Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
SINCE 2007
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Wendy Elisheva Somerson
It has never been too late
to soften our hearts
and toughen our hands.
ALL
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024
ALL
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Blessing for Pursuing Justice
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ שְכִינָה בְּתוֹכֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר
קִדְשָתְנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתֶיהָ וְצִוָתְנוּ לִרְדֹף צֶדֶק
B’rucha at Shekhinah, b’tocheynu, ruach ha’olam, asher kidshatnu b’mitzvoteha v’tzivatnu lirdof tzedek
Blessed are you, Shekhinah, who is within us, spirit of
the world, who infuses our lives with holiness
and commands us to pursue justice
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
שׁיר חָדָשׁ/ Blessing for New Songs
Dorshei Derekh Women's Haftorah Group
Bruchah At Yah, Simchat Ha-olam, בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ שִׂמְחַת הָעוֹלָם
asher m’oreret אֲשֶׁר מְאוֹרֶרֶת
rucheinu la-shir shir chadash רוּחֵינוּ לַשִׁיר שִׁיר חָדָשׁ.
Blessed are You, Yah, Joy of the Universe,
who awakens our spirits
that we may sing a new song.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
נְקָבִים חַלוּלִים / Openings and Vessels
נְבָרֵך אֶת עֵן הַחַיִים אֲשֶׁר יָצַר אֶת הָאָדָם בְּחָכְמָה וּבָרָא בוֹ נְקָבִים נְקָבִים חַלוּלִים חַלוּלִים. גָלוּי וְיָדוּעַ לִפנֵי כִסֵּא כְבוֹדֵך שֶׁאִם יִפָּתֵחַ אֶחָד מֵהֶם אוֹ יִסָּתֵם אֶחָד מֵהֶם אִי אֶפְשָׁר לְהִתְקַיֵם וְלַעַמוֹד לְפָנֶיךָ.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה רוֹפֵא כָל בָּשָׂר וּמַפְלִיא לַעַשׂוֹת.
N’varech et ein hachayim asher yatzar et ha’adam bechochmah uvara vo nekavim nekavim chalulim chalulim. Galuwi veyadu’a lifney chisey chevodeich she’im yipate’ach echad mehem o yisatem echad mehem i efshar lehitkayem vela’amod lefanecha.
Baruch ata Yah rofey chol basar umafli la’asot.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
ALL
Let us bless how from the earth these bodies of wisdom were created, alive as they are, all open openings and holy holes.
Unconcealed, revealed, we face the fate of our dignity:
if wrongly opened one would be, or wrongly closed another,
we know not how we could withstand.
Broken though this flesh can be,
broken though this world can be*,
still we love this life while we last.
Blessed and blessing, we bow to both the healing of sleep
and the daily miraculous of awakening.
Elliott batTzedek & *Miriam Geronimus
Breathe
Lynn
Ungar
Breathe, said the wind
How can I breathe at a time like this,
when the air is full of the smoke
of burning tires, burning lives?
Just breathe, the wind insisted.
Easy for you to say, if the weight of
injustice is not wrapped around your throat,
cutting off all air.
I need you to breathe.
I need you to breathe.
Don’t tell me to be calm
when there are so many reasons
to be angry, so much cause for despair!
I didn’t say to be calm, said the wind,
I said to breathe.
We’re going to need a lot of air
to make this hurricane together.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Morning Blessings
Opening Phrase by Andrew Shaw
New Blessings by Elliott batTzedek
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
White butterflies, with single
black fingerpaint eyes on their wings,
dart and settle, eddy and mate
over the green tangle of vines
in Labor Day morning steam.
The year grinds into ripeness
and rot, grapes darkening,
pears yellowing, the first
Virginia creeper twining crimson,
the grasses, dry straw to burn.
Coming Up
on September
Marge Piercy
12 Elul 5742 / 14 September 2024
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
The New Year rises, beckoning
across the umbrellas on the sand.
I begin to reconsider my life.
What is the yield of my impatience?
What is the fruit of my resolve?
ALL
The New Year is a great door
that stands across the evening and Yom
Kippur is the second door. Between them are song and silence,
stone and clay pot
to be filled from within myself.
I will find there both ripeness and rot,
what I have done and undone,
what I must let go with the waning days
and what I must take in. With the last
tomatoes, we harvest the fruit of our lives.
Coming
Up on
September
Marge
Piercy
12 Elul 5742 / 14 September 2024
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
The New Year is a great door and Yom Kippur is a second door. Between them
we find ripeness and rot,
what we have done and undone, what
we must let go and must take in.
With the last tomatoes, we harvest
the fruit of our lives.
ALL
we are told to say the following
every day for a month
in preparation for the days of awe:
you are my light my help
when I'm with you I'm not afraid
I want to live in your house
the enemies that chew my heart
the enemies that break my spine
I'm not afraid of them when I’m with you
all my life I have truly trusted you
save me from the liars
let me live in your house
Elul: psalm 27
Alicia Ostriker
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
12 Elul 5742 / 14 September 2024
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024
Watch Chava Mirael’s Achat Sha’alti at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqBdmrwkhQ
"You cannot do the work every single second of every single day, which is why we've set aside this night-and-day in the Big Week just for you.
To sleep unhurried, to eat well and bask in familiarity, because this is where the community happens.
This is where we are born, each and every week, where we hold each other. There is no work without holding each other.“
from The Social Justice Warrior’s Guide to the High Holidays
Dane Kuttler
And G!D says:
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
it will not be simple, it will not be long
it will take little time, it will take all your thought
it will take all your heart, it will take all your breath
it will be short, it will not be simple
it will touch through your ribs, it will take all your heart
it will not be long, it will occupy your thought
as a city is occupied, as a bed is occupied
it will take all your flesh, it will not be simple
You are coming into us who cannot withstand you
you are coming into us who never wanted to withstand you
you are taking parts of us into places never planned
you are going far away with pieces of our lives
it will be short, it will take all your breath
it will not be simple, it will become your will
Final Notations
Adrienne Rich
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
Hope is not the thing with feathers
That comes home to roost
When you need it most.
Hope is an ugly thing
With teeth and claws and
Patchy fur that’s seen some shit.
It’s what thrives in the discards
And survives in the ugliest parts of our world,
Able to find a way to go on
When nothing else can even find a way in.
Caitlin Seida
All poetry is a prayer
Steven Turner
All poetry is a prayer
To unknown gods
We pray, let me return
To my home, even if home
No longer exists, even if
Ignorant armies have smashed it,
Let me return to where people
Know who I am
For here I do not
Recognize myself myself.
Let me be loved and love
In return, let me live well
And attend to the rose and
The hyacinth, the crocus,
So that I may still wonder and see
The exact shade of red or blue
Of the tulip or the azalea.
Or the ancient rose.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
All poetry is a prayer
Steven Turner
Let me know not forget what
It means to suffer, so that
I know that I am a Jew,
Just as we all are Jews.
Let me have enough courage
To wear the armband and follow
The king through the streets
Of Copenhagen and risk
Everything to ferry my
Brothers and sisters across
The straight to Sweden,
Where is safety and comfort.
In other words, let me, I pray
Take up arms against
All jack-booted thugs
Who hate and torment and destroy
Home, beauty, art, and love.
This I pray.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
There’s a lot of things about my Judaism
that I’m composting right now
but one of the things about my Judaism
that I love is that it’s a religion of doubt
It’s in love with mystery
All of the ancient texts are filled with rabbis
writing in the margins, arguing across centuries,
across time, making jokes with each other
about the impossibility of a singular meaning
for anything, which means, at its heart,
Judaism is allergic to certainty
which means, at its heart,
Judaism is allergic to fascism
So the most Jewish thing I have to say, I have to say
the most Jewish thing we could do right now
is work for the liberation of Palestine
Abigail Bengson
“I Grant You Refuge” was written by Palestinian poet, novelist, and teacher, Hiba Abu Nada.
“Refuge” was written on October 10th, 2024 and is among the last pieces she composed before being killed by an Israeli airstrike on October 20th, 2024.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
I Grant You Refuge
Hiba Abu Nada
(trans. Huda
Fakhreddine)
1.
I grant you refuge
in invocation and prayer.
I bless the neighborhood and the minaret
to guard them
from the rocket
from the moment
it is a general’s command
until it becomes
a raid.
I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones who
change the rocket’s course
before it lands
with their smiles.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
אָשַֽׁמְנוּ.
בָּגַֽדְנוּ.
גּזַֽלְנוּ.
דִּבַּֽרְנוּ דֹּֽפִי.
Ashamnu.
Bagadnu.
Gazalnu.
Dibarnu dofi.
2.
I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones now asleep like chicks in a nest.
They don’t walk in their sleep toward dreams.
They know death lurks outside the house.
Their mothers’ tears are now doves
following them, trailing behind
every coffin.
3.
I grant the father refuge,
the little ones’ father who holds the house upright
when it tilts after the bombs.
He implores the moment of death:
“Have mercy. Spare me a little while.
For their sake, I’ve learned to love my life.
Grant them a death
as beautiful as they are.”
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
הֶעֱוִֽינוּ. וְהִרְשַֽׁעְנוּ.
זַֽדְנוּ.
חָמַֽסְנוּ.
טָפַֽלְנוּ שֶֽׁקֶר.
I Grant You Refuge
Hiba Abu Nada
(trans. Huda
Fakhreddine)
He’evinu.
Vihirshanu.
Zadnu.
Chamasnu.
Tafalnu shaker.
4.
I grant you refuge
from hurt and death,
refuge in the glory of our siege,
here in the belly of the whale.
Our streets exalt God with every bomb.
They pray for the mosques and the houses.
And every time the bombing begins in the North,
our supplications rise in the South.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
I Grant You Refuge
Hiba Abu Nada
(trans. Huda
Fakhreddine)
יָעַֽצְנוּ רָע. כִּזַּֽבְנוּ.
לַֽצְנוּ.
מָרַֽדְנוּ.
ִאַֽצְנוּ.
סָרַֽרְנוּ.
עָוִֽינוּ.
פָּשַֽׁעְנוּ.
צָרַֽרְנוּ.
קִשִּֽׁינוּ עֹֽרֶף.
Ya’atznu ra.
Kizavnu.
Latznu.
Maradnu.
Ni’atznu.
Sararnu.
Avinu.
Pashanu.
Tzararnu.
Kishinu oref.
5.
I grant you refuge
from hurt and suffering.
With words of sacred scripture
I shield the oranges from the sting of phosphorous
and the shades of cloud from the smog.
I grant you refuge in knowing
that the dust will clear,
and they who fell in love and died together
will one day laugh.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
I Grant You Refuge
Hiba Abu Nada
(trans. Huda
Fakhreddine)
רָשַֽׁעְנוּ.
שִׁחַֽתְנוּ.
תִּעַֽבְנוּ.
תָּעִֽינוּ.
תִּעְתָּֽעְנוּ .
Rashanu. Shichatnu.
Ti’avnu.
Ta’inu.
Titanu.
I sleep through the first shooting but wake up in time for the second.
Tragedies like trains—there will always be another, another, another.
I spill coffee on my shirt and miss most of the third on the news, but I
hear enough (I catch the prayers but miss the thoughts.) I hear enough.
Tragedies like trains—the lights were flashing and still somehow you’re flattened.
Over lunch he tells me of the fourth, then remembers it’s the fifth. A
smaller tragedy, I mean—they’re building smaller caskets. I mean
they’re digging smaller graves.
Tragedies like trains and we are tied on every track.
It is only noon; we have
the day ahead of us.
(Some of us have
the day ahead of us.)
I sleep through
Kristina Mahr
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
Sure, I call upon every living soul
to rise up, to rally for freedom and justice,
to demand the promised Kin-dom of God
where the hungry are filled and the rich
are sent empty away. But so far the meek
are failing to inherit, and we see
our inheritance of habitable earth
being squandered more blatantly each day.
Maybe we are too far gone
for the living to save us. Maybe we need
to call on the dead. Let this be my
incantation:
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
All Souls
Lynn Ungar
May the soul of each and every
child shot in school follow
those with AR-15 pins on their lapels
through the halls of Congress, poking them
and demanding with the dreary repetition
of a bored child on a long car trip to know
Where are we going? What are we doing?
What is the plan?
May the souls of those
murdered at the Pulse nightclub
dance to the loudest music all night
in the living rooms of pastors
who preach judgement instead of love.
All Souls
Lynn Ungar
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
ALL
May all who died on the Trail of Tears
form a wall of warriors between
the armored agents and the ones
who are trying to thrive
where they are planted.
May battalions of those who died in slavery
rise up in every state room where
rich men plot to suck profit from those
who never wanted to be commodities.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
All Souls
Lynn Ungar
ALL
May all who hold the reins to power
be haunted by the ghosts
who insist that they deserved better,
that we deserve better,
that we were supposed to be better
than this.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
All Souls
Lynn Ungar
May all who hold the reins to power
be haunted by the ghosts
who insist that they deserved better,
that we deserve better,
that we were supposed to be better
than this.
ALL
ALL
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
For small creatures
such as we are
vastness is bearable
only through love
Carl Sagan
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
For Nothing
Is Fixed
James Baldwin
For nothing is fixed,
forever, forever, forever,
it is not fixed;
the earth is always shifting,
the light is always changing,
the sea does not cease to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease to be born,
and we are responsible to them
because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails,
lovers cling to each other,
and children cling to us.
The moment we cease to hold each other,
the moment we break faith with one another,
the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs – all this resinous, unretractable earth.
Optimism
Jane Hirshfield
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
If every day
re-enacts creation,
if we live
here, now
in the first world
and the last,
let us speak
in our bones
languages of water
from all skies, from
deep underground.
Let our bones quench
the thirst of history,
thirst for all we yearn
to sip, marrow
of each dry tongue
from “Gnawed Bones”
Peggy Shumaker
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
Let our bones quench
the thirst of history,
thirst for all we yearn
to sip, marrow
of each dry tongue
ALL
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
בָּרְכוּ / Bar’khu/ Pool of Blessing
Kohenet liturgy
בָּרְכוּ אֶת הַבְּרֵכָה הַמְבֹרֶכֶת
Leader: Barchu et haBereichah haMevorechet
Give blessing to the Pool of Blessing
בָּרוּכָה הַבְּרֵכָה הַמְבֹרֶכֶת לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד
Group: Beruchah ha Bereichah haMevorechet le’olam va’ed
Blessing to the Pool of Blessing in all the worlds throughout eternity
בָּרוּכָה הַבְּרֵכָה הַמְבֹרֶכֶת לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד
Leader: Beruchah ha Bereichah haMevorechet le’olam va’ed
Blessing to the Pool of Blessing in all the worlds throughout eternity
call & Response
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
If Not
Rabbi Hillel, Adrienne Rich, Dane Kuttler
If I am not for myself
who is for me?
If I am only for myself
what am I?
If not now
then when?
If not with others
then how?
If not here
then where?
call & Response
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
בִּרְכַּת יְצִירָה
Blessing of Creation
Marcia Falk
נְבָרֵךְ אֶת עֵין הַחַיִּים,
מְקוֹר הַחֹשֶׁךְ וְהָאוֹר,
מְקוֹר הַשְּׁלֵמוּת וְהַתֹּהוּ,
מְקוֹר הַטּוֹב וְהָרָע,
מְקוֹר כָּל יְצִירָה.
N’vareykh et eyn hachayim
m’kor hachoshekh v’ha’or
m’kor hash’leymut v’hatohu
m’kor hatov v’hara
m’kor kol y’tzirah
Let us bless the source of life
source of darkness and light,
source of wholeness and chaos
source of goodness and evil
source of all creation.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024
May we be the bringers of peace.
May we lay justice
down with our swords and shields.
(Prayer for) peace in impossible times
Dane Kuttler
for the days we turn in toward ourselves
with the same judgment
we will one day face
When peace comes,
it will not descend over us like a shelter.
It will not roll in like clouds
when we most want water,
will not fill us
or the sea
on its own.
When peace comes, it will be
because we have chosen to bear it,
to bend our backs under its stubborn weight,
to let it shape us as we move.
To make us slower.
More deliberate.
all
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה/ Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom
(Prayer for) peace in impossible times
Dane Kuttler
for the days we turn in toward ourselves
with the same judgment
we will one day face
Peace is a ploughshare practice:
a tilling,
a toil,
the willingness
to grieve the ones brought down
in the name of our redemption;
the willingness
to grieve the rending of our own souls
in its pursuit.
Peace will not spread over us
like branches; we will have to grow it.
Peace already lives in the land.
We have seen it emerge elsewhere
through blood and ash and remnants of bone,
through generations of bitterness,
and the stones we laid in our grief.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
all
(Prayer for) peace in impossible times
Dane Kuttler
for the days we turn in toward ourselves
with the same judgment
we will one day face
But to bring peace to bloom,
we must prepare ourselves as we prepare the land:
sifting out the stones, softening the soil,
asking what must be worked
and broken
before peace can take root:
our deepest yearnings for justice,
these ancient wounds we carry,
the times we forgot
we weren’t made to bury each other.
Nearly every branch of our ancestry
has charged off the path at some point
and found itself in
this
wilderness.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
(Prayer for) peace in impossible times
Dane Kuttler
for the days we turn in toward ourselves
with the same judgment
we will one day face
It has never been too late
to soften our hearts
and toughen our hands.
Peace was never G!d’s to grant.
It has always been ours to grow.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
all
But so too, have we found our way back.
So too, have we remembered
our own mercy
our own compassion
our own patience
our own forgiveness,
our own love.
So too, have we begun the work of repair
in every generation,
knowing it is not ours to complete,
but ours to continue.
It has never been too late
to soften our hearts
and toughen our hands.
Peace was never G!d’s to grant.
It has always been ours to grow.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Gatherings / Elliott batTzedek
Gather our strengths
and gather our failures
Gather our kin
and gather our strangers
Gather what we love
and what we fear
Gather what we have lost
and what we are afraid to lose
Find the courage to proclaim
“All we gather is sacred”
call & Response
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
שְׁמַע / Sh’ma
Ariadne Joy Lieber
שְׁמַע אמִי /יִשְּׂרָאֵל הַשְׁכִינָה בְּקִרְבֵּינוּ הַשְׁכִינָה אַחָת
Sh’ma Ami/Yisrael ha-Shekhinah b’Kirbainu ha-Shekhinah Ahat
Listen, My People/Israel, the Shekhinah is in our inmost being, the Shekhinah is one
בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד
Baruch shem kevod malchuto le’olam va’ed.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
/V’ahav’tוְאָהַבְתְּ
וְאָהַבְתְּ אֵת יְיָ אֱלֹהַיִךְ, בְּכָל-לְבָבֵךְ וּבְכָל-נַפְשֵׁךְ, וּבְכָל-מְאֹדֵךְ. וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵֽלֶּה,
אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוָּתֵךְ הַיּוֹם, עַל-לְבָבֵךְ. וְשִׁנַּנְתִּים לִבְנֹתַיִךְ וּלְבָנַיִךְ, וְדִבַּרְתְּ בָּם,
בְּשִׁבְתֵּךְ בְּבֵיתֵךְ, וּבְלֶכְתֵךְ בַּדֶּֽרֶךְ, וּבְשָׁכְבֵּךְ וּבְקוּמֵךְ. וּקְשַׁרְתִּים לְאוֹת עַל יָדֵךְ,
וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינַיךְ. וּכְתַבְתִּים עַל מְזֻזוֹת בֵּיתֵךְ וּבִשְׁעָרַיִךְ.
Ve’ahav’t et skekhinah elohayich, bechol levavech, uvekol nafshech u-ve’chol me’odech. Vehayu hadevarim ha’eleh, asher anochi metzavatech hayom, al levavech. Veshinantim l’vnotayich ul’vanayich, vedibaret bam beshivtech beveitech u’velechtech baderech, uveshachbech uvekumech. Ukshartim le’ot al yadeych, vehayu letotafot bein einayich. Uchetavtim al mezuzot beitech uvisharayich.
And you must love The One, your God, with your whole heart, with every breath, with all you have. Take these words that I command you now to heart. Teach them intently to your children. Speak them when you sit inside your house or walk upon the road, when you lie down and when you rise. And bind them as a sign upon your hand, and keep them visible before your eyes. Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
all
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider--
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give -- yes or no, or maybe --
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
from A Ritual to Read to Each Other
William Stafford
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Amidah / Seven Breath Meditation
Rabbi Jill Hammer/ Kohenet
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Breathing in, I take breath into myself.
Breathing out, I join the web of being.
Breathing in, I rest in the present.
Breathing out, I am part of past and future.
Breathing in, I honor the shrine of my body.
Breathing out, I honor the shrine of the cosmos.
Breathing in, Presence fills me.
Breathing out, Presence enfolds me.
Breathing in, I witness what is broken.
Breathing out, I bow to what is perfect.
Breathing in, I offer gratitude for what is.
Breathing out, I accept that all changes.
Breathing in, I pray for peace for myself.
Breathing out, I pray for peace for all beings.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Blessing Before Reading Torah
Dorshei Derekh Women's Haftorah Group
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ עֵין הַחַיִים אַשֵׁר מוֹשָׁה דִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
מִמַיִם-חַיִים בְּרַחַמִים רָבִּים
Bruchah At Yah, ein ha-chayim, asher moshah divrei Torah
mi-mayim chayim b’rachamim rabim.
Blessed are you, Yah, Source of Life, who with abundant compassion draws words of Torah from living waters.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
from “Required: A Moral Ombundsman” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel
[After only one man was found guilty of a great war crime] The question which has agonized many people was: Who else is guilty?
To whitewash our deeds simply by maintaining our innocence is to defy God, who hears the cry of the guiltless killed. Jeremiah expressed it: “On your shirt is found the life-blood of guiltless poor. Yet in spite of all these things, you say: ‘I am innocent.’ Behold I will bring you to judgment for saying: ‘I have not yet sinned.’
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
from “Required: A Moral Ombundsman” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel
At this hour a major lesson implied in the teaching of the ancient prophets of Israel assumes renewed validity: few are guilty but all are responsible.
It is important that we distinguish between guilt and responsibility. It is dangerous to confuse these two distinct terms.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
from “Required: A Moral Ombundsman” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Guilt, which originally denoted a crime or sin, implies a connection with or involvement in a misdeed of a grave or serious character.
It is the fact of having committed a breach of conduct, especially such as violates law and involves penalty.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
from “Required: A Moral Ombundsman” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Responsibility is the capability of being called upon to answer, or to make amends, to someone for something without necessarily being directly connected with or involved in a criminal act.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
from “Required: A Moral Ombundsman” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel
We stand at the crossroads of our history. The atrocities we have committed are part of our record, of our consciousness.
Either we accept and vindicate them and establish atrocities as a legitimate mode of national policy, or we repent earnestly, confessing our sins, making amends, and adopting measures that would prevent similar crimes from happening in the future.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
from “Required: A Moral Ombundsman” in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Repentance can come about only in a state of utter hopelessness. For how dare we hope for God's forgiveness? Confronted with the results of our crimes—multitudes of people killed, crippled, demoralized, orphaned, widowed—can we expect the God of Justice to forgive us?
The issue we should all ponder is moral, not legal; responsibility, rather than guilt; prevention, rather than punishment.
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
For the ongoing, escalating genocide in Gaza and ongoing, escalating expulsions in the West Bank, in what ways are we, U.S. Citizens and/or Jews and/or Israeli citizens, guilty for having been knowingly involved in these crimes?
In what ways are we responsible, ready to be called upon to take action, to step up, to make amends, to make a way forward?
Dare we, at this moment on Shabbat Shuvah, face a God who hears the cries of the murdered guiltless?
Our Question Today
יי יי אֵ֥ל רַח֖וּם וְחַנּ֑וּן
אֶ֥רֶךְ אַפַּ֖יִם וְרַב־חֶ֥סֶד וֶאֱמֶֽת
נֹצֵ֥ר חֶ֙סֶד֙ לָאֲלָפִ֔ים
נֹשֵׂ֥א עָוֹן וָפֶ֖שַׁע וְחַטָּאָ֑ה וְנַקֵּה֙
Adonay, Adonay, el rachum v’chanun
erech apayim verav-chesed v’emet
notzer chesed la’alafim
nosey avon vafesha vechata’ah venakey
Adonai, Adonai, a God compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness
and faithfulness, extending kindness to the
thousandth generation, bearing iniquity,
transgression and sin, and acquitting
Liora Ostroff
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
In the Image – Thirteen Attributes
Cantor Abbe Lyons
Breath of Life
Great Mystery
in whose image humanity was created
Reasonable compassion
Graceful empathy
Responsive patience
Overflowing mercy
Authentic perception
Equal opportunity carrier
of the burden of our worst deliberate deeds
Transmuter of our spiteful impulses
Free forgiver of our honest mistakes
Erasing our soul stains
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
In the Image – Thirteen Attributes
Cantor Abbe Lyons
But You cannot erase the messages we share
about which of our fellow humans we truly see as our equals
which ones we see as other
which ones we don’t really see at all
You cannot pre-empt these spoken and unspoken lessons
we wittingly or unwittingly teach our children
grandchildren
great-grandchildren
And You cannot make amends for us
Only we have the power to do that
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
May it be Your will, Lord, our God and the God of our ancestors, that You lead us toward peace, guide our footsteps toward peace, and make us reach our desired destination for life, gladness, and peace.
May You rescue us from the hand of every foe, ambush along the way, and from all manner of punishments that assemble to come to earth. May You send blessing in our handiwork, and grant us grace, kindness, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us.
May You hear the sound of our humble request because You are God Who hears prayer requests. Blessed are You, Lord, Who hears prayer.
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ,
שֶתּוֹלִיכֵנוּ לְשָלוֹם וְתַצְעִידֵנוּ לְשָלוֹם וְתַדְרִיכֵנוּ לְשָלוֹם, וְתִסְמְכֵנוּ לְשָלוֹם,
וְתַגִיעֵנוּ לִמְחוֹז חֶפְצֵנוּ לְחַיִים וּלְשִמְחָה וּלְשָלוֹם.
אם דעתו לחזור מיד אומר וְתַחְזִירֵנוּ לְשָלוֹם
וְתַצִילֵנוּ מִכַף כָל אוֹיֵב וְאוֹרֵב וְלִסְטִים וְחַיּוֹת רָעוֹת בַדֶרֶךְ,
וּמִכָל מִינֵי פֻרְעָנֻיּוֹת הַמִתְרַגְשׁוֹת לָבוֹא לָעוֹלָם,
וְתִתְנֵנוּ לְחֵן וּלְחֶסֶד וּלְרַחֲמִים בְעֵינֶיךָ וּבְעֵינֵי כָל רֹאֵינוּ,
כִי אל שׁוֹמֵעַ תְפִלָה וְתַחֲנוּן אַתָה.
בָרוּךְ אַתָה לפי נוסח ספרד יי שׁוֹמֵעַ תְפִלָה:
כִי מַלְאָכָיו יְצַוֶה לָךְ לִשְמָרְךָ בְכָל דְרָכֶיךָ:
יי יִשְמָר צֵאתְךָ וּבוֹאֶךָ מֵעַתָה וְעַד עוֹלָם:
וְיַעֲקֹב הָלַךְ לְדַרְכּוֹ וַיִפְגְעוּ בוֹ מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹהִים.
וַיֹאמֶר יַעֲקֹב כַאֲשֶר רָאָם רת רפאל אוריאל מיכאל:
מַחֲנֵה אֱלֹהִים זֶה, וַיִקְרָא שֵם הַמָקוֹם הַהוּא מַחֲנָיִם.
יְבָרֶכְךָ יי וְיִשְמְרֶךָ:
יָאֵר יי פָנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶךָּ:
יִשָא יי פָנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵם לְךָ שָלוֹם
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
Blessing After Reading Torah
Dorshei Derekh Women's Haftorah Group
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ אֱלֹהֵינוּ לֵב הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר שָׂמַה לֵב אֵלֵינוּ וְשׁוֹמָעַת
קוֹל לִבֵּינוּ רַחֲמִי עָלֵינוּ וְיִשָׁמַע קוֹל דְמָמָה דָקָה
Bruchah At Yah, Eloheinu Lev Ha-olam, asher samah lev eileinu v’shoma’at
kol libeinu; rachami aleinu v’yishama kol d’mamah dakah
Blessed are You, Yah, Heart of the Universe, who attends to us and hears the voice of our hearts; have compassion on us and make audible the still, small voice.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Aleynu / עָלֵינוּ
We stand in the midst of a burning world
primed to burn with compassionate love and justice,
to turn inward and find holy fire at the core,
to turn outward and see the world that is all
of one flesh with us, see under the trash, through
the smog, the furry bee in the apple blossom,
the trout leaping, the candles our ancestors lit for us.
from Nishmat by Marge Piercy
Fill us as the tide rustles into the reeds in the marsh.
Fill us as the rushing water overflows the pitcher.
Fill us as light fills a room with its dancing.
Let the little quarrels of the bones and the snarling
of the lesser appetites and the whining of the ego cease.
Let silence still us so you may show us your shining
and we can out of that stillness rise and praise.
I have no phone receiver to connect me to the other side,
but every day I speak to my beloveds through candle flame.
Every night, I speak to them through the dark before sleep.
I speak to them in the car when I am alone.
I speak to them when I walk beneath stars,
when I walk in the woods, when I walk in the rain.
It is possible to be with someone who is gone.
It is possible to feel what cannot be seen,
to sense what cannot be heard,
to be held by what cannot be touched.
It is possible for love to grow after death.
If there is a secret language, it is, perhaps, openness.
The way air lets light move through.
The way a window invites in the scent of grass.
The way sand receives the ocean,
then, rearranged, lets it pass.
A New Kind of Conversation
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
It is possible to be with someone who is gone.
—Linda Gregg, “The Presence in Absence”
12 Elul 5742 / 14 September 2024
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba be’alma divra hiruty veyamlih malhutey behayeyhon uvyomeyhon uvhayey dehol beyt yisra’el ba’agala uvizman kariv ve’imru amen.
Yehey shemey raba mevarah le’alam ulalmey almaya.
Yitbarah veyistabah veyitpa’ar veyitromam veyitnasey veyit-hadar veyitaleh veyit-halal shemey dekudsha berih hu le’ela le’ela min kol birhata veshirata tushbehata venehemata da’amiran be’alma ve’imru amen.
Yehey shelama raba min shemaya vehayim Aleynu ve’al kol yisra’el ve’imru amen.
Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya’aseh shalom Aleynu ve’al kol yisra’el ve’al kol yishma’el ve’al kol yoshvey tevel ve’imru amen.
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
Mourner’s Kaddish קַדִּישׁ יָתוֹם
Mourner’s Kaddish / Elliott batTzedek
So often am I lost,
yet through the pall, yet through the tarnish, show me the way back,
through my betrayals, my dismay, my heart’s leak, my mind’s sway,
eyes’ broken glow, groan of the soul—which convey all that isn’t real,
for every soul to These Hands careen. And let us say, amen.
Say you will show me the way back, my Rock, my Alarm. Lead the way, Oh my Yah
And yet in shock and yet in shame and yet in awe and yet to roam and yet to stay and yet right here and yet away and yet —“Halleluyah!” my heartbeat speaks, for You live, for You live, in all this murk and too in the clear and too in our wreckage.
You are the mirror of our souls, let us say: amen
Life may harm me, rob me, ream me raw, try me, even slay me
Over all You will prevail. And let us say: Amen
Say You shall loan me a tomorrow, Say You shall loan another day to all who are called Yisrael and all called Yishmael and all called We and They, and let us say, Amen
Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah
6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025
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6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025