A series of prayers all about mercy and forgiveness recorded Hazzan Asher Shasho Levy.
As if torah wants us to know everyone forgets
You can be a moral paragon, God can lovingly respond to every single one of your texts,
You can be the first patriarch of the entire jewish project and still it does not matter
We all forget sometimes
We forget who we are and how needed we are by God
The question is what we do once we realize we have forgotten
Moses' central question is no longer
"מִי אָנֹכִי?” / “Who am I?” Or, How can all these things ever be accomplished through me?
But rather, “What about them?”
"Who will take care of them?”
"What will happen to them after I am gone?
If it is shabbat, and there is a fire
What is the minimum amount of Torah a person would need to save
That is, what is the minimum amount of letters a person should override shabbat
That is, break shabbat to go and save?
Before there was anything
Or any one of us
There was a garden
God created a garden
The garden of Eden
And it is this garden
To which we can still return
This kind of event happened to me, actually to Asher and me, to us, in Jerusalem
It was an experience so simple and holy I am reluctant to give it words
But I cannot start here, for in order for you to understand I have to start earlier
In that moment we just asked for something beyond what we knew,
from a source, from a God, in whom we did not yet believe
You see, the rabbis don’t have the same sensibility as many of us today
They are not trying to sell participation in the Jewish project with pretty websites, trendy tie-ins and/or free trips
They are actually trying to discern who is ready to be a part of this "building a holy place” project
It is so serious, see, and so important
Nothing less than our collectively making room for God
For holiness in our world
That it requires some thought
But if you are ready
Without negating your own pain,
Whatever side you think you’re on,
I beg you, I beg us all, to consider recognizing the pain of another, the other
Not in a casual, it’s-all-the-same-pain-way, it really isn’t
Not in a way that absolves grown adults of responsibility
Not in a distanced, American, utilitarian, check-the-box way either —
But in a way that expands what you thought you were capable of
A way I believe is given to us by God
We usually imagine ourselves as Joseph, the protagonist
Talented and beloved, well accessorized and victimized —
But it seems to me Torah wants us to see we can also be like these brothers
Who, through force or commerce or both
Push Joseph out of their frame of vision
Reinforcing the idea that there is not enough love to go around
We're overjoyed to welcome some of the most engaging, powerful teachers in the US and Israel. Many are long-time Kitchen favorites, some newer to us but all known for their ability to connect Torah to our lives right now.
But then I looked at the torah for this week
And I realized that a key without a door is still a key
And sometimes doors show up, sometimes doors come out of nowhere
And so, this shabbat
Rather than being furious that people, through this election, are still writing love notes to Pharaoh
Pantomiming, “I’ll call you,”
While God waits, incredulous holding the sea apart, looking at her watch, tapping her feet —
Translation and Transliteration by Marilyn Heiss
Poetry by Harriet Heydemann, Anne Germanacos, Rachel Rosenberg, Katie Simpson and Evan Schnair
Design by Chen Blume
Writing in September / Elul of 2020, the world having changed beyond comprehension, it seems we need our words of torah, our prayers, more than ever. And we’ve always believed that we cannot inhabit our holy words if we cannot access them. That’s why we’re constantly trying different ways to find our places in and on these pages.
— Noa Kushner
As you pick up, read, and use this siddur / prayerbook , I hope you will find something in it that speaks to you. If not, take a prayer, study its words and context, and then find a way to own it. Maybe take time with a partner or a group to study together. And then please, bring back what you learn. Help us to continually create and recreate our siddur / prayerbook, keeping it alive for generations to come.
Translation and Transliteration by Marilyn Heiss
Commentary by David Wilensky
Poetry by Meghan Adler, Zachary Bernstein, Anne Germanacos, and Evan Schnair
Design by Josh Levine and Shelby Jones
The Kitchen is known for pushing boundaries, and our project of creating a third edition of our Siddur is no different. This spiritual guidebook will be the first ever in North America to include an integration of Sephardi and Ashkenazi prayers into a single nusach.
Text arrangement, translation + transliteration by Leora Koller-Fox & Hazzan Asher Shasho Levy
Editing by Hazzan Asher Shasho Levy & Rabbi Noa Kushner
Designed by Chen Blume