EPISODE 3: Ana B'Koach
Welcome to Shabbat Unbound, the world's longest Friday night Sabbath service, stretching over eight episodes. Instead of rushing through all the Friday night Shabbat prayers in one sitting, like we might in a classical synagogue environment, we're taking our time diving deep into one prayer each episode through song study and sacred conversation. It's the most original and traditional way to engage in the transition into Shabbat, taking each prayer as its own world with its own Torah to teach us. Miriam Terlinchamp, Lex Rofeberg and an incredible group of musicians invite you to discover what happens when Shabbat slows down.
Shownotes here
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Miriam: Shabbat Unbound is an experiment in Sacred Slowness. Eight episodes. Eight prayers. Instead of racing through the liturgy, we're pausing to really taste each prayer, to sing it in new ways, and to discover what it might mean for our lives. Right now, I'm Miriam Tur Champ, and together with Lex Berg, we welcome you into the longest Shabbat liturgical experience that exists. This is Shabbat Unbound.
Miriam 2: we begin with Anna Bak.
Lex: This melody for Anna Koa comes from the group Jacob's Ladder from their album Bait L. It was arranged by Ariel Weiner and the original melody is from the Folk song, bury Me Beneath The Willow.
Lex: So what they don't tell you at Sunday School is that Judaism is full of sorcery. Judaism is full of magic and incantations, even ko. Is a prayer that doubles as a mystical incantation. It itself includes a 42 letter name of God. And indeed, the existence of the prayer owes itself to the fact that in the Talmud, there's this interesting text.
It says, Hey everyone, there's a 42 letter name of God, and the Talmud knows how to do great clickbait because it doesn't actually tell you. What the 42 letter name of God is, and that means that we in later generations have to come up with it. And so Anna Bak is a prayer that exists to try and solve that puzzle.
And it consists of 42 words, exactly 42. It's seven sets of six words. And each of the first letters of those words, when you put them all together is said to constitute that 42 letter name of God. It begins with Ana Ko, and the first three letters are Abe Gimel. For those of you who know the Hebrew abet, the Hebrew alphabet, you'll notice that those are the first three letters in the alphabet.
So there's kind of a hidden message in this prayer that every time we say Olive bet Gimel, every time we start the alphabet, we are also channeling a name of God. We're starting to bring this 42 letter mystical name. That's. Part one of the magic of this prayer. There's more though, because that's just about the letters and what they might mean when you put them together.
There's also the word, there's also the content of what it says, and the content of this prayer speaks deeply enough to me that it lives on my ring finger at all times. This is a prayer that my wife found a ring with the words, with the first six words on it to give me for an engagement ring.
This is the ring that I, I use to signify my marriage to my wife, Valerie. And on it it says ura, the first six letters of this beautiful prayer. And like I said, that starts a name of God. The olive be gimel, but it also means something powerful. It means, please divine oneness with the power of your right hand.
Free. Those who are bound. Tir, Sirah make free, make liberated those who are bound. And for us as an organization, you can also read it as make free that which is bound. Take that which is restricted, that which is restrained, that which is not liberated, and make it more free. Make it more liberated. Our organization is called Judaism Unbound.
We are an organization that takes very seriously and irreverently, but seriously the task of freeing that which is bound and freeing those who are bound. May we, through this prayer, KO, serve a role in liberating our world, freeing those people who are oppressed everywhere in the world and me serve our goals as Judaism Unbound.
To build a Judaism that is freer, that is less restrained. That is less restricted, less bound.
Miriam: We continue with the watch word of our faith.
The Shama prayer.
Shama asks us to imagine a world where we're all connected to say in a single line that we are one and we are part of that oneness. And the way we're gonna do it here is to take each word one at a time, Shema as listen and hear Rael as all of us, us God wrestlers, each word, one breath, connecting together across time and space as we listen and sing at the same time.
Miriam: For centuries, we have turned to Psalm 23 for comfort. And so too, in this moment we will also, the Psalm focuses on the darkness in our lives, the natural travails that we go through, our loneliness, our pain. It doesn't try to solve it, it just names it. And my favorite line in the psalm is.
Is and I will feel no evil or ferocity or wrongdoing Kia for you are with me. Now, traditionally you might say that Kia for you are with me, the you is God or infinite. I think it can mean anything you want. It's a reminder that even is things are overwhelming us, that we are going to be scared and we are going to be in pits of darkness.
We're all going to go through things that have no light, but we're not actually doing it alone. There's a collective surrounding us. So when my friend Rich and I were thinking about how to imagine. An expansive prayer that is both about grief and about comfort. We focused in on that line M, trying to emphasize all of our needs, all of our concerns, all of our hopes, all in one long line. I will read the Hebrew and then the translation by Richard Levy of Blessed Memory, my teacher, and then we'll sing Kiata Imad as our offering around this energy of grief and healing.
IAI, my shepherd. I lack for nothing in meadows thick with grass. You lay me down across. Dream serene. You guide me my life. You restore. Leading me serenely and well-worn paths of justice to glorify your name. And even when I walk in a valley dark as death shadow, I shall fear no ferocity for you or with me.
Your staff and your walking stick. They reassure me. you set a table before me along with my enemies. You rain rich oils around my head in my cup. It's overflowing. For certain goodness and the love of your covenant will run after me all the days of my life and I shall abide in God's house for long days.
Long, long days.
The Psalmist tells us: even in the valley of deepest shadow, you are with me. That presence — that companionship in the dark — is itself a form of liberation. And so we return now to where we began, to Ana B'koach, the prayer that asks the divine to free those who are bound. Because sometimes what binds us most tightly is not a chain we can see, but a fear we carry alone — the fear that the darkness has no end, that no one is walking beside us.
Here's what I want you to hold as you listen again: Ana B'koach is not just a prayer. It is a key. Every one of its 42 words was chosen with precision, arranged so that the first letter of each word, taken together, spells out a name of God so powerful it was kept secret, whispered only to the worthy. The ancient rabbis believed that to say this prayer with intention was to actually unlock something — to loosen the grip of whatever was holding the world too tight. And it begins, always, with Alef, Bet, Gimel — the very first letters of the Hebrew alphabet. As if to say: every time you learn something new, every time you begin again at the beginning, you are already, without knowing it, calling on this name. You are already part of the unlocking.
Psalm 23 reminds us that we are never truly alone. Ana B'koach dares to ask: now that we know that — held, accompanied, not abandoned — can we begin to loosen what holds us? Can we, from that place of safety, start to become a little more free? Listen this time not just to the melody, but to the movement underneath it. Forty-two words, reaching toward liberation. This is the sound of a key turning.
Miriam: And that's Anna Bak, A Prayer of Unbinding, of releasing what we've been carrying, of asking for the strength to let go. Thank you for being here today for bringing your whole self into this moment of stillness and breath.
For our next episode, we're welcoming the Sabbath bride with ladi the prayer with over a thousand melodies. And it's the moment when we rise to greet a different story of the world. Until then, when you find small moments of release, little pockets of freedom tucked into your days. Shabbat Shalom.
Miriam: Great. Thanks to Lipman Camper Foundation for living Torah, for making this Shabbat Unbound podcast possible. Shabbat Unbound is a production of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future, and part of the family of podcasts of Judaism Unbound.
Created by Miriam Hurlin, Schamp and Lex Berg, directed by Joey Taylor, produced at Monastery Studios Sound Engineering by Justin Newton. Original podcast, theme Music and Arrangements by Rich Rodinsky and Art by Katie Kasner. Special thanks to our musician Rich Hoki on guitar, Andrea Summer on vocals.
Matt Wes on Bass and Josh ura camp on drums. Special thanks to our featured composer of Anna Koa Jacob's Ladder. Check our show notes for bonus material and all kinds of resources. And if you love this podcast, wonderful. There is more. Join us for our monthly live Shabbat Unbound events. You can find the next one on our website, www.judaismunbound.com/shabbat unbound.
We'd also love to hear from you, and you can email us at hello@judaismunbound.com.
