Episode 2: Yes Way!

Tales of the Unbound

Tales of the Unbound: Episode 2 – Yes Way! explores the role of prison chaplaincy in cultivating a sense of belonging and Jewish connection among incarcerated people. This episode specifically follows Amy, the Jewish sponsor and chaplain at Monroe Correctional. We talk about what it felt like to first enter the space, how she cultivated a thoughtful community, and where the boundaries lay around Jewish identity.

[1] Do you love this music? We do, too! Ric Hordinski created special tracks for each interviewee, along with intros and outros. He’s amazing, and it’s worth checking out his many phenomenal works, including The Silence of Everything, Arthur’s Garden, and some of the Jewish music he created for JustLove, like this one based on Psalm 23.

[2] The garden at Monroe Correctional is beautiful. You can learn more about gardening as a practice through the Evergreen State College and Washington State Department of Corrections: Sustainability in Prisons project.

[3] Hineni, Here I am. Is a term we see through the Hebrew Bible. First, when God is searching for Adam in the Garden of Eden, Adam calls out to God “Hineni”. And when, Abraham is responding to God’s request to sacrifice his son, Abraham says “Hineni”. Hineni, as a response of readiness to do God’s will shows up 178 times in the Bible. And in Jewish pop culture from the song, “You Want It Darker” by Leonard Cohen to the book “Here I am” by Jonathan Safran Foer, Jews use this term to reference a response to a higher calling.

[4] Amy talks about where she couldn’t start from -and then goes on to name some Hebrew phrases that relate to the Jewish liturgy. She says “Kabbalat Shabbat” referring to the songs sung to help usher into Shabbat. It also means Friday evening – or the first stage of Sabbath.

[5] Siddur is the Hebrew word for prayerbook. Every Jewish denomination and community of Jews has a prayerbook for their specific group. The difference might range on whether English is included or transliteration (the phonetic way to process the Hebrew words in English letters). Some prayers are omitted, some have pictures or chords to sing, while others are all in Hebrew with no directions on where to stand or sit, respond, or sing along. There is a wide variation of what is included, but in most, you will find prayers (sung or read) for welcoming the Sabbath, gathering as a community of practice, healing, and mourning. The specific one that Amy refers to is likely the “Weiss Edition Siddur” which is provided free of charge by the Aleph Institute to those in the military and those incarcerated.

[6] Ari and Josh talk a lot about Amy’s singing. All the guys do. Jewish prayer includes lots of chanting and singing. But almost no organized Jewish prayer has a hymnal. There might be a projector with words or a song session with a songbook after services, but for the prayers itself, learning how we sing them outcomes primarily through osmosis. For Ari, he never had prayed Jewishly in song before Amy.

[7] Shalom Aleichem is the song that Amy is singing in this piece. The prayer calls on the angels of the Sabbath to join us. We welcome them and ask for them to reside among us. You can find the words here, a great traditional rendition here, and a powerful one by Debbie Friedman here.

[8] Amy talks about nurturing and damaging … She says the damage part tongue in cheek. Meaning it in how we raise all our children – doing our best to do well and teach goodness, and still, our kids have plenty to complain about. So too it is with the guys. She nurtures, encourages, and loves them, and she’s very firm about boundaries and is careful about what she teaches.

[9] Hippocratic oath is the ethical oath physicians take to do their best only to pursue beneficial treatments. Typically, when we refer to the Hippocratic Oath outside of the medical field, we talk about the commitment to “first, do no harm.” Or in the Greek, primum non nocere. It’s actually not part of the Hippocratic Oath – it’s part of a different Greek writing called “Of the Epidemics”. But for our purposes, what Amy is talking about is to avoid harm or double down on trauma and the suffering that the guys have already been through and use Judaism solely as a tool for personal betterment and strength.

[10] Miriam references Pirkei Avot 1:1, which you can read in more detail here.

[11] Miriam uses the words “Kosher” and “Tref” creatively in this metaphor around a bounded community. Kosher is classically used in reference to food that is permitted by Jewish law to consume. whereas Tref is a term used to connote non-kosher or prohibited foods. If you are into a deeper dive into Kashrut (Kosher rules), here’s a nice article on the word Tref (it gets spelled: Tref, Treif, Treyf… all kinds of ways because it’s a Yiddish word). And, a nice intro on Kosher cooking by Tori Avey (who has an amazing Challah recipe!)

[12] Amy and Marvin use acronyms when referring to different correctional facilities in Washington State, like WSR, TRU, and Twin Towers. The important thing to note for our story is that the guys were kept in different spaces and segments of the sprawling facility until Amy brought them together under the call for a minyan.

[13] The fear of scattering is no small thing. It’s baked into Jewish culture of being cast out/scattered away from one another. We read about it in the Prophets and Psalms and in the historical realities that the best way to diffuse the power of a community is to scatter it.

[14] Amy uses the concept of Minyan to help keep her guys together. We need each other in order to pray. Here’s a brief background on the requirement of a quorum to pray. But there is a ton of information about the shift from counting only Jewish men over the age of 13 in a minyan to expanding it to include women. What Amy does- by counting those who identify as Jewish, those in her community but may not have converted yet – is revolutionary.

[15] Ari mentions that there are specific prayers that require a minyan for public prayer are listed in Mishnah Megillah 4:3: Kaddish (for mourners), Barchu (communal call to prayer), Kedusha (central prayer of holiness), separating from holy and mundane, and the repetition of the Amidah (the standing prayer).

[16] Amy uses the word “Hashgacha,” which is a term for supervision, usually specific to rabbinic supervision, for determining whether something is kosher. Typically, this centers around designating food as kosher, but it can also be used to talk about Divine Providence or interference.

[17] Miriam says that she feels that she is part of the lineage of Puah and Shifra. These were the midwives in the Exodus Story who continued to help deliver Jewish babies even after Pharoah decreed that this was forbidden. In Exodus 1:12-21, you can read their resistance. Miriam is specifically talking about being a midwife (rather than a mother) of this moment for the guys, helping facilitate the next chapter but not being the creator of it.

[18] Miriam uses the word “Mitzrayim” and defines it as the narrow strait, which is the literal translation of the Hebrew in Exodus. Making the place where the story takes place less about Egypt or a nation-state and more about the state of any space or place where we are constricted and seeking. The term can be understood literally, but Miriam is leaning into the metaphor of Mitzrayim, the narrow place, where hope is hard to find, and yet we still do what is right and best for our wellbeing and for our community.

[19] The Priestly benediction first shows up in Numbers 6:24-26. Here’s a fun video that describes its origins. Typically, this blessing is seen in synagogues led by Kohanim (a specific class of Jews who are said to be descendants of the priestly class) or by the rabbi, but it can be said by anyone. Many Jewish families bless their children on the Sabbath with these words. It is both a formal and one of our people's oldest prayers.