עבודה | Avodah | Service

“The Avodah service describes what actually took place on Yom Kippur in the Second Temple two thousands years ago. You may have decided that the rites in the Torah sounded very primitive and perhaps even pagan. Indeeed you might have said, “What do purification rites, clouds of smoke, sprinklings of blood, and scapegoats have to do with our observance of Yom Kippur? While we do indeed reject these rituals today, we need to understand that they served as a vehicle for a monumental drama, an extraordinary emotional experience that was available to our ancestors.”

-Machzor Eit Ratzon

In Avodah we will find monumental drama and an extraordinary emotional experience through story telling & music. Akin to the repition of prayers during the high holy days, we start with a song you heard on Side A. Nina Simone’s version of I Wish I Knew is toned down, in comparison, and the waves of pain and hopefulness wash over her. As you listen, hone in on her body language and the emotions and allow the music to move you.

You cannot find redemption until you see the flaws in your own soul, and try to efface them. Nor can a people be redeemed until it sees the flaws in its soul and tries to efface them. But whether it be an individual or a people, whoever shuts out the realization of their flaws is shutting out redemption. We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we confront and come to understand our own selves…

-Martin Buber

Stories from los angeles

Click play on Sleepless Nights and read through these stories of Los Angeles children’s run ins with the police. Singer Terrance Martin says:

What I remember most about making this song was the immediate sense of togetherness, fellowship, and trust. That’s what was most memorable because that’s what I yearn for the most in the world.

Is this the fast I desire?
To afflict body and soul?
Bowing your head like a reed,
covering yourself with sackcloth and asked?
Do you call this a fast?
a day worthy of the favorite of Adonai?

No, this is the fast I desire:
to break the bonds of injustice
and remove the heavy yoke;
to let the oppressed go free
and release all those enslaved?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and to take the homeless poor into your home,
and never neglect your own flesh and blood?
Then shall your light burst forth like the dawn…

Isaiah 58:5-8