The Voices of Our Lives

Written for

The Days of Awe 5787/2026

How did we come to be called, Kolot Chayeinu?

“I remember we were…brainstorming and talked about singing and using our voices so we came up with Kol and then Kolot.”

—Cantor Lisa B. Segal 

“…we were focused on eating together as a way to build community, so had lots of imagery like “feasting” and “joy.”  …So we took what Lisa brought re: voice and needed it to be plural - we were clearly already many voices.  And then it was Kol or Kolot Simkha or other joyful or feasting words, and I think Michael Forman z”l said ‘but life is not all joy and feasting.  Sometimes we are angry or sad or in grief.’ So we got to Chayeinu- our lives, not just one part.”

—Founding Rabbi Ellen Lippmann (emerita)

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

We cherish all our voices,

Now especially the demanding ones,

The voices of truth and complaint,

Of grief and compassion,

The ones who won’t shut up

When stupidity, greed and hatred 

Parade as virtues,

And millions suffer. 

Pitchu Lanu! Open up to us! 

Ruach HaOlam, Breath of The Universe, 

Breathing us in and breathing us out,

Notice our prayers about fear and sacred angst,

Our disagreements for the sake of heaven,

Our clarifying questions 

And our search for consensus (maybe).  

Unlock our portals, gates, minds and hearts

And tell us again and again

Until we can hear and understand 

What our holy obligations could be. 

Hineinu! In the pews and on the streets,

Happy to be and wear fringes,

Studying and singing, 

Marching and shuckling. 

Organizing and hoping,

Always up for saving the world.

Our liturgy offers words of return

Guiding us every year to retrieve our pure souls

As we pound our chests and try

To teach God how to forgive the unforgivable.

We are Brooklyn, 

We are the ger, the stranger, we are

Old and young and in-between,

We are chaverim: friends, comrades. 

Here we eat first, unless we’re fasting, then

We pray and seek one-ness,

We learn and take righteous action,

We try to forgive and hope to be redeemed. 

The gates are open, let’s see what’s what!

Shana Tova, Kolot Chayeinu, where doubt can be an act of faith and all hands are needed.

And let us say, 

Amen

The Fish Stinks

 

Gold

 

Where Do I Belong?

 

Prayer For The Possibilities

Art by Mike Cockrill

Blessed One-ness,

We have raged

We have despaired 

We have witnessed 

We have fought

And now we know

The Bad Guys can lose

The Good Guys can win

And we can survive

And we can flourish. 

We pray for

Life and Liberty 

And The Pursuit of Happiness

We pray for a country

Where all people are created equal

We pray 

For the strength to defy evil

For the spirit to live within God’s complex image

For the mind to imagine the possibilities. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Amen

Just Saying

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

No lead is too big

No guard is too small. 

Fascists bound to lose. 

Amen

Prayer for Orphans

Blessed Fierce Mystery,

Those of us who know

Know this:

Until you are an orphan 

You are a child. 

Whatever your age

Whatever their age when they died. 

Those of us who remember 

Remember this:

Nobody will ever love you

Like they loved you. 

Even if they didn’t 

They did. 

Those of us who grieve 

Grieve this:

We are alive because they lived

Mommies

Daddies

We weep and we give thanks. 

Amen 

Prayer On Learning I Have AD(H)D

 

I’m old and a girl and no one told me

My brain is weird

But, apparently, it is 

And always was. 

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

I know what I have to do,

I know how to do it. 

I want to do it,

But then I don’t.  

I really want a clean home,

I have many closets and cupboards.

I have time to clean,

But I don’t. 

I have phone calls to make and

Important papers to hand in. 

It’s not rocket science, 

But I don’t.   

My feelings feel so huge 

And they must be expressed. 

I’m told to calm down

But I don’t 

I know I’m rude,

When I see patterns and truth. 

I try to shut up

But I don’t. 

My friends talk too slowly,

So boring. 

I try not to interrupt 

But then I do. 

I’m so tired of being annoying 

But I like being quirky.

Tell me what to do, I might even do it

But probably not.  

I give thanks for this diagnosis,

It’s interesting. 

Amen

A Prayer for Contradictions

Art by Mike Cockrill 

I am always in opposition  

To whatever I’m supposed to feel or think.

I am bitter so I insist on sweet,

I am sweet and it pisses me off.

I find it impossible not to always see the answer 

And its opposite:

It is my talent and my curse.

It is being Jewish,

It’s being a woman,

It’s being old.

Despair

And Rejoice!

Amen

Prayer For The Little Girls

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

This prayer is for the little girls who go to school,

The ones who learn

The ones who teach

The ones who have fun

And the ones who share. 

This prayer is for the little girls who died in school 

From the bombs of war

From the lack of funding 

From the men who rape

And from being sent away. 

This prayer is for the little girls who love school,

The ones who ask questions 

The one who defy authority 

The ones who organize 

And the ones who won’t shut up.  

May they be safe. 

May they survive. 

May they flourish.

 Amen