual Passover Seder (Thursday, April 6th)
https://www.mishkanchicago.org/event/from-me-to-we-virtual-passover-seder/

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This sermon is from our March 17th, 2023 Virtual Shabbat service. 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

"God's plan all along is to get God's people together. When you get God's people together, there should be an expectation that something is going to change...Can you still be faithful even if the only thing changing is you? Your views, your perspectives, your thoughts. Hanging with people who have a different lived experience might change you. So let us get together, let us unify, and let us expect change."

At our February 24th Friday Night Shabbat service, we welcomed our friends from Lawndale Christian Community Church to services. Pastor Jonathan "Pastah J" Brooks co-led services with Rabbi Lizzi and then delivered a moving sermon about his community's perspective that the Bible is a story of God's people being called to change.

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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