SINCE 2007

There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. 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.

ALL

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

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

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

Elliott batTzedek & *Miriam Geronimus

Call

&

Response

Mind led body

to the edge of the precipice.

They stared in desire

at the naked abyss.

If you love me, said mind,

take that step into silence.

If you love me, said body,

turn and exist.

Vertigo

​

Anne Stevenson

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

When the blackberries hang

swollen in the woods, in the brambles

nobody owns, I spend

​

all day among the high

branches, reaching

my ripped arms, thinking

​

of nothing, cramming

the black honey of summer

into my mouth; all day my body

​

accepts what it is. In the dark

creeks that run by, there is

this thick paw of my life darting among

​

the black bells, the leaves; there is

this happy tongue.

August

​

Mary Oliver

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Today, in the

soft animal

of my body,

I hold:

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Morning Blessings

Opening Phrase by Andrew Shaw

New Blessings by Elliott batTzedek

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

​

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.

Meditations in an Emergency

​

Cameron Awkward-Rich

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Starting here, what do you want to remember?

How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?

What scent of old wood hovers, what softened

sound from outside fills the air?

​

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world

than the breathing respect that you carry

wherever you go right now? Are you waiting

for time to show you some better thoughts?

​

When you turn around, starting here, lift this

new glimpse that you found; carry into evening

all that you want from this day. This interval you spent

reading or hearing this, keep it for life –

​

What can anyone give you greater than now,

starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

​

You Reading This, Be Ready

​

William

Stafford

What can anyone give you

greater than now,

starting here,

right in this room,

when you turn around?

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Tomatoes

​

Joy Sullivan

I waited so long for love

and suddenly, here it is

standing in the garden, hands full

of heirlooms hot from the sun.

​

Soon, we’ll make a supper of them.

Salted slabs between slices of bread.

Your beard silvers. My hips ripen.

The mail piles up.

​

Phone calls go unanswered. Forgive us.

Our mouths are full of tomatoes.

We are so busy

being small and hungry and alive.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

from Gregory Orr

​

Ask the tree or the house;

Ask the rose or the fire

Hydrant - everything’s

Waiting for you to notice.

Everything’s waiting for you

To wrap your heart around it.

ALL

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

As the marsh swelters in August, it begins:

the sweet, dappled stain on our hands, the languid shadows.

Three languages between us. One endless task. Each berry

rolling heavily from the stem with drowsy liquid thuds.

When you're fourteen, and walk a summer under this buzzing canopy,

bathed in dusky racemes, the burgeoning winter is impossible

and irrelevant as adulthood. And you, a refugee

of the war, tossing berries high to catch in your mouth, laughing with glee.

Blueberry Season, 1976

​

Eileen Walsh Duncan

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

My hands hurt; even my fingernails ache

from pulling weeds which were neglected too long,

allowed to grow until they assumed (and why not?)

that the garden belonged to them

or any wild seed which might blow by

or be dropped by birds.

Why is it my shoulders straining at burdocks

which have definitely settled in for the summer?

Why not some unsuspecting teenagers

who might have been conned into doing the job

for a few dollars an hour, and who, by nightfall,

wouldn’t feel a twinge; would sleep like a pup?

I will feel every muscle in my body

and stay awake until all hours.

Weeding

​

Peggy Billings

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

The only answer I can give

is that at least I was the one

who felt the wind freshening;

and where the grass was deepest by the stone border,

I was the one who stared the wild cat in the eye

and did not blink first.

The raspberries

in my driveway

have always

been here, yet

I have never

tasted them

before.

​

Always on a plane.

Always in the arms

of man, not God,

always too busy,

too fretful,

too worried to see

that all along

my driveway

are red, red raspberries

for me to taste.

​

Shiny and red,

without hairs—

unlike the berries

from the market.

Little jewels—

I share them

with the birds!

​

from The Raspberries in My Driveway

​

Erica Jong

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

On one perches

a tiny green insect.

I blow her off. She flies!

I burst the raspberry

upon my tongue.

​

In my solitude I commune

with raspberries,

with grasses,

with the world.

​

The world was always

there before, but where

was I?

​

Ah raspberry—

if you are so beautiful

upon my ready tongue,

imagine what wonders

lie in store

for me!

Did you know we literally get one wild and precious life

and you expect me to care about spreadsheets,

emails, and whether or not to eat dairy?

To spend my days obsessed with how small

I can make my body instead of how fully

I can live inside it? When did it become normal

to worry more about what others think of me

than what I think of me? To grind until my bones

scatter like dust in the wind? You can keep

the busybossbitchsupermom posed perfectly

on her shelf. I want a life of stupid ease.

Give me slow. Unhurried. Unbothered.

Give me warm sourdough with an extra pat of butter

and the well-fed body of an ancient Greek goddess.

I want to float through my one precious life.

To kiss it soft and slow on the lips—

trace its laugh lines with my thumbs

and tell it: I love you. I love you.

Did you know we literally get one wild and precious life?

​

Elise Powers

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

I come from the weeds

green and brown

sturdy stems pushing out

fibrous leaves that will survive

sharp as mustard

​

I sprout bitter flowers

and many seeds able

on the edge of a filament

to float on a sigh

and travel far

​

There are burrs

woody barbs with curved sharp edges

Do Not Touch I say

my voice bright as poison ivy

breath a miasma of skunk cabbage

​

I Come from the Weeds

​

Toni Brown

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

​

Looking for moist black earth

to settle into waiting for rain

I throw out roots grow

my crab-like grasses push up through sidewalks

or roll as tumble weed

I move unnoticed from day to day

and everywhere are my kin.

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Let the day go

who needs it

I had another day in mind

something like this one

sunny green the earth

just right having suffered

the assault of what is called

torrential rain the pepper

the basil sitting upright

in their little boxes waiting

I suppose for me also the

cosmos the zinnias nearly

blooming a year too late

forget it let the day go

the sweet green day let it

take care of itself

​

Let the Day Go

​

Grace Paley

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

I come down

Come down the blacktop road from Red Rock.

A hot day.

​

Off the road in the hacked tangles

blackberries big as thumbs hang shining

in the shade. And a creek nearby: a dark

spit through wet stones. And a pool

​

like a stonesink if you know

where to climb for it among

the hillside ferns, where the thrush

naps in her nest of sticks and loam. I

​

come down from the Red Rock, lips streaked

black, fingers purple, throat cool, shirt

full of fernfingers, head full of windy

whistling. It

​

takes all day.

​

Blackberries

​

Mary Oliver

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Although I watched and waited for it every day,

somehow I missed it, the moment when everything reached

the peak of ripeness.

A Warm Summer in San Francisco

​

Carolyn Miller

ALL

I felt very close, then

It wasn't at the solstice; that was only

the time of the longest light. It was sometime after that, when

the plants had absorbed all that sun, had taken it into themselves

for food and swelled to the height of fullness. It was in July,

in a dizzy blaze of heat and fog, when on some nights

it was too hot to sleep, and the restaurants set half their tables

on the sidewalks; outside the city, down the coast,

the Milky Way floated overhead, and shooting stars

fell from the sky over the ocean. One day the garden

was almost overwhelmed with fruition:

ALL

I felt very close, then

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

My sweet peas struggled out of the raised bed onto the mulch

of laurel leaves and bark and pods, their brilliantly colored

sunbonnets of rose and stippled pink, magenta and deep purple

pouring out a perfume that was almost oriental. Black-eyed Susans

stared from the flower borders, the orange cherry tomatoes

were sweet as candy, the fruit fattened in its swaths of silk,

hummingbirds spiraled by in pairs, the bees gave up

and decided to live in the lavender.

ALL

I felt very close, then

At the market,

surrounded by black plums and rosy plums and sugar prunes

and white-fleshed peaches and nectarines, perfumey melons

and mangos, purple figs in green plastic baskets,

clusters of tiny Champagne grapes and piles of red-black cherries

and apricots freckled and streaked with rose, I felt tears

come into my eyes, absurdly, because I knew

that summer had peaked and was already passing

away. I felt very close then:

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

A Warm Summer in San Francisco

​

Carolyn Miller

I felt very close, then, to understanding

I felt very close then, to understanding

the mystery; it seemed to me that I almost knew

what it meant to be alive, as if my life had swelled

to some high moment of response, as if I could

reach out and touch the season, as if I were inside

its body, surrounded by sweet pulp and juice,

shimmering veins and ripened skin.

I felt very close, then, to understanding

the mystery; it seemed to me that I almost knew

what it meant to be alive, shimmering veins

and ripened skin.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

ALL

ALL

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

A Warm Summer in San Francisco

​

Carolyn Miller

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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

It Is Ours to Praise

​

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.

​

May we live with promise

in creation’s lap,

​

redemption budding

in our hands.

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Blessing of Creation / Birkat Y’tzirah בִּרְכַּת יְצִירָה

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה/

Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom

Villanelle for America 2016

​

Katie Bickham

The American machine is far from broken,

but grinding bones the way it was designed.

No quiet now will hush the thing we’ve woken.

​

We try to pray, to pledge, to scream, but choke in

terror of the ledge we teeter on. Resigned,

we whisper low, America the Broken

​

come crown thy good with thorns, an oaken

anthem like a cage. We have been blind

and deaf to this red thing we’ve woken.

​

Wake up. While you were sleeping, hate has spoken

its own name and named us too, in kind.

The American machine is well-oiled, broken

​

in by centuries of bigots armed and cloaked in

stars and stripes. The flag sags in the wind,

wrung out and hung to dry by what we’ve woken.

​

I voted today, protected what I could. The token

clanged in the machine. The man standing behind

me would undo it. Send your tired, your broken

somewhere else. Tell them to run from what we’ve woken.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Praises for The world

Praises for The world

Praises for The world

Praises for The world

דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה/

Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

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

שְׁמַע / Sh’ma

Ariadne Joy Lieber

​

שְׁמַע אמִי /יִשְּׂרָאֵל 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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

ALL

ALL

ALL

Politely decline. Say no to that machine-

made mirror of words with no human

breath to warm the glass. AI can’t weep

with you on the phone, as your aunt did,

once your mother passed. Can’t sit

beside you on the worn blue couch

as your husband did the day the call

came in, taking your shaky hand in his

and confessing, “I don’t even half-know

what to say right now,” which turned out

to be the perfect thing, his string of words

like a whole ring of keys that freed you

to feel it all.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

When Offered an AI Chatbot

for Your Grief

​

James Crews

טוֹמֶנֶת בְחֻבָהּ הַכָרָה בְהַשּׁלְכוֹת

tomenet bechuvah hakharah behashel’khot

Recognizing the consequences is mandatory

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

2 Sivan 5784 / 8 June 2024

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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Others ripen

slowly

into darkness;

You

hide beneath

a leaf

and come in swift and fragrant redness.

Raspberries

​

Judith McDaniel

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

ALL

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

Amidah / Seven Breath Meditation

Rabbi Jill Hammer/ Kohenet

​

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

Shabbat of Prophecy/Vision

​

On the “Shabbat of Prophecy/Vision,” says Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, each and every one of us is granted a vision of the third and final Temple—a vision that, to paraphrase the Talmud, “though we do not ourselves see, our souls see,” and we are able to see through our state of exile/spiritual dispassion.

​

It’s also called “black [sic] shabbat” as the haftorah is Isaiah rebuking the Israelites for the in-fighting that, he said, led to the destruction of the 1^st temple.

​

What we see and refuse to see – including the stories we tell about ourselves – helps determine what kinds of futures we can imagine.

​

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

What keeps us from being able to envision a time of redemption?

-from a story our ancestors encoded

​

1:9 וָאֹמַ֣ר אֲלֵכֶ֔ם בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖וא לֵאמֹ֑ר לֹא־אוּכַ֥ל לְבַדִּ֖י שְׂאֵ֥ת אֶתְכֶֽם׃

Thereupon I said to you, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself.

​

1:12 אֵיכָ֥ה אֶשָּׂ֖א לְבַדִּ֑י טׇרְחֲכֶ֥ם וּמַֽשַּׂאֲכֶ֖ם וְרִֽיבְכֶֽם׃

How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!

​

1:26 וְלֹ֥א אֲבִיתֶ֖ם לַעֲלֹ֑ת וַתַּמְר֕וּ אֶת־פִּ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

Yet you refused to go up, and flouted the command of the ETERNAL your God

.

1:27 וַתֵּרָגְנ֤וּ בְאׇהֳלֵיכֶם֙ וַתֹּ֣אמְר֔וּ בְּשִׂנְאַ֤ת יְהֹוָה֙ אֹתָ֔נוּ הוֹצִיאָ֖נוּ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם לָתֵ֥ת אֹתָ֛נוּ בְּיַ֥ד הָאֱמֹרִ֖י לְהַשְׁמִידֵֽנוּ׃

You sulked in your tents and said, “It is out of hatred for us that GOD brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to wipe us out.

​

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

1:28 אָנָ֣ה ׀ אֲנַ֣חְנוּ עֹלִ֗ים אַחֵ֩ינוּ֩ הֵמַ֨סּוּ אֶת־לְבָבֵ֜נוּ׃

What kind of place are we going to? Our brothers have taken the heart out of us

1:32 וּבַדָּבָ֖ר הַזֶּ֑ה אֵֽינְכֶם֙ מַאֲמִינִ֔ם בַּיהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

Yet for all that, you have no faith in the ETERNAL your God,

​

1: 42-44 וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה אֵלַ֗י אֱמֹ֤ר לָהֶם֙ לֹ֤א תַֽעֲלוּ֙ וְלֹא־תִלָּ֣חֲמ֔וּ כִּ֥י אֵינֶ֖נִּי בְּקִרְבְּכֶ֑ם וְלֹא֙ תִּנָּ֣גְפ֔וּ לִפְנֵ֖י אֹיְבֵיכֶֽם׃

But GOD said to me, “Warn them: Do not go up and do not fight, since I am not in your midst; else you will be routed by your enemies.”

וָאֲדַבֵּ֥ר אֲלֵיכֶ֖ם וְלֹ֣א שְׁמַעְתֶּ֑ם וַתַּמְרוּ֙ אֶת־פִּ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה וַתָּזִ֖דוּ וַתַּעֲל֥וּ הָהָֽרָה׃

I spoke to you, but you would not listen; you flouted GOD’s command and willfully marched into the hill country.

​

וַיֵּצֵ֨א הָאֱמֹרִ֜י הַיֹּשֵׁ֨ב בָּהָ֤ר הַהוּא֙ לִקְרַאתְכֶ֔ם וַיִּרְדְּפ֣וּ אֶתְכֶ֔ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר תַּעֲשֶׂ֖ינָה הַדְּבֹרִ֑ים וַֽיַּכְּת֥וּ אֶתְכֶ֛ם בְּשֵׂעִ֖יר עַד־חׇרְמָֽה׃

Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like so many bees and chased you, and they crushed you at Hormah in Seir.

​

דָּבָר אַחֵר, אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים, מָה הַדְּבוֹרָה הַזּוֹ דִּבְשָׁהּ מָתוֹק וְעֻקְּצָהּ מָר, כָּךְ הֵן דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, כָּל מִי שֶׁעוֹבֵר עֲלֵיהֶן נוֹטֵל אִפּוֹפָּסִין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר. וְכָל מִי שֶׁמְקַיֵּם אוֹתָהּ זוֹכֶה לְחַיִּים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות כ, יב): לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ.

​

Another matter: “these are the words [hadevarim]” – just as the bee [hadevora], its honey is sweet and its sting is bitter, so are matters of Torah. Anyone who violates them receives a punishment, as it is stated.[...] But anyone who fulfills them merits life, as it is stated: “So that your days will be extended” (Exodus 20:12).

​

דָּבָר אַחֵר, אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים, מָה הַדְּבוֹרָה הַזּוֹ דֻּבְשָׁהּ לְבַעְלָהּ וְעֻקְּצָהּ לַאֲחֵרִים, כָּךְ הֵן דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, סַם חַיִּים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, וְסַם הַמָּוֶת לְעוֹבְדֵי כּוֹכָבִים.

​

Another matter, “these are the words [hadevarim]” – just as the bee [hadevora], its honey goes to its owner and its sting to others, so are matters of Torah. They are an elixir of life for Israel and a lethal drug for the idolaters.

​

Devarim Rabbah 1

The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022

Midrash Rabbah is made up of ten independent midrashic collections, one on each of the Five Books of Moses and the five megillot.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

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.

The Facts of Life

​

Pádraig Ó Tuama

That you were born

and you will die.

​

That you will sometimes love enough

and sometimes not.

​

That you will lie

if only to yourself.

​

That you will get tired.

​

That you will learn most from the situations

you did not choose.

​

That there will be some things that move you

more than you can say.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

ALL

ALL

The Facts of Life

​

Pádraig Ó Tuama

That you will live

that you must be loved.

​

That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of

your attention.

​

That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg

of two people who once were strangers

and may well still be.

​

That life isn’t fair.

​

That life is sometimes good

and sometimes even better than good.

​

That life is often not so good.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

ALL

The Facts of Life

​

Pádraig Ó Tuama

That life is real

and if you can survive it, well,

survive it well

with love

and art

and meaning given

where meaning’s scarce.

​

That you will learn to live with regret.

That you will learn to live with respect.

​

That the structures that constrict you

may not be permanently constricting.

​

That you will probably be okay.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

ALL

ALL

The Facts of Life

​

Pádraig Ó Tuama

That you must accept change

before you die

but you will die anyway.

​

So you might as well live

and you might as well love.

​

You might as well love.

You might as well love.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 2026

ALL

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, Rohingya refugee

​

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

January 2026

February 2026

22 Sivan 5786 / 13 June 2026

Pejman Karshenas Najafabadi, 59, of Iran

Emanuel Cleeford Damas, 56, of Haiti

Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, of Afghanistan

Royer Perez-Jimenez, 19, of Mexico

Daphy Michel, 31, of Haiti

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

​

April 2026

March 2026

22 Sivan 5786 / 13 June 2026

June 2026

July 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Mourner’s Kaddish קַדִּישׁ יָתוֹם

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

4 Av 5786 / 18 July 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

​

16 Tamuz 5785 / 12 July 2025

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Upcoming Services

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

​

​

Friday August 14 Erev Shabbat (7pm ET/ 6 pm CT /4 pm PT)

​

Saturday September 19 Shabbat Shuvah

​

Saturday October 3 Shemini Atzeret

​

22 Sivan 5786 / 13 June 2026