Four Wings of America: Southwest

Mel Alexenberg

שֶׁהֶחֱיָתְנוּ / Shehechiyatnu

​

בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ בְּתוֹכֵינוּ רוּחַ הַעוֹלַם שֶׁהֶחֱיָתְנוּ וְקִיְּמָתְנוּ

וְהִגִּיעָתְנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

​

B’rucha at Yah, b’tocheynu ruach ha’olam, shehecheyatnu v’kiy’matnu

v’higi’atnu lazman hazeh.

​

Blessed are you, Yah, who is within us, spirit of the world, who has kept us in life, sustained us, and helped us to reach this moment.

​

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

ALL

first used February 2007

In the dark times

Will there also be singing?

Yes, there will be singing

About the dark times.

ALL

image by Space Ink Shop

first used November 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

14 December 2024 /13 Kislev 5785

first used February 2007

first used December 2016

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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

ALL

first used February 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

​

You There

​

Judith

Barrington

​

​

Put the palms of your hands together

close to your body, thumbs touching your chest

then bow your head to the tree

whose body bears these words.

​

In the deep pool under the cedar

a trout rises to a mayfly and ripples spread

in widening O’s like the years

etched into heartwood as it grows.

​

What have the years written into your body?

What patterns emerged as you passed through fire?

Put your palms together, lifeline to lifeline.

Bow your head for the history you bear.

​

first used March 2008

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

first used February 2007

Elliott batTzedek & Miriam Geronimus

first used February 2023

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

call & Response

first used February 2007

​

Breathe

​

Lynne

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.

first used November 2023

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

14 December 2024 /13 Kislev 5785

first used January 2019

Morning Blessings

Opening Phrase by Andrew Shaw

New Blessings by Elliott batTzedek

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, הַמַּעֲבִירָה שֵׁנָה מֵעֵינַי וּתְנוּמָה מֵעַפְעַפָּי.

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, hama’avirah shenah mey’eynai ut’numah me’afapay

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who removes sleep from my eyes, slumber from my eyelids.

​

​

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לַשֶּׂכְוִי בִינָה לְהַבְחִין בֵּין יוֹם וּבֵין לָיְלָה.

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, asher natan l’shech’vi vinah l’hav’chin beyn yom uveyn laylah

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who has given the rooster understanding to distinguish day from night.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

first used May 2017, became regular liturgy May 2021, nusach created February 2022

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הַעוֹלָמִים, שְהִקְדִישָה אֶת כָּל הִיצוּרִים

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, shehik’dishah et kol hitzurim

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who made all beings holy

​

​

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, שְׁנָתְנָה לִי אֶת הַרָצוֹן לִצְעֹד מְאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, sh’nat’nah li et haratzon litzod m’eretz mitzrayim

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who has placed in me the desire to march out of my oppression

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים,

שפָתְחָה אֶת הַמַחְשָׁבָה

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, sh’pat’chah et hamach’shavah

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who opens the mind.

​

​

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים,

מַלְבִּישָׁה עֲרֻמִּים.

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, mal’bishah adumim

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who clothes the naked.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, מַתִּירָה אֲסוּרִים.

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim,

matir asurim

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who releases the bound.

​

​

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, זוֹקֶפֶת כְּפוּפִים.

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, zokefet k’fufim

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who lifts up the bent.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, מִי בָרְאָה עוֹלָם שֶל עוֹשֶׁר

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, mi bar’ah olam shel osher

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who created an abundant world

​

​

​

כָּל בְּרָכוֹת נוֹבְעוֹת מִן יָהּ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ, חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, הַנּוֹתֶנֶת לַיָּעֵף כֹּחַ.

Kol b’rachot nov’ot min Yah, eloheynu, hey ha’olamim, hanotenet laya’ef ko’ah

All blessings flow from Yah, our God, life of the worlds, who gives strength to the weary.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

at our first meeting February 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

For Alex Jeffrey Pretti

Murdered by ICE January 24 2026

Amanda Gorman

​

We wake with

no words, just woe

& wound. Our own country shoot

ing us in the back is not just brutal

ity; it’s jarring betrayal; not enforcement,

but execution. A message Love your people & you

will die. Yet our greatest threat isn’t the outsiders

among us, but those among us who never look

within. Fear not those without papers, but those

without conscience. Know that to care intensively,

united, is to carry both pain-dark horror for today

& a profound, daring hope for tomorrow. We can feel

we have nothing to give, & still belove this world wait

ing, trembling to change. If we cannot find words, may

we find the will; if we ever lose our hope, may we never lose our

humanity. The only undying thing is mercy, the courage to open

ourselves like doors, hug our neighbors,

& save one more bright, impossible life.

​

We are not reconciled to the oppressors who whet their howl on our grief.

​

Danielle Badra

from a line by Gloria Anzaldua

We are not born to be barons of wealth. We

are soft spoken wordsmiths, not soldiers. We are

not broken by hardship or hate. We are not

reconciled to tyranny, to false truths,

to our bloody tongues. We will spit out

the vitriol we swallowed as kids. To our

oppressors, we will say "wait for us" -- well aware of

who we are and what we want to taste.

Whet our teeth against their ragged amendments,

their inherent greed and emptiness. We will

howl at their hollowed-out faces. We will spit

on supremacy till thirst takes our throats.

Our resistance is written without ink. Our

grief is rising.

first used October 2018

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

​

from A Ritual to Read to Each Other

​

William Stafford

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.

first used December 2016

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Song

first used December 2016

​

Of The Empire

​

Mary Oliver

We will be known as a culture that feared death

and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity

for the few and cared little for the penury of the

many. We will be known as a culture that taught

and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke

little if at all about the quality of life for

people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All

the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a

commodity. And they will say that this structure

was held together politically, which it was, and

they will say also that our politics was no more

than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of

the heart, and that the heart, in those days,

was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

first used July 2022

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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

​

first used 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

​

​

Harrowing

​

Maggie Smith

This world is harrowing, harrowing,

all harrow, as if harrow were what

the world is made of, what we are

made of, as if harrow were strings

to be strummed, tendons and veins

to be strummed, as if harrow

could be snapped between the teeth,

the word one letter from the white meal

of ourselves, harrow, two letters

from the bird who might strum

with its beak what the body is made of,

what the world is made of, and in that

strumming become the song.

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

first used November 2007

This World is not Conclusion.

Emily Dickinson

ALL

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

first used March 2024

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

first used September 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes—you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things you can know beforehand. You may not, in fact, know them afterward either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

from Hope in the Dark

​

Rebecca Solnit

first used October 2022

first used March 2007

we are each other’s

harvest:

we are each other’s

business:

we are each other’s magnitude and bond.

ALL

Gwendolyn Brooks, “Paul Robeson”

first used June 2020

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

first used September 2025

For the chief musician, on common instrument:

A song of rebellion

​

Praise rising up. Praise unlawful assembly. Praise the road of excess

and the palace of wisdom. Praise glass houses. Praise the hand

that cradles the stone.

​

Praise en masse and the pull of a straight line.

Praise outside agitators

and inside jobs. Praise Red Emma. Praise Joan of Arc.

​

Praise wayward daughters and praise, praise, their wayward sons.

​

Praise the nail and the printing press. Praise free verse.

Praise the First Amendment.

Praise illicit beauty, yellow sunflowers and red wheelbarrows.

Praise the poets of Guantanamo.

from Praise the Contrary and

Its Defenders

​

Sue Swartz

*new lines by Elliott batTzedek

first used February 2024

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

call & Response

Praise the noisy midnight streets.

Praise the frogs and the drums and the tubas.*

Praise the neighbors up at dawn and praise their roaring whistles.*

Praise those who jeer at fascists. Praise their water balloons.*

​

Praise Letters from Prison. Praise the bound notebook and what

is found within. Praise Legal Aid attorneys. Praise kitchen-table

conspiracies. Praise our hunger and the days we are the bread.

​

Praise the roving gangs of wine moms who smuggle food*

to people hiding in their homes. Praise tipis in the snow*

and the eagle blessing them in a February sky.*

​

Praise Walt Whitman & Jimi Hendrix. Praise the body’s

wild intelligence. Praise the giraffe and the porcupine.

Praise untouchables, undesirables, partisans and riffraff. Praise slackers.

​

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

call & Response

from Praise the Contrary and

Its Defenders

​

Sue Swartz

*new lines by Elliott batTzedek

Praise those who talk back. Praise sympathy for the devil.

Praise mothers of the disappeared. Praise mothers of the found.

Praise Planned Parenthood and the siren song.

​

Praise singers and psalm-makers. Praise hitting

your head against the wall. Praise giving peace a chance.

Praise Selma, Alabama. Praise the Abraham Lincoln Brigades.

Praise Sacco and Vanzetti.

​

Praise what we are not supposed to praise. Praise the electrical storm

and the still small voice. Praise all the proverbs of hell.

Praise this feeling of trying to write about the truth.

​

Praise those who see it coming. Praise those who do it

anyway. Praise what swallows us whole.

​

Praise what happens next.

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

call & Response

from Praise the Contrary and

Its Defenders

​

Sue Swartz

*new lines by Elliott batTzedek

first used July 2009

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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

first used May 2010

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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

first used February 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

נְבָרֵךְ אֶת עֵין הַחַיִּים,

מְקוֹר הַחֹשֶׁךְ וְהָאוֹר,

מְקוֹר הַשְּׁלֵמוּת וְהַתֹּהוּ,

מְקוֹר הַטּוֹב וְהָרָע,

מְקוֹר כָּל יְצִירָה.

N’vareykh et eyn hachayim

Let us bless the source of life

m’kor hachoshekh v’ha’or

source of darkness and light

m’kor hash’leymut v’hatohu

source of wholeness and chaos

m’kor hatov v’hara

source of goodness and evil

m’kor kol y’tzirah

source of all creation

​

Blessing of Creation / Birkat Y’tzirah

Marcia Falk

call & Response

first used February 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Aleynu

​

Marcia

Falk

It is ours to praise

the beauty of the world

​

even as we discern

the torn world.

​

For nothing is whole

that is not first rent

​

and out of the torn

we make whole again.

ALL

​

May we live with promise

in creation’s lap,

​

redemption budding

in our hands.

​

A prayer for these terrifying times

​

Rabbi David Seidenberg

​

A prayer for these terrifying times:

May You tear out tyranny, autocracy, and despotism,

ruin those who cheat and deceive,

upend those who oppress the vulnerable.

Make the reign of the arrogant disappear from all lands.

People attacking democracies everywhere, may they stumble and fail, and may their plans be as nought.

Stop them, humble them, bring on their downfall, soon, in our days.

May You give to all peoples the strength and will to pursue righteousness and seek peace as a unified force, so that violence be uprooted, and healing, good life and peace may flourish.

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה/ Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom

Credit: @nowthisimpact Thousands of Minnesotans gathered outside hotels where ICE and Border Patrol have been staying to sing to them, encouraging agents to quit and stop the ICE terror on their streets. Song by: Annie Schlaefer & @singingresistancetc on IG (via: Reddit / CorleoneBaloney)

It’s okay to change your mind

Show us your courage

Leave this behind

It’s okay to change your mind

And you can join us, join us here anytime

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

first used February 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

call & Response

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”

first used February 2009, “Israel” changed to “ami” is 2024

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

שְׁמַע / Sh’ma

Ariadne Joy Lieber

​

שְׁמַע אמִי הַשְׁכִינָה בְּקִרְבֵּינוּ הַשְׁכִינָה אַחָת

Sh’ma Ami ha-Shekhinah b’Kirbainu ha-Shekhinah Ahat

​

Listen, My People, 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

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

/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.

first used February 2007

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

call & Response

first used February 2007

תוצאות /Consequences

post by Susan Raffo

01/17/2026

Out on patrol with two friends this morning and I kept seeing the beautiful web being woven in Minnesota right now. Not with new materials, but woven with wisdom into what was already here. I could feel this net with my hands, this connection as we passed that group of three on the corner of Cedar and Lake, this connection as we listened to someone doing dispatch while their kid yelled in the room behind them. I thought of this today stopping by a locally beloved Mexican restaurant to grab some food for the family and having the owner step up with tears in his eyes and reflect on how much they feel cared for and then the security guard stepped over and asserted that this is what we do, we care for our own. He said, tell people we have them, we've got them and we will keep them safe.

​

All of the worst stories you read are true and there are more of them than what shows up on social media, but there is also this, everything I am writing here in the same morning, driving over to northeast and a junior high has just done a walk out, they are lining a major road in their “are those pants they look like pajamas” clothes and all are holding signs and I am on the phone with someone and I burst into tears when I pass them.

​

This is a net and I remember this very old fishing net someone showed me years ago, guiding my fingers to feel where the net had been repaired over and over again, like scars in the fibers that strengthen rather than break.

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

תוצאות /Consequences

ICE is sharp, knives that cut with small knicks and sometimes great full arm thrusts that shove and tear through this connected set of scars and fresh material, and there are wounds and this is violence and some of you beloveds are being stopped on the road because of how you are read, while I am not being stopped and none of this is ever ok and still, I feel the pull and tug of the net that is larger than anything I have experienced before.

​

Is there anyone in these cities not showing up in some way? I can't remember the last time I saw or heard anyone have words other than how can I show up? There is a net and it has always been here, it is always here, it's just that sometimes it's hard to see and all that is happening in Minneapolis is that some of the confusion is fading and what is visible is the link and weave and stumble and steady between us.

​

May we keep repairing it as it frays, from those outside and from the rising tension we hold within, and may this net grow with wisdom and may bodies tired of holding themselves up alone someday feel like they can relax into the steady certainty of something much bigger than the size of their skin.

​

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

post by Susan Raffo

01/17/2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

14 December 2024 /13 Kislev 5785

first used February 2007

21 Tevet 5786 / 10 January 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

אַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת Arba Kanfot / Four Corners

​

​

The mitzvah of tzitzit lives within our bodies, and as we look upon each other

we remember what this community was formed to do:

​

To hold fast to each other’s frayed edges.

To knot those edges into firm hand-holds.

To wrap our dreams around our fears and to display our tzitzit as evidence and witness.

​

Together we smooth the world’s sharp corners into the wings of the Shekhinah,

under which we shelter one another.

​

Into our tzitzit are woven the ways we’ve known holiness in our world. When we see them we remember, and when we remember, we act — protecting each person, each place, each animal, each river and lake and ocean, each tree, each stone, each wind-blown cloud in each patch of sky that together form the one single body that is this world.

​

call & Response

21 Tevet 5786 / 10 January 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

אַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת Arba Kanfot / Four Corners

​

​

הַצִּיצִית שֶׁאָנוּ מַחְזִיקֵיהָ בְּיָדֵינוּ הִיא יָדֵנוּ

hatzitzitzit she’anu mach’zikeyha b’yadeinu hi yadenu

​

וּמִצְּבִּיעָה עַל מָה שֶׁאָנוּ יוֹדְעֵיהָ כִּיְהוּדוֹל

umatzbi’ah al mah she’anu yod’eiha ki’hudol

​

- שְׁעָלֵינוּ לִרְאוֹת ולִזְכּוֹר-יֹפִי-תֵּבֵל

she’aleinu lir’ot v’liz’cor-yophi-tevel

​

This tzitzit we hold in our hands is our yad,

and points to what we know as Jews -

that it is upon us to see and to remember the beauty of the world

​

ALL

Lest in the Future our Silence be Held as Witness Against Us

Elliott batTzedek

It is wrong to turn away people fleeing violence.

It is wrong to imprison people whose only crime is wanting a better life.

It is wrong to build concentration camps.

It is wrong to even have to say that is wrong to build concentration camps.

אַדֹנָי שְׂפְתַּי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּד הַאֶמֶת

Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid haemet

אַדֹנָי שְׂפְתַּי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּד הַאֶמֶת

Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid haemet

first used July 2018 in a different form

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

It is wrong to use terror for political power.

It is wrong to occupy our cities with a violent white supremacist armed thugs.

It is wrong to kidnap and sell people into for-profit concentration camps.

It is a violence to our souls to have to protest against anything so clearly evil.

It is wrong to lie.

It is wrong to lie and to lie and to be proud of the lying.

It is wrong to profit from lying.

It is wrong to look a nation in the eye, take an oath, and lie.

אַדֹנָי שְׂפְתַּי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּד הַאֶמֶת

Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid haemet

אַדֹנָי שְׂפְתַּי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּד הַאֶמֶת

Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid haemet

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

אַדֹנָי שְׂפְתַּי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּד הַאֶמֶת

Adonai sefatai tiftach ufi yagid haemet

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

It is wrong to silence and censor the lives of the oppressed.

It is wrong to replace truth with hate and propaganda.

It is as wrong to protect the guilty as it is to implicate the innocent.

It is all, right now, so so wrong..

It is wrong to traffic, disappear, and sexually assault children.

How do we live in a world where we have prove that this is wrong?

It is wrong that the rich are above all laws.

It is wrong that anyone, anywhere, is too rich to be accountable

first used November 2022

Amidah / Seven Breath Meditation

Rabbi Jill Hammer/ Kohenet

​

first used unclear, became our shared text when we switched to slides in December 2020

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

14 December 2024 /13 Kislev 5785

first used February 2009

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

first used February 2007

Voices from Minneapolis

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

first used February 2007

first used September 2019

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

first used February 2007

first used as our Aleynu in February 2022

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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.

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.

Genry Ruiz Guillén, 29, of Honduras

Serawit Gezahegn Dejene, 45, of Ethiopia

Maksym Chernyak, 44, of Ukraine

Juan Alexis Tineo-Martinez, 44, of the Dominican Republic

Brayan Garzón-Rayo, 27, of Colombia

Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, 66, of Vietnam

Marie Ange Blaise, 44, of Haiti

Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado, 68, of Mexico

Jesus Molina-Veya, 45, of Mexico

Johnny Noviello, 49, of Quebec

Isidro Pérez, 75, of Cuba

Jaime Alanis, 57, of Mexico

Tien Xuan Phan, 55, of Vietnam

Chaofeng Ge, 32, of China

Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, 52, of Guatemala

Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, 32, of Mexico

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

January 2025

February 2025

May 2025

April 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025

Oscar Rascon Duarte, 58, of Mexico

Silverio Villegas González, 38, of Mexico

Santos Banegas Reyes, 42, of Honduras

Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, of Mexico

Norlan Guzman-Fuentes, 37, of El Salvador

Miguel Ángel García Medina, 31, of Mexico

Huabing Xie, N/A, of China

Leo Cruz-Silva, 34, of Mexico

Hasan Ali Moh’D Saleh, 67, of Jordan

Josué Castro Rivera, 24, of Honduras

Gabriel Garcia Aviles, 54, of Mexico

Kai Yin Wong, 63, of China

Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, 48, of Guatemala

Pete Sumalo Montejo, 72, of the Philippines

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

September 2025

October 2025

December 2025

Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani, 48, of Pakistan

Isaias Sanchez Barboza, 31, of Mexico

Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, of Haiti

Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, 46, of Eritrea

Delvin Francisco Rodriguez, 39, of Nicaragua

Nenko Stanev Gantchev, 56, of Bulgaria

Keith Porter, 43, of the United States

Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, Cuba

Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, 42, Honduras

Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, 68, Honduras

Parady La, 46, Cambodia

Renee Nicole Good, 37, of the United States

Víctor Manuel Díaz, 36, Nicaragua

Heber Sánchez Domínguez, 34, Mexico

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, of the United States

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

December 2025

January 2026

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

Beneath Shekhinah’s Wings

​

Marcia Falk

Beneath Shekhinah’s Wings -

​

She hovers over us,

her fledglings-

​

the bereaved,

the brokenhearted-

​

lifts us to her, takes our sorrow.

​

In the depth of her shade: home.

first used November 2018

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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 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.

​

Mourner’s Kaddish קַדִּישׁ יָתוֹם

first used February 2007

first used January 2012

27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026

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 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

​

14 December 2024 /13 Kislev 5785

first used February 2007

Upcoming Services

Saturday March 14 Torah talk:

​

Saturday April 11 Torah talk: Itsik

​

Saturday May 9 Torah talk:

​

Saturday June 13 Torah talk: Miriam

​

Saturday July 11 Torah talk:

​

Friday August 14 Erev Shabbat

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27 Sh’vat 5786 / 14 February 2026