Stars In The Sky: A Kavannah for Sukkot

We can see the stars in the sky

Through the slats covering the roof of the sukkah.

And as metaphors go, that's apt.

But it's Sukkot and

Today we;re celebrating the mysterious vertical God:

The God of Heaven,

The God of the Harvest.

God, all the way from Down here to the mysterious far Up There,

Where the rain comes from.

And it would be presumptuous of us to claim clarity.

This all feels so very ancient, doesn't it?

Maybe thousands of years ago they took a break from the harvest

And shared a nice meal in a temporary shack built for sleeping

So they wouldn't waste time walking home.

Hey, they lived in a desert and they knew it wouldn't rain

So they built it so they could see the stars before falling asleep.

Maybe they thanked their gods for their good harvest.

And when Big Daddy Torah God came on the scene

They folded it all into the calendar.

It would have been foolish of them to give up such a good thing.

On our temporary sukkah walls there are pictures of the ancestors

Invited in to share a meal and a chat.

Some of us invite in the patriarchs, some the matriarchs,

Some invite in the scholars, others hope for the artists

And of course there’s family and friends, and wine.

So let's shake some of that pagan foliage

East West North South, Up and Down.

And have a sniff of a most expensive piece of fruit

And look up at those same stars.

It would arrogant of us to forego the joy or the ritual.

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Thank you!

Trisha

A Blessing For When Good Things Happen

The fourth benediction in the Birkat HaMazon,

The Blessing After the Meal,

Is the hatov vehamaytiv.

It is also recited upon,

Among other reasons,

Hearing good news concerning others

and

For the drinking of a second cup of very good wine:

May each good thing be like that second cup of wine.

Even better than the first one, which maybe you drank too fast?

This second cup has all the familiar and comfortable flavors,

But having breathed a little

It offers up so much more nuance and pleasure

Than that first cup ever could.

Good things do happen.

Amen

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Inside The Holy Of Holies

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

An empty room.

There is a roof on top of four walls

And a door but no windows.

We declare the inside, divine

And the outside, mundane.

This is arbitrary but okay with me,

I like holy separation.

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

Judgement.

God speaks to me and tells me

Of God's disappointment with all my mistakes.

I apologize and promise to do better.

We both know this is unlikely but God appreciates the sentiment.

This is great for me,

I have faith in the rituals.

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

Hate.

I see racism, murder, ethnic cleansing,

Misogyny, homo- and transphobia,

Rape, fascism, privilege,

Lies, manipulation, collusion.

If this is God,

I give up.

Inside the Holy of Holies I see

Hope.

People rise up, demanding action.

Investigators and organizers reject cynicism and despair.

We light candles, pray and make change.

Everyone votes and democracy rules.

God manifests

And I rejoice.

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

The Jewish people.

Our stories create me,

Our culture animates me,

Our society challenges me,

Our past scars me.

I couldn't escape them if I tried.

Could be worse.

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

Myself.

Years of therapy allow me to make

An honest evaulation

Of who and what I am.

I criticize myself appropriately.

I honor self-awareness,

Anything else is boring.

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

The Infinite.

I meditate on the Ruach Ha Olam

And each breath is a prayer.

I feel the Presence,

I am unaware of the past and unworried about the future.

It is amazing.

I give thanks.

Inside the Holy of Holies, I see

The God I need to see.

Today, God is ancient wishful thinking.

And tomorrow, Aveinu Malkeinu, Who will make miracles.

Next week, I ponder the Fierce Mystery,

And the week after, I know the One-ness that is everywhere in all things.

Whatever.

Here I am
In the Holy Of Holies.

BE SAFE: A Prayer For Those Facing Disaster

Be safe,

Be warm,

Be dry,

Be alive.

Be useful,

Be attentive,

Be mindful,

Be whole.

Blessed Fierce Mystery,

Aware of the danger

And fear

And the possibilities of hope and succor,

We give thanks for all those who respond

And pray for all those who need rescue.

We pray that we will not be ashamed to ask for help when it is needed

And we pray that we will know what to do when it is our turn to assist.

Be safe.

Meat and Feathers: We Confess (For Rosh HaShanah LaBehama/Rosh Chodesh Elul)

(leader)

I feel the Presence

Of what today I call God

Tomorrow I may call nature--

The Fierce Mystery

All around us,

This connection that must know everything because it is everything.

During Elul we must confess to people before we confess to God

And perhaps on Rosh HaShana LaBehama we must confess to animals before we confess to people.

So let us begin.

We acknowledge our debts to and our transgressions against

The domesticated beasts, 

Our food, our clothes, our decoration.

They are

Our property, our friends, our victims.

And we ask that they hear our confessions and our blessings: 

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

We celebrate the many gifts you give us, willingly and unwillingly.

(leader)

We eat you,

We eat your bodies and reminisce over the best parts,

We share recipes.

We eat your children,

We drink the milk and the honey you make to feed those children,

We eat your eggs before they can even  be children.

We keep ourselves warm with your skin

And steal your beauty to enhance our own.

We cultivate you for your fur and feathers and kill you whenever we need them.

We like the way you look.

We make art and poetry to celebrate you in the fields and farms

Just before we slaughter you.

For thousands of years

We have used your bodies to plow our fields and mill our grain,

We have used your bodies to ride from place to place

And now that we don't need you quite as as much

We use you for sport or dog food.

We bless your memory.

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

We acknowledge how we have abused you.

(leader)

We imprison you.

We torture you.

We test our make up and drugs on you.

We ride you.

We train you.

And we discard you when you're old.

We enclose herd animals alone in stalls instead of with their own kind,

We cram  you into metal enclosures that won't allow any movement,

We raise thousands in spaces fit only for hundreds.

We murder you.

We wring your necks.

We behead you.

We bang you on the head.

We shoot you.

We pluck you.

We skin you.

We chop and grind you up.

We acknowledge our cruelty and ask for your forgiveness. 

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Ostriches

Peacocks

Horses

We confess how we have lied to ourselves about what we do to you.

(leader)

We call you

  Porterhouse Steak

  Buffalo Wings

  Venison

  Mutton

  Camembert

  Yogurt

  Leather

  Feathers

  Down

  Sunny Side up.
  Shofar

Anything but what you really are.

We buy slabs of meat in transparent packages that don't look like you

So we don't have to think about how you were raised and slaughtered.

You are a breast or a leg or a steak,

You are a hamburger, a wing or a bucket.

We tool and dye your skin and call it leather

So we don't have to acknowledge we're wearing your skin.

We arrange your feathers artfully

And admire the beautiful colors,

Ignoring why you have them in the first place.

We put your feathers in our pillows

And we sleep well.

We give thanks for denial, without which we could not get through the day.

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

Forgive those of us who cannot give you up.

(leader)

You domestic beasts are all vegetarians, why is that?

Why don't we eat predators? 

Is it because you are docile and easy to domesticate?

Or is it because predators remind us of ourselves?

Maybe some of us here don't eat you

Maybe some of us here don't wear you.

Maybe none of us should.

But many of us do.

(optional)

I do.

I eat meat.  I love meat.

I love eggs, honey, yogurt, chicken, steak.

I wear leather.  I'm wearing it on my feet right now.

My pillow is filled with down.  I slept okay.

I know all about how you suffer and still I partake of it all.

I don't eat veal.  That's it.  Not much.

I think about helping you.
I guess I wrote this.

But really, I don't.

So I can't ask for forgiveness

because I'm not going to change.

This month, anyway.

(optional:  are there any other confessions, besides mine?  anyone?)

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

            We could try to make at least small changes.

(leader)

We can eat less meat.

We can wear less leather.

We can refuse to wear real fur.

We can refuse to eat veal.

We can only buy grass fed and pasture raised poultry and meat, if we can afford it.

We can stop wearing feathers.

We can use alternative down feather pillows, though that's plastic and not so good for the environment.
(optional) What else can we do? (wait for suggestions)

Maybe we become vegetarians or vegans,

Maybe we don't.

But we can do a little.

We can start.

(together)

Baruch Atah Adonai

Brucha At Shechinah

Blessed Yah, 

Breath of Life,

Remembering us in Death,

The Fierce Mystery:

We acknowledge, celebrate, and give thanks for all the ways the animals have made our lives possible.

We confess to cruelty and hypocrisy.

We ask your forgiveness for all the wrongs we have done our domestic beasts,

We are blessed by their lives.

May we learn to be a blessing to them.

And we wish them a Happy New Year and a Hodesh Tov

And let us say, 

Amen

For more info check out:  

http://jewishinitiativeforanimals.org/  

and

http://opensiddur.org/shared/prayers-for/special-days/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/