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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Blessing for Pursuing Justice

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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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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שׁיר חָדָשׁ/ Blessing for New Songs

Dorshei Derekh Women's Haftorah Group

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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

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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נְקָבִים חַלוּלִים / Openings and Vessels

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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.

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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

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

Call

&

Response

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

​

Sabbaths

2001 VI

​

Wendell Berry

Sit and be still

until in the time

of no rain you hear

beneath the dry wind's

commotion in the trees

the sound of flowing

water among the rocks,

a stream unheard before,

and you are where

breathing is prayer.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

​

​

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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.

​

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Matins

​

Louise Gluck

You want to know how I spend my time?

I walk the front lawn, pretending

to be weeding. You ought to know

I'm never weeding, on my knees, pulling

clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact

I'm looking for courage, for some evidence

my life will change, though

it takes forever, checking

each clump for the symbolic

leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already

the leaves turning, always the sick trees

going first, the dying turning

brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform

their curfew of music. You want to see my hands?

As empty now as at the first note.

Or was the point always

to continue without a sign?

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Meditations in an Emergency

​

Cameron Awkward-Rich

I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain

breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among the buildings,

men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the

underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, & children all

of them, break my heart. There’s a dream I have in which I love the world.

I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders,

only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution

of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Allowed to Be Ordinary

​

James Crews

When I stop comparing and allow myself

to be ordinary—folding tea towels

and T-shirts into neat squares, rinsing out

the sticky jar that once held honey—I taste

a piece of eternity. Giving myself to the task

at hand, the chore becomes a privilege:

I get to scrub last night’s pasta pot, I get to

sweep pebbles and pine needles from the mudroom.

This is how we enter the timeless motion of those

who came before us—by accepting the assignment,

which is to beautify and repair our own small

corner of the world. Afterward, I am stained

like the inside of a favorite coffee mug

with evidence of my delight in these daily rituals

that can never be washed away, the ordinary

being at least one gateway to the holy.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Why Bother?

​

Sean Thomas Dougherty

Why Bother?

​

Because right now, there is someone

​

out there with

​

a wound in the exact shape

​

of your words

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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“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.

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To sleep unhurried, to eat well and bask in familiarity, because this is where the community happens.

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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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Dear God

​

Alicia Ostriker

It used to be

I would fall to the floor and press my forehead to it

in moments of despair

​

I would say help me

help me

​

but listen

I am ok

but I just now found myself pressing my forehead

to the carpet of my stairs

​

about the waters in the flooded cities

poisoned by oilspill, chemicals, the dead

about the survivors forever traumatized

dear god

I am alive I am alive

help them

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Litte Prayer

​

Danez Smith

let ruin end here

​

let them find honey

where there was once a slaughter

​

let them enter the lion’s cage

& find a field of lilacs

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let this be the healing

& if not let it be

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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“That which doesn't break you, doesn't break you because you chose community.

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Imperfect, lurching, and leaning into the wind, you chose to build your family out of all the bent and rusted, the scraps and shards, fitting them together into a holy mosaic.

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You hold it together with the unbreakable parts of you.

​

And it holds you.”

from The Social Justice Warrior’s Guide to the High Holidays

​

Dane Kuttler

And G!D says:

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Wood, Hemp, Bark, Stone

​

Kim Stafford

After the industrial revolution

has run its course, after digital

catastrophes, after self destructing

data farms, after plastic and screens,

after phones, after money, after

summers of fire, winters of extinction,

after the customs of rush hour and

addiction, after borders, walls and

towers, after magnificent lies told

to millions, after missiles and hatred

the size of nations, after billionaires

explaining what freedom means

to their slaves, after all our tired

posturing, our worn out theories

of privilege over earth, if we can

come to after, who shall we be?

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Testimony

​

Rebecca Baggett

for my daughters

I want to tell you

that the world is still beautiful.

I tell you that despite

children raped on city streets,

shot down in school rooms,

despite the slow poisons seeping

from old and hidden sins

into our air, soil, water,

despite the thinning film

that encloses our aching world.

Despite my own terror and despair.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Testimony

​

Rebecca Baggett

for my daughters

I want you to look again and again,

to recognize the tender grasses,

curled like a baby's fine hairs

around your fingers, as a recurring

miracle, to see that the river rocks

shine like God, that the crisp

voices of the orange and gold

October leaves are laughing at death.

I want you to look beneath

the grass, to note

the fragile hieroglyphs

of ant, snail, beetle. I want

you to understand that you are

no more and no less necessary

than the brown recluse, the ruby-

throated hummingbird, the humpback

whale, the profligate mimosa.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Testimony

​

Rebecca Baggett

for my daughters

I want to say, like Neruda,

that I am waiting for

"a great and common tenderness,"

that I still believe

we are capable of attention,

that anyone who notices the world

must want to save it.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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that I still believe

we are capable of attention,

that anyone who notices the world

must want to save it

all

Rosh Hashanah

​

Lucille Clifton

Monday, sundown, 9/17/2001

i bear witness to no thing

more human than hate

​

i bear witness to no thing

more human than love

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apples and honey

apples and honey

​

what is not lost

is paradise

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Swimming, One Day in August

​

Mary Oliver

It is now, I said,

for the deepening and quieting of the spirit

among the flux of happenings.

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Something had pestered me so much

I thought my heart would break.

I mean, the mechanical part.

​

I went down in the afternoon

to the sea

which held me, until I grew easy.

​

About tomorrow, who knows anything.

Except that it will be time, again,

for the deepening and quieting of the spirit.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

call & Response

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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בָּרְכוּ / Bar’khu/ Pool of Blessing

Kohenet liturgy

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בָּרְכוּ אֶת הַבְּרֵכָה הַמְבֹרֶכֶת

Leader: Barchu et haBereichah haMevorechet

Give blessing to the Pool of Blessing

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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

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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

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

call & Response

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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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?

בִּרְכַּת יְצִירָה/ Blessing of Creation

​

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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At a certain point you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world, Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: there is nothing there. There is nothing but those things only, those created objects discrete, growing or holding, or swaying, being rained on or raining, held, flooding or ebbing, standing or spread.

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You feel the world’s word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: this hum is the silence. The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega. It is God’s brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blended note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings.

​

You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to “World.”

​

Distinctions blur.

Quit your tents.

Pray without ceasing.

Annie Dillard

all

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024

​

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה/ Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

call & Response

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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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”

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

​

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

/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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

ALL

ALL

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 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.

​

ALL

ALL

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives might be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

The Peace of Wild Things

​

Wendell Berry

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

6 Tishrei 5786/ 27 September 2025

​

Amidah / Seven Breath Meditation

Rabbi Jill Hammer/ Kohenet

​

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

3 Tishrei 5785 / 5 October 2024

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

from The Book of Life

​

Alicia Suskin Ostriker

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Integrity unobscured by death

Is what we hope for.

But to whom should we say

Inscribe me in the Book of Life?

To whom if not each other

To whom if not our damaged children

To whom if not our piteous ancestors

To whom if not the lovely ugly forms

We have created,

The forms we wish to coax

From the clay of nonexistence—

However persistent the voice

That rasps hopeless, that claims

Your fault, your fault —

As if outside the synagogue we stood

On holier ground in a perennial garden

Jews like ourselves have just begun to plant.

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

​

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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

​

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

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

What is your harvest from 5786?

​

What is the fruit of your resolve for 5787?

​

​

With the last

tomatoes, we harvest the fruit of our lives.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

“I Grant You Refuge” was written by Palestinian poet, novelist, and teacher, Hiba Abu Nada.

​

​

“Refuge” was written on October 10^th, 2023.

​

She was murdered by an Israeli airstrike on October 20^th, 2023.

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

אָשַֽׁמְנוּ.

בָּגַֽדְנוּ.

גּזַֽלְנוּ.

דִּבַּֽרְנוּ דֹּֽפִי.

Ashamnu.

Bagadnu.

Gazalnu.

Dibarnu dofi.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

I Grant You Refuge

​

Hiba Abu Nada

(trans. Huda

Fakhreddine)

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

הֶעֱוִֽינוּ. וְהִרְשַֽׁעְנוּ.

זַֽדְנוּ.

חָמַֽסְנוּ.

טָפַֽלְנוּ שֶֽׁקֶר.

He’evinu.

Vihirshanu.

Zadnu.

Chamasnu.

Tafalnu shaker.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

I Grant You Refuge

​

Hiba Abu Nada

(trans. Huda

Fakhreddine)

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

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.

​

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

I Grant You Refuge

​

Hiba Abu Nada

(trans. Huda

Fakhreddine)

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

רָשַֽׁעְנוּ.

שִׁחַֽתְנוּ.

תִּעַֽבְנוּ.

תָּעִֽינוּ.

תִּעְתָּֽעְנוּ .

Rashanu. Shichatnu.

Ti’avnu.

Ta’inu.

Titanu.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

I Grant You Refuge

​

Hiba Abu Nada

(trans. Huda

Fakhreddine)

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians

will win

the day

​

Robert A. H.

Cohen

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians will win the day

Because it’s not 1933.

Because the Palestinians are not the Nazis.

Because we have not been here before.

Because this is new.

​

​

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians will win the day

Because you cannot shout about racism here but not there.

Because you cannot care about refugees here but not there.

Because discrimination at the Western Wall matters less than the Apartheid all around you.

Because an Israeli sniper’s bullet is a bigger problem than an antisemitic tweet.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

ALL

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians

will win

the day

​

Robert A. H.

Cohen

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians will win the day

Because there’s no safety won by theft

Because there’s no security built on fear.

Because democracy for some is not democracy.

Because a nuclear armed ghetto does not normalize the Jewish condition.

​

​

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians will win the day

Because those we have dispossessed have not disappeared.

Because Palestinians are allowed to resist.

Because you cannot celebrate a catastrophe.

Because your Bar/Bat Mitzvah trees were planted to conceal a crime scene.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

ALL

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians

will win

the day

​

Robert A. H.

Cohen

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians will win the day

Because our Jewish leaders have lost their way and cannot be trusted.

Because our relationship with the Palestinian people is the only relationship that matters.

Because the future of Jews and Judaism depends on this.

Because there’s only so long you can live in denial.

​

Why Jews in solidarity with Palestinians will win the day

Because Moses said justice

Because Micah said justice

Because Isaiah said justice

Because if we are the oppressor, then why be Jewish at all?

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

ALL

ALL

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

I do not believe in the failure of caring

for each other. How

can I when the cascading waves

gather us all in the rise?

Tamiko Beyer

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Hebrew blessings drawn from "Eikh esh’al - How can I ask forgiveness?"

A piyyut in response to the Gaza war since October 7, for Selichot and Yom Kippur by David Seidenberg

​

Testimony drawn from Recorded Intent A Registry of Israeli Genocidal Statements on Gaza by Al Haq

​

הֲסַכִין בְיָדִי בְעַדִי עֲדַיִין וְאֶדְרֹשׁ מֵאֵת פִיךָ מְחִילָה לִי

​

The blade still in my hand, for my purpose,

yet would I yet seek forgiveness from Your mouth for me?

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

​

Yoav Gallant, Minister of Defense

“We will change the face of reality in the Gaza Strip for the coming 50 years. What was is not what will be. We will act with full force.”

​

​

May Golan, Minister for Social Equity and Women’s Empowerment (February 2024)

“I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did [to them]! Neither a dove nor an olive leaf, only a sword.”

​

​

IDF Soldiers on Instagram holding signs saying:

“We, the soldiers of the Jewish People's Army on the right and the left, will not take off our uniforms until we wipe out and destroy Gaza.”

​

​

David Azoulay, head of the Metula Council, 12/17/2023

Israel should make Gaza look like Auschwitz museum - send all Gazans to refugee camps in Lebanon and flatten the whole Strip so it becomes an empty museum like Auschwitz.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

וְהֶרֶס הֵהָרֵס בֵּית וּבִנְיָן לְאָבָק, מַחְלָקָה וְרוֹפֵא, בְּאֹהָל פְלִיטֵי פְצָצָה

​

Destruction — reducing house and building to dust,

hospital ward and doctor, those in tents who fled bombs.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Tzipi Navon, Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom between 2020 and 2025

“We keep saying to flatten Gaza, flatten Gaza and I think that’s not enough. They should be captured and tortured one-by-one by pulling out their nails and skinning them alive. Save their tongues for last, so we can enjoy his screams, his ears so he can hear his own screams...”

​

​

Limor Son Har-Melech, Member of Knesset for the Otzma Yehudit Party

“There are no innocent [people] in Gaza.”

​

Giora Eiland, retired Major General of the Israel Defense Forces and a former head of the Israeli National Security Council

“Israel has no choice but to render Gaza into a place that is temporarily, or permanently, unfit for living.

​

Ezra Yachin, age 97, Israeli Reserve soldier and public voice for the IDF. Former member of Zionist paramilitary group Lehi who participated in the Deir Yassin massacre

“Erase the memory of them. Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live. Every Jew with a weapon should go out and kill them. If you have an Arab neighbour don’t wait. Go to his home and shoot him.”

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

אֵיךְ אֶשְאָל לְגַלֵל הָחֶרְפָה מֵעָלַי וְעֵדוּתֶיךָ לֹא נָצָרְתִי

​

How can I ask that the disgrace be lifted from me,

when I have not preserved Your testimonies?

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

https://thejewishdiaspora.org

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

You passed me on the street

I rode the subway with you

You lived down the hall from me

I admired your dog in the park one morning

We waited in line for a concert

I ate with you in the cafes

You stood next to me at the bar

We huddled under an awning during a downpour

We dashed across the street to beat the light

I bumped into you coming round the corner

You stepped on my foot

I held the door for you

You helped me up when I slipped on the ice

I grabbed the last Sunday Times

You stole my cab

We waited forever at the bus stop

We sweated in steamy August

We hunched our shoulders against the sleet

We laughed at the movies

We groaned after the election

We sang in church

Tonight I lit a candle for you

All of you

Nine-Eleven

​

Charlotte Parsons

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, of Cuba

Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, 42, of Honduras

Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, 68, of Honduras

Parady La, 46, of Cambodia

Renee Nicole Good, 37, of the United States

Víctor Manuel Díaz, 36, of Nicaragua

Heber Sánchez Domínguez, 34, of Mexico

​

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, of the United States

Lorth Sim, 59, of Cambodia

Jairo Garcia Hernandez, 27, of Guatemala

Alberto Guiterrez Reyes, 48, of Mexico

Nural Amin Shah Alam, 56, a Rohingya refugee

​

Pejman Karshenas Najafabadi, 59, of Iran

Emanuel Cleeford Damas, 56, of Haiti

Daphy Micah, 31, of Haiti

​

​

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

January 2026

February 2026

March 2026

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

​

Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, of Afghanistan

Royer Perez-Jimenez, 19, of Mexico

José Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, 52, of Mexico

​

Tuan Van Bui, 55, of Viet Nam

Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, of Mexico

Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, of Cuba

Denny Adan Gonzalez, 33, of Cuba

​

Mamuka Artmeladze, 43, of Republic of Georgia

Felix Alcorta-Rodriguez, 63, of Mexico

Adrian Andreas Florian, 85, of Germany

​

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, of Mexico

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, of Colombia

Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva, 45, of Venezuela

Prisciliano Trejo Ricano, 29, of Mexico

​

Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, of El Salvador

Lian Yong Wei, 51, of China

April 2026

March 2026

June 2026

July 2026

August 2026

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 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 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

Mourner’s Kaddish קַדִּישׁ יָתוֹם

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 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

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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

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Life may harm me, rob me, ream me raw, try me, even slay me

Over all You will prevail. And let us say: Amen

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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

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8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Upcoming Services

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Saturday October 03 Sh’mini Atzeret

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Saturday November 14 Torah Study: Alicia Ostriker

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Saturday December 11 Honoring the Dark

8 Tishrei 5787 / 19 September 2026

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah