I'm familiar with your story This gratitude you cultivate helps ground you And yet, do you really deserve to ask for more? The answer to this question will give you the balance you seek Sometimes you need a reminder that we already said farewell to the month of Av As it is written in Job: "Man born of woman is short of days, and fed with trouble. He blossoms like a flower and withers, and vanishes, like a shadow." (Job 14:1–2)...

Fruit By Rachel Kann Know this: you are wonderful-wild. Do not deny it, contort akimbo, reach your glorious limbs skyward.  No more mourning your exclusion from the orchard— you were never meant to be regimented, thank heaven. The predatory parasites who hijacked the canopy, clawing toward your inner sugar, have all been evicted.  They could never truly penetrate; never rip to the center of you.  They tried to prune your shine, you bloomed through it. Their attempts to graft you proved...

High Holy Days in Pandemic Times: Finding Awe in the Unravel (Excerpt) By Kohenet Dori Midnight, in collaboration with Elan/a June Margolis and Annie Rose London 5780 has been wrought with profound change, loss, upheaval, disorientation, hope, resistance, and resilience. Many of us find ourselves at sea, overwhelmed and longing for connection. In this time of social, racial, and economic uprising, of global pandemic, how do we engage with the beautiful, ancestrally-guided work we are called to do? This year, we...

שכינה מקור חיינו חָנֵּנוּ וַעֲנֵנוּ כִּי אֵין בָּנוּ מַעֲשִׂים עֲשֵׂה עִמָּנוּ צְדָקָה וָחֶסֶד וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ. Shekhinah, M’kor Chayeinu chaneinu va'aneinu ki ein banu ma'asim Asai imanu tzedakah va'chesed Ve'hoshi'einu. Na’arah, Maiden, teach us to embrace the beauty of youth Eimah, Mother, show us how to nourish another Gevirah, Queen, help us to use our strength for the benefit of others Meyaledet, Midwife, guide us as we are birthed into another year Shekhinah, Source of Lives, hear our prayer (all) Chachamah, Wise Woman,...

On Solo Prayer By Kohenet Shamirah aka Sarah Chandler The following essay was written in summer 2020 as an introduction to the Azazel Chapbook. It is meant to help the reader reflect on and be inspired to spend some or all of Yom Kippur in solo prayer.  Concentric circles, familiar tunes, simple liturgy, candles, sitting on the floor. This is a snapshot of havdallah, the brief Saturday night ceremony to mark the end of shabbat. In my teens, it was always...

Kol Nidre By Kohenet Rev. Dr. Claudia Hall   Person says (individually or in unison)     Every year. Every year I make so many promises.  Promises to myself: to lose or gain weight, to eat better, sleep enough. The list is endless.  Promises to others: to be kinder, to express love more, to get angry less. The list is endless.  Promises to God: to be a better Jew, a better human being, that this is the year I will get my act together...

Interpretation of Mourner's Kaddish  By Emily Rose Antflick יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא Growing in holiness, we inhale and breathe tiny human words  Into the immensity of sacred spacetime אָמֵן Amen בְּעָלְמָא דִּי בְרָא כִרְעוּתֵהּ וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ בְּחַיֵּיכון וּבְיומֵיכון וּבְחַיֵּי דְכָל בֵּית יִשרָאֵל בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב, וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן In this breathing moment and all the sunsets to come As trees broaden in ring and root, and raindrops carve boulders to sand As human languages are born and changed and silenced We say:...

Achrayut (אחריות) Spiritual Responsibility  By Kohenet Ketzirah haMa’agelet (Devotaj Sacred Arts) In my naming of the moons, Tishrei is the moon of gathering. We gather as a tribe and as families, and we gather our ancestors back to us. It is also the month of the High Holy Days, a time when we take responsibility for our souls as individuals as well as collectively as a community. Tishrei is also the month where we celebrate the critical autumn harvest that would...

High Holidays in Five Senses  What do the High Holidays smell like?  They smell of freshly-baked sweet challah, the vanilla-y pages of an old book, your grandfather’s aftershave, the tang of the etrog and the perfume of lulav branches. What do the High Holidays feel like?   They feel like fists beating on chests, shifting your tush on a wooden pew in an unairconditioned sanctuary, running your fingers through the fringes of a tallit, dropping crumbs into the water as you cast...

For centuries, Sephardi Jewish families have gathered to celebrate a special Rosh Hashanah ceremony with a plate or meal of symbolic foods. Each food is eaten after requesting a specific kind of Divine blessing that sounds like the name of that food in Hebrew.  Before eating dates ( tamar ): May it be your will, God, that hatred will end. ( Tamar resembles the word for end, yitamu. ) Before eating pomegranate: May we be as full of mitzvot as the...