Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

ALL

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

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.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Elliott batTzedek

*Rabbi Miriam Geronimus 

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

from The Darker the Dirt, the Richer the Soil

​

Sarah Bourns Crosby

A caterpillar forms wings

within the darkness of the cocoon.

A baby’s heart begins to beat

inside the darkness of the womb.

​

Hibernation

Incubation

Gestation

Germination

​

All of these take place

in the dark.

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

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.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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

​

​

​

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.

​

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

We come at last to the dark

and enter in.

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

​

Sabbaths 2002 III

​

Wendell Berry

​

​

We come at last to the dark

and enter in. We are given bodies

newly made out of their absence

from one another in the light

of the ordinary day. We come

to the spaces between ourselves,

the narrow doorway, and pass through

into the land of the wholly loved.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

​

​

I have learned that darkness is no different from light,

both giving off the same cold and heat,

​

that each is both the absence and affirmation of the other,

each the other’s echo—sound of the other’s hand clapping.

​

I have learned that dark can be a friend, though not an easy one,

and that light sometimes conceals what you most need to see.

​

It is not a matter of love that both are yours forever,

each taking turns at your side, but if you are blessed,

​

you will come to love them both as you love the different qualities of morning and night, and even more, the certainty

​

that somewhere, as light shutters into darkness, elsewhere darkness

is unfolding to light.

Darkness and Light

Deidra Greenleaf Allan

​

Wendy Elishevah Somerson

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Without darkness, nothing comes to birth

-May Sarton

​

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

​

Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness

​

Mary Oliver

​

Every year we have been

witness to it: how the

world descends

​

into a rich mash, in order that

it may resume.

And therefore

who would cry out

​

to the petals on the ground

to stay,

knowing as we must,

how the vivacity of what was is married

​

to the vitality of what will be?

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

​

Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness

​

Mary Oliver

​

I don't say

it's easy, but

what else will do

​

if the love one claims to have for the world

be true?

​

So let us go on, cheerfully enough,

this and every crisping day,

​

though the sun be swinging east,

and the ponds be cold and black,

and the sweets of the year be doomed.

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

To go in the dark with a light

is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark.

Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too,

blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet

and dark wings.

​

—Wendell Berry

Wendy Elishevah Somerson

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

ALL

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

Recording by Hannah Fogg *Otter Moon Healing Arts

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

​

Winter

​

Susan Griffin

​

​

This winter sickness

took hold of me

but I was ready

to be held

and fell willingly

into solitude and

dream.

​

In my mind

a numbing snow

covered hot

causality

and I began to wonder

at all my years.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

​

Winter

​

Susan Griffin

​

Weariness is not a lesson

but it leavens

want.

There would perhaps

be other lives

to live

but reaching

into the warren where

soft creatures hide

my hand gestures

kindly,

​

Don't be afraid.

It's just you and I here

in the dark.

Nothing matters

but this.

​

Don't be afraid.

It's just you and I here

in the dark.

Nothing matters

but this.

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

from Sabbath 1982 X

​

Wendell Berry

The dark around us, come,

Let us meet here together,

Members one of another,

Here in our holy room.

​

ALL

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

from Why Are Your Poems so Dark?

​

Linda Pastan

When God demanded light,

he didn't banish darkness.

​

Instead he invented

ebony and crows

​

and that small mole

on your left cheekbone.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

from In Praise of the Dark

​

Trisha Arlin

Light candles, as one does, but consider this:

​

For many thousands of years,

Humans slept during the dark

And rose in the light.

And if we didn’t feel safe at night

We sat together in circles under the stars

And told stories of god and miracles

Of warriors and kings

Of love and children.

And that mastodon we had for dinner.

​

But for the last hundred or so years,

If we were lucky,

We’ve lived in bright rooms,

Safe behind doors,

Unable to see past the streetlights

to the stars.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

from In Praise of the Dark

​

Trisha Arlin

Instead of circles we sit in bubbles

And the stories come from the outside,

Sometimes helping us laugh and cry,

Each in our own well-lit isolation.

​

Tonight, perhaps,

Don’t be in such a rush

To set up your candles against the dark.

Turn off that backyard lamp,

So you can see the constellations and

Let the night animals breathe.

Listen to the ambient sounds

That don’t explain themselves to you.

Then tell your own stories to each other,

Of miracles and myths

And what you had for dinner.

And praise the darkness.

Praise the light.

Praise it all.

Amen.

ALL

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Trusting the Dark

​

Pesha Joyce Gertler

The flower withers, curls,

petals brown and fray,

crumble into the earth.

The shell, the pod

also falls into darkness:

like a flower’s corpse: hard, tight,

closed in on itself. We call

this a seed. And trust

the dark to do what it will.

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

​

The seed is in the ground.

Now we may rest in hope

While darkness does its work.

​

Wendell Berry

Sabbath 1991 V

​

.

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

call & Response

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

,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,

​

Blessing of Creation / Birkat Y’tzirah

Marcia Falk

​

נְבָרֵךְ אֶת עֵין הַחַיִּים, N’vareykh et eyn hachayim

מְקוֹר הַחֹשֶׁךְ וְהָאוֹר, m’kor hachoshekh v’ha’or

מְקוֹר הַשְּׁלֵמוּת וְהַתֹּהוּ, m’kor hash’leymut v’hatohu

מְקוֹר הַטּוֹב וְהָרָע, m’kor hatov v’hara

מְקוֹר כָּל יְצִירָה. m’kor kol y’tzirah

​

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

from “holy darkness”

​

Rev. Wil Gafney

In the velvet darkness, darker than a thousand midnights

down in a cypress swamp, this luminous darkness, this radiant blackness, the wholly black and holy black womb of G-d pulsed life into the world against a tapestry of holy life-giving darkly radiant blackness, shaping, molding, knitting, coalescing earthstuff from starstuff from G-dstuff.

​

All before uttering the first word.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה/ Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

​

Starting with Black

​

Jim Haba

​

In a dark place

in a dark time

start with black.

Stop. Soak up its energy.

Remember the circle

however bent and broken.

Prize balance. Seek Pleasure.

Allow surprise. Let music

guide your every impulse.

Support those who falter.

Steer by our fixed star:

No Justice, No Peace.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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.

​

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

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.

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23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Consequences

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

אַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת arba kanfot / four corners

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וְהָיָ֣ה לָכֶם֮ לְצִיצִת֒ וּרְאִיתֶ֣ם אֹת֗וֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם֙

v’hay’yah lachem l’tzitzit ur’i’tem oto uz’car’tem

and this will be your tzitzit and you will look upon it and remember

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We are Fringes, and we are each other’s tzitzit – when we look upon each other,

we remember why our community was formed.

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Holding fast to one another’s frayed edges, we tie knots as firm hand-holds, wrap our dreams around our fears, and display our tzitzit as evidence and witness. Together we shape the world’s sharp corners into the wings of the Shekhinah under which we shelter one another.

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We are a community woven of many tzitzit. We remember the world’s holiness, and because we remember, we act to protect each person, each place, each body of animal, tree, stone and water that we have cherished.

Prayer for a Blue Day

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Dee Dee Risher

Oh God, I wake up to weather

in this world you created whole and intricate

and I think how it matters;

How sun, season, gray or blue

can turn my heart. Such a little

and a cosmic thing.

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And I ponder that in a world of agony,

small things—heat, cold, fleas, dust,

broken appliances—

cause me more emotion than

true tragedies and losses;

earthquakes and floods

elsewhere.

Sometimes I live so small.

ALL

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Blessing of Redemption / מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

Prayer for a Blue Day

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Dee Dee Risher

First I pick that realization up like guilt,

a bad feeling to be dusted away,

but here, deeper, is my confession:

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I cannot hold this world and all it brings

to me on screen and in word,

even in my own circle of beloveds.

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And You whisper:

I did not make you to hold everything.

This world will break your heart,

and every day, somewhere,

it is ending.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Blessing of Redemption / מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

ALL

Prayer for a Blue Day

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Dee Dee Risher

Do light the candle of mercy every night,

though the wind outside is strong

and you know not when it will cease.

But do listen deeply,

do seek peace and pursue it,

do love as much as you can.

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23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Blessing of Redemption / מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

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Amidah / Seven Breath Meditation

Rabbi Jill Hammer/ Kohenet

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23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Blessing Before Reading Torah

Dorshei Derekh Women's Haftorah Group

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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.

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Blessed are you, Yah, Source of Life, who with abundant compassion draws words of Torah from living waters.

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

וְצִוָּנוּ לְהִתְעַטֵּף בַּצִּיצִית

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

and commanded us to wrap ourselves in tzitzit

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יהוה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃

15:37 Yud-hey-vav-hey said to Moses as follows:

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דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם וְעָשׂ֨וּ לָהֶ֥ם צִיצִ֛ת עַל־כַּנְפֵ֥י בִגְדֵיהֶ֖ם לְדֹרֹתָ֑ם וְנָ֥תְנ֛וּ עַל־צִיצִ֥ת הַכָּנָ֖ף פְּתִ֥יל תְּכֵֽלֶת׃

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15-38 Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner.

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וְהָיָ֣ה לָכֶם֮ לְצִיצִת֒ וּרְאִיתֶ֣ם אֹת֗וֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם֙ אֶת־כׇּל־מִצְוֺ֣ת יהוה וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹֽא־תָת֜וּרוּ אַחֲרֵ֤י לְבַבְכֶם֙ וְאַחֲרֵ֣י עֵֽינֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּ֥ם זֹנִ֖ים אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃

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15-39 That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of יהוה and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge.

לְמַ֣עַן תִּזְכְּר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֶת־כׇּל־מִצְוֺתָ֑י וִהְיִיתֶ֥ם קְדֹשִׁ֖ים לֵאלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם׃

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15:40 Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God.

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אֲנִ֞י יהוה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֗ם אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹצֵ֤אתִי אֶתְכֶם֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לִהְי֥וֹת לָכֶ֖ם לֵאלֹהִ֑ים אֲנִ֖י יהוה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

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15:41 I יהוה am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I, your God יהוה.

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23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Mishneh Torah: Fringes Maimonides/RaMBaM, between 1170 and 1180 CE

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1:2 A thread of wool, dyed the color of the sky, is taken and wound round the fringe. This thread is called Techeleth, the blue (thread). The number of times this thread should be wound is not specified in the Torah.

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1:3 This precept thus consists of two ordinances;—to attach to the corner of the garment a fringe projecting from it, and to wind a blue thread round the fringe.

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1:4 The absence of the blue thread does not bar the use of the white fringe. Nor does the absence of the white fringe prevent the use of the blue thread. How so? If a person has no blue thread, he puts in the white fringe alone. So too, if the white fringe and the blue thread have been attached and the white fringe has been severed and diminished up to the corner of the garment and only the blue thread was left, it is fit for use.

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Diversity & Flexibility

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

1:11 Both the white strands of the tzitzit and those dyed techelet must be spun for the sake of being used for [the mitzvah of] tzitzit. [Tzitzit] may not be made from wool which becomes attached to thorns when sheep graze among them, nor from hairs which are pulled off the animal, and not from the leftover strands of the woof which the weaver leaves over when he completes a garment. Rather, they must be made from shorn wool or from flax.�[Tzitzit] may not be made from wool which was stolen, or which came from a consecrated animal. If such wool was used, it is unacceptable. If a person bows down to an animal, its wool is not acceptable for use for tzitzit.

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2:3 One must dye tzitzit techelet with the intention that it be used for the mitzvah. If one did not have such an intention, it is unacceptable. When one places some wool in the pot in which the dye was placed, to check whether the dye is good or not, the entire pot may no longer be used [for tzitzit]. [If so,] how should one check [the dye]? He should take some dye from the pot in a small container and place the wool he uses to check in it. Afterwards, he should burn the wool used to check - for it was dyed for the purpose of checking - and pour out the dye used to check it, since using it for an experiment disqualified it.

A Tzitzit is Created with Intentionality

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

2:11 When a garment is entirely red, green, or any other color [besides white], its white strands should be made from the same color as the garment itself. If it is green, they should be green. If it is red, they should be red.

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3:5 For a garment of wool, the white strands should be made of wool. For a garment of linen, the white strands should be made of linen. For garments of other [fabrics], the white strands should be made from the same fabric as the garment itself. For example, silk strands should be used for a silk garment, strands of goats' wool should be used for garments of goats' wool

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The Fringe is Connected to Where It Came From

3:12 A person should always be careful regarding the mitzvah of tzitzit, because the Torah considered it equal to all the mitzvot and considered them all as dependent on it, as [implied by Numbers 15:39]: "And you shall see them and remember all the mitzvot of God."

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The Fringe Encompasses the Whole

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Arousal to the study of mitzvoth, and the property of tzitzith

from Shemirat HaLashon, Book II, Epilogue 3 by Israel Meir Kagan c. 1870

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I have come, further, to awaken ourselves to [the significance of] something we say every day in the section of tzitzith (Bamidbar 15:39): "And you shall see it, and you shall remember all the mitzvoth of the L-rd." Our Rabbis of blessed memory have said concerning this (Menachoth 43b): "Seeing leads to remembering and remembering leads to doing."

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But when is this of avail? When he studies and knows the mitzvoth but is afraid that he might forget them. Tzitzith avails for this, that he will remember them and not forget them, and, as a matter of course, he will come to fulfill them. But if he does not know the mitzvoth, how will tzitzith avail him? Therefore, it is very desirable that one learn all of the book, Mitzvoth Hashem. He will thereby know the mitzvoth and will fulfill correctly the mitzvah of tzitzith.

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Now, in truth, tzitzith is comparable to a list that a man makes when he travels to buy merchandise and which he refers to several times so as to fix in his mind which merchandise to buy. But all this is of avail only when he knows and recognizes the types of merchandise. However, if he does not, then even if he looks at the list the whole day, he will not know what to buy. Therefore, it is well to do as we have written.

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Intention Needs to be Anchored in Doing OR Don’t Give a Foolish Man a Shopping List

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Another explanation of the function of looking at the tzitzit is offered in Sifrei Numbers 115 (3^rd century ce, Palestine):

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וראיתם אותו מגיד הכתוב שכל המקיים מצות ציצית מעלים עליו כאלו הקביל פני שכינה שהתכלת דומה לים וים דומה לרקיע והרקיע דומה לכסא הכבוד.

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The verse teaches us that those who observe the mitzvah of tzitzit, it is as if they have greeted the face of the divine presence (Shekhinah). For tekhelet is the colour of the sea and the sea is like the sky and the sky is like the Divine Throne.

We found God in ourselves and we loved her fiercely

18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

Blessing After Reading Torah

Dorshei Derekh Women's Haftorah Group

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בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ אֱלֹהֵינוּ לֵב הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר שָׂמַה לֵב אֵלֵינוּ וְשׁוֹמָעַת

קוֹל לִבֵּינוּ רַחֲמִי עָלֵינוּ וְיִשָׁמַע קוֹל דְמָמָה דָקָה

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Bruchah At Yah, Eloheinu Lev Ha-olam, asher samah lev eileinu v’shoma’at

kol libeinu; rachami aleinu v’yishama kol d’mamah dakah

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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

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 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.

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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

If I must die

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Refaat Alareer

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze--

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself--

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

Murdered in Gaza, December 6, 2023, at age 44

Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba be’alma divra hiruty veyamlih malhutey behayeyhon uvyomeyhon uvhayey dehol beyt yisra’el ba’agala uvizman kariv ve’imru amen.

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Yehey shemey raba mevarah le’alam ulalmey almaya.

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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.

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Yehey shelama raba min shemaya vehayim Aleynu ve’al kol yisra’el ve’imru amen.

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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.

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Mourner’s Kaddish קַדִּישׁ יָתוֹם

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Mourner’s Kaddish / Elliott batTzedek

So often am I lost,

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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.

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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 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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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

23 Kislev 5786 / 13 December 2025

Upcoming Services

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18 Cheshvan 5786 / 8 November 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah