Written for
The Days of Awe 5787/2026
How did we come to be called, Kolot Chayeinu?
“I remember we were…brainstorming, and coming up with all kinds of ideas. I think I 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
Especially the demanding ones,
The voices of complaint and truth,
Of grief and care,
The ones who won’t shut up
When stupidity, greed and hatred parade as virtues,
And millions suffer.
Hineinu! Here we are!
Pitchu Lanu! Open up to us!
Ruach HaOlam,
Breathing us in and breathing us out,
Notice our prayers of fear and sacred angst
And all our glorious questions.
We sing together for comfort and answers,
Then we watch for who is listening.
Unlock our portals, gates, minds and hearts
And tell us again and again
Until we can hear and understand
What our holy obligations must be.
Hineinu! In the pews and on the streets,
Draped in our tallitot,
Marching and shuckling,
Studying and singing,
Together we hope, and we’re
Always ready to save the world.
Our liturgy offers words of return
Guiding us again to seek our pure souls
As we pound our chests and try
To teach God how to forgive the unforgivable.
We eat first unless we’re fasting and
We welcome in the stranger
And the happily strange and the so-called normal, and
All our wise, wounded, bored and happy chaverim.
We can be so good and do such amazing things.
Let us pray and seek one-ness,
Let us learn and take righteous action,
Let us forgive and be forgiven
Here at Kolot Chayeinu, our home,
Where doubt can be an act of faith and all hands are needed.
Shana Tova.
And let us say,
Amen
