Draw A Line: Creating Sacred Space During The Pandemic

Kadosh means holy but it also means separate. Conscious separation and mindfulness create holiness, so you may want to create a sacred space by drawing lines and deciding when to cross them.

Draw a line in space around yourself,

As you sit in front of your screen

Declare, “Here is where I have holy conversations.” 

Trace a line in time to separate Now from Before and After.

These are the hours for rest and joy, redemption and community.

Happy New Year!

Create a line around sound and sing at home with the Cantor.

Make the music holy with your breath.

Every breath is a prayer.

Drape a line around yourself!

Put on a tallis and a kippa,

Everything underneath them is holy and that means you. 

Decide that there are lines of privilege you won’t cross

And consider that there are lines you should join:

Picket lines, protest lines and lines to vote.

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

Though apart we are together

As we stand on Holy Ground.  

Shabbat Shalom, Shanah Tova and G’mar Khatima Tova!

Amen

Kesher V'Gesher, A Prayer for Rosh HaShanah

We cross a scary, narrow bridge,
It has an awesome span.
From Tisha B'Av to Simchat Torah and back again.

It’s not a simple stroll across this bridge,
Revealing truth with each step.
How do we get across intact?

Tread gingerly, alone,
Exposed before our friends and family and yes, the Infinite.
But most of all, to ourselves.

We know what we have done. We do.

So what helps us across that bridge?

Our music, the poetry, the liturgy;
The wise words, the sharing, the rhythm of the rituals and conversations with God.
Tefillah.

Our gathering, these clergy and prayer leaders, this community,
Social justice and acts of loving kindness,
Tzedakah.

Our self-awareness, honesty, regret, humility, atonement,
Our forgiveness, grief, redemption and joy,
Teshuvah.

The same stuff every year but shockingly different each time.
This is Kesher, our connection to truth and hope.
This is Gesher, our bridge across these Days of Awe.

Kesher v'Gesher
Connect. Cross the bridge.
From Tisha B’Av to Simkhat Torah:

From Regret to Celebration
From Celebration to Teshuva
From Teshuva to Sweetness
From Sweetness to Atonement
From Atonement to Awe
From Awe to Abundance
From Abundance to Torah

Blessed One-ness, Breath of Everything, we are not alone on this journey.
Walk with us as we cross each bridge to a new year and yet another beginning.
Amen.

RETURN: A Prayer for Elul Rosh Chodesh

Return to Elul.
The sky was dark, and the month began.
A special time of starting over;
A month of kindness and clarity;
Of consciousness and knowledge;
Of bravery and strength.
It is said that the truly evil are already condemned
And the truly good are already blessed.
So for the rest of us
There is Elul.

Return to ourselves.
In Genesis the moon is called, “the lesser light.”
And that’s how I feel tonight,
Less than what I should be.
What was I thinking?
I was afraid, I was hurt, I was anxious…
No excuses, I know what I did,
Maybe it wasn’t so bad
But maybe it was.
How can I make it better?
There is Elul.

Return to the people we wronged.
Use the ritual,
Create a context.
It makes it easier to speak:
I am so sorry.
I was wrong.
I lacked compassion in the moment
But I see things clearly now.
You don’t have to accept my apology,
We can do teshuva together
If you want.
There is Elul.

Return to each other.
In community we pray
For the kindness to comfort and care;
And the clarity to see what must be done;
For the consciousness to accept the truth;
And the knowledge to get help if needed;
For the bravery to ask for forgiveness;
And the strength to forgive.
Most of all, we pray for all who are in pain or who cause pain.
All this and more because
There is Elul.

Bless the God of Justice, of Mercy and of Redemption that we may return every year, as new as the moon.
Amen

YOM KIPPUR HAVDALLAH

I.
Praise the Before
Praise the After
Praise the Time In Between

Praise Kadosh, the holy
Praise Khol, the mundane
Praise Ha Mavdil Bein Kodesh L’khol, the one who differentiates between them

Praise Kabbalah, welcome the Bride
Praise Shabbat, the deepest rest.
Praise Havdallah, farewell to the departing soul

II.
I construct four walls and a roof and no windows
I put in only one door, open it once a year, and never go in.
Inside the walls, Holy of Holies
Outside the walls, everything else.
All I did was build a temple.

I buy some fabric.
I put fringes on the corners and cover myself with the cloth.
Inside the cloth, I am “kadosh” and I can pray.
Outside the cloth, I am “khol” and I gossip.
But all I did was cover myself with a piece of fabric.

I have a rimless cap.
I put it on my head and call it a kippah.
Inside my kippa, I’m alone but in conversation with God and my kehilla.
Outside my kippa, I’m by myself
All I did was put on a cap.

I have a candle, wine, and sweet smelling spices
I light the candle and dip it in the wine, I smell the spices and call it havdallah.
Before sunset, guilt and sin and begging for forgiveness
After sundown, onto a year of new mistakes, and hope.
All I did was wait for it to get dark.

I make a flimsy hut with see-through branches for a roof and fruit within.
I call it a sukkah and sit down for a meal.
From inside the sukkah, I see three stars appear.
Outside the sukkah, I see the same three stars.
Inside outside, same thing?
All I did was build a hut.


III.

Wine, Spice, Fire

Wine
Growth, harvest, creation, sexuality, body, love.
Purged of guilt, at least until tomorrow

Spice
Sweetness, Fragrance, art, luxury, flavor, comedy.
It is good to live well if you can.

Fire
Sacrifice, spirit, usefulness, justice, inspiration
Clear thinking at last and the work begins.


IV.

Blessed Was•Is•Will Be, that which Brings the harvest,
And wine to drink, fire to light our way and spices to make us happy

Blessed HaMavdeel, that which Divides time,
And separates the whole into increments that we may comprehend it.

Blessed Adonai Echad, that which Unites all life,
And connects us all that we may be one.

Praise Elul, the plowing
Praise Selichot, the planting
Praise Rosh Hashannah, the watering,
Praise Yom Kippur, the weeding
Praise Sukkot, the Harvest
Amen.

The Watering

Praise Elul, the plowing
Praise Selichot, the planting
Praise Rosh Hashannah, the watering,
Praise Yom Kippur, the weeding
Praise Sukkot, the Harvest.

Rosh Hashannah, the watering,
Feeding, nurturing
The sweetness of life
In the Moments In Between.
Between the admitting we screwed up
And the asking for forgiveness.
We stop time and savor the moment.
Life can be so good, can’t it?
And today it’s fine.

Feed it with water and honey
Irrigate and watch it grow
Then throw those sins in river.
Who cares which book we’re inscribed in?
Today is great.
Happy New Year.

God of my current understanding or lack thereof,
I am so thankful for the beautiful weather,
the glorious music,
the fine words
and the sweet meals
that I share with my friends, loved ones and community
On this wonderful day
during this New Year celebration.

Amen.

A List, Of My Sins, For Yom Kippur

Praise Elul, the plowing
Praise Selichot, the planting
Praise Rosh Hashannah, the watering,
Praise Yom Kippur, the weeding
Praise Sukkot, the Harvest.


Aveinu Yah
Emotainu Yah
God of our ancestors
God of my childhood
God of the mystics
God of the philosophers
God of this community

Tonight I ask to be released from all my vows of perfection.
They were impossible.
I have made bad choices.
I caused pain
I was selfish
I talked behind people’s backs
I lost perspective
I wasted time
I whined and moped
I said mean things and thought I was funny
I went into debt.
I boasted
I was insincere
I did not take care of myself
I was too angry
I wasn’t angry enough
I projected my neuroses onto others
I used my abilities to intimidate
I didn’t use my abilities enough.
I did not sow or reap or harvest
I did not create.
I didn’t give money when it would have helped.
I didn’t give my time when it would have made a difference.
I lied.
I didn’t see others pain because I was too busy with my own
I was unsupportive to my friends.
I took my grief out on others.
I showed off.
I was foolish.
I was lazy
I was sloppy
I wallowed in self-pity.
I grumbled.
I was sarcastic.
I started every sentence with the word, “I”.
I did things that hurt other people.
Sometimes I couldn’t help myself, or so I like to think.
Sometimes I could help myself, and I knew it, and I didn’t.
I feared death and pretended I didn’t.
I thought I could control life and despaired when I could not.

Aveinu Yah, Emotainu Yah, God of my fathers and mothers, God of my current understanding or lack thereof, awesome and incomprehensible, for all these sins and many more, I promise to try for better from myself and others, and I pray for compassion and kindness for all who are in pain or who cause pain. Amen.