Four Wings of America: Southwest

Mel Alexenberg

SINCE 2007

ALL

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Why Open?

​

Because what is a blossom

anyway

but a fist saying

I can’t

do this

anymore

Joseph Fasano

​

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Let us bless how from the earth these bodies of wisdom were created, alive as they are, all open openings and holy holes.

​

Unconcealed, revealed, we face the fate of our dignity:

if wrongly opened one would be, or wrongly closed another,

we know not how we could withstand.

Broken though this flesh can be,

broken though this world can be,*

still we love this life while we last.

​

Blessed and blessing, we bow to both the healing of sleep

and the daily miraculous of awakening.

call & Response

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

from The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac

​

Mary Oliver

I know, you never intended to be in this world.

But you’re in it all the same.

​

so why not get started immediately.

​

I mean, belonging to it.

There is so much to admire, to weep over.

​

And to write music or poems about.

​

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.

Bless the eyes and the listening ears.

Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.

Bless touching.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

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.

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

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

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

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

​

​

​

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

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

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

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Exodus II

​

Dane Kuttler

​

Don’t think. Run. Don’t think. Move. Squint into the cloud of sand and shouting. Ignore the sun blistering your shoulders, blink, blink, blink, don’t stop. Shoulder the dough and keep going. The gates will only be open for as long as we hold them, so go. So go. So go. The children are barefoot. Go. Who will care for the cat? Go. There is too much we can’t take with us, too much of ourselves that won’t follow us out. Go. Don’t think. Don’t stop. Fling yourself into the avalanche. Go. The road to freedom isn’t paved with anything. You must clear it yourself as you go.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

“Minwen Jaiyeh? Where are you coming from?”

​

“Mimitsrayim! From Egypt.”

​

“Lawen Raiyekh? Where are you going to?”

​

“Liy’rushalayim! To Jerusalem.”

​

“Ishu zawatak? What are you bringing?”

​

“Matsah umaror! Matsah and maror.”

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Call &

Response

Blessed are we

when our choosings

begin to form redemption

from every fragment

from any raw material.

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

On the edge of Pesach

Elliott batTzedek

​

Blessed this edge where we wait, balancing,

weighing our own lives.

Will we choose, finally, liberation-

meaning everyone-

or will we choose ourselves

and leave others behind

still enslaved?

Sacred is this act

of taking responsibility

for the future of the worlds.

We will wrap ourselves in this knowing-

carry it across silence and sea

into a future

hanging

in the balance.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

​

Poem

​

Charles Simic

Every morning I forget how it is.

I watch the smoke mount

In great strides above the city.

I belong to no one.

​

Then, I remember my shoes,

How I have to put them on,

How bending over to tie them up

I will look into the earth.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

from “Daphne’s Broken Sonnet”

​

Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Apples are imagining themselves

onto hillsides—pink petals stick out their

tongues from the dark mouths of branches and the

forest canopy ripens overnight

until it pulses like a green heart. Spring

frankensteins us all—softens our cyborg

brains (admit it: you were thinking about what

mysteries your phone will sing out!) while your

body turns like a tree toward the light. Reader,

some days it’s just too much: powder-blue sky,

light wind stirring the leaves as if they are

waving, no, beckoning me to root and

join in. How could I not give in? Trying

to find the song that’s buried in the soil.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

​

Forsythia

​

Barbara Crooker

What must it feel like

after months of existing

as bare brown sticks,

all reasonable hope

of blossoming lost,

to suddenly, one warm

April morning, burst

into wild yellow song,

hundreds of tiny prayer

flags rippling in the still-

cold wind, the only flash

of color in the dull yard,

these small scraps of light,

something we might

hold on to.

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

April

​

Mary Oliver

I wanted to speak at length about

the happiness of my body and the

delight of my mind for it was

April, a night, a

full moon and –

​

but something in myself or maybe

from somewhere other said: not too

many words, please, in the

muddy shallows the

​

Frogs are singing.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Temptation to Believe

Andrea Cohen

​

Dumbstruck in the awesome

forest, spring leaping up through loam,

​

fiddleheads unfurling like giddy seahorses

under the green awnings of scotch pines

​

that don't close shop, one wants

to applaud, to throw or to be

​

roses, to address a thank-you note

to those responsible, to imagine

​

such splendor is never random,

and then, dizzy beneath the cornflower sky,

​

I apprehend how lost I am.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

from Song of

Songs 4:1-7

​

translated by

Marcia Falk

How beautiful you are, my love,

my friend! The doves of your eyes

looking out

from the thicket of your hair.

Your hair

like a flock of goats

bounding down Mount Gilead.

Your neck is a tower of David

raised in splendor,

a thousand bucklers hang upon it,

all the shields of the warriors.

Your breasts are two fawns,

twins of a gazelle,

grazing in a field of lilies.

Your teeth white ewes,

all alike,

that come up fresh from the pond.

A crimson ribbon your lips--

how I listen for your voice!

The curve of your cheek

a pomegranate

in the thicket of your hair.

Before day breathes,

before the shadows of night are gone,

I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh,

the hill of frankincense.

You are all beautiful, my love,

my perfect one.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Tired

​

Langston Hughes

I am so tired of waiting,

Aren’t you,

For the world to become good

And beautiful and kind?

Let us take a knife

And cut the world in two –

And see what worms are eating

At the rind.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

from The Body of the Beloved

​

Gregory Orr

How easy to give up hope.

How easy to draw death over you

Like a black cloak. Cover

Your face, your eyes. Stand

There like a dead tree.

I did that, claiming it was penance,

Claiming I was sorry I was

Alive after the beloved died.

​

Who was I fooling? No one

Demanded I act that way,

Least of all the ones I loved

Who longed to live again

And could not unless I uttered

Their names, unless I told

Their stories, unless I felt

In my own bones

How much they loved the world.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

April in Maine

​

May Sarton

The days are cold and brown,

Brown fields, no sign of green,

Brown twigs, not even swelling,

And dirty snow in the woods.

​

But as the dark flows in

The tree frogs begin

Their shrill sweet singing,

And we lie on our beds

Through the ecstatic night,

Wide awake, cracked open.

​

There will be no going back.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

If Not

Rabbi Hillel, Adrienne Rich, Dane Kuttler

​

If I am not for myself

who is for me?

If I am only for myself

what am I?

If not now

then when?

If not with others

then how?

If not here

then where?

call & Response

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Ingratitude

​

Carl Dennis

Spring, I remembered you all these months.

I spoke of the green yard under the snow

To my slumped visitors.

I sobered the giddy neighbors.

“You may think you're still happy,"

I cautioned, “but recall the tea roses,

The lost leaves of the dogwood tree."

​

But now you have fallen upon us, Spring,

Without warning,

So much greener than I remembered.

Friends I kept from forgetting

Laugh at me as they run outside

For falling so short in your praise.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

​

Blessing of Creation / Birkat Y’tzirah בִּרְכַּת יְצִירָה

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

5 Nisan 5784 / 13 April 2024

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

(לֹא־תַסְגִּ֥יר עֶ֖בֶד אֶל־אֲדֹנָ֑יו אֲשֶׁר־יִנָּצֵ֥ל אֵלֶ֖יךָ מֵעִ֥ם אֲדֹנָֽיו:

​

Lo-tasigir eved el-adonav asher-yinatzel eleicha me'im adonav

You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master.

​

עִמְּךָ֞ יֵשֵׁ֣ב בְּקִרְבְּךָ֗ בַּמָּק֧וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יִבְחַ֛ר בְּאַחַ֥ד שְׁעָרֶ֖יךָ בַּטּ֣וֹב ל֑וֹ לֹ֖א תּוֹנֶֽנּוּ:

​

Imcha yeshev b’kir’be’cha bamakom asher-yivchar be'achad sh'areicha bat’ov lo lo to’nenu:

​

He shall live with you in any place he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill-treat him.

Deut. 23:16-17

​

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

Blessing for Revelation of Wisdom דִּבְרֵי תּוֹרָה

call & Response

Gatherings / Elliott batTzedek

​

Gather our strengths

and gather our failures

Gather our kin

and gather our strangers

Gather what we love

and what we fear

Gather what we have lost

and what we are afraid to lose

​

Find the courage to proclaim

“All we gather is sacred”

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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.

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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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

And you must love The One, your God, with your whole heart, with every breath, with all you have.

Take these words that I command you now to heart. Teach them intently to your children.

Speak them when you sit inside your house or walk upon the road, when you lie down and when you rise.

And bind them as a sign upon your hand, and keep them visible before your eyes.

Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

call & Response

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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.

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

​

call & Response

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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

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- שְׁעָלֵינוּ לִרְאוֹת ולִזְכּוֹר-יֹפִי-תֵּבֵל

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

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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

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ALL

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

From Maggid

​

Ariana Katz & Miriam Grossman

of the JVP Rabbinical Council

A people must make themselves remember. The way forward for a people is to imagine and plan for a future that might not be possible. To trust midwives and healers, who birth babies, who heal a people, who fight back the skepticism and despair. The way out is to tell each other stories that freedom is possible and to believe each other.

�And finally, God remembered the promise of freedom but the people had already forgotten and “they were short of breath from the cruelty of their bondage” (Ex. 6:9). And despite miracles and plagues and wonders they could not remember.

�Pharoah forgot Joseph and his people.

�God forgot Joseph and his people.

�And the people forgot they could get free.

�Until, one night, with thousands of mighty outstretched hands, they painted their doors red with blood. They reminded themselves of who they were and what their bodies could do. They made a scene. They marked their homes as places of rebellion, households that stood against Pharaoh. Places where a story of freedom could be told. And in the morning, with Mitzrayim rocked to its core, the people marched out towards the sea.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

call & Response

Blessings Over Organizing

​

Shelby Handler

Blessed are we, betrayers of all counterfeit kinships,

whose estrangement moves us toward an ancient & urgent togetherness.

May we organize our ghosts to join us in the streets.

​

May we wrench our shimmering multiplicities

from the maw of militarism.

May new homes be formed between our marching shoulders.

​

And may we bless the Signal threads & the spokes councils & care teams!

Bless the interest form, the QR code, the recruitment spreadsheet

with its infinite containers brimming with affinities

​

that never existed until now! Bless all the sacred architectures we craft

to catch our people, how our efforts stretch

across time & space to weave a place for our folks to land in.

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

call & Response

Blessings Over Organizing

​

Shelby Handler

Bless all the mundane work it takes for us to be dangerous together.

Bless calling our friends & family to ask, “Do you want to get involved?”

Bless what we really mean:

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Do you want to build a new world together? Do you want to build a new ‘us’ together?

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Bless how we refuse to leave the sterile offices

of those who could stop a genocide but are choosing not to.

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Bless the children & grandchildren of refugees

scaling the walls of warships to stop weapons from leaving the port.

​

Bless how we link arms & lock ourselves to buildings

to forge a chain that pulls us closer to the world we need.

Blessing of Redemption מָקוֹר תּקּוּן עוֹלֶּם

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

call & Response

Blessings Over Organizing

​

Shelby Handler

May we win real safety this time.

May we create new kinships along the way—

​

kinships that can outlive all forms of supremacy.

May we reach a belonging our ancestors never got to have.

And may we call out to those who are not yet with us:

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If your heart is broken, may that breakage be a doorway.

There is a family waiting for you

called a movement.

Amidah / Seven Breath Meditation

Rabbi Jill Hammer/ Kohenet

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24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

“The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand fighting men on foot, aside from noncombatants. Moreover, a mixed multitude [erev rav] went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.” 

​

Exodus 12:37-38 (JPS)

עֵ֥רֶב רַ֖ב

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

This time we're tied at the ankles.

We cannot cross until we carry each other,

all of us refugees, all of us prophets.

No more taking turns on history's wheel,

trying to collect old debts no-one can pay.

The sea will not open that way. 

�

This time that country

is what we promise each other,

our rage pressed cheek to cheek

until tears flood the space between,

until there are no enemies left,

because this time no one will be left to drown

and all of us must be chosen. 

This time it's all of us or none. 

�

Red Sea - Aurora Levins Morales

This time we're tied at the ankles.

We cannot cross until we carry each other,

all of us refugees, all of us prophets.

No more taking turns on history's wheel,

trying to collect old debts no-one can pay.

The sea will not open that way. 

�

This time that country

is what we promise each other,

our rage pressed cheek to cheek

until tears flood the space between,

until there are no enemies left,

because this time no one will be left to drown

and all of us must be chosen. 

This time it's all of us or none. 

�

Red Sea - Aurora Levins Morales

A motif arises and threads its way through [the various] explanations [of the erev rav]; the erev rav is responsible for causing Jews to sin (a misuse of our freedom), and thus must be spurned. Implicit is a fallacy often employed by many groups—we are completely good, and anyone connected to us who does not live up to our standards is not actually a true (insert word: Jew, Christian, Communist, American, Republican or Democrat).

�

Ultimately, the legacy of the erev rav gives voice to the all too human fear of the Other. …[T]he erev rav demands that we acknowledge how inextricably linked our freedom is with tolerance and with those around us.

�Rabbi David Kosak

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

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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

​

​

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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, Cuba

Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, 42, Honduras

Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, 68, Honduras

Parady La, 46, Cambodia

Renee Nicole Good, 37, of the United States

Víctor Manuel Díaz, 36, Nicaragua

Heber Sánchez Domínguez, 34, Mexico

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, of the United States

​

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

January 2026

Lorth Sim, 59, of Cambodia

Jairo Garcia Hernandez, 27, of Guatemala

Alberto Guiterrez Reyes, 48, of Mexico

Pejman Karshenas Najafabadi, 59, of Iran

Emanuel Cleeford Damas, 56, of Haiti

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

​

February 2026

April 2026

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

March 2026

Above Everything

​

David Ignatow

I wished for death often

but now that I am at its door

I have changed my mind about the world.

It should go on; it is beautiful,

even as a dream, filled with water and seed,

plants and animals, others like myself,

ships and buildings and messages

filling the air—a beauty,

if ever I have seen one.

In the next world, should I remember

this one, I will praise it

above everything.

Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 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.

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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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

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

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Adon Olam / Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026

Upcoming Services

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Saturday April 11 Torah talk: Itsik

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Saturday May 9 Torah talk:

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Saturday June 13 Torah talk: Miriam

​

Saturday July 11 Torah talk:

​

Friday August 14 Erev Shabbat

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Fringes: a feminist, non-zionist havurah

24 Nisan 5786/ 11 April 2026