Notes of the Shofar

'There are three notes on the shofar-  

Tekiah, “Awake!”,  Teruah ,”Open your heart!”, Shevarim, “Sob with all who suffer!”

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

 

1.    Tekiah/Awake 

“There is a crack, a crack in everything.  That’s how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen

 

The light gets in and

Our values are a prism 

Separating light into different colors of truth.

 

Using the tools of ritual and prayer,

We see what there is to be seen.

What wrongs have we done or not done?

 

Broken by suffering,

How do we see it without despair?

We don’t. 

 

There is so much starvation and death,

Rape and repression.

Hate and cruelty.

 

We pray:

Look at this.

Who can forgive this?

 

Shut the blinds but the light insists on itself.

So open your eyes! Listen to the shofar!

Tekiah! Wake up!!

 

2.    Open Your Heart/ Teruah

“Joy doesn’t betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection. “

Rebecca Solnit

 

No one understands our fury and our hurt,

We’re naked with alienation.

How can we explain it without screaming?

We can’t.

If we’re screaming, can we hear ourselves think?

If we’re screaming, can we do anything else?

 

So stop.  Sit in silence.  Listen.

 

The liturgy tells us that where there is justice 

There must also be mercy.

In this holy time that is Yom Kippur,

We look for redemption and forgiveness,

Freedom and love and 

Joy.

It is fun to change the world!

For this we will need a very big minyan

And all the voices of our lives.

(Don’t forget the bagels and lox).

T’ruah.  Open your heart.

 

3.    Sob With All Who Suffer/Shevarim

“There is nothing so whole as a broken heart.”

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

 

Hearts are broken, then

Everything that was hidden comes oozing out.

First comes horror, and then anger, and then vengeance

And then the grief. 

And just when we think it’s over, it’s not.

Let us breathe for all those who no longer can.

 

Even as we count the injured and dying,

Even as we face the fascists and the haters,

We are also counting the helpers and the resistors.

Pouring out all our need for connection,

We beat our chests to atone

And promise to fix it all.

 

Blessed Mystery, Breath of the Universe, giving us 

Tefillah for our holy conversations,

Teshuvah, to return to our true selves and

Tzedukah so we may save the world.
May our hearts be broken open and ready for

When it is time to act.

 

We will sob with all who suffer and

Then feed them and heal them,

Shelter them and love them,

Save them and ourselves.

Shevarim.   

   

 

4.    Tekiyah Gadola 

”Yeah I’ve tried shutting up. Doesn’t work for me. “

Anonymous Facebook meme

Today we don’t pray for God’s help,

Because we know it’s our turn,
And we know what to do:

Agitate, organize, shout,
Write, call, send money,
Rally, march, vote.

We will make lots of noise. 

Happy New Year!

TEKIAH!

 

Amen

Blessing for Workers

Bless these workers:

The ones who feed us,

The ones who keep us safe,

The ones who make our things,

The ones who heal us,

The ones who entertain us,

The ones who listen to us,

The ones who do our dirty work

And the ones who put themselves in danger, 

whether out of choice or out of necessity.

 

Bless these workers:

May they be paid fairly for their labor,

May they find pleasure in their work,

May they be appreciated for their sacrifices,

May they have room to recover themselves,

May they not be sickened or injured in their jobs,

May they organize themselves successfully in unions,

May they have time for spiritual exploration 

And may they all get enough of what they need, 

whatever that looks like for each one of them.  

Amen.

TESHUVAH TO ANIMALS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

 

 

Today, as we celebrate Rosh Hodesh Elul, the New Year of the Animals, we can consider what we have done or what we should have done for our planet. 

Consider your environment and go sit outside. 

Close your eyes and listen to the ambient sounds. 

Note what you hear: Birds? Insects ?  Dogs?

Touch the earth. Feel the vibrations within:

Note what you feel: Worms?  Ants? Moles?

Consider our love of animals.

Consider the devastation we have brought upon our planet.

Consider all the beasts who will die,

Consider all the beasts who will manage to adapt,

Consider the few beasts who will flourish. 

For all the beasts who will die off,

We acknowledge that we blew it. 

We failed to act in time to save your beautiful species. 

We mourn the loss of biodiversity and

We mourn the loss of the individual lives you did not get to lead. 

We apologize and hope that you can pardon us, forgive us, let us atone for our sins against you.

For all the beasts and species who will manage to adapt to the damage,

I guess we could say this is just the natural process of evolution 

But that would be a lie.  Humans did this very bad thing. 

We have forced you to forage for food in our suburbs  

And punished you with death or imprisonment just for trying to live. 

We apologize and hope that you can pardon us, forgive us, let us atone for our sins against you.

For the few beasts and species who will flourish through the crises

Our beloved dogs and cats and other pets

And also domestic beasts like cattle and chickens,

You will survive because we need you for love and food. 

Happy New Year!

We apologize and hope that you can pardon us, forgive us, let us atone for our sins against you.

Consider the animals. 

We must return and do teshuvah, 

But it’s not enough to apologize. 

We must promise to try to save our home, our planet,

And the future for everybody.

For the selfish devastation we have brought upon our planet

For all the beasts who will die

For all the beasts who will manage to adapt

For the few beasts who will flourish

We apologize and hope that you can pardon us, forgive us, let us atone for our sins against you.

And let us say, 

Amen 

Mourning Our Losses (for Tisha B’Av)

 

Art by Mike Cockrill

Blessed One-ness,

Nuance is abandoned 

In this era of existential threats. 

Perhaps it was always a middle class luxury. 

Now everybody seems to think

The survival of who they are

Is on the line. 

But we miss it

And mourn our loss

And pray for its return

Empathy is superfluous 

In this time of extreme right and wrong

Perhaps it was just a pretense. 

Isn’t it fun to be cruel?

Anyone else’s feelings 

Are a bore. 

But we miss it

And mourn our loss

And pray for its return

Kindness is for suckers

In this new time of trolls and happy attackers. 

Perhaps we just awaited the internet

To show our creepiest sides. 

When no one knows your name, 

Why care?

But we miss it

And mourn our loss 

And pray for its return

Grief is the outcome 

So let us sit on the ground

In this time of sanctioned sorrow 

And pound the passive floor. 

Let us be angry 

At the unnecessary pain. 

We do miss who we thought we were. 

We shall mourn all the murdered. 

We must pray we improve.  

Amen

MOURNING PRAYER FOR YOUR PETS

 

Our domesticated beasts, our animals,  when they trust you, you are blessed.  

And when that gift of joy and love and attention and nowness dies, we miss them so much. We suffer.  We mourn. Why do they have to live such short lives?

In June of 2022  I lost Buster, my cat.  He was 23. Here he is:

Blessed Holy Wholeness

Breath of the Universe 

Breathing us in

Breathing us out. 

Remembering us

Remembering our companions

Who let us love them with a full and pure heart

And who loved us back the same way. 

Amen

We were blessed to have them 

As  long as we did

And though I am really sad that they are gone,

I am really glad that they were here. 

Amen

I give thanks to the Holy Connector,

The One-ness that is eternal,

Which I experienced 

Through my sweet beasts. 

Amen

Brucha HaShleimot

Ruach ha Olam,

Breathing us in

Breathing us out.

We remember them,

We mourn their loss

And their memories are a blessing. 

And let us say, 

Amen

 

Making Decisions on July Fourth

In this holy space that is Independence Day

We can pause our pain

And look for compassion 

And then for truth

Before we decide upon

Our response. 

In this holy space that is Independence Day

We can pray to observe others’ anger

With tenderness 

And understanding 

Before we choose 

Our reaction. 

In this holy space that is Independence Day

We can stop and note,

With honest respect,

All ambient sounds and feelings

And then decide for freedom 

And hope.

WE ARE AFRAID /A prayer for hope

 

It is everywhere:

Anger, grief, fear, war, 

Famine, corruption, greed, 

And paranoia. 

The willfully malignant

Who live to hate, and

Fools who despise science and learning —

It’s horrible 

And we are afraid.  

We were afraid so

We prayed for it all to go away

But it didn’t 

So now we pray for survival. 

May this era pass (as all eras eventually do)

With the least amount of 

Damage and pain possible 

To our bodies and spirits and

To our freedom and to our planet.

We are afraid but going forward.

We pray for the strength to resist the cruelty 

And the brains to know when to hide. 

We pray for elders’ counsel and youths’ outrage,

Brilliant strategies and victories,

Adequate funding,

Joy when it can be found and

Kindness when it cannot. 

And hope. 

We pray for hope. 

Amen

A Prayer For Democracy

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

The Powers That Be

May be

In power

For now. 

But we are the powers 

that were 

and are 

and will be. 

So there. 

Amen

Roofs (for Sukkot)

 

What does a roof do?

It keeps out the rain

It keeps in the warmth

It keeps us safe from lions and robbers

It protects the TVs and the computers

It protects our beds while we sleep 

It protects our futures from the future. 

Roofs are good. 

So why on Sukkot 

Do we eat dinner outside 

In a temporary hut

With holes in the roof?

It doesn’t make sense!

What do holes in a roof do?

They let in the weather 

They let us breathe fresh air

They let us hear our neighbors and friends

They remind us of when we slept in the fields

They remind us how to be without our phones

They remind us that our history is long and complicated.  

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

We honor the rituals 

That don’t make sense 

Because sometimes they do

Like holes in the roof

And breathing fresh air. 

Amen

Seen (for Elul)

Blessed Wholeness,

What do we see when we look?

Do we see it even if we’re not looking?

Where should we look?

What if we don’t know we’re seeing it?

Is it in the forest? The neighborhood?  A pew?

What about dogs?

When is it easy to spot?

Is it just a projection?

Does it know when we’re sorry?

What looks at us? 

Where is it watching from?

Does it form an opinion?

Does it see us even if no one else does?

Does it see us when we’re wrong? 

Does it ever apologize?

Does it make jokes?

Is it everywhere?

Are we alone?

What do we see when we see ourselves?

Is self-delusion sometimes appropriate?

If we see something, should we say?

Or if we see it, is it better to be nice?

What if it’s none of our business ?

But what if it’s the truth?

Who gets to say what is true?

What if the truth is annoying?

Can being seen be more important than being loved?

I see. 

I don’t see. 

I am seen. 

I am not seen. 

I need truth. 

I need delusion. 

I miss my old dog. 

I apologize. 

I accept your apology. 

Amen