Rosh HaShanah Machzor

KOL AMI,
the Northern Virginia

Reconstructionist
Community

Machzor
2

13 Principles of Reconstructionism
What We Should Want From Our Judaism

1. We want Judaism to help us overcome temptation, doubt and discouragement.
2. We want Judaism to imbue us with a sense of responsibility for the righteous use of
the blessing with which God has endowed us.
3. We want the Jew to be so trusted that our yea will be taken as a yea and our nay
as nay.
4. We want to learn how to utilize our leisure to best advantage physically, intellectually
and spiritually.
5. We want the Jewish home to live up to its traditional standards of virtue and piety.
6. We want the Jewish upbringing of our children to further their moral and spiritual
growth, and to enable them to accept with joy their heritage as Jews.
7. We want the Synagogue to enable us to worship God in sincerity and in truth.
8. We want our religious traditions to be interpreted in terms of understandable
experience and to be made relevant to our present day needs.
9. We want to participate in the upbringing of Eretz Yisrael as a means to the
renaissance of the Jewish spirit.
10. We want Judaism to find rich new expression in philosophy, in letters and in the arts.
11. We want all forms of Jewish organization to make for spiritual purpose and ethical
endeavor.
12. We want the unity of Israel throughout the world to be fostered through mutual help in
time of need, and through cooperation in the furtherance of Judaism at all times.
13. We want Judaism to function as an influence for justice, freedom and peace in the
lives of men and women of all nations.
Mordecai M. Kaplan
Erev Rosh Hashanah

This night as the New Year begins
We come together as a community
Yet each of us is strangely solitary.

Each of us comes here with special hopes and dreams,
Each of us bears our own worries and concerns.

Each of us has a story no one else can tell;
Each of us brings praise no one else can offer.

Each of us feels joy no one else can share;
Each of us has regrets that others cannot know.

And so, at this sacred time, we pray:
If we are weary, may we find strength;
If we are discouraged, may we find hope.

If we have forgotten how to share, may we teach each other and learn together.
If we have been careless with one another, may we seek forgiveness.

If our hearts have been chilled by indifference,
May we be warmed by renewed purpose, inspired by the light of this holy night.
Sidney Greenberg (Adapted)

the first streak of orange
arrives on top of the pines
reflects on the lake
mirrored blue, black, still
a soft cool breeze wakes me
to the endless possibilities
Its a new day.
It always has been.
Herb Cooper-Levy

4
After the Marketplace Bombing

Gather my scattered thoughts, Holy One.
Open my tight held fist.
Loosen my tension, leaning on you,
Dreams calming, days again bright.

As I wake to behold the Lands splendor
Shutter my fears with sweet recall,
Heal wounds of witnessed terrors.

Invent me again, for your blessing;
Renewal and strength, comfort and peace
As I rise to affirm your glory.
Debbie Perlman

Reader: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a
sacred assembly, a cessation from work, a day of commemoration
proclaimed by the sound of the shofar. May it be a day of renewal
and rebirth, a day of remembrance and affirmation, a day of looking
inward and stepping forward.

Reader: We are here, on this Rosh Hashanah Eve, poised somewhere between
what we have been and what we wish to be. We are here at the start of the
ten days of teshuvah, of turning, of returning to the self we have covered up
behind the roles and masks with which we have learned to protect
ourselves. We are here in celebration and in search, in judgment and
embrace, ready to confront ourselves and the world in which we find
ourselves this night. We seek to open wide the windows behind which we
have hidden, and to send forth hand and soul to learn where we have come,
what we have become and what we hope to be.

Blessing Over Candles

Reader: Our mothers and fathers kindled light

All: To lead us to the day of shining hope with mercy our companion along the
way,

Reader: A life unmarred by hate and war;
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All: A time of steadfast love, our journeys end!

Reader: Homage to the faithful who came before us;

All: And blessed the light that is ours to kindle!

Reader: Honor to generations of Israel, our people!

All: All honor to those who illumine our paths!

Reader: Remember us unto life. Inscribe us in the book of life.

,sc5 :up _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
.5u o (:_u 5_u) :_u _: p:_n: :s

Baruch atta Adonay Eloheynu melech ha-olam, asher kidshanu bmitzvoetov vitzivanu
lhadlik nare shel (Shabbat vshell) yome tov.

:cp :_n_n_u ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
.n\_n )_c\_: :v:n

Baruch atta Adonay Eloheynu melech ha-olam, shehehiyanu vkiymanu vhigianu lazman
hazeh.

Blessed is the Source of Life,
the Fountain of Being
whose nature we tap
with the lighting
of the (Shabbat and) Rosh Hashanah candles.

Blessed is the kindler
Of the light of truth
For the lamp of one
May light the path of many.

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Reader: At the beginning of Gods unfolding
the heavens and the earth,
the earth was wild and waste,
and darkness blackened the face of the ocean.
The breath of God hovered over the waters.
God said, Let there be light! And light was.
God saw the light; that it was good,
And separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day!
And the darkness He called Night!
There was evening, there was morning: one day.
Gen 1:1

All: This story of creation forms the central theme of our Rosh Hashanah, for the
celebration of the new year is, in fact, the celebration of the first year, the
Beginning of Time of Braysheet. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birthday
of the Universe, the origin of light and life.

Reader: Just as the hand, held before the eye
can hide the tallest mountain,
so the routine of everyday life can keep us from seeing the vast radiance
and secret wonders that fill the world.
Hasidic Proverb, 18
th
century

All: With the coming of Rosh Hashanah
we boldly remove the blinding hand
and open our eyes to the wonders of Reality.
Blanketed in the safety of family and friends,
we reach out not to blind, but to embrace,
not to limit, but to expand;
joining hands in solidarity and compassions
we reach just a little farther,
stretch just a little higher,
and grow just a little taller
in our quest for harmony, love and peace.

Reader: In the afterglow of a vanishing year,
we tune our hearts to the melody of wonder.

All: As evening descends, memories stir;
The old year echoes even as the new year begins.
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Reader: May this Rosh Hashanah, birthday of the world,
be our day of rebirth into life and peace,
serenity and safety,
as the new years begins.

All: As the new year begins
let us begin again the art of dreaming
and begin again to weave the blanket of peace
that will clothe us in harmony.

.:_u (_::uc ,5p_v_ (_:n 5u n_c

Ma toe-vu oha lecha yaahcove mishknotehchah yisrael.

How goodly are your tents Jacob and the dwelling places of Israel.

s_v 5 )__c onn :_ _:v u_
{_ o_cu n_uv nn ov_c s_v

Esa eynay el heharim meayin yavo ezri
Ezri maim adonay oseh shamayim vaaretz

As we bless the Source of Life
So are we blessed.

And our blessings give us strength
And make our visions clear
And our blessings give us peace
And the courage to dare.

As we bless the Source of Life
So are we blessed.

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(5c_n _ :5

Barchu et Adonay hamvorach

_v o:v: (5c_n (5

Baruch Adonay hamvorach lolam va-ed!

With the new year, we have a chance for newness within our hearts, a newness that can
change the course of our lives. But change is often frightening, and sometimes we are
not sure that we are indeed ready for it. What will this new heart be like? we wonder.
How will this purified heart change the persons we are? Will the very structure of our
lives change as our spirits are renewed? So much uncertainty comes with change. As
we stand at the threshold of a New Year, we pray for the valor to face uncertainty, the
courage to truly change what needs to be changed, and the faith to welcome the new
spirit that is within us.
Leila Gal Berner

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n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu

Shema yisrael adonay eloheynu adonay echad.

Listen, Israel: THE ETERNAL Is Our God, The ETERNAL ONE alone!

._v o:v: ::_c 5: o_u (5

Baruch shem kevod malchuto leolam vaed.

Blessed be the name and glory of Gods realm, forever!

.(_c-::5 ,(uo_:-::5 ,(55:-::5 ,(_n:_ _ 5_n
(_55:-:_v ,o_n (_sc :: _u_ ,n_:_n o5_n n
(___5 (:_:5 ,(_55 (5u5 o5 _5 ,(:5: o:_:u
ouu: n ,(_-:_v : o_up .(_cp5 ,(5:u5
(_vu5 (_5 ssc :_v o5_: ,(:v )5

Veahavta et Adonay Elohecha bekole levecha uvechole nafshecha uvechole meodecha.
Vehayu hadevarim haeleh asher anochi metzavecha hayome al levahvehcha.
Vishinamtam levanecha vedibarta bam beshivtecha beveytecha evelechtecha vahderek
ooveshochbecha oovekumecha. Ookeshartam leot al yadecha vehayu letotafote beyn
eynehcha ooketavtam al mezuzot beytecha oovisharecha
You shall love Adonai your God, with all your passions, with every fiber of your being, and
with all that you

possess. Let these words by which I join Myself to you today enter
your heart. Pattern your days on them, that your children may discover Torah within you.
Make your life into a voice of God, both in your stillness and in your movement. Renew
these words each morning and each evening in devotion. Bind them in tefillin on your
arm and head as symbols of acts and thoughts consecrated to Me. Write them on
parchments at the entrance to your home, as a sign that all people may discover Me as
they enter your home and your life.
Burt Jacobson (adapted)

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,:n : ,u_p_5 : n:c: c , o:_5 n:c: c
_:_o n_uv
c :v :_ ns ,n_uc _:o: o _v_p5 ,(:5 (::_c
_v o_:v: (:c
.:_cc psn _c :: ,5p_v_ _ no : _c_:
:_u :_: , n_ (5
Me chamochah baelim adonay.
Me chamochah nedor bakodesh
Nora tehilot osey feleh.
Malchutecha rau vanecha bokea yam lifney mosheh
Zeh eli anu veameru. Adonay yimloche leolam vaed.
Veneemar ki fadah Adonay et yaakov ugalo miyad chazak mimenu.
Baruk atah Adonay gaal yisrael.

Moses, Miriam and all the Israelites
Broke out in song, abundant in their joy,
And, all as one, they said:

Who among the mighty can compare
To you, WISE ONE?
Who can compare to you,
Adorned in holiness, awesome in praises,
Acting wondrously!

Your children saw you in your majesty
Splitting the sea in front of Moses.
This is my God! they cried, and said

The HOLY ONE will reign forever!

And it was said,

Yes, the REDEEMING ONE has rescued Jacob, saved
him from a power stronger than his own!

Blessed are you, THE GUARDIAN, Israels redeeming power!

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Every time I listen to your pain
instead of telling you how to fix it
I make a sacrifice.
I used to be a magician
who diverted himself from his problems
by focusing on someone elses.
You might have been impressed by my cleverness
but it did not help either of us.
At last I have been reduced to silence.
My silence can be a mirror for you.
May this offering of emptiness
Give you room to heal.
Seth D. Riemer

,n_v: 5 c:v5 .5_ n_cu u__p :__:
.:_u 5 :: __n5 ):_c5 ):__n5 n_::_c (:c_
)_c c 5p )_cs5 ::_v_5
_c:v _c:v: o_:v: (_5c 5_ n_cu _n
n_:_v _n _u_: o_c _e ,n_5_u (_5
:5 ::c :v: :v: n (5 up n_cu ::_n
)_c c ,c:v5 )c__ ,c_n: n5u ,u

Reader: Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba. Bealma divra chirutey veyamleech
malchutey bechayaychone uvyomaychone uvchahyay dechole beyt Yisrael.
Baagalah uvizman kariv veimru amen.
All: Yehey shemey raba mevarach le-alam ulalmey almaya.
Reader: Yitbarach veyishtabach veyitpaar veyitromam veyitnasey veyit-hadar
veyeetahleh veyeethahlal shemey dekudsha
All: bereech hu
Reader: leela leela meekol birchata veshirata tushbechata venechemata da-amiran
bealma veimru amen.

You do not have to leave the room.
Remain standing in your place and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait.
Be quiet, still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked.
It has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka

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n~b_v AMIDAH

The Amidah is traditionally recited while standing, beginning with three steps forward and bowing,
left and right, a reminder of our entry into the divine presence. There are three alternatives: the
traditional Reconstructionist beginning below through page 17, English alternative readings on
pages 17-20, or your own silent meditation.

(_:n :_ o no _ou :_

Adonay sfatie teeftahk oo fee yageed tehilahtehcha

Open my lips, BELOVED ONE and let my mouth declare your praise.

1. Avot Vemote Ancestors c 5_

:_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu vaylohay avotenu vemoetaynu

Blessed are you, ANCIENT ONE, our God, God of our ancestors

Elohay Sarah nu _n:_ Elohay Avrahum ,on5_ _n:_
Elohay Reevkah np5 _n:_ Elohay Yeetzchahk ,pns _n:_
Elohay Rahchale :_n _n:_ VElohay Yaakove ,5p_v_ _n:_
VElohay Layah n: _n:_

God of Sarah God of Abraham
God of Rebekah God of Isaac
God of Rachel God of Jacob
And God of Leah;

,o5u o_n :_c: ,):_v :_ ,:_n 5:_n ::_n :_n
_:5: n:: 5_c ,c 5 __n :s ,::_n n_:p
,o_n_5 {on (_:_c ,o_n: :_:s n5_n_5 cu )_v_c: o__n_:5
_sv (_:_c .o_n on:_ (:_v_c: ,o_n_n _o_5 :5:
nu _s_v on5_ )_:c , n_ (5 )_:c _vuc

Haale hagadole hageboore vhanorah, ale elyone, gomale chasidim toveem, vkonay
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hakole, vzochare chasday avot vemote, oomayvee goolah leevnay vnayhem lmaan
shmo bahavah. Zochraynu lchaim, melech chafatze bchaim, ookatvanu bsayfare
hachaim lmahahnehkah Eloheem chaim. Melech ozare oomosheah oomahgane
Baruch atah Adonay magane Avrahom vehzraht Sarah.

Great, heroic, awesome God, supreme divinity imparting deeds of kindness, begetter of
all; mindful of the loyalty of Israels ancestors bringing, with love, redemption to their
childrens children for the sake of the divine name.

Remember us for life, Sovereign who wishes us to live and write us in the Book of Life,
for your sake, ever-living God. Regal One, our help, salvation and protector:
Blessed are you, KIND ONE, the shield of Abraham and help of Sarah.

2. Gevurot Divine Power nax

_vun: 5_ ,n_ o_c n__nc ,:_ o:v: 5: n_
oc_n_5 n :: n__nc ,__n5 o_n :::_:c :u_n 'c
o__pc ,o_ _c ,o:n o ,o:o: (_c ,o5_
,(: n_c c 5: :_v_5 (c: c ,ov _:_u: :c_
_nvu ncs_c n_nc c_c (_:_c
oc_n_5 o_n: s :s ,oc_n_n 5_ (c: c
n_ (5 n :: _n_n: n_ )c_:
n :: n__nc

You are forever powerful, ALMIGHTY ONE, abundant in your saving acts. You
send down the dew. In loyalty you sustain the living, nurturing the life of every
living thing, upholding those who fall, healing the sick, freeing the captive and
remaining faithful to all life held dormant in the earth. Who can compare to you,
almighty God, who can resemble you, the source of life and death who makes
salvation grow? Who can compare to you, source of all mercy, remembering all
creatures mercifully, decreeing life! Faithful are you in giving life to every living
thing. Blessed are you, THE FOUNT OF LIFE, who gives and renews life.

3. Kedushat Hashem Hallowing Gods Name o_u_n n_u~p

.n:_c ,(::_n o ::5 oup up (cu up n_
Holy are you. Your name is holy. And all holy beings hail you each day.

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4. Kedushat Hayome The Days Holiness o_n n_u~p

:5__p ,(_sc5 :u_p :5 s :5_n_ n_
p ::v up_n ::_n (cu ,(_5_v_: :::_c

You have loved us, and have taken pleasure in us, and have made us holy with
your mitzvote, and you have brought us, sovereign one, near to your service, and
have called us to the shelter of your great and holy name.

On Shabbat, add the words in parenthesis

:_u_p (:_n:c5 ns) :_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_
:_nc_u (_5uc :v5_u ,(_5 :_p:_n )_ (_sc5
_5_u )s5 n5_n_5 ,:_n:_ ,::n:_n) (_vu5
:5: _n_u ((_cu _u_pc :_u n5 n: ,(_up
(5 ,_c_ on:_ n_ : ,_c__5 (5v:
,{_n :: :_v (_:_c , ,n_ (5 ._v: o_p _c_
.):\_n o :_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc

Our God, Our ancients God (take pleasure in our rest) enable us to realize
holiness through your mitzvote, give us our portion in your Torah, let us enjoy the
good things of your world, and gladden us with your salvation. (And help us to
perpetuate, ETERNAL ONE, our God, with love and with desire, your holy
Shabbat, and may all your people Israel, all who treat your name as holy, find rest
and peace upon this day.) Refine our hearts to serve you truthfully, for you are a
God of truth, and your word is truthful and endures forever. Blessed are you,
ETERNAL ONE, the sovereign power over all the earth, who raises up to holiness
(Shabbat,) the people Israel and the Day of Remembrance.

5. Avodah Worship n~a_v

n5_n_5 o:o 5_n_: :_u (c_v5 ,:_n:_ ,ns
.(_c_v :_u _5_v c )s: n ,)s5 :5_p
s_n_c_n , n_ (5 .oc_n_5 )s: (5u5 :_:v n:s_n_
.)s: ::u

Take pleasure, GRACIOUS ONE, our God, in Israel your people; lovingly accept
their fervent prayer. May Israels worship always be acceptable to you. And may
our eyes behold your forthcoming, with merciful intent, to Zion; Blessed are you,
THE FAITHFUL ONE, who brings your presence home to Zion.
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6. Hodaah Thanks n~n

,:_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ ,n n_u ,(: :n_:_ oc
n n_ ,:vu )_:c ,:__n s ,_v o:v: :_c
oc_n :__n :_v .(_:n e_: (: n_: :
o ::5_u (_c: :_v ,(: pe_n :_cu: :_v ,(_5
_p5 5__v ,v ::5_u (_5u (_:o: :_v ,:cv
c_ : : o_n_c_n ,(_c_n_ :: : : 5u_n ,ons
.(: :p o:v_c (__n
._v o:v: c :::_c (cu o_c (_5 o:: :_v
.(_5 _:5 :: o5u o_n: 5:
:_n ,_c__5 (cu _ ::_n ,n:_c ( o_n_n ::
n_: (: (cu 5u_n , n_ (5 .n:_ :_s_v :_vu
.n:

We give thanks to you that you are THE ALL MERCIFUL, our God, God of our
ancestors, today and always. A firm enduring source of life, a shield to us in time
of trial, you are ever there, from age to age. We acknowledge you, declare your
praise, and thank you for our lives entrusted to your hand, our souls placed in your
care, for your miracles that greet us every day, and for your wonders and the good
things that are with us every hour, morning, noon and night. GOOD ONE, whose
kindness never stops, KIND ONE, whose loving acts have never failed always
have we placed hope in you.

For all these things, your name be blessed
and raised in honor always, sovereign of ours, forever.

And write down for a good life all the people of your covenant.

Let all of life acknowledge you! May all beings praise your name in truth. O God,
our rescue and our aid.
Blessed are you, THE GRACIOUS ONE, whose name is good, to whom all thanks
are due.
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7. Birkat Hashalom Blessing for Peace o>u_n n_5a

(_:_c n n_ : ,o:v: ou (c_v :_u :_v 5 o:u
,:_u (c_v _ (_5: (:v5 5u .o:u_n ::: )
.(_c:u5 nvu ::5 v ::5
5_:: :\: ,n5u n:_o o:u n:5 ,o_n _o_5
.o:u: o5u o_n: ,:_u 5 (c_v :: :n_:_ ,(:o:
.o:u_n n_uv , n_ (5

Shalom rav al Yisrael amecha tasim lolam. Ki atah hu melech adone lechole
hashalome. Vetove beeynecha lvarache et amcha Yisrael, bechole ate uvachole
shaah beeshlomecha. Bsayfare chaim, brahcha vshalom uparnahsah tovah
nzahchare vneekatave lfanehcha. Anachnu vchole amcha bate Yisrael lchaim
toveem ulashalome. Baruch atah Adonay oseh hashalome.

Grant abundant peace eternally for Israel, your people. For you are the sovereign
source of all peace. So, may it be a good thing in your eyes to bless your people
Israel, and all who dwell on earth, in every time and hour, with your peace.

In the book of life, blessing, peace and proper sustenance, may we be
remembered and inscribed, we and all your people, the house of Israel, for a good
life and for peace.

Blessed are you, COMPASSIONATE ONE, maker of peace.

Elohay Netzor Concluding Meditation x: _n>

ncc 5_c _ou .v_c :u: s: ,_n:_
n_uv_ (:v5 5u_n v_c _u )s: n
o o:u _up_5c ov p:_n n
,(:o: 5: ):_n o _c )s: n
o:u n_u_v_ n ,cc5 o:u n_uv .:_: s
.)_c c :5_ 5u :: :_v :_u :: :_v ,::v

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Dear God, protect my tongue from evil,
and my lips from telling lies.
May I turn away from evil
And do what is good in your sight.
Let me be counted among those who seek peace.
May my words of prayer
And my hearts meditation be seen favorably,
BELOVED ONE, my rock and my redeemer.
May the one who creates harmony above
Make peace for us and for all Israel,
And for all who dwell on earth.
And say: Amen.

Meditations Amidah Alternatives

The day has come
To take an accounting of my life.

Have I dreamed of late
Of the person I want to be,
Of the changes I would make
In my daily habits,
In the way I am with others,
In the friendship I show companions,
Woman friends, man friends, my partner,
In the regard I show my father and mother,
Who brought me out of childhood?

I have remained enchained too often to less than what I am.
But the day has come to take an accounting of my life.

Have I renewed of late
My vision of the world I want to live in,
Of the changes I would make
In the way my friends are with each other
The way we find out whom we love
The way we grow to educated people
The way in which the many kinds of needy people
Grope their way to justice?

I, who am my own kind of needy person, have been afraid of visions
But the day has come to take an accounting of my life.
Have I faced up of late
To the needs I really have
Not for comforts which shelter my unsureness
Not for honors which paper over my really tawdry self
Not for handsome beauty, in which my weakness masquerades,
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Not for unattractiveness in which my strengths hide out

I need to be loved.
Do I deserve to be?
I need to love another.

Can I commit to love?
Perhaps its object will be less than my visions.
(And then I would be less)
Perhaps I am not brave enough
To find new vision
Through a real and breathing person.

I need to come in touch with my own power
Not with titles,
Not possessions, money, high praise,
But with the power that is mine.
As a child, of the Power that is the universe
To be a comfort, a source of honor,
Handsome and beautiful from the moment I awoke this morning
So strong
That I can risk the love of someone else
So sure
That I can risk to change the world
And know that even if it all comes crashing down
I shall survive it all
Saddened a bit, shaken perhaps,
Not unvisited by tears
But my dreams shall not crash down
My visions not go glimmering.
So long as I have breath
I know I have the strength
To transform what I can be
To what I am.

Where is the place of Gods glory? 5: opc n__
Richard N. Levy

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Each year should be the best year I have yet lived.
Each year we are more learned in the ways of life.
Each year we are wiser than the year before.
Each year our eyes know better the sights to seek.
Each year our ears listen with a finer tuning.
All that we understand is a jewel, wrought about the fancy of time.
All that we understand of the universe is the setting for each sight
and the sound of the day.

The child looks with gladness each year to be one year older,
Should not this welcome pursue all of our years?
The piling of the years is a richness like the piling of gold.
Our years are coins with which we can purchase more wisely at the
bazaars of each new season.
Our love is more pliant and patient having been taught by time.
The new year is one year older than the last.
The Earth is more abounding in growth.
The creatures have moved another step in their unfolding.
Humankind has left us one more year of art for our contemplation.
History is one year more resonant with lessons.
The sunrises are one year more familiar and promising.
The sunsets are one year less fearful, and the peace of the night is
one year closer.
Kenneth L. Patton

The Bal Shem Tov once said:

The first time an event occurs in nature
It is called a miracle;
Later it comes to seem natural
And is taken for granted.

Let your prayer and your service
Be a miracle each day,
Keeping you from taking for granted
That which is in fact so full of wonder.

Only such prayer performed from the heart
With the enthusiasm of fresh wonder
Is acceptable,
For only such prayer will open the eye
To the extraordinary
Hidden in the heart of the ordinary.

20
Listening comes hard to us
We can sing and read and look
Taste and smell and touch
But listening comes hard to us.

Other peoples joy and tragedy
Enter our minds,
But listening to the person behind the joy
Letting in the person underneath the tragedy,
That takes hard concentration,
And strong will.

But the New Year is to be listened for.
The world looks the same,
The people all around us look the same,
But underneath the ordinary day that is today,
Is a special quiet, which we cannot see.

We have to listen for it
As a New Year begins,
We have come together to pray as a congregation;
Yet each of us is strangely solitary.

Each of us comes with special hopes and dreams;
Each of us has personal worries and concerns.

Each of us has a prayer no one else can utter;
Each of us brings praise no one else can offer.

Each of us feels a joy no one else can share;
Each of us has regrets, which others cannot know.

And so we pray:
If we are weary, may we have strength,
If we are discouraged, may we have hope.

If we have forgotten how to pray, may we be reminded,
If we have been careless of time, may we be forgiven.

If our hearts have been chilled by indifference,
May we be inspired with the glowing light of this holy night.
Sidney Greenberg (Adapted)

After we have recited what is written we often have the feeling that in our hearts there
linger some precious sentiments to which we have given no expression. These are our
own personal yearnings, our most intimate places. At such a time we pray without words,
as we do now in this moment.

21

Please rise.

Avenu Malkenu :5>_b :a

All Reader

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu God is the ineffable one that
sustains the many.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we fill this year with
blessing.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we annul all evil, and rid
the world of tyrants.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we cleanse the world of
famine, violence, captivity and
disease.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we find forgiveness and
move beyond failing.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we help bring healing to
those in pain, succor to those in
need.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we make this world a
greener place where nature
flourishes.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we hasten the deliverance
of all people.

22
:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May our deeds exhault our
people Israel.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May our thoughts know wisdom.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May our feelings know clarity.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May our actions be tempered
with insight.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May we be inscribed in the
Book of happiness.

Book of deliverance.

Book of prosperity.

Book of merit.

Book of forgiveness.

:::_c :5 Avenu Malkenu May this Rosh Hashanah be
one of truth and light, justice
and honesty, joy, purpose and
peace.

All sing:

,ou_v_c :5 )_ : ,:_:_v_ :_:n :::_c :5
.:vun __n nps :cv n_u_v
Avenu Malkenu, chanaynu vaaneinu, kee-ein banu ma-asim. Asei eemanu
tzedakah vachesed vhoesheeaynu.

Please be seated.

23
Kaddish Titkabal Kaddish for The Completion of Prayer

,n_v: 5 c:v5 .5_ n_cu u__p :__:
.:_u 5 :: __n5 ):_c5 ):__n5 n_::_c (:c_
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)_c
,:_u :: :_v ::v o:u n_u_v_ n cc5 o:u n_uv
)_c c :5_ 5u :: :_v

Reader: Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba
Bealma divra chirutey veyamleech malchutey
Bechayaychone uvyomaychone uvchahyay dechole beyt yisrael
Baagalah uvizman kariv veimru amen.
All: Yehey shemey raba mevarach le-alam ulalmey almaya.
Reader: Yitbarach veyishtabach veyitpaar veyitromam
veyitnasey veyit-hadar vyeetahleh veyithahlal
shemey dekudsha
All: bereech hu
Reader: leela leela meekol birchata veshirata
tushbechata venechemata da-amiran bealma veimru amen.
Teetkabal tslotehone oovahoothone dkal bate Yisrael kadam ahvoohone
dee shmyyah veimru amen.
Yehay shlamah rahbah meen shmayyah vchaim aleynu val kal Yisrael
veimru amen.
Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleynu veal kol Yisrael veal kol
yoshvey tavale veimru amen.

24
Reader: Let Gods name be made great and holy in the world that was created
as God willed. May God complete the holy realm in your own lifetime, in your
days, and in the days of the house of Israel quickly and soon. And say: Amen

All: May Gods great name be blessed forever and as long as the world
endures.

Reader: May it be blessed and praised and glorified and held in honor, viewed
with awe, embellished and revered; and may the blessed name of holiness be
hailed, though it be higher by far than all the blessings, songs, praises and
consolations that we utter in this world. And say: Amen

And may the prayer and supplication of the whole house of Israel be acceptable
to their creator in the heavens. And say: Amen

May Heaven grant a universal peace, and life for us, and for all Israel. And say:
Amen

May the one who creates harmony above make peace for us and for all Israel,
and for all who dwell on earth. And say: Amen.

Dona Dona

All sing:
On a wagon bound for market
Theres a calf with a mournful eye
High above him theres a swallow
Winging swiftly through the sky

Chorus: How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summers nights
Dona, Dona, Dona

25
Stop complaining said the farmer;
Who told you a calf to be?
Why dont you have wings to fly with
Like the swallow so proud and free?

Dona, Dona, Dona

Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why.
Those who love and treasure freedom
Like the swallow must learn to fly

Dona, Dona, Dona

Reader: Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels, and a
gigantic, spinning, swirling glob of rocks and water with no place to go.

The angels said to God, "Why don't you clean up this mess?"

So God took all the rocks out of the swirling glob, put them in one place and said, "I will
call this place the universe. Some of the rocks will be planets, some will be stars, and
some will be just rocks."

Then God took all the water from the swirling glob and spread it around the universe
saying, "Some of this water will be oceans, some will be clouds, and some will be just
water.

Then the angels asked God, "Is the world finished?"

God answered, "NOPE!"

On some of the rocks God placed growing things -- and creeping things -- and things
which only God knows what they are! And when God had done all this, the angels looked
around the universe and said, "Well, it's neater but is it finished?"

God answered, "NOPE!"

God made a man and woman from some of the water and dust and said, "Look, Ill give
26
you the whole world, but you have to finish it."

"Now you look!" they said. "We can't finish the world without your help -- so maybe -- we
could be partners?"

God warned them, "If we're going to be partners, sometimes you might get angry at me,
and sometimes I might get angry with you, but even so, none of us can stop finishing the
world -- that's the deal." And they all agreed to the deal.

Then the angels asked God, "Is the world finished?"

God smiled and answered, "I don't know. Go ask my partners."

Teach Your Children

You who are on the road
must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself,
because the past is just a good-bye.

So teach the children well
Their parents health did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they fix, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

And you of tender years
can't know the fears
that your elders grow by,
And so please help them with your youth;
they seek the truth
before they can die.

Teach your parents well
The children's hell will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they fix, the one you'll know by
Don't you ever ask them why,
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young
27

For our Congregation and our People

Reader: May the whole House of Israel, scattered over the earth, yet bound by a
common history and united by a common heritage of insight and hope, find the
courage to build upon its diversity and affirm its creativity.

All: May all whose lives are made hard because they are Jews find the strength to
endure, and may we stand with them in their struggle to move from bondage to
freedom, from darkness to light.

Reader: May each of us be blessed with wisdom; let health, peace and happiness reign
in our homes and in our hearts; let each of us commit ourselves to the other in
a Covenant of Freedom.
All: Let us send healing thoughts and deeds of kindness to those in pain and
anxiety; let us be their refuge in times of trouble, and aid them as they pass
from weakness to strength, from suffering to consolation, from fear to courage.
adapted, CCAR

::v Aleynu

Please rise. It is customary to bow at "vanachnu korim.

,u_5 s: n:: _: ,::_n )__: _n5_u: ::v
,::5 v_u: o:v __n _c_ _ :: )_:u
,oc o_n_uc ov: :n_:__
.n (5 up_n ,o::c_n ::_c ,(_:_c _:o:
,{_ _ o_cu n_u: n_u
,:_v_cc o_cu_5 p 5_uc
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5 5:_: ,:s _o_ :::_c _c_
on:_n n : ,(_55: :_ 5_u_n_ o_n v_
v )_ ,_nc {_n :_v ,:_v_cc o_cu_5
n_n o_5 {_n :: :_v (_:_c: nn _c_:
.n_ cu n_ nn

Ahlaynu lshabayoch ladone hakole, ltate gdulah lyosare braysheet, shnatan lanu torat
emet vchayay olam nahtah btochanu vanachnu koreem oomeeshtahchahveem
28
oomodeem leafnay melech, malchay hamalcheem, ha kahdoesh baruch hoo. Sheh-hoo
noteh shamayim veyosade ahretz oomoshav ykaro bshamayim me-mah-al ooshcheenat
uzo bgavhay mromeem hoo Elohaynu ain ode. Emet malchanu ehfehs zoolatoe
Kkatoov btorahtoe vyadatah hayome vhashayvoetah el lvovehcha, key Adonay hoo
haEloheem bahshamayim memaal val haaretz metahchat ane ode, ane ode. V
nehehmar, vhawyaw Adoenoy lmelek ol kole haahretz. Byome hahoo, byome hahoo,
yee-heh-yeah Ahdoenoy ehchad, ooshmoe, ooshmoe, ooshmoe ehchad.

It is up to us to offer praises to the Source of all, to declare the greatness of the author
of creation, who gave to us teachings of truth and planted eternal life within us. And so,
we bend the knee and bow, acknowledging the sovereign who rules above all those who
rule, the blessed Holy One. Who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth,
whose realm embraces heaven's heights, whose mighty presence stalks celestial
ramparts. This is our God; there is none else besides, as it is written in the Torah: "You
shall know this day, and bring it home inside your heart, that THE SUPREME ONE is
God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other God."
And it is written: "THE EVERLASTING ONE will reign as sovereign over all the earth.
On that day shall THE MANY NAMED be one, God's name be one!"

And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another's will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth's abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life's creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.
Judy Chicago

An Affirmation of Faith

Reader: What is Judaism: What ought a Jew to do? How to be a Jew? Why be a
Jew?

All: I am a Jew because, born of Israel and having regained her, I wish her to

live after me, more living than in myself.

Reader: I am a Jew because the faith of Israel requires of me no abdication of the
mind.
29

All: I am a Jew because in every place where suffering is the Jew weeps.

Reader: I am a Jew because at every time when despair cries out, the Jew hopes.

All: I am a Jew because the word of Israel is the oldest and the newest. I am a
Jew because the promise of Israel is the universal promise. I am a Jew
because for Israel, the world is not yet completed; people are completing it.

Mourner's Kaddish

Reader: Life and death alike are mysteries. We journey through a country dimly seen by
the uncertain light of thought and feeling, and death is undiscovered territory, a
land without report. Yet as we now remember our loved ones who have died,
we look ahead with faith and hope. They have faded from sight but not from
Mind, where nothing good can perish. In the Light of Eternity all beauty shines
forever.
adapted, CCAR

Reader: The Kaddish is among the best known and most frequently recited Jewish
prayers. It is recited during the eleven months of mourning and on the
subsequent anniversaries of the death of a loved one.

The Kaddish was not originally intended as a prayer for mourners and does
not include a syllable about death. It seems altogether silent about those
thoughts that are likely to fill the mourner's mind and heart. And yet, the
Kaddish makes several vital affirmations, which relate directly to the
mourner. The Kaddish offers a reassurance of inner peace and serenity.
The Kaddish challenges mourners to contribute their energies to the making
of a better world. Reciting the Kaddish is a link with the past, a gracious way
to honor the dead and ennoble the living.

When We Remember Them

Reader: At the rising of the sun and at its going down
We remember them.

All: At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.

Reader: At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
We remember them.

All: At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth-of summer
We remember them.
30
Reader: At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn
We remember them.

All: At the beginning of the year and when it ends
We remember them.
For they are now a part of us, As we remember them.

Reader: When we are weary and in need of strength
We remember them.

All: When we are lost and sick at heart
We remember them.

Reader: When we have joy we crave to share
We remember them.

All: When we have decisions that are difficult to make
We remember them.

Reader: When we have achievements that are based on theirs
We remember them.

All: As long as we live, they too will live
Sylvia Kamens and Jack Reimer

Traditional Mourner's Kaddish

(:c_ ,n_v: 5 c:v5 .5_ n_cu u__p :__:
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31
Bechayaychone oovyomaychone uvchahyay dechole beyt yisrael
Baagalah oovizman kariv veimru amen.
All: Yehey shemey raba mevarach lealam oolalmey almaya.
veyitnasey veyithadar veyitahel veyithahlal
shemey dekudsha
All: bereech hu
Reader: leela leela meekol birchata veshirata tushbechata venechemata daamiran
bealma veimru amen. Yehay shlamah rahbah meen shmayyah vchaim
aleynu val kal Yisrael veimru amen.
All: Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleynu veal kol Yisrael veal kol
yoshvey tavale veimru amen.

Yigdal >_~x Great Is
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32
vu {_p :_nc o:
,_n 55 :_ n_n o_c
:n o_u _v __v (5

Yigdal Eloheem chai, vyeeshtabach, neemsa vane ate el mseeootoe
Echad vane yakeed cyeechoodoe nelam vgam ane sofe lachdootoe
Ane low dmoot hagoof vanoe goof lo nahreech alov kdooshatoe
Kadmone lchal davar asher neevrah reshone vane raysheet lraysheetoe
Heno adone olam vchol notsar yoreh gdoolatoe oomalchootoe
Shefay nvooahtoe ntahno el anshay sgoolahtoe vteefartoe
Lo kam byisrael kMosheh ode navee oomabeet et tmoonahtoe
Torat emet natan lamo ale al yad nveeoh nehehmoon bato
Lo Yachaleaf haale vlo yameer datoe lolamim lzoolatoe
Sehfah vyodayah stahraynu mabeet lsofe davar bkadmahtoe
Gomale leesh chesed kmeefahlo yetane lrashah rah kreeshahtoe
Yeeshlach lkatze yameen goolatoe leefdote mchakay katze yshoeahtoe
Chaim mchalkale ale brove chasdo baruch aday odd shame thilahtoe

Great is the living God, to whom we give our praise,
who is, and whose great being is timeless, without days,
the One, to whom in oneness no one can compare,
invisible, in unity unbounded, everywhere,
Who has no body's form, has no material dress,
nor can we find the likeness of God's awesome holiness,
more ancient than all things brought forth in creation,
the first of everything that is, Beginning unbegun!
Behold the Supreme Being, whose universal power,
whose greatness and whose rule all creatures shall declare,
whose flow of prophecy was granted to a few,
the treasured ones who stood amid God's splendor ever new.
In Israel none arose as prophet like Mosheh,
a prophet who would come to see the "image" in the sneh.
Torah of truth God gave the people Israel,
by truest prophet's hand that in God's house would dwell.
And God will never let the Torah pass away,
its doctrine will not change, but through all change will stay.
God sees and knows all things, and even what we hide,
can look upon how things begin the end of things to find.
Rewarding acts of love When love for love well find
And paying to all wickedness a recompense in kind
God shall deliver all, upon the end of time,
Redeeming all who wait for God, who for salvation pine.
God wakes all beings to life, abundant love shall reign,
Blessed evermore, The glory of Gods name.
33
All sing:

Come let us turn, return and be turned
to the One
n5u: (_:_ :5u__n
Hashiveynu Elecha vnashuva

The Promise of This Day

Look to this day,
For it is life,
The very life of life.
In its brief course lie all
The realities and verities of existence,
The bliss of growth,
The splendor of action,
The glory of power
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
Sanskrit Proverb
34

Kiddush

.)_o:_n e _5 ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Eloehenu melech haolam, boree pray hagafen.

Blessed is the Source of Life, the Fountain of Being by whose power fruit comes forth
from the vine.

Blessed is the Ineffable One of Being, who sustains and unites all life. Following the Way
of Torah, we have taken upon ourselves the task of redemption. Following the Way of
Torah we have taken upon ourselves the mitzvote that hallow all life. Following the Way
of Torah, we receive this (Shabbat and this) Yom Ha Zikaron, this Day of Remembrance
when we gather to hear our shofar and to awaken ourselves from slumber.

We have chosen Torah, we have consecrated ourselves to Truth, we have pledged our
lives to traditions that open the heart to Compassion and the mind to Reality. Blessed is
the Way of Torah that hallows (the Sabbath), the House of Israel and the Day of
Remembrance.

Reader: He doesn't know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out
He doesn't know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,

35
That the world is full of loveliness.
When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth's a flood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night,
Then I know how fine it is to live.

Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there
Then if the tears obscure your way,
You'll know how wonderful it is
To be alive.

This poem, written by a child in a concentration camp is one of the poems from the collection "I Never Saw
Another Butterfly."

c_n_ 5_: n5u n:u:

Lshanah tovah teekatayvu vtaychataymoo

May a good year be written and sealed for you!
36
25 Reconstructionist Statements

About Judaism and the Jewish People
1. Judaism is more than a religion; it is an entire civilization.
2. The heart of the Jewish civilization is its religion.
3. All civilizations evolve, including Judaism.
4. Every generation reconstructs Judaism for its own age.
5. We live in two civilizations, Jewish and American, which contribute to our
religious lives.
6. Being Jewish is more belonging than believing.
7. American civilization teaches us democracy, autonomy, egalitarianism and
pluralism.
8. The insights and values of Judaism should be brought to bear upon the social
issues confronting America.
9. The chosen people is a statement of vocation, not privilege.
10. Israel is historically the center of Jewish civilization.
11. Other centers of Jewish civilization can and should coexist with the Jewish state.

About God
12. God is the source that inspires all the good in the world.
13. God works through natural law and moral law.
14. God works through us, not upon us.
15. God is a universal force, but not all-pervading or all-powerful.
16. God dwells where we let God in.

About Torah and Halachah
17. The Torah is humanly written.
18. The Torah may, in part, be inspired by God.
19. God did not reveal the Torah, the Torah revealed God.
20. The past has a voice, not a veto.
21. We must struggle to hear the voice of our ancestors, but likewise we must
struggle to hear our own voice.
22. Jewish ritual connects us to the Jewish people: past, present and future.
23. There should exist a presumption in favor of tradition.
24. When Halachah and conscience conflict, a synthesis that relies on reason
informed by Jewish values should be sought.
25. Jewish prayer cannot change nature, but can give us a glimpse of our higher
selves.
Temple Beth Or (Miami, FL)
38
Reader: "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest
unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy
convocation."
Leviticus, Chap.23, Verse 24

Reader: This day of days has many names: We call it Rosh Hashanah

All: Beginning of the Year.

Reader: We call it Yom Hadin

All: Day of Judgment.

Reader: We call it Yom Hazikaron

All: Day of Remembrance.

Reader: Good days and bad, glad ones and sad-we remember them all. We
remember the wrongs we did, the promises we kept.

Now, as the new year begins, we promise to remember what we learned
in the old year; to remember and to do what the Torah has taught us:

All: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Reader: "What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else."

All: "Do what is right, love kindness; walk humbly with your God."

Reader: Many are the gifts of God.

All: This year we shall remember them.

Today we concern ourselves with teshuvah, turning:
Turning from ignorance to truth,
from darkness to light,
from evil to good,
from conceit to compassion,
from self to Life.
Turning is the key to survival.
The seasons, the planets, the galaxies
all maintain their existence through turning.
Our turning, too, is in the natural order of things,
holding the key to our survival by returning us to holiness.
Rami M. Shapiro

39

_n_e_n n5a Birchote Hashakar Morning Blessings

:__ .:_u (_::uc ,5p_v_ (_:n 5u n_c
:_:_n :_ n_n_u_ ,(_5 5 (_n 55
opc ,(_5 )vc 5_n .(_5 (up
n:5_ ,nv:_ n_n_u_ :__ .(_5: )_:uc
on:_ ,)s v , (: :o ,:__ .uv _:o:
.(_vu _c__5 :_:_v ,(__n 55

Ma toe-vu oha lecha yaahcove mishknotehchah yisrael. Vani brove kasdcha,
eshtahchahveh el haychol kadshcha byearahtehcha Adonay ahavtee mone
baytecha, umakome meeshkan kvodecha. Vani eshtahchahveh vechrahah evrcha
leafnay Adonay ohsee vani tfeelahtee lecha Adonay ate rahsone eloheem brove
chasdecha, ahneenee bemet yeeshehcha.

How lovely are your tents, O Ya'akov,
how fine your encampments, Yisrael!

And as for me, drawn by your love,
I come into your house.

I lay me down in a humble surrender,
before your holy shrine in awe.

GREAT ONE, how I love your house's site,
adore your Glory's dwelling place.

And as for me, I fall in prayer,
my body I bend down,

I greet, I bless, I bend the knee,
before THE ONE who fashions me.

And as for me, my prayer is for you,
GENTLE ONE, may it be for you a time of desire,

O God, in the abundance of your love,
respond to me in truth with your help.
40

.n nnu 5 _:_u ncu: ,_n:_

Elohi neshamah shehnahtahtah bee thorah hee.

God, the soul you have given me is pure.

,n:5 :_u_: )_: _u_ oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5
n:: )5 o )5 )n5_n:

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim ashare natan lahsechvee venah
lhavkeen bane yome uvane lielah.

Blessed are you, THE PROVIDENT, our God, life of all the worlds who gives the bird of
dawn discernment to tell day from night.

oc_n :_v {_n v_p oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim rokah haaretz ol hamayim.

Blessed are you, THE FASHIONER, our God, life of all the worlds who stretches forth
the Earth upon the waters.

ov _n_pe oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim pokayach eevreem.

Blessed are you, THE LAMP, our God, life of all the worlds, who makes the blind to see.

oc_v u5:_c oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim malbeesh ahroomeem.

Blessed are you, THE COMPASSIONATE, our God, life of all the worlds, who clothes
the naked.

o_ _c oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim mahtear ahsooreem.

Blessed are you, REDEEMING ONE, our God, life of all the worlds, who makes the
captive free.

41
ooo: _ps oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim zokafe kfoofeem.

Blessed are you, THE HELPING HAND, our God, life of all the worlds, who raises up
the humble.

_5: __vsc ):_c_n oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim hamaycheen meetzahday gahver.

Blessed are you, THE WAY, our God, life of all the worlds, who makes firm a person's
steps.

:s :: : nuv_u oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim shehahsah lee kole tzarkee.

Blessed are you, THE GENEROUS, our God, life of all the worlds, who acts for all my
needs.

n5:5 :_u _s oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim ohzare Yisrael beegvoorah.

Blessed are you, THE MIGHTY ONE, our God, life of all the worlds, who girds Israel
with strength.

no5 :_u _uv oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim ohtare Yisrael bteefahrah.

Blessed are you, THE BEAUTIFUL, our God, life of all the worlds, who crowns Israel
with splendor.

c:_s5 :_uv_u oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim shehahsanee btsalmo.

Blessed are you, THE IMAGELESS, our God, life of all the worlds, who made me in
your image.

42
)n _5/)_5 :_uv_u oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim shehahsani ben/bat choreen.

Blessed are you, THE FREE, our God, life of all the worlds, who made me free.

:_u :_uv_u oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim shehahsani Yisrael.

Blessed are you, THE ANCIENT ONE, our God, life of all the worlds, who made me of
the people Israel.

_n: v_: )_:_n oc:vn _n :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu chay haolamim hanotane lyahafe coach.

Blessed are you, RENEWING ONE, our God, life of all the worlds, who gives strength to
the weary.

Blessed are you, THE ARCHITECT, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, who shaped
the human being with wisdom, making for us all the openings and vessels of the body.
It is revealed and known before your Throne of Glory that if one of these passageways
be open when it should be closed, or blocked up when it should be free, one could not
stay alive or stand before you. Blessed are you, MIRACULOUS, the wondrous healer
of all flesh.

Think that the letters of prayer are the garments of God.
What a joy to be making a garment for the greatest of kings!
Enter into every letter with all your strength.
God dwells within each letter;
as you enter it, you become one with God.
Tzwa'at Riyash 13 a

The purpose of all prayer is to uplift the words,
to return them to their source above.
The world was created
by the downward flow of letters:
Our task is to form those letters into words
and take them back to God.
If you come to know this dual process,
your prayer may be joined
to the constant flow of Creation
word to word, voice to voice,
breath to breath, thought to thought.
43

The words fly upward and come before God.
As God turns to look at the ascending word,
life flows through all the worlds
and prayer receives its answer.
All this happens in an instant
and all this happens continually;
Time has no meaning in the sight of God.
The divine spring is ever-flowing;
make yourself into a channel
to receive the waters from above.
Likofim Yekarim 10a

See your prayer as arousing the letters
through which heaven and Earth
and all living things were created.
The letters are the life of all;
when you pray through them,
all Creation joins with you in prayer.
All that is around you can be uplifted;
even the song of a passing bird
may enter into such a prayer.
Darchei Tzedak 6b

Put all your strength into the words,
proceeding from letter to letter
with such concentration
that you lose awareness of your bodily self.
It will then seem that the letters themselves
are flowing into one another.
This uniting of the letters is one's greatest joy.
If joy is felt as two human bodies come together,
how much greater must be the joy
of this union in spirit!
Kefer Shem-Tov72b

44
When you focus all your thought
on the power of the words,
you may begin to see the sparks of light
that shine within them.
The sacred letters are the chambers
into which God pours His flowing light.
The lights within each letter, as they touch,
ignite one another,
and new lights are born.
It is of this the Psalmist says:
"Light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart."
Kefer Shem-Tov 47b

Do not think that the words of prayer
as you say them
go up to God.
It is not the words themselves that ascend;
it is rather the burning desire of your heart
that rises like smoke toward heaven.
If your prayer consists only of words and letters,
and does not contain your heart's desire
how can it rise up to God?
Or Ha Meir 3:16c

Know that each word of prayer is a complete self.
If all of your strength is not in it,
it is born incomplete,
like one lacking a limb.

Likutim Yekarim 2a

Reader: How good it is for brothers/sisters to dwell together: Together we greet a
new year; a new time; a new season. To everything there is a season ...
and, for the Jew, this is the season for examination and evaluation of
one's self, the season for inner searching. "Every Jew," wrote philosopher
Leo Baeck, "has been called to testify through his conduct of life, to show
the meaning of his religion. He must so live and act that all will see what
he is and what his faith is, what it can do to educate and elevate people..."

45
"Now is the Time for Turning"

Reader: To everything there is a season, and there is an appointed time for every
purpose under heaven.

All: Now is the time for turning.

Reader: The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red and orange.

All: The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more towards the
south.

Reader: The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter.

All: For leaves, birds, and animals,
turning comes instinctively.
But for us, turning does not come so easily.
It takes an act of will for us to make a turn.

Reader: It means remembering.
It means breaking old habits
It means admitting that we have been wrong: and this is never easy.
It means losing face: it means starting all over again; and this is always
painful.
It means saying, "I am sorry.

It means recognizing that we have the ability to change; and this is always
embarrassing.

All: These things are terribly hard to do.
But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever
in yesterday's ways.

Reader: Let us help each other turn
All: from callousness to sensitivity,
from hostility to love,
from pettiness to purpose,
from envy to contentment,
from carelessness to discipline,
from fear to faith.

Reader: Let us revive our lives, as we hoped it would be from the beginning.
Let us turn toward each other,
for in isolation there is no life.
Adapted from New Prayers for the High Holy Days and edited by Jack Reimer
46

It is good to give thanks
Why? Does God need our praise?
No.
We do.
To awaken to Wonder
To holiness
To God
It is good to give thanks
For through thanksgiving comes awakening.
Rami M. Shapiro

\v _vp5 n::_n ,up5 :_ ::_n ,n::_n
:: 5: n::_n ,5:5 n::_n
:: :_5_:5 n::_n ,ou v_p_5 n::_n
5:v o:c5 n::_n ,:nc 5 n::_n
nv :s:s5 n::_n ,v_cu :s:s5 n::_n
.n::_n n ::_n ncu:_n ::
.n::_n n ::_n ncu:_n ::

Halleluyah halelu el bekodsho. Halleluhu beerkeyah oozoe
Halleluhu beegvooroetov Halleluhu krove goudloe
Halleluhu betaykah shofar Halleluhu bnayvale vcheynoor
Halleluhu btofe oomahchole Halleluhu bmeanneem voogahv
Halleluhu btsealtsahlay shahmah Halleluhu btsealtsahlay trooah
Kole haneshamah thallel yah Halleluyah.
Kole haneshamah thallel yah Halleluyah.

47
Hallelu/Yah!
Call out to Yah in Heaven's holy place!
Boom out to Yah across the firmament!
Shout out for Yah, for all God's mighty deeds!
Cry out for Yah, as loud as God is great!
Blast out for Yah with piercing shofar note!
Pluck out for Yah with lute and violin!
Throb out for Yah with drum and writhing dance!
Sing out for Yah with strings and husky flute!
Ring out for Yah with cymbals that resound!
Clang out for Yah with cymbals that rebound!
Let every living thing Yah's praises sing, Hallelu/Yah!
Let every living thing Yah's praises sing, Hallelu/Yah!

The Art of Living
Reader: The art of living successfully consists of being able to hold two
opposite ideas in tension at the same time: First, to make long-term
plans as if we were going to live forever; and Second, to conduct
ourselves daily as if we were going to die tomorrow.

All: Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that
it shall never have a beginning.

Reader: Short is the little that remains to thee of life.
Live on as a mountain !

All: A long life may not be good enough but a good life is long enough.

Reader: We must make up for the threatened brevity of life by heightening the
intensity of life.

All: The waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have
not used, the selfish prudence which will risk nothing, and which, shirking
pain, misses happiness as well.

Reader: Every one of us is given the gift of life, and what a strange gift
it is. If it is preserved jealously and selfishly it impoverishes
and saddens, but if it is spent for others it enriches and
beautifies.

All: Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.

48
Reader: Life's greatest achievement is the continual remaking of yourself so that at
last you know how to live.

All: Life is action and passion. It is expected that people share in the action and
passion of their time under penalty of being judged not to have lived:

Reader: To live well we must haves a faith fit to live by, a self fit to live with, and a
work fit to live for.

All: Be such a person, and live such a life, that if everyone were such as you,
and every life a life like yours, this Earth would be God's Paradise

Reader: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? Yet if I am for myself alone, what
am I? And if not now, when?

All: Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I got hold of
for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before
turning it over to future generations.

Understand the words of Hillel as a guide for entry into the New Year:

"If I am not for myself, who is for me?" This may refer to tikun haneshamah/repair of
the soul. If I do not engage in the deeply personal work of inward turning (teshuvah),
no one else can do it for me.

And when I am only for myself, what am I?" This may refer to tikun ha'olam/repair of
the world. If each of us is only self-focused, then ultimately what are we? What makes
us human is our relationship to others; what make us human is our "response-ability"
our understanding of responsibility-to ourselves and to the world.

And if not now, when?" What better time than at the birth of a New Year to begin the
journey toward self-repair (tikun haneshamah) and world-repair (tikun haolam).
Leila Gal Berner

Reader: The season of Rosh Hashanah is a time to remember - Yom Ha Zikarone
- Day of Remembrance. Remembrance that is filled with nostalgia,
remembrance that is filled with warmth, remembrance that is filled with
pain. Rosh Hashanah is a time to remember.

49
The congregation rises and faces the ark. It is customary to bow. The reader chants the first
line, and the congregation responds with the second.

(5c_n _ :5

Barchu et Adonay hamvorach.

Blessed is THE INFINITE, the blessed One!
_v o:v: (5c_n (5

Baruch Adonay Hamvorach lolam vaed.

Blessed is THE INFINITE, the blessed One, now and forever!

White butterflies, with single
black fingerpaint eyes on their wings
dart and settle, eddy and mate
over the green tangle of vines
in Labor Day morning steam.

The year grinds into ripeness
and rot, grapes darkening,
pears yellowing, the first
Virginia creeper twining crimson,
the grasses, dry straw to burn.

The New Year rises, beckoning
across the umbrellas on the sand.
I begin to reconsider my life.
What is the yield of my impatience?
What is the fruit of my resolve?
I turn from frantic white dance
over the jungle of productivity
and slowly a niggun slides
cold water down my throat.
I rest on a leaf spotted red.

50
Now is the time to let the mind
search backwards like the raven
loosed to see what can feed us. Now,
the time to cast the mind forward
to chart an aerial map of the months.
The New Year is a great door
that stands across the evening and
Yom Kippur is the second door.
Between them are song and silence,
stone and clay pot to be filled from within myself.

I will find there both ripeness and rot,
What I have done and undone,
What I must let go with the waning days
and what I must take in.
With the last tomatoes,
we harvest the fruit of our lives.

Marge Piercy

n5_ n5_n_ Ahavah Rabah Great Love

n:: n:c_n ,:_n:_ ,:5_n_ n5_ n5_n_
,(5 nu5_u :_5_ 5_v_5 ,:::_c :5 .::v :_cn n_
,)c_n_n 5n ,:5 .:_c_: :_:n ): ,o_n _pn o_c_:_
,_vcu: ,::u_n: )5n: :5:5 )_ ,::v o_n_ ,o_n_c_n
c:_ _5 :: _ o__p: u_v_: cu: ,_c_:: c::
.n5_n_5 (_

Ahavah rabah ahavtanu Adonay Elohenu chemlah gdoolah veetayrah chamaltah
aleynu. Avenu malkanu bavoor avotaynu shehbotchu vchah votlomdame chukay
chaim kane tchanaynu ootlomdaynu avenu haav harachahmon homrahchame,
rahchame aleynu vtane bleebanu lhahveen oolhoskeel leeshmoah leelmode
oollahmade leeshmore vlahahsote oolkayame et kole deevray tolmood
torahtehchah bahavah.

With an abounding love, you love us, NURTURER, our God; with great compassion do
you care for us. Our source, our sovereign, just as our ancestors placed their trust in
you, and you imparted to them laws of life, so be gracious to us, too, and teach us. Our
fount, our loving parent, caring one, be merciful with us, and place into our hearts ability
to understand, to see, to hear, to learn, to teach, to keep, to do, and to uphold with love
all that we study of your Torah.
51

:55: _n_ ,(_sc5 :5: p5_ ,(_5 :_:v _n
_v o:v: u5_: : ,(_cu _ n: n5_n_:
(_vu5 nncu: n::: ,:nu5 :_n ::_n (up o_u5 :
,:s_: ccp ::: ,{_n o:_: v_5__c o:u: :_5_n_
_c_5 n:__ ::_n (cu: :5__p ,n vu :ve :_ :
:_u c_v 5_n n_ (5 .n5_n_5 (_n_: (: n:

Vhahare aynaynu btorahtehcha vdahbake leebanu bmeetzvotehcha vyahchade
lvahvaynu lahavah oolyearah et shmehchah vlow nayvoshe lolam vahed, Kee
vshame kodshehka hagahdole vhahnorah bahtochnu nahgeelah vneesmachah
beeshoeahtehcha Viehiveeanu lshalom mayarbah konfote haaretz
vtoeleechaynu komemeeyoot lartsanu kee ale poeale yshoeote atah vkyarovtanu
lsheemchah hagahdole selah bemet. Lhodote lkah oolyahchedcha bahavah.
Baruch atah Adonay ohave amo Yisrael.

Enlighten us with your Torah; cause our hearts to cling to your mitzvote. Make our
hearts one, to love your name and be in awe of it. Keep us from shame today and
always, for we have trusted in your holy, great and awesome name. May we be glad,
rejoicing in your saving power, and may you reunite our people from all corners of the
Earth, leading us proudly independent to our land. For you are the redeeming God and
have brought us near to your great name, to offer thanks to you, and lovingly declare
your unity. Blessed are you, ABUNDANT ONE, who lovingly cares for your people
Israel.

Nature is God's niggun,
a wordless melody of unfolding Life.
To awaken to God we must hear the niggun.
To awaken to God we must listen in deep silence.
Silence arises when thinking ceases.
If we would know God
we must quiet the mind,
cease the chatter that passes for knowledge
when in fact it only flatters the foolish.
We cannot live without words
but let us not imagine that words are sufficient.
As a symphony needs rest to lift music out of noise,
so we need Silence to lift Truth out of words.
Rami M. Shapiro

52
Story

One of the Just Men came to Sodom, determined to save its inhabitants from sin and
punishment. Night and day he walked the streets and markets preaching against greed
and theft, falsehood and indifference. In the beginning, people listened and smiled
ironically. Then they stopped listening; he no longer even amused them. The killers
went on killing; the wise kept silent as if there were no Just Man in their midst.

One day a child, moved by compassion for the unfortunate preacher,
approached him with these words: "Poor stranger. You shout, you expend
yourself body and soul; don't you see that it is hopeless?"

"Yes. I see." answered the Just Man.

"Then why do you go on?"

"I'll tell you why. In the beginning, I thought I could change humankind. Today. I
know I cannot. If I still shout today, if I still scream, it is to prevent humankind
from ultimately changing me."
Elie Wiesel

Reader: Rosh Hashanah is a time for many things. It is a time to reaffirm
the unity of the Jewish people; to re-assert that though we are
scattered throughout the world, we feel each other's joy, and we
feel each other's pain; for we remain one people.

All: As we search the past, we find strength in our common
bonds. As we face the future we hear the affirmation of unity
in our ancient creed.

v_cu Shema

n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu

Shema yisrael Adonay Eloheynu Adonay echad.

._v o:v: ::_c 5: o_u (5

Barook shame kevode malchuto leolam vaed.

53
.(_c-::5 ,(uo_:-::5 ,(55:-::5 ,(_n:_ _ 5_n
(_55:-:_v ,o_n (_sc :: _u_ ,n_:_n o5_n n
(___5 (:_:5 ,(_55 (5u5 o5 _5 ,(:5: o:_:u
ouu: n ,(_-:_v : o_up .(_cp5 ,(5:u5
(_vu5 (_5 ssc :_v o5_: ,(:v )5

Veahavta et Adonay Elohecha bechole levovcha uvechole nafshecha uvechole
meodecha. Vehayu hadevarim haeleh asher anochi metzavecha hayome al
levahvehcha. Vishinamtam levanecha vedibarta bam beshivtecha beveytecha
evelechtecha vaderech uveshochbecha oovkumecha. Ookeshartam leot al yadecha
vehayu letotafote beyn eynehcha oochtavtam al mezuzot beytecha uvisharecha.

Listen Israel: THE ETERNAL is our GOD,
THE ETERNAL ONE alone!


You shall love Adonay your God, with all your passions, with every fiber of your being,
and with all that you

possess. Let these words by which I join Myself to you today
enter your heart. Pattern your days on them, that your children may discover Torah
within you. Make your life into a voice of God, both in your stillness and in your
movement. Renew these words each morning and each evening in devotion. Bind
them in tefillin on your arm and head as symbols of acts and thoughts consecrated to
Me. Write them on parchments at the entrance to your home, as a sign that all people
may discover Me as they enter your home and your life.
Burt Jacobson (adapted)

o_n:_ _c :_u _:5-:_ 5_ c: n_uc-:_ _c_
ss-:_v :: ,o: o_n_:5 o:_:-:_v ss o_n: uv
o__:s o_ ,ss: o_:: nn ._:: :e ::_n
o_:5_5: __n_ : ,o o_u_v_ , sc-::-_
:s )_v_c: o_n__n_ o:s o__-_u_ ,o_:_:v __n_
:_ o_:_n:: oup o_n ,sc-::-_ o_u_v_
o_:: n: ,o_sc {___c o_:_ sn _u_ ,o_:_n:_
_c_ o_:_n:_ :_ ,on::

Vyomare Adonay el Moshe lamore. Dahbare el bnai Yisrael vamartah ahlayhem
vasoo lahhem tzitzit ol kahnfay veegdayhem ldorotom vnotnu ol tzitzit hakanaf
pteel tchalet. Vhayah lachem ltzitzit, ooreetem ohtoe oozchartem et chole
54
meetzvote Adonay vahahseetem ohtam vlow tahtooroo ahkahray lvahvkem v
ahchahray aynaychem ashare atem zoneem acharayhem. Lmaan teezkroo
vahseetem et kole meetzvotie, veeyeetem kdosheem laleloohaychem. Ani Adonay
Elohaychem ashare hoseetee etchem mayeretz meetzrayim leeyote lahchem
layloheem, ani Adonay Elohaychem. Emet.

THE BOUNDLESS ONE told Moses: Speak to the Israelites-tell them to make
themselves tzitzit upon the corners of their clothes, throughout their generations. Have
them place upon the corner tzitzit a twine of royal blue. This is your tzitzit. Look at it and
remember all the mitzvote of the ETERNAL. ONE. And do them, so you won't go off
after the lusts of your heart or after what catches your eye, so that you remember to do
all my mitzvote and be holy for your God. I am THE FAITHFUL ONE, your God, who
brought you from Mitzrayim to be for you a God. I am THE INFINITE, your God. In
truth.

Reader: Throughout the ages the strength of Israel has come from the strength
of the people that make up "Eretz Yisrael." Jews have found their
heritage and their future within themselves. To know ourselves is
therefore a communion with Judaism, past and future.

All: We are here a congregation of Israel. In this moment of a New Year we
seek to become one in fellowship - a people joined in pursuit of values
and truth. Together let us find our ways.

Kavanna Before Mi Kamocha

As a midwife, Holy One, You birthed us in the waters of the Sea,
As a mother, You pushed us
through the "narrow places,"
the mitzrayim of our own terror.
As a father, You held our hand
as we took our first tentative steps
toward freedom.

Holy One, we stand once more at the edge of the Sea.
After the tragedy and the outrage
of these terrible weeks and months.
when innocents have fallen
and innocence is shattered,
the waters are red once again with blood,
like the Nile when a plague befell the House of Egypt.

55
Once again,
as history turns in its inexorable cycle,
we must learn to banish
the plague that hovers darkly over
a home Land of two peoples dreams,
we must learn to dispel the darkness
that hovers over the whole world.

As we sing our song of celebration recalling
our people's liberation so long ago,
help us, Holy One,
to liberate ourselves once more
from hatred, from zealotry,
from sinat chinam
wanton violence and fanaticism.

As a midwife, O God,
birth us through the waters of this bloody sea.

As a mother, Source of Life, push us once more
through the narrow places,
the mitzrayim of our own dangerous disunity.

As a father, Holy One,
hold our hand as we walk the terrifying
and life-affirming
path of peace.
Leila Gal Berner

,:n : ,u_p_5 : n:c: c , o:_5 n:c: c
_:_o n_uv
,o_n _ou :_v (cu: o:: n5u nu_n nu
c ::cn n o:: _n_
_v o:v: (:c
(_c:: n_o ,:_u _s_v5 ncp ,:_u s
.:_u up ,cu 5s ::_: .:_u nn
:_u :_: n_ (5

Me chamochah baelim Adonay. Me chamochah nedor bakodesh, Nora tehilot osey
feleh. Shira chadashah sheebkoo gooleem lsheemcha ol safat hayam, yachad
56
koolam hoedoo vheemleechu vamru: Adonay yimloche leolam vaed. Tzoor Yisrael,
koomah bezrot Yisrael, oofday cheenoomehchah yhoodah vyisrael. Goaleynu
Adonay tzvaote shmo. Kdoshe Yisrael. Baruch atah Adonay gaal yisrael.

"Who among the mighty can compare to you, ETERNAL ONE?
Who can compare to you, adorned in holiness, awesome in praises, acting wondrously!"

A new song did the redeemed ones sing out to your name, beside the Sea. Together,
all of them gave thanks, declared your sovereignty, and said: "THE HOLY ONE will
reign forever!"

Rock of Israel, rise up to the help of Israel, redeem, according to your word, Judah and
Israel. Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, the champion of Israel.

Reader: To see the Earth, as it truly is
,
small and blue and beautiful in that eternal
silence where it floats
,
is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together
on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold. Family who know now that
they are truly family.
Archibald MacLeish

n~b_v Amidah

The Amidah is traditionally recited while standing, beginning with three short steps forward and
bowing left and right, a reminder of our entry into the divine presence. There are three
alternatives: the traditional Reconstructionist beginning below through page 61, English
alternative readings on pages 62-66, or your own silent meditation.

(_:n :_ o no _ou :_

Adonay sfatee teeftahch oo fee yageed tehilahtehcha.


1. Avot Veimot Ancestors c 5_

:_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu valohay avotenu vemoetaynu.


57

And God of Leah;

,o5u o_n :_c: ,):_v :_ ,:_n 5:_n ::_n :_n
n:: 5_c ,c 5 __n :s ,::_n n_:p
n5_n_5 cu )_v_c: o__n_:5 _:5:
(:_v_c: ,o_n_n _o_5 :5: ,o_n_5 {on (_:_c ,o_n: :_:s
.o_n on:_
on5_ )_:c , n_ (5 )_:c _vuc _sv (_:_c
nu _s_v

hakole, vzochare chasday avot vemote, oomayvee goolah leevnay vnayhem
lmaan shmo bahavah. Zochraynu lchaim, melech chafatze bchaim, ookatvanu
bsayfare hachaim lmahahnehkah Eloheem chaim. Melech ozare oomosheah
oomahgane Baruch atah Adonay magane Avrahom vehzraht Sarah.


for your sake, ever-living God. Regal One, our help, salvation and protector:
Blessed are you, KIND ONE the shield of Abraham and help of Sarah.

58

_vun: 5_ ,n_ o_c n__nc ,:_ o:v: 5: n_
oc_n_5 n :: n__nc ,__n5 o_n :::_:c :u_n 'c
o__pc ,o_ _c ,o:n o ,o:o: (_c ,o5_
,(: n_c c 5: :_v_5 (c: c ,ov _:_u: :c_
_nvu ncs_c n_nc c_c (_:_c
oc_n_5 o_n: s :s ,oc_n_n 5_ (c: c
n_ (5 n :: _n_n: n_ )c_:
n :: n__nc

You are forever powerful, ALMIGHTY ONE, abundant in your saving acts. You send
down the dew. In loyalty you sustain the living, nurturing the life of every living thing,
upholding those who fall, healing the sick, freeing the captive and remaining faithful to
all life held dormant in the earth. Who can compare to you, almighty God, who can
resemble you, the source of life and death who makes salvation grow? Who can
compare to you, source of all mercy, remembering all creatures mercifully, decreeing
life! Faithful are you in giving life to every living thing. Blessed are you, THE FOUNT
OF LIFE, who gives and renews life.


n:_c ,(::_n o ::5 oup up (cu up n_



:5__p ,(_sc5 :u_p :5 s :5_n_ n_
p ::v up_n ::_n (cu ,(_5_v_: :::_c

You have loved us, and have taken pleasure in us, and have made us holy with your
mitzvote, and you have brought us, sovereign one, near to your service, and have
called us to the shelter of your great and holy name.

59
On Shabbat, add the words in parenthesis.

:_u_p (:_n:c5 ns) :_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_
:_nc_u (_5uc :v5_u ,(_5 :_p:_n )_ (_sc5
_5_u )s5 n5_n_5 ,:_n:_ ,::n:_n) (_vu5
:5: _n_u ((_cu _u_pc :_u n5 n: ,(_up
(5 ,_c_ on:_ n_ : ,_c__5 (5v:
,{_n :: :_v (_:_c , ,n_ (5 ._v: o_p _c_
):\_n o :_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc

Our God, Our ancients God (take pleasure in our rest) enable us to realize holiness
through your mitzvote, give us our portion in your Torah, let us enjoy the good things of
your world, and gladden us with your salvation. (And help us to perpetuate, ETERNAL
ONE, our God, with love and with desire, your holy Shabbat, and may all your people
Israel, all who treat your name as holy, find rest and peace upon this day.) Refine our
hearts to serve you truthfully, for you are a God of truth, and your word is truthful and
endures forever. Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, the sovereign power over all the
Earth, who raises up to holiness (Shabbat,) the people Israel and the Day of
Remembrance.


n5_n_5 o:o 5_n_: :_u (c_v5 ,:_n:_ ,ns
(_c_v :_u _5_v c )s: n ,)s5 :5_p
s_n_c_n , n_ (5 oc_n_5 )s: (5u5 :_:v n:s_n_
)s: ::u

Take pleasure, GRACIOUS ONE, our God, in Israel your people; lovingly accept their
fervent prayer. May Israels worship always be acceptable to you.

And may our eyes behold your forthcoming, with merciful intent, to Zion; Blessed are
you, THE FAITHFUL ONE, who brings your presence home to Zion.

60

,:_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ ,n n_u ,(: :n_:_ oc
n n_ ,:vu )_:c ,:__n s ,_v o:v: :_c
oc_n :__n :_v (_:n e_: (: n_: :
o ::5_u (_c: :_v (: pe_n :_cu: :_v (_5
_p5 5__v v ::5_u (_5u (_:o: :_v :cv
c_ : : o_n_c_n (_c_n_ :: : : 5u_n ons
(: :p o:v_c (__n

_v o:v: c :::_c (cu o_c (_5 o:: :_v
(_5 _:5 :: o5u o_n: 5:

:_n _c__5 (cu _ ::_n n:_c ( o_n_n ::
n_: (: (cu 5u_n n_ (5 n:_ :_s_v :_vu
n:

ancestors, today and always. A firm enduring source of life, a shield to us in time of
trial, you are ever there, from age to age. We acknowledge you, declare your praise,
and thank you for our lives entrusted to your hand, our souls placed in your care, for
your miracles that greet us every day, and for your wonders and the good things that
are with us every hour, morning, noon and night. GOOD ONE, whose kindness never
stops, KIND ONE, whose loving acts have never failed always have we placed hope
in you.

For all these things, your name be blessed and raised in honor always, sovereign of
ours, forever. And write down for a good life all the people of your covenant.

Let all of life acknowledge you! May all beings praise your name in truth. O God, our
rescue and our aid. Blessed are you, THE GRACIOUS ONE, whose name is good, to
whom all thanks are due.

61

:: :_v ::v ,oc_n_ __n )_n ,n:5 n5u o:u ou
5 : (:e 5 n_: ::: ,:5 ,::5 (_c_v :_u
nps ,__n _5_n_ o_n _ ,:_n:_ ,:: _: (:e
(c_v _ (_5: (:v5 5u o:u o_n oc_n_ n:5
o:u sv-55 oc_vn-::-_ :_u

5_:: :\: ,n5u n:_o o:u n:5 ,o_n _o_5
o:u: o5u o_n: ,:_u 5 (c_v :: :n_:_ ,(:o:
o:u_n n_uv , n_ (5

Seem shalom tovah oovracha, chane vchesed vrachameem.

Bsayfare chaim, brahcha vshalom ooparnahsah tovah nzahchare vneekatave
lfanehcha. Anachnu vchole amcha bate Yisrael lchaim toveem ulashalome. Baruch
atah Adonay oseh hashalome.

Grant peace, goodness and blessing in the world, grace, love, and mercy over us and
over all your people Israel. Bless us, SOURCE OF BEING, all of us, as one amid your
light, for by your light,

WISE ONE, our God, you give to us Torah of life, and love of kindness, justice,
blessing, mercy, life, and peace. So may it be a good thing in your eyes, to bless your
people Israel, and all peoples, with abundant strength and peace.

In the book of life, blessing, and peace, and proper sustenance may we be remembered
and inscribed, we and all your people, the house of Israel, for a good life and for peace.


62
Meditations/Amidah Alternatives

Psalm of Repentance

Oh Yah, my Creator, my Protector, my Judge

As the potter who slowly turns the wheel,
shapes, fashions the perfect vessel,
Help me to smooth over my wrinkles,
to fill my cracks with your Lovingkindness.

As the gardener who cultivates and tends
to each of her seedlings
Help me to cast off my weeds,
to produce a crop worthy of Your world.

As the composer who arranges the notes of a lyric sonata,
makes a lilting melody to sing with the seraphim
Help me to listen for my dissonance,
to make my music harmonize with Yours.

As the mother who gently caresses her child,
pulls him close to her bosom,
Help me to seek Teshuvah,
to feel worthy of Your steadfast love.
Ann Metlay

And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with a joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
James Agee

63
Don't let me fall
Like a stone that drops on the hard ground,
And don't let my hands become dry
As the twigs of a tree
When the wind beats down the last leaves.
And when the storm rips dust from the Earth
Angry and howling,
Don't let me become the last fly
Trembling terrified on a windowpane.
Don't let me fall.
I have so much prayer,
But as a blade of your grass in a distant, wild field
Looses a seed in the lap of the earth
And dies away,
Sow in me your living breath,
As you sow a seed in the earth.
Kadya Molodowsky

Sin involves a disturbance in the relation between us and God, and atonement implies
the poise, solace and encouragement that come with the restoration to a better
relationship. From the point of view of ethical religion, the same remains true. If we
identify God with that aspect of reality which confers meaning and value on life and
elicits from us those ideals that determine the course of human progress, then the
failure to live up to the best that is in us means that our souls are not attuned to the
divine and we have betrayed God.
Mordecai M. Kaplan

Awe is an intuition for the creaturely dignity of all things and their preciousness to God;
a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for
something absolute. Awe is a sense for the transcendent, for the reference everywhere
to God, who is beyond all things. Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of
the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the
ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing stillness of the
eternal.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

On this day, let us be like Moses, heavy of tongue, who had to struggle over each
sound. On this day when we shall say more words than on any other day in the year, we
strive to find one sentence, phrase, word, or letter that will begin here on Earth and
reach to the heavens.
Michael Strassfeld

64
T'eshuvah/turning need not be a dramatically large change to be significant. A subtle
shift now, of even just a fraction of a degree out of 360, can take one on a vastly
different path over the course of lifes trajectory.
Betsy Platkin Teutsch

A Sanctuary for the Soul

Prayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then. It is
rather like an established residence for the innermost self. All things have a home, the
bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul
without a home. Weary, sobbing, the soul, after roaming through a world festered with
aimlessness, falsehoods and absurdities, seeks a moment in which to gather up its
scattered life, in which to divest itself of enforced pretensions and camouflage, in which
to simplify complexities, in which to call for help without being a coward. Such a home
is prayer. Continuity, permanence, intimacy, authenticity, earnestness are its attributes.
For the soul, home is where prayer is.

In his cottage, even the poorest person may bid defiance to misery and malice. That
cottage may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it, the storms may
enter it, but there is where the soul expects to be understood. Just as the body, so is
the soul in need of a home.

Everybody must build their own home; everybody must guard the independence and
privacy of their prayers. It is the source of security for the integrity of conscience, for
whatever inkling we have of eternity. At home I have a Parent who judges and cares,
who has regard for people, and when I fail and go astray, misses me. I will never give
up my home.

What is a soul without prayer? A soul runaway or a soul evicted from its own home. To
those who have abandoned their home; the road may be hard and dark and far, yet do
not be afraid to steer back. If you prize grace and eternal meaning, you will discover
them upon arrival.

How marvelous is my home. I enter as a suppliant and emerge as a witness; I enter as
a stranger and emerge as next of kin. I may enter spiritually shapeless, inwardly
disfigured, and emerge wholly changed. It is in moments of prayer that my image is
forged, that my striving is fashioned. To understand the world I must love my home. It
is difficult to perceive luminosity anywhere if there is no light in my own home. It is in
the light of prayers radiance that I find my way even in the dark. It is prayer that
illumines my way. As my prayers, so is my understanding.

65
It is easier sometimes
To say "I'm sorry" to a friend,
A parent, a child,
Than to accept "I'm sorry" from them.
If they've hurt me
Can "I'm sorry" erase the pain?
If they've trifled with me
Is "I'm sorry" enough
To restore my well-being?
If I accept "I'm sorry" too easily
Will I appear over-eager for their approval?
It's often easier to ask forgiveness
Than to forgive.

Yet what do I mean when I say "I'm sorry"?
Is it merely a way to smooth an awkward moment,
To relieve my own anxieties with a formal phrase?
Perhaps I say my own "I'm sorrys too easily
And so suspect that others do the same.
If I become more committed to my own "I'm sorry"s
I might more readily believe
That others are committed to theirs.

But sometimes I withhold forgiveness
As a means of punishment,
Exercising power over a friend,
Taking revenge by nursing my hurt inside.
But by withholding "I forgive you,"
I really withhold myself from the very people
Whose caring could alleviate my pain.
For how can other people really hurt me
Or shoot holes in my well-being?
I may not be prepared for their remarks,
I may suddenly feel that my friend is not so good a friend,
But let me ask myself:
What leads me to cause another's hurt?
Do I mean to?

Not too often.
Usually I speak a hurtful word out of my own uncertainty,
When I feel threatened or belittled.
I really intend not to wound another
But to shore up my own defenses.
It's fair to assume that others utter hurts the same way.
Perhaps if I listened to the person behind the remark,
Asked why my friend needed to belittle me just then
66
I might be able to ease my friend's pain
At the same time as I protect my own well-being.

To forgive readily
Not only helps another
It helps me feel whole as well.
On The Wings of Awe

After we have recited what is written we often have the feeling that in our hearts there
linger some precious sentiments to which we have given no expression. These are
our own personal yearnings, our most intimate places. At such a time we pray without
words, as we do now in this moment.

Interpretive Version: Unetaneh Tokef Now, We Declare...

When we really begin a new year it is decided,
And when we actually repent, it is determined;

Who shall be truly alive, and who shall merely exist;
Who shall be happy, and who miserable;

Who shall be tormented by the fire of ambition,
And whose hopes shall be quenched by the waters of failure;

Who shall be pierced by the sharp sword of envy,
And who shall be torn by the wild beast of resentment;

Who shall hunger for companionship,
And who shall thirst for approval;

Who shall be shattered by storms of change,
And who shall be plagued by the pressures of conformity;

Who shall be strangled by insecurity,
And who shall be beaten into submission;

Who shall be content with their lot,
And who shall wander in search of satisfaction;

Who shall be serene,
And who shall be distraught;

Who shall be at ease,
And who shall be afflicted with anxiety;

67
Who shall be poor in their own eyes,
And who shall be rich in tranquility.

But teshuvah, tefilah and tzedakah
Have the power to change the character of our lives.

May we resolve, then, to turn from our accustomed ways
And to behave righteously
So that we may truly begin a new year.
Stanley Rabinowitz (Adapted)

And who waiting for a bus?
And who sipping coffee at a caf?
And who at a bar mitzvah, a seder, a holy day?
And who at a checkpoint?
And who mistaken for someone else?
And who next to the someone mistaken for someone else?

And who with a broken limb? And who with a broken heart?
And who will be filled with fear?
And who will be filled with hate?
And who will lose hope and who will regain it?
And who will gain faith and who will lose it?
And who will collapse in tears?
And who will explode in rage?
And who will remain silent?

And who will begin to talk?
And who will begin to listen?
And we learn
Teshuvah, tefillah and tzadakah
Turning, prayer and acts of justice will make a difference.

Will make a difference.
Sheila P. Weinberg

)c_n_ o: os o5 )5_: n:u_n u5

Broshe Hashanah yeekatayvoon oovyome tsome keepore yaychahtaymoon

On Rosh Hashanah, all is written and revealed, and on Yom Kippur, the course of every
life is sealed!

68
()s n ):) .(_cu (:_5
()s n ):) .;:n (_:_ :e _
()s n ):) .o:u (: o_u (_:_ :e u

Yvarehchachah Adonay vyeeshmarehcha. (Kane yehi ratzone)
Yaare Adonay pahnov alechah veekoonehka. (Kane yehi ratzone)
Yeesah Adonay panov alechah vyasame lechah shalom. (Kane yehi ratzone)

Our God, our ancients' God, bless us with the threefold blessing spoken from the mouth
of Aaron and his sons, as it is said:

May THE ETERNAL bless you and protect you.
Let it be Gods will.

May THE ETERNAL'S face give light to you, and show you favor.

May THE ETERNAL'S face be lifted toward you, and bestow upon you peace.

The Torah Service

:: ::_c (::_c (_u_v_c: )_ , ,on:_5 (c: )_
(:c ,(:c ,(_:_c ::5 (:_uc_c ,oc:v
o:u_5 c_v _ (_5 )_ c_v: sv _v o:v:

cn n:5 ,)s _ (:s5 n5u_n ,oc_n_n 5_
oc:v )_ ,u: o :_ (_:_c ,:nu5 _5: (5 : o:u

Ane Kahmocha balim Adonay vane kmaasehcha. Molchutehcha malchoot kole
olamim oomemshalthechah bchole dore vdore. Adonay melech, Adonay malach,
Adonay yeemloche lolam vaed. Adonay oze lamo yeetane Adonay yvarache et amo
vshalom.

Av Harachameem hayteevah veersonekah et tzion teevneh komote yerushalayim. Kee
vchay lvod bahtochnu melech ale rom vneesah adone olamim.

There is none like you among the powerful,
ETERNAL ONE, and there are no deeds like your deeds.
Your realm embraces all the worlds; your reign encompasses all generations.
69
THE ETERNAL ONE reigns!
THE ETERNAL ONE has always reigned!
THE ETERNAL ONE shall reign beyond all time.
THE ETERNAL ONE gives strength to our people.
May THE ETERNAL ONE bless our people with enduring peace.
Source of all mercy, deal kindly and in good will with Zion. Rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem,
For in you alone we place our trust, God, sovereign, high and revered, the life of all the
worlds.

The ark is opened

: ,(_5 so , ncp n_uc _c_ )n _v:5 n_
o:uc _5 n s_ )sc : (:ec (_:_uc
up5 :_u c_v: n )_:_u (5

Vayhi beensoeah haarone vayomare Moshe: Koomah Adonay vayaahfootzoo
oyveycha vyahnootzoo meesahnehcha meepanehcha: Kee meetzion tatsay torah
oodvar Adonay meerooshalieeem. Baruch shehnahtahn torah lamo Yisrael
beekdooshahtoe.

And it happened, when the Ark began its journey, that Moses said: Arise, ASCENDANT
ONE, and may your enemies be scattered, May the ones who oppose you be afraid of
your might! Behold, out of Zion emerges our Torah, and the word of THE WISE ONE
from Jerusalem's heights. Blessed is God who has given us Torah, to Israel, our
people, with holy intent.

__n 5_ ,o_e_ (__ ,):_n on_ :_ , ,
n_p_: ,nu_n v_u_o )v _u: ,oo:_: __n s: _c_

Adonay, Adonay el rahchoom vchahnoon ehrech ahpahyeem vrav chesed vemet.
Notzare chesed lahahlahfeem nosay ahvoen vfehshah vchahtahah vnahkay.

ADONAY ADONAY, God loving and gracious, patient, and abundant in kindness and
truth, keeping kindness for a thousand ages, forgiving sin and rebellion and
transgression, making pure!

n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu

Shema Yisrael Adonay Eloheynu Adonay echad.

Listen, Israel: THE ETERNAL is our God, THE ETERNAL is one!
70

.cu : up ,:_:_ :: ,:_n:_ n_

Ehchad Elohenu gadole adonaynu kadoshe vnorah shemo.

One is our God, great is our sovereign, holy and awesome is God's name.

The leader faces the ark, bows and says:
.n_ cu ncc: , _: :_:

Gadlu lahAdonay eetee oonromemah shmo yachdov.

Declare with me the greatness of THE INFINITE, together let us raise God's name.

The leader carries the Torah around the room as the leader and congregation sing:

o_cu_5 :: : ,n_n n_s_:_n __o_n n5:_n n::_n (:
cc u: ::: _u_:c_n n::c_c_n (: {_5
,:_n:_ cc n up ::_ o_n_: _n_un :_n:_
:_n:_ up : ,up _n: _n_un

Lecha Adonay hagdoolah vhahgvoorah vhateefehret vhanaytzahch vhahode.
Kee chole bahshahmahyeem oovaahretz. Lecha Adonay hamamlahchah
vahmeetnahsay lchole lroshe. Rommu Adonay Elohenu vheeshtahchahvu
lahhahdote roglov kadoshe hoo. Rommu Adonay Elohenu vheeshtahchahvu lhar
codsho kee kadoshe Adonay Elohenu.

To you, ETERNAL ONE, is all majesty, and might, and splendor, and eternity, and
power! For everything that is, in the heavens and the Earth, is yours, ALMIGHTY ONE,
as is all sovereignty, and highest eminence above all beings. Exalt THE MIGHTY ONE
our God, bow down before God's footstool. God is holy! Exalt the name of THE
INEFFABLE, bow down before God's holy mount, for holy is THE AWESOME ONE, our
God!

Bi rkot Hatorah Torah Bl essi ngs n_n :5

Those who receive an aliyah to the Torah say the following blessings:

(5c_n _ :5

Blessed THE INFINITE, the blessed One!
71

All:

_v o:v: (5c_n (5

Baruch Adonay Hamvorach lolam va-ed!


The response of the congregation is repeated, and the blessing continues as follows:

5_v_: :5_p _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
n_n )_: , n_ (5 _ :: )_:

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu melech haolam ashare karevahnu lahahvoedahtoe
vnatan lanu et torahtoe. Baruch atah Adonay notane hatorah.

Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, who has
drawn us to your service, and has given us your Torah. Blessed are you, ETERNAL
ONE, who gives the Torah.

After the section of the Torah is read, the following blessing is recited:

,_c_ _ :: )_: _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
n_n )_: , n_ (5 ::5 v_u: o:v __n

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu melech haholam ashare natan lanu toraht emet
vchahyay olam natah btochanu. Baruch atah Adonay notane hatorah.

Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, who has given
us a Torah of truth, and planted in our midst eternal life. Blessed are you, ETERNAL

First Aliyah

n nn {_n {_n _ o_cu_n _ on:_ 5 u_5
oc_n _:o-:_v _o_n_c on:_ _n on _:o-:_v (un n5
5u-: n-_ on:_ ___ -n_ -n on:_ _c_
o : on:_ p_ (un_n )5 n )5 on:_ :_5__
n_ o _p5-n_ 5__v-n_ n:: p (un_:

72
When God at first created the heavens and the Earth, the Earth was waste and
wildness, with darkness on the face of ocean depths. The breath of God was hovering
upon the water's face. God said: Let there be light! And there was light. God saw the
light, that it was good, and God divided between light and darkness. And God called
light "day; and darkness God called "night." And there was evening; there was
morning: One day.

o_c )5 :5_c n oc_n (5 _vp n on:_ _c_
_n_c _u_ o_c_n )5 :_5__ _vpn-_ on:_ u_v__ oc:
_on:_ p_ ):-n_ _vp: :_v_c _u_ o_c_n )5 _vp:
:_u o _p5-n_ 5__v-n_ ocu _vp:

And God said: "Let there be a dome amid the waters, and let it separate between the
waters!" And God made the dome, and thus divided between the waters that were
beneath the dome and the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. And God
called the dome "Heaven." And there was evening; there was morning: a second day.

Second Aliyah

n_ opc-:_ ocu_n _n_c o_c_n p on:_ _c_
n_pc: {__ nu5__: on:_ p_ ):-n_ nu5__n n__
on:_ _c_ 5u-: on:_ _ oc_ p o_c_n
:c: e n_uv e {v 5_s _vs_c 5_uv _u_ {_n _u_
vs_c 5_uv _u_ {_n s_ ):-n_ {_n-:_v 5-v_s _u_
o _p5-n_ 5__v-n_ 5u-: on:_ _ n_:c: 5_s
u:u

And God said: "Let the waters underneath the heavens be gathered to a single place,
and let dry land appear!" And it was so. And God called the dry land "Earth," and where
the waters gathered up God called them "Oceans." And God saw that it was good.
And God said: "Let the Earth grow grasses putting forth their seed, and fruit trees
yielding fruit according to their kinds, their seed within them, all across the Earth!"
And it was so. The Earth brought forth the grasses putting forth their seed according
to their kinds, and trees yielding fruits, their seed within them, each according to its
kind. God saw that it was good. And there was evening; there was morning: a third
day.

:5_n: ocu_n _vp5 c n on:_ _c_
o:u oc: o_vc: : n n::_n )5 o_n )5
73
u_v__ ):-n_ {_n :_v n: ocu_n _vp5 c: n
_:_uc_c: ::_n c_n-_ o::_n c_n _:u-_ on:_
_o5::_n _ n::_n _:_uc_c: )_up_n c_n-_ o_n
:uc: {_n :_v n: ocu_n _vp5 on:_ o )__
on:_ _ (un_n )5 _n )5 :5_n: n::_5 o_5
v5 o _p5-n_ 5__v-n_ 5u-:

And God said: "Let there be luminaries in the dome of heaven, to divide between the
day and night, and they shall serve for signs and seasons, and for days and years. And
let them serve as lamps amid the dome of heaven, to give light upon the Earth!" And
it was so. God made the two great luminaries, the larger one to rule the day, the
smaller one to rule the night, together with the stars. God placed them in the dome of
heaven, to give light upon the Earth, to rule the day and night, and to divide between
the light and darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening; there
was morning: a fourth day.

ov v n_n u_o: {__u o_c_n su on:_ _c_
o::__n-_ on:_ 5_ ocu_n _vp _:e-:_v {_n :_v
o_c_n su _u_ _u_cn n_n_n u_o:-:: _ o::_n
(_5_ 5u-: on:_ __ n_:c: :: v-:: _ o_n_:c:
vn oc__5 o_c_n-_ :c 5 e c: on:_ o
uc_n o _p5-n_ 5_v-n_ {_5 5_

And God said: "Let the waters teem with swarming creatures and the breath of life,
and let birds fly above the Earth across the face of heaven's dome!" And God created
the great sea-beasts, and all the animals that move about, with which the waters
teemed according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw
that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: "Be fruitful and increase, and fill the
waters of the seas, and let birds multiply throughout the Earth!" And there was
evening; there was morning: a fifth day.

Third Aliyah

u_c_ nc_n5 n:c: n_n u_o: {_n s on:_ _c_
n:c: {_n __n-_ on:_ u_v__ ):-n_ n:c: {__-_n
on:_ __ n_:c: nc_n u_c_-:: _ n:c: nc_n5_n-_
:_c: :_c:_s5 o__ n_u_v_: on:_ _c_ 5u-:
74
u_c_n-::5 {_n-::5 nc_n5_5 o_cu_n v5 o_n _:5
o_:_s5 c:_s5 on-_ on:_ 5_ {_n-:_v u_cn
o (_5_ o 5 n5_p: :s 5 on:_
u5: {_n-_ :c 5 e on:_ o_n: _c_ on:_
{_n-:_v _u_cn n_n-::5 o_cu_n v5 o_n _:5
_u_ v_s _v_s 5_uv-::-_ o_:: _: n_:n on:_ _c_
_v_s {v-e 5-_u_ {vn-::-_ {_n-:: _:e-:_v
o_cu_n v-::: {_n __n-::: n::: nn o_:: v_s
5_uv p_-::-_ n_n u_o:5-_u_ {_n-:_v u_c :::
c 5u-n_:n nuv _u_-::-_ on:_ _ ):-n_ n:::
uu_n o _p5-n_ 5_v-n_

And God said, Let the Earth bring forth land animals according to their kinds the cattle
and the roving creatures, and the wild beasts, according to their kind!" And it was so.
God made the wild beasts according to their kind and cattle according to its kind, and all
the swarming creatures of the Earth according to their kind! God saw that it was good.
And God said: "Let us make a human being in our image, and according to our likeness,
and let the humans rule the fishes of the sea, the birds across the skies, and creatures
of the Earth, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the land." And God created the
human being in God's image in the image of divinity did God create it; both male and
female God created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them: "Be fruitful
and increase, and fill the Earth, and be responsible for it, and rule the fishes of the sea,
the birds across the skies, and every living thing that moves upon the Earth. And God
said: "See, I hereby give to you all the grasses putting forth their seed across the face of
all the Earth, and every tree, within which is a tree-fruit putting forth its seed-it shall be
food for you. And for every living creature of the Earth, and every bird across the skies,
and everything that moves about upon the Earth, whatever has the breath of life within,
all grass and vegetation shall be food." And it was so. And God saw all that had been
made, and truly it was very good. And there was evening; there was morning: the sixth
day.

v5u_n o_5 on:_ :_:_ o5s-:: {_n o_cu_n ::_
_u_ :_:c-::c v5u_n o_5 5u_ nuv _u_ :_:c
_5u 5 : u__p_ v5u_n o-_ on:_ (_5_ nuv
u_v_: on:_ 5-_u_ :_:c-::c

And the heavens and the Earth, and all their beings were finished. And God finished on
the seventh day the work that had been done. God rested on the seventh day from all
75
the labors God had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, for on it God
had rested from all work that God had done in carrying out Creation.
Genesis 1:1-31, 2:1-3

Beresheit/ in the beginning
God was lonely, suffering
though everything in the universe was held within.
Unfulfilled, overpowered by chesed-energy
God breathed out, kissed out, sent it all out,
every possibility that ever was and would be.
I imagine God was frightened.
What a terribly momentous step,
even with overflowing love as catalyst and reference point.
What if something went wrong?
If the universe made its own choices at breakneck speed
if there was no breathing any of it back in again.
Once it began, this process more powerful than its Creator
with beginning middle end all at once, all possible --
how could there not have been Divine panic?
So in the split second eon after that first outbreath kiss
a proclamation "Let there be light!" and there was
a moment when sight would be unhampered
a snapshot flash of eternity in which to see
before darkness was once again welcomed
the realm of comfort from all the see-ing.
So, too, in the beginning
the universe breathed its kiss into me
and with that kiss, possibilities
thousands of them
limited only by the chance of time and place.
And the world, spurred on not by love
but by something far more selfish, far more limited
intervened
to remind me of the correct response to light and darkness
according to the desires of many faces, many voices.
My panic is undeniably mortal
gripping me during folding laundry or cooking dinner.
As I stand as witness before the creation of my life,
well into its 3rd day
I try commanding light out of the confusion
but I lack Divine will
and all brilliance is gone
before I have a chance to see into the flash.
I can only comfort myself with the thought
that even God didn't know if the plan would work,
but moved forward into the darkness on faith.
Arthur Waskow
76

e :_v :_u _:5 _:o: n_uc ou _u_ n_n s
n_uc _5

Vzote hatorah ashare sahm Moshe leefnay bnay Yisrael ol pee Adonay byad Moshe.

This is the Torah, which Moses placed before the children of Israel, by the word of THE
ALMIGHTY ONE, and by the hand of Moses.

We pray for Israel.
Both the mystic ideal of our ancestors' dreams.
And the living miracle, here and now,
Built of heart, muscle, and steel.
May she endure and guard her soul,
Surviving the relentless, age-old hatreds.
The cynical concealment of diplomatic deceit.
And the rumblings that warn of war.
May Israel continue to be the temple that magnetizes
The loving eyes of Jews in all corners:
Jews in lands of affluence and relative peace
Who forget the glory and pain of their being
And Jews in lands of oppression whose bloodied fists
Beat in anguish and pride
Against the cage of their imprisonment.
May Israel yet embrace her homeless, her own,
And bind the ingathered into one people.
May those who yearn for a society built on human concern
Find the vision of the prophets realized in her.
May her readiness to defend
Never diminish her search for peace.
May we always dare to hope
That in our day the antagonism will end,
That all the displaced, Arab and Jew, will be rooted again,
That within Israel and across her borders
All God's children will touch hands in peace.
May we always dare to hope
That in our day the antagonism will end,
That all the displaced, Arab and Jew, will be rooted again,
That within Israel and across her borders
All God's children will touch hands in peace.
Nahum Waldman

77
ou Shofar Service

Reader: Rosh Hashanah is described in the Torah as a "day of blowing the horn"
(Num., Chap. 29, Verse I), hence the tradition of blowing the shofar at
the Rosh Hashanah service. As we read through the Shofar Service
today, let us reflect on the double meaning of this day -- a day on which
Jews all over the world are assembled with fellow Jews to experience a
reaffirmation and rededication to Judaism and to Life.

Reader: Awake from your slumbers, ye who have fallen asleep in life, and reflect
on your deeds. Remember your God. Be not of those who miss reality in
the pursuit of shadows, and waste their years in seeking after vain
things, which do not profit or deliver. Look well into yourselves, and let
there be betterment in your acts.
From the Maimonides Code

Reader: The shofar can be described as a call to people to hear the sound of
weeping humanity, to feel the unspeakable pain of the world, and to
resolve to do battle against all those forces working for oppression and
subjugation, so that the day might come when the tear is wiped from
every cheek and the sigh from every lip.

ou Shofar

nvp nv o5u nvp
nvp nv o5u nvp
nvp nv o5u nvp
Teki'ah/Shevarim/Teru'ah/Teki'ah

Reader: Let us give heed to the sound of the Shofar, and be mindful of its
message of salvation. It heralds the dominion of God, and summons us
to render our wholehearted allegiance to the Lord. It commands us to
renounce the false gods of superstition, pride, selfishness, and power,
and to consecrate our efforts to the establishment of God's kingdom of
universal justice, fellowship and peace.

78
ou Shofar

nvp o5u nvp
nvp o5u nvp
nvp o5u nvp
Teki'ah/Shevarim/Teki'ah

All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers of the Earth,
When an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye,
And when the ram's horn is blown, Hear ye.

Reader: Let us give heed to the sound of the Shofar, and be mindful of its message
of warning. It recalls to us that we are each others keepers. It awakens us
to a sense of responsibility for the ills that we bring upon one another. If
we want our children to be saved from a harrowing future, and mankind
from perdition, we must, by word and deed, combat oppression, poverty,
ignorance, crime and war. Shall the ram's horn be blown in the city and
the people not tremble?

ou Shofar

nvp nv nvp
nvp nv nvp
Teki'ah/ Teru'ah/Teki'ah
n:: nvp nv nvp
Teki'ah/ Teru'ah/Teki'ah Gdoelah

n _e_ _::_n Hachnasat Sefer Torah Returning the Torah to the Ark

_5: cu 5:u: : , o_u _ ::_n
,_n ::: n:n ,c_v: )__p o__ .ocu {__ :_v n
.n::_n ,5p o_v :_u _:5:

Yhallelu et shame Adonay, key neesgov shmo lvado. Hoedoe ol Eretz
vshahmahyeem. Vahyahrem keren lamo tehilah lchole chahseedov leevnay Yisrael
am krovo, Halleluyah!

79
Let all bless the name of THE ETERNAL, for it alone is to be exalted. God's splendor
dwells on Earth and in the heavens, God has lifted up our people's strength. Praise to
all God's fervent ones, to the children of Israel, people near to God. Halleluyah!

The ark is opened and the Torah placed inside.

uc n_:c ,n5 ops_n_c_: n o_n {v
.o:u n_5: :: ,o_v::_ n_:
.o__p: :_c u__n, n5u: (_:_ , :5u_n

Atze chaim hee lahmahchahzeekeem bah, vtomechehhah mooshar.
Drahchehhah. Dahrchaynoam vchole nteevoetehhah shalom. Hasheevanu
Adonay alecha vnahshoovah chadashe yamaynu kkedem.

And when the Ark was set at rest, they would proclaim: Restore, ETERNAL ONE, the
many thousand troops of Israel! For it is a precious teaching I have given you, my
Torah: Don't abandon it! It is a Tree of Life to those that hold fast to it, all who uphold it
may be counted fortunate. Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are
peace. Return US, PRECIOUS ONE, let us return! Renew our days, as you have done
of old!

The ark is closed.

We cannot actually picture goodness. It is not a being; it is a force, like electricity.
Nobody ever actually saw electricity, but we can see and feel what electricity does. If
we have an electric heater and connect it, we get heat. We get to know what
electricity is by what it does. In the same way, we get to know what God is by what
God makes us do: when people are, so to speak, connected with God, they do good
things. We call those people godly people, and their acts, godly acts. Whenever this
force is active, we say that God has exercised influence and power.

Belief in God, therefore, has to do ... with human nature, with the way individual men
and women act, with their attitudes, their ideals. Belief in God has to do with our
attitude towards life itself. Do we find life good? Is life worthwhile? If we believe that
life is good, that, in spite of sickness and accidents, in spite of poverty and war, in
spite of all the sad and difficult conditions in the world, the world is a wonderful place
to live in and can be made a still better place, then we believe in God. When we
believe in God, we cannot be discouraged because we believe that all the misery in
the world is due, not to the fact that misery is a necessary part of life, but to the fact
that we have not yet discovered how to do away with that misery.
Ira Eisenstein (Adapted)

80
Two paths lie before us. One leads to death, the other to life. If we choose the first path-
if we numbly refuse to acknowledge the nearness of extinction, all the while increasing
our preparations to bring it about-then we in effect become the allies of death, and in
everything we do, our attachment to life will weaken; our vision, blinded to the abyss
that has opened at our feet, will dim and grow confused; our will, discouraged by the
thought of trying to build on such a precarious foundation anything that is meant to last,
will slacken; and we will sink into stupefaction, as though we were gradually weaning
ourselves from life in preparation for the end. On the other hand, if we reject our doom,
and bend our efforts toward survival-if we arouse ourselves to the peril and act to
forestall it, making ourselves the allies of life-then the anesthetic fog will lift: our vision,
no longer straining not to see the obvious, will sharpen; our will, finding secure ground
to build on, will be restored; and we will take full and clear possession of life again. One
day... we will make our choice.
Jonathan Schell

Who are holy beings?
They are beloved, clear of mind and courageous.
Their will and God's are one.
Raising their voices in constant gratitude
they marvel at every detail of life,
Granting each other loving permission to be exactly who they are.
When we listen for their sweet voices,
we can hear the echo within our own souls.
Sheila P. Weinberg

Changes

Sit by my side, come as close as the air
Share in my memories of gray
And wander in my world, dream about
The picture of changes that I play.

Green leaves of summer turn red in the fall,
To brown and to yellow they fade,
And then they have to die, trapped within
The circle time parade of changes.

Scenes of my younger years were warm in my mind,
Visions of shadows that shine.
Till one day I returned and found they were
The victims of the vines of changes.

81
The world spinning madly it drifts in the dark,
Swims through a hallow of haze.
A race around the stars, a journey through the
Universe ablaze with changes.

Moments of magic will glow in the night
All fears of the forest are gone.
But when the morning breaks,
They've swept away by gold rays of dawn, of changes.
Phil Ochs

Aleynu ::v

Please rise. It is customary to bow at Anachnu korim.

,u_5 s: n:: _: ,::_n )__: _n5_u: ::v
,::5 v_u: o:v __n _c_ _ :: )_:u
.n (5 up_n ,o::c_n ::_c ,(_:_c _:o:
,{_ _ o_cu n_u: n_u
,occ _n5:5 \v _::u
.v )_ :_n:_ n
5 5:_: ,:s _o_ :::_c _c_
on:_n n : ,(_55: :_ 5_u_n_ o_n v_
v )_ ,_nc {_n :_v ,:_v_cc o_cu_5
n_n o_5 {_n :: :_v (_:_c: nn _c_:
.n_ cu n_ nn

Ahlaynu lshabayoch ladone hakole, ltate gdulah lyosare braysheet, shnatan lanu
torat emet vchayay olam nahtah btochanu vanachnu koreem oomeeshtahchahveem
oomodeem leafnay melech, malchay hamalcheem, ha kahdoesh baruch hoo. Sheh-
hoo noteh shamayim veyosade ahretz oomoshav ykaro bshamayim me-mah-al
ooshcheenat uzo bgavhay mromeem hoo Elohaynu ain ode. Emet malchanu ehfehs
zoolatoe Kkatoov btorahtoe vyadatah hayome vhashayvoetah el lvovehcha, key
Adonay hoo haEloheem bahshamayim memaal val haaretz metahchat ane ode, ane
ode. V nehehmar, vhawyaw Adoenoy lmelek ol kole haahretz. Byome hahoo,
byome hahoo, yee-heh-yeah Ahdoenoy ehchad, ooshmoe, ooshmoe, ooshmoe
ehchad.
82

of Creation, who gave to us teachings of truth and planted eternal life within us. And
so, we bend the knee and bow, acknowledging the sovereign who rules above all those
who rule, the blessed Holy One. Who stretched out the heavens and founded the
Earth, whose realm embraces heaven's heights, whose mighty presence stalks celestial
God in the heavens above and on the Earth below. There is no other God."

And it is written: "THE EVERLASTING ONE will reign as sovereign over all the Earth.

All sing. Repeat 6 times.

5__n : :_ : v_u :
nc_n:c v c: :

Lo Yisa goy el goy cherev. Lo yilmdu ode milchamah.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore.

Kaddish

Reader: Strange is our situation here upon Earth. Each of us comes for a short
visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From
the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That
we are here for the sake of othersAbove all, for those upon whose smile
and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless
unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.
Albert Einstein

83
Reader: While the Kaddish is recited in memory of the departed, it contains no
reference to death. The Kaddish is meant to renew our faith in the
worthwhileness of life and in our Jewish identity, even in times of sorrow.
The Kaddish challenges the mourner to contribute energies to the making
of a better world. Reciting the. Kaddish is a link with the past, a gracious
way to honor the dead and ennoble the living. At one time or another,
each of us is a mourner.

Reader: If life is sacred it should not be allowed to perish. True the body will return
to dust from whence it came, but the remembrance of the life should
continue.

Congregation rises.

A Reconstructionist Kaddish:

We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

All: At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.
For they are now a part of us,
As we remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

84
We remember them.

We remember them.

For they are now a part of us,

Sylvia Kamens and Jack Reimer

Traditional Mourners Kaddish

,n_v: 5 c:v5 .5_ n_cu u__p :__:
:_u 5 :: __n5 ):_c5 ):__n5 n_::_c (:c_
)_c c 5p )_cs5 ::_v_5
_c:v _c:v: o_:v: (_5c 5_ n_cu _n
n_:_v _n _u_: o_c _e ,n_5_u (_5
:5 ::c :v: :v: n (5 up n_cu ::_n
)_c c ,c:v5 )c__ ,c_n: n5u ,u
_cu )c 5_ c:u _n
)_c c ,:_u :: :_v ::v o_n
)_c c :5_ 5u :: :_v ,:_u :: :_v

Bechayaychone oovyomaychone uvchahyay dechole beyt yisrael
veyitnasey veyithadar veyitahel veyithahlal shemey dekudsha
All: bereech hu
Reader: leela leela meekol birchata veshirata tushbechata venechemata
daamiran bealma veimru amen. Yehay shlamah rahbah meen
shmayyah vchaim aleynu val kal Yisrael veimru amen.
All: Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleynu veal kol Yisrael veal
kol yoshvey tavale veimru amen.

85

In Praise of The Living

Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba
This profound praise of the living
Praise for the generous gift of life.

Praise for the presence of loved ones,
the bonds of friendship, the link of memory.

Praise for the toil and searching,
the dedication and visions, the ennobling aspirations.

Praise for the precious moorings of faith,
for courageous souls, for prophets, psalmists, and sages.

Praise for those who walked before us,
the sufferers in the valley of shadows,
the steadfast in the furnace of hate.

Praise for the God of our fathers,
the Source of all growth and goodness,
the Promise of which we build tomorrow.

Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba

This, the profound praise we offer.
Praise for the generous gift of life.
Harvey J. Fields

Congregation is seated

Reader: Let us think again of the sounds of the SHOFAR
Its blasts tremble with promise.
They sing of a world united,
Making war on want and disease.
A world in which children grow tall
In body, in spirit and mind,
Enjoying clean air and warm sunlight,
Nurtured on bread and hope.
The Shofar proclaims a better tomorrow
When love and peace will prevail,
When all will unite to do God's will.

86
Shalom Aleychem o_::_v o:u

):_v :_:_c _u_n :_:_c o_::_v o:u
n (5 up_n o::c_n ::_c (_:_cc

):_v :_:_c o:u_n :_:_c o:u: o_:_5
n (5 up_n o::c_n ::_c (_:_cc

):_v :_:_c o:u_n :_:_c o:u: ::5
n (5 up_n o::c_n ::_c (_:_cc

):_v :_:_c o:u_n :_:_c o:u: o_:s
n (5 up_n o::c_n ::_c (_:_cc

Shalom aleychem malachay hasharate malachay elyone memelech malchay
hamlachim hakadoshe baruch hu.

Boachem lshalom malachay hasharate malachay elyone memelech malchay

Barchoonee lshalom malachay hasharate malachay elyone memelech malchay

Tsaytchem lshalom malachay hasharate malachay elyone memelech malchay

87
Reader: Now with sense newly quickened by the time we have spent together
let us walk out into the New Year with the lessons we have learned:

All: Having listened to the call to listen,
let us listen to the good voices in our lives.

Reader: Having looked into the Torah, let us look to find our best selves.

All: Having tasted honey,
let us bring the taste of sweetness to the lives of those we love.

Reader: Having smelled the fragrant year outside our praying place.
let us work to preserve the fragrance from the destructive forces in the
world.

All: Having touched the ancient thoughts and yearnings of our people, let us
resolve to let the needs of others touch us, moving us to action in the days
ahead.
Richard N. Levy

c_n_ 5_: n5u n:u:

Lshanah tovah teekatayvu vtaychataymoo

May a good year be written and sealed for you!

88
Tashlich

Tashlich is the practice of standing before a body of water and tossing some crumbs in
which represent the remaining sticky points within your persona that get in the way of
your having/creating a good year. This is a gestalt type of experience, where you let go
of clinging behaviors, memories and experiences. Good ritual facilitates desired change.
The symbolism is like that of the scape goat, you put into the crumbs what about
yourself most needs to change, drop it into the water that the fish will use it for nutrition
and that quality will be less likely to disturb you so greatly again.

Tashlich is a Gestalt-like practice which has been a part of Judaism since at least
medieval times. Each of us explores quietly to our selves what it is that we would most
like to transform in the year to come.... the hard things, behaviors and perhaps
memories we hope to leave behind or develop some distance from.

Then when you are ready, using a bit of schmutz that you find in your pocket - some
crumbs or lint or matter(s) from your imagination- you toss away the schmutz that has
accrued to your soul into the depths of the water.
Goldie Milgram

Wash over me, carry my burden to a God who hears, Wash over me, send me an
answer to my prayers. I cast out my worries, I cast out my fears, I cast out my worries, I
cast out my fears."
Shefa Gold

Each of us is Ishmael,
drawn toward the sea,
the mother of life.
Each of us stands at the tip of the Manhattan Isle,
hearing the ghosts of those who died here,
yearning toward the mother of all life,
dying to bathe in her from the burning fire
that drives us through the windows into space.
Each of us stands like Ishmael on our voyage,
Urgently seeking what we know we cannot master,
Standing like Ishmael between the
"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States"
and "BLOODY BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN."

89
Each of us sees
in that mirror of the waters,
all the rivers,
all the oceans,
the image of the ungraspable phantom of life;
for this is the key to it all.
We look to see not Narcissus,
Our own selves pompous and deluded,
But the deepest Self
In which we see each other.

ALL our Others -

For this water washes all the earth.
From this water drink
Atheists and
Buddhists and
Christians and
Confucians and
Hindus and
Jews and
Muslims and
Wiccans and
the Indigenes
of every continent.

We gather at this water to
See and hear each other,
all of us.

And to reflect upon our selves.
Arthur Wasgow
90
Kol Nidre
91
Questions

Before services start, or at any point you wish to return to them, silently ask these questions to
yourself.

What was your greatest achievement in the last year?

What was your greatest disappointment in the last year?

What in this last year brought you most joy? the most regret?

What have you been most afraid of this year?

What fears have you overcome?

What have been the most important events of the last year?

To what do you look forward in the year ahead?

Where would you like to be five years from now?

If you had all the money you needed, would you still work at your present job?

Who do you admire the most and why?

Who did you fight with this last year?

Who do you wish you could reconcile with in this new year?

Take a few quiet moments thinking about these questions and answering them. If you answer
them truthfully, you will know a great deal about who you are, where you have been in this last
year and in which direction you would like to go in the coming year.

Lenore Boehm (Adapted)

EILI, EILI :_ :_

:_ :_
o:v: _c: :_u
o_c_n :_u uu o_n :n_n
.on _:o o_cu_n p_5

92
Eili, Eili
Shelo yeegahmare lolam
Hachole vhayam
Reeshroosh shal hamayim
Brak hashahmayim
Tfilat haadam

O Lord, my God, I pray that these things shall never end:
The sand and the sea, the rush of the waters,
The crash of the heavens, the prayer of the heart.

Hannah Senesch

Lighting of a Memorial Candle
We light this candle in the memory of all our loved ones. May their memory
be a blessing!
We light this candle in the memory of the soldiers of the Israel Defense
Force, all those who sacrificed their lives for the sanctification of God, all
those who died in the Holocaust and all victims of terror. May their memory
be a blessing!

The memorial candle is lit.

e: o: _: _p:_n Hadlakat Narote lYome Keepoor
Lighting of Yom Kippur Candles

The festival candles are lit.

,sc5 :up _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
oe:_n o ( 5_u) :_u _: p:_n: :s
Baruch atta Adonay Eloheynu melech ha-olam, asher kidshanu bmitzvatov vitzivanu
lhadlik nare shel (Shabbat v) Yome haKeepoorim.
made us holy with your mitzvote, and commanded us to kindle the light of
(Shabbat and of) the Day of Atonement.
93
To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that
animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble
answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.

The Synagogue
All: I come to this Service to probe my weakness and my
strength and to fill the gap between my profession
and my practice.
I come to lift myself by my bootstraps.
I come to quiet the turbulence of my heart, restrain its
mad impulsiveness and check the itching eagerness of
my every muscle to outsmart and outdistance my
neighbor.
I come for self-renewal and regeneration.
I come into the sadness and compassion permeating
the congregation to contemplate and be instructed by
the heaving panorama of Jewish martyrdom and
human misery.
I come to be strengthened in my determination to be
free, never to compromise with idolatry or bow to
dictatorship, cringe before autocracy or succumb to
force.
I come to orient myself to the whole of reality, to
the thrusts of power beyond the comprehension of
my compounded dust.

Solomon Goldman

All: Let us worship, not in bowing down, not with
closed eyes and stopped ears.
94
Reader: Let us worship with the opening of all the
windows of our beings, with the full out-
stretching of our spirits.

We must begin with ourselves, but not end with ourselves. Turning (teshuvah) means
something greater than repentance and acts of penance. It means that by a reversal of
one's whole being, a person who had been lost in the maze of selfishness, finds a way
to something greater than self, a

way to the fulfillment of the particular task for which
one has been destined. Repentance can only be an

incentive to such active reversal.
One who goes on fretting himself with repentance, one who tortures oneself with the
idea that acts of penance are not sufficient, withholds the best energies from the work of
reversal. You have done wrong? Then counteract it by doing right.

There are three prerequisites for turning. Eyes that see, ears that listen and an
understanding heart. If you have all three, you are ready to turn and be healed.

The point is not
I have sinned,
sinned the same sins
I sinned last year.
The point is
I can heal and
the first step in healing is to stop acting
in hurtful and self-destructive ways.
Once I stop my sinful actions,
I open the space to begin to heal.
Herb Cooper-Levy

All: And the Lord said to Moses, "on the tenth day of this seventh month is the
Day of Atonement, it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you
shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord. And you
shall do no work on this same day; for it is a Day of Atonement, to make
atonement for you before the Lord your God. It shall be to you a Sabbath
of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves on the ninth day of the
month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your
Sabbath."
Leviticus 23:26-28, 32

Reader: Though the author and date are unknown, the Kol Nidre prayer was
recited as early as the eighth century. Kol Nidre acquired intense
significance particularly during the period of persecutions in Spain, where
some hundred thousand Jews were forced to foreswear their faith and
adopt a new religion. Many of these attended the synagogue in secret at
95
the risk of their lives, and used the Kol Nidre text as a form of renouncing
the vows imposed upon them by the Inquisition.

At the beginning of the 16th Century C. E., a chazzan in Germany
composed the stirring tune which expresses awe, impassioned pleading,
and hope for ultimate deliverance. This plaintive and touching melody,
adopted by the Ashkenazim throughout the world, is not used by the
Sephardic Jews, who recite Kol Nidre in the manner of a simple prayer.

Reader: The Kabbalah tells us a legend. "At the beginning God said: Let there be
Light. Out of space a flame burst out. God crushed the light, to atoms.
Myriads of sparks are hidden in our world, but not all of us behold them.
The self-glorious who walk arrogantly upright will never perceive one, but
the meek and modest, eyes downcast: he sees it.

All: nncu 5:-_u: p_s_: _vs

Or zarua lahtsadeek ulyeesray lave simcha

Light is sown for the righteous and the gladness for the upright in heart.

::_en: )_c :_ nu_c :_u n5u5 .n:_v_c :_u n5u5
o:_5_vn ov

Beesheva shel maala. Ooveeshevah shel ma-ta anu mateereen
leheetpahlale eem haahvaryaneem.

By the heavenly and earthly court all Jews are charged on Kol Nidre night
to join in prayer.

Congregation rises as the ark is opened.

_: :: Kol Nidre
First chanting

:_: ,v5u _:p ,_:: _c:p ,_c_n_ __ _: ::
ns oe: oc ,:uo_: :_v :__ :c__n_ ,:v_5_u
)n:: .)n5 :u__n )n:: ,n5u: ::v 5_n oe: o _v
: )u : ,):u5c ):_u5 ,)5u )p5u ,)u )n
: :v5u ,__ : :_ ,_: : :: .)c_p
.v5u
96

Kol Nidray vehsahray viechahrahmay vkonahmay vcheenooyay, vkeenoosay
ooshvooote deendahrnah oodeeshtahbahnah oodahchahraymnah
vdeeahsarnah ol nofshahtahnah meeyome keepoorim zeh od yom keepoorim
habah aleynu ltovah, koolhone eechahrahtnah vhone. Koolhone hone shahran
shveekeen shveeteen btayleen oomvootahleen lah shreereen vlah kahyahmeen.
Needrahnah lah needray vehehsahrahnah lah ehsahray ooshvooahtahnah lah
shvooote.

Reader: All vows, oaths, and promises of any kind wherewith we pledged
ourselves counter to our inherited faith in God who is One, Everlasting,
Unseen, Unfathomable, we declare null and void.

All: We repent that these obligations have estranged us from the sacred task
we were chosen for.
We repent.
We repent.
We shall strive from this Day of Atonement till the next to avoid such and
similar obligations so that the Yom Kippur to follow may come to us for
good.

Reader: Whatever binds us to falsehood may be absolved, released, annulled,
made void and of no power. Hence all such vows shall be no vows and all
such bonds shall be no bonds.
Arnold Schoenberg (Adapted)

_: :: Kol Nidre
First repetition

Reader: The trembling and haunting melody of the Kol Nidre chant can have a
meaning of its own, even if I disregard the meaning of its words. Just
knowing that the melody comes to me from the 1500's reminds me that as
a Jew, I have actively participated in history. I am part of a people who
have survived not for a mere 500 years, but for more than 3500 years. I
am one of a people whose entire lifespan has alternated between
annihilation and renewal, between death and rebirth. We have not merely
survived throughout the centuries. We have done much more. We have
accepted as part of our Jewish heritage the necessity of doing battle with
evil, advancing human rights and the dignity of all people, and shouting
repeatedly, "All of us do have a choice. Let us choose the good." The
mere fact of the antiquity of the Kol Nidre chant renews my pride in being
a part of a people who have had a mission over the centuries.

Mel Coffee
97

_: :: Kol Nidre
Second repetition

Reader: Kol Nidre has another meaning-that of its words. At first, I am
offended by and reject the concept that, "I renounce all vows to
God, not only those made but also those promises which I may
make tomorrow.
"
But then I put myself in the place of my fellow
Jews during the Inquisition. I look at my loved ones and visualize
the horrors that forced my earlier counterparts to utter promises that
they had no intention of fulfilling, in order to avoid unspeakable pain
and the desecration of human dignity. I feel in myself the anger, the
frustration of a human being forced to mouth empty words to
preserve life. It is then that the words of the chant have meaning for
me. It is then that the Kol Nidre challenges me to protect the human
rights of all and to correct that which I know to be wrong. I therefore
pledge myself to fulfill the challenge of the Kol Nidre.
Mel Coffee
Ark is closed. Congregation is seated.

Affirmation

All: We affirm all promises and resolutions which we have made for the sake
of love.

Where is my light?

Reader: My light is in me.

All: Where is my hope?

Reader: My hope is in me.

All: Where is my strength?

Reader: My strength is in me.

All: And in you. In every person there is love and hate,
Good and evil, life and death.

Reader: We must purify our hearts
For justice and love will save us from destruction.

All: We forgive others the wrongdoing of their past in order that we may
pursue together the promise of our future.
98

Reader: With all our will we choose the openness of courage. With all our strength
we choose the dignity of freedom.

All: With all our might we enforce the power of hope.
With all our will we affirm the pursuit of life.

Reader: With all our imagination we shall reach beyond ourselves.
With all our resolution we shall seek our humanity.

All: Deeds are better than words.
Speak little; do much.

Reader: We affirm all promises and resolutions
Which we have made for the sake of love.

Return Again

All sing:

2 times
Return agai n, r et ur n agai n
Return to the home of your soul

2 times
Return to who you are
Return to what

you are
Return to where you are born and reborn again

Return agai n, r et ur n agai n
Shlomo Carlebach

Prospective Immigrants Please Note

Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.

If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.

Things look at you double and you must look back
and let them happen.
99

If you do not go through
it is possible to live worthily

to maintain your attitudes to hold your position
to die bravely

but much will blind you, much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?

The door itself
makes no promises.
It is only a door.
Adrienne Rich

Get Up!

O Lord, sometimes I feel rotten inside.
Empty -- phony.
And no one else knows how bad I feel.
They think I am fine... doing well. . . successful even.
But I know all the times I have failed.
The people I disappointed. . . the mitzvote I avoided.

What hope can I have for the new year,
I shouldn't even make new promises
Seeing how my efforts in the past. . . failed.
Last Rosh Hashanah's resolutions soon faded away.
My bad habits... remain unbroken.
My good intentions remain unrealized
I can make no new vows... I can make no new efforts
I give up.

And then, during the Kol Nidre, I heard your plea,
"Get up!
I only commanded one day for afflicting your soul.
I gave you ten days for repentance,
For turning over a new leaf in the Book of Life.
Now you will have fifty weeks... to be renewed.
Even if you don't have faith in yourself
I have faith in you.
Get up off the floor and get up quickly
Falling isn't the worst sin,
Staying on the floor is."
Allen Maller

100
A Song of the Ascents

From the depths I have called out to you, REDEEMING ONE,
please listen, my provider, to my voice!
May you hearken to my voice of supplication.
Were you to pay careful attention to a person's sins, who could endure, almighty one?
With you alone originates all power to forgive; for this you are revered.
So I have hoped, MERCIFUL ONE! My soul has hoped,
and for your word I have looked forward in my yearning.
My spirit yearns for my protector more than people watch for daybreak,
truly, more than watching for the dawn.
So does Israel eagerly anticipate THE MERCIFUL,
for from THE MERCIFUL all kindness comes,
from God alone comes all deliverance,
yes, God alone delivers Israel from its wrongful acts.
Psalm 130

n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu

Shema yisrael adonay eloheynu adonay echad.

Listen, Israel: The ETERNAL Is Our God, The ETERNAL ONE alone!

._v o:v: ::_c 5: o_u (5

Baruch shame kevode malchuto leolam vaed.


.(_c-::5 ,(uo_:-::5 ,(55:-::5 ,(_n:_ _ 5_n
(_55:-:_v ,o_n (_sc :: _u_ ,n_:_n o5_n n
(___5 (:_:5 ,(_55 (5u5 o5 _5 ,(:5: o:_:u
ouu: n ,(_-:_v : o_up .(_cp5 ,(5:u5
(_vu5 (_5 ssc :_v o5_: ,(:v )5

Veahavta et Adonay Elohecha Bechole levovcha uvechole nafshecha uvechole
levahvehcha. Vishinamtam levanecha vedibarta bam Beshivtecha beveytecha
evelechtecha vaderech uveshochbecha Uvekumecha Ukeshartam leot al yadecha
vehayu letotafote beyn eynehcha Oochtavtam al mezuzot beytecha uvisharecha.

101
You shall love Adonay your God, with all your passions, with every fiber of your being,
and with all that you

possess. Let these words by which I join Myself to you today
enter your heart. Pattern your days on them, that your children may discover Torah
within you. Make your life into a voice of God, both in your stillness and in your
movement. Renew these words each morning and each evening in devotion. Bind
them in tefillin on your arm and head as symbols of acts and thoughts consecrated to
Me. Write them on parchments at the entrance to your home, as a sign that all people
may discover Me as they enter your home and your life.
Rabbi Burt Jacobson (Adapted)

Reader: "God is the Power that makes for Salvation." Perhaps what Mordecai
Kaplan meant by this statement was that when we learn to transcend the
sense of our purely physical existence and gain a glimpse of our infinite
spiritual potential we perceive the existence of a glorious and radiant world.
In this state of exaltation we are released from the prison of our physical
fetters. We become free. A sense of personal salvation descends upon us.
In this sense we become aware of the Power of God.
Morris Zuckerman

LOVE OF GOD
Reader 1: How can we love God since we don't know the Lords essence?

Reader 2: How can we love God since we can't conceive of Yah as a person?

Reader 1: We can't even in all honesty say "Thou" "She" or "Him" to and of God.
Reader 2: We can't even address ourselves directly to God in any shape or form.
Reader 1: But love springs from a well of knowing and understanding.
Reader 2: It wells up in the mind and heart of a person.
Reader 1: The beginning of love is stirred by the smile of an infant.
Reader 2: By the glance in the eyes of another human being.
102
Reader 1: By the awe and wonder of the universe.
Reader 2: By the glory of nature and the wonder of life in ourselves and all around
us.

Reader 1: At such moments we become truly aware of the meaning of love.
Reader 2: At such a moment, perhaps, we become aware of God's Presence.
And we are overwhelmed with the love of God.
Morris Zuckerman

,:n : ,u_p_5 : n:c: c , o:_5 n:c: c
_:_o n_uv
Mi chamokah baelim Adonay. Mi chamokah nedor bakodesh, Nora tehilot osey feleh.


Hashkivenu Divine Help :a5u__n

::v uo o_n: :::_c :_c_v_n ,o:u: :_n:_ :5:u__n
,(_cu )_v_c: :vun ,(:o:c n5u nsv5 :_:p_ ,(_c:u _:
,n ::s_c :_cu :_ : .:__ (_o:: :s5
,:_5 :_s cu ,n on_ ):_n (_:_c :_ :
_: ::v uo .o:v _v n_v_c ,o:u: o_n:
::v o:u _: u_e_n , n_ (5 .(_c:u
.o:u :_v :_u c_v :: :_v

Hashkivenu Adonay Elohenu lshalom, vhaahmeedanu malkanu lchaim oofroshe
aleynu sukkot shalomehcha vtahknanu baytsa tovah meelfanehcha vhoesheanu
lmahon shmecha oovtsale knahfehcha tassteeranu kee ale shomeranu
oomahtseelanu ahtah kee ale melech chanoon vrahchoom atah ooshmore
tsaytanu oovoanu lchaim oolshalom mayahtah vodd olam oofroshe aleynu sukkot
shalomehcha. Baruch atah Adonay hapoerashe sukkot shalom aleynu voll kole amo
Yisrael voll yrooshalahyeem.

103
Help us to lie down, DEAR ONE, our God, in peace, and let us rise again, our
sovereign, to life. Spread over us the shelter of your peace. Decree for us a worthy daily
lot, and redeem us for the sake of your great name, and enfold us in the wings of your
protection, for you are our redeeming guardian. Truly, a sovereign, gracious, and
compassionate God are you. Guard our going forth each day for life and peace, now
and always. Spread over us the shelter of your peace.

Blessed are you, COMPASSIONATE ONE, who spreads your canopy of peace over
all your people Israel and over Jerusalem.

n~b_v AMIDAH

You have four choices:
Hebrew/Translation pages 103-107
Exercises pages 108-112
Readings pages 112-114
Your own silent meditation

bowing left and right, a reminder of our entry into the divine presence. The Yom Kippur Amidah
has seven blessings, seven opportunities for laying bare our most vulnerable private self before
the One Self with whom pretense is useless. The Amidah is one of the most powerful
meditations in Jewish spiritual practice. The full traditional text, when softly chanted (or
davvened) is like a mantra, enabling the "davven-er" to use its images as aids to deep inner
work. Seven is the number of creation completed, creation's purpose fulfilled.

(_:n :_ o no _ou :_

Adonay sfatee teeftahch oo fee yageed tehilahtehcha



:_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah adonay alohenu valohay avotenu vemahtenu.


Alohay Sarah nu _n:_ Alohay Avrahum ,on5_ _n:_
Alohay Reevkah np5 _n:_ Alohay Yeetzchahk ,pns _n:_
Alohay Rahchale :_n _n:_ Valohay Yaakove ,5p_v_ _n:_
Valohay Layah n: _n:_
104

And God of Leah;

,o5u o_n :_c: ,):_v :_ ,:_n 5:_n ::_n :_n
n:: 5_c ,c 5 __n :s ,::_n n_:p
n5_n_5 cu )_v_c: o__n_:5 _:5:
(:_v_c: ,o_n_n _o_5 :5: ,o_n_5 {on (_:_c ,o_n: :_:s
.o_n on:_
on5_ )_:c , n_ (5 )_:c _vuc _sv (_:_c
nu _s_v

hakole, vzocare chasday avot vemote, oomayvee goolah leevnay vnayhem lmaan
shmo bahavah. Zochranu lchaim, melech chafatze bchaim, oochatvanu bsayfare
hachaim lmahahnehchah aloheem chaim. Melech ozare oomosheah oomahgane.
Baruch atah Adonay magane Avrahum vehzraht Sarah.


for your sake, ever-living God. Regal One, our help, salvation and protector: Blessed
are you, KIND ONE the shield of Abraham and help of Sarah.


_vun: 5_ ,n_ o_c n__nc ,:_ o:v: 5: n_
oc_n_5 n :: n__nc ,__n5 o_n :::_:c :u_n 'c
o__pc ,o_ _c ,o:n o ,o:o: (_c ,o5_
,(: n_c c 5: :_v_5 (c: c ,ov _:_u: :c_
nvu ncs_c n_nc c_c (_:_c
oc_n_5 o_n: s :s ,oc_n_n 5_ (c: c
nn n_ (5 n :: _n_n: n_ )c_:
n :: n__nc
105
resemble you, the source of life and death, who makes salvation grow? Who can





:5__p ,(_sc5 :u_p :5 s :5_n_ n_
p ::v up_n ::_n (cu ,(_5_v_: :::_c



:_u_p (:_n:c5 ns) :_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_
:_nc_u (_5uc :v5_u ,(_5 :_p:_n )_ (_sc5
_5_u )s5 n5_n_5 ,:_n:_ ,::n:_n) (_vu5
:5: _n_u ((_cu _u_pc :_u n5 n: ,(_up
(5 ,_c_ on:_ n_ : ,_c__5 (5v:
,{_n :: :_v (_:_c , ,n_ (5 ._v: o_p _c_
):\_n o :_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc

106
Remembrance.


n5_n_5 o:o 5_n_: :_u (c_v5 ,:_n:_ ,ns
(_c_v :_u _5_v c )s: n ,)s5 :5_p
s_n_c_n , n_ (5 oc_n_5 )s: (5u5 :_:v n:s_n_
)s: ::u

fervent prayer. May Israels worship always be acceptable to You.

And may our eyes behold your forthcoming, with merciful intent, to Zion. Blessed are


,:_5_ _n:__ :_n:_ ,n n_u ,(: :n_:_ oc
n n_ ,:vu )_:c ,:__n s ,_v o:v: :_c
oc_n :__n :_v (_:n e_: (: n_: :
o ::5_u (_c: :_v (: pe_n :_cu: :_v (_5
_p5 5__v v ::5_u (_5u (_:o: :_v :cv
c_ : : o_n_c_n (_c_n_ :: : : 5u_n ons
(: :p o:v_c (__n

_v o:v: c :::_c (cu o_c (_5 o:: :_v
(_5 _:5 :: o5u o_n: 5:

:_n _c__5 (cu _ ::_n n:_c ( o_n_n ::
n_: (: (cu 5u_n n_ (5 n:_ :_s_v :_vu
n:

107
in you.




n n_ : ,o:v: ou (c_v :_u :_v 5 o:u
,:_u (c_v _ (_5: (:v5 5u .o:u_n ::: ) (_:_c
.(_c:u5 nvu ::5 v ::5 :5_ 5u :: _

5_:: :\: ,n5u n:_o o:u n:5 ,o_n _o_5
o:u: o5u o_n: ,:_u 5 (c_v :: :n_:_ ,(:o:
o:u_n n_uv , n_ (5

Shalom rav ol Yisrael amcha taseem lolam. Kee atah hoo melech adone lchole
hashalom.

Grant abundant peace eternally for Israel, your people. For you are the sovereign
source of all peace. So, may it be a good thing in your eyes to bless your people Israel,
and all who dwell on Earth, in every time and hour, with your peace.

In the book of life, blessing, peace, and proper sustenance, may we be remembered

108
The Yom Kippur Silent Amidah
The Standing Prayer

This version of the Amidah is an image-oriented Amidah using visualizations to guide you
through the spiritual journey of the blessings of the Amidah.

Amidah in images

1. Avot
We call upon our ancestors for support in our journey.

The Image

Visualize Abraham and Sarah standing before you. They can be seen as two radiant
light sources. Extend from them two rays of interwoven light. The light forms a chain
that comes down through the generations into you. Receive the light from your feet.
Connect it to the ground. Allow the light to grow up around you, following your spine
until it comes to rest on the crown of your head. Spiral it down, clockwise, until you are
enclosed in this light. The light is your protection.

Enveloped by protecting light, feel your vitality, your urge to live. Bring to awareness the
link between your own urge to live and the great Power that sustains you: This Power is
Melech.

The Blessing

Once you have established the image, chant its blessing:

(:_v_c: ,o_n_n _o_5 :5: ,o_n_5 {on (_:_c ,o_n: :_:s
, n_ (5 )_:c _vuc _sv (_:_c .o_n on:_
nu _s_v on5_ )_:c

Zochranu lchaim, melech chafatze bchaim, oochatvanu bsayfare hachaim
lmahahnehchah aloheem chaim. Melech ozare oomosheah oomahgane. Baruch
atah Adonay magane Avrahum vehzraht Sarah.

Remember us that we may live, Melech, who delights in Life!
Inscribe us in the Sefer Chayim the Book of Life, for your sake, God of Life.
Helping, saving and protecting power! You are a fountain of blessing Yah,
protector of Avraham, supporter of Sarah.

2. Chesed and Gevurah

We open to Divine expansiveness and power.

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The Image

See yourself (or someone you love) in a time of your life in which you felt lost, confused,
despairing. See a light come into your heart. Allow it to grow until you shine with your
own Source. Imagine yourself lying down at first, and gradually, as the light fills you, you
come to standing.

The Blessing

oc_n_5 o_n: s :s ,oc_n_n 5_ (c: c
o_c_n n__nc , n_ (5 .o_c _n_n: n_ )c_:

Mee chamocha av harockahmeem zochare ytsoorov lchaim brahchahmeem.
Vnehehmon lhachahyote mayteem. Baruch atah Adonay mchayay hamateem.

Incomparable Source of Womb-like Compassion! With compassion You recall all Your
creatures towards Life; Loyal restorer of life! You are a fountain of blessing Yah,
restorer of life to the deadened.

3. Kedushat HaShem
We Name the Holy.
The Image

Breathe in and out, seeing the purity of your breath come into your body. Breathe out
slowly, allowing all impurities to leave you. Experience the wholeness and
completeness of each breath. Feel its circularity, its roundness, its holiness. God's
Name is in each breath.

Allow yourself to sense God's awesome power. Circulate this power
through your body as you ask each part of you to become an extension
of God's desire.

Let your awareness shift to the others who fill the room with you. Can
you feel the others, like yourself, inviting their own selves to also become
extensions of God? Feel their and your longing to serve God merge into
one combined longing, like a woven wick that supports a great flame.

Search within you for your old defenses and arrogances. They block your
progress. If you can find them, this is a time to diminish their tyranny.
Take a good look at where they come from, how they have served you
and also ruled you.
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As you begin to identify and work through each knot of negativity, you
will feel yourself becoming lighter and more open. You will feel Godly
energy move through you and into the world. This is the spiritual state of
becoming a "throne", a seat of the Divine Presence.

Breathe deeply, allowing your breath to enter and soften all the sore,
cramped muscles of your soul. As your breath fills you, an exaltation
enters your being! You truly know your source in the One. Through your
loving justice and compassion God's Kedusha holiness enters the world.

The Blessing

.up_n (_:_c_n , ,n_ (5

Baruch ata Yah (Adonay) haMelech haKadosh.

You are a fountain of blessings, Yah, Breath-of-Life, Sacred Melech, Ruler, Power.

4. Kedushat HaYome
We open ourselves to the sacred in this Day of The Second Chance.

The Image

Look around the space you are in. We gather not only as individuals, but as a
people. We share deep conscious and unconscious memories. Whether Jew by
birth or choice, throughout our history our souls were together. We bring with us
all our human imperfections, and still we each feel called to the holiness that is
possible here.

This day is the Day of Forgiveness, the Day of the Second Chance. Fill your
heart with your prayer that your failures can be forgiven. Embraced by the warm
light of God's compassion you can shed layers of hurt, pain and despair and
return again to live as your highest self.

Locate in your body any remaining knots of cynicism and despair. Imagine
hands massaging those knots. The hands are gentle and loving. Each time they
touch you, you feel a warm rush of hope.

Hope and gratitude blend, as you and we allow Godly guidance, Torah and
mitzvote, to fill our lives. Feel the purity of your heart's desire to serve the One
Light.

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The Blessing

:_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc ,{_n :: :_v (_:_c , ,n_ (5
.oe:_n o

Baruch atah Yah (Adonay) melech ol kol ha'arertz, m'kadesh (hashabbat v)
Yisrael, v'Yom haKeepurim

You are a fountain of blessings, Yah, Melech - Source of Power filling the earth,
making our people and this Yom Kippur sacred.

5. Avodah:
We open ourselves to sacred service

The Image

See yourself as a pure flame, offering yourself to God. Feel the flame burning inside
you. Feel your longing, your desire to know God, to serve God. Experience the great
yearning that rests in that flame.

The Blessing

s_n_c_n , n_ (5 .oc_n_5 )s: (5u5 :_:v n:s_n_
.)s: ::u

Vtehchehzehna aynaynu bshoovchah ltsion brahchahmeem. Baruch atah Yah
hamahchahzeer Shechinahtoe ltsion.

May our eves behold your loving homecoming to Zion. A fountain of blessing are you,
Yah, who brings your Shechinah home. (Shechinah is our name for the Divine Feminine, that
aspect of God that dwells closest and most intimately with us. and which feels most profoundly the
pain of being exiled by our hardness of heart and alienation.)

6. Modim: We open ourselves to gratitude.

The Image

See yourself as being grounded in the Earth and touching heaven. Know that you are a
vessel for miracles. Contemplate for yourself some simple miracles that occur in your
daily life. Find one that has happened to you this very day.

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The Blessing

._v o:v: c :::_c (cu o_c (_5 o:: :_v
.(_5 _:5 :: o5u o_n: 5:
:_vu :_n ,_c__5 (cu _ ::_n ,n:_c ( o_n_n ::
.n: n_: (: (cu 5u_n , n_ (5 .n:_ :_s_v

Vol koolum yeetbahroch vyeetromom sheemcha malkaynu tahmeed lolam vayed.
Oochtove lchaim toveem kole bnai vreetehcha. Vchole hachaim yodoocha selah,
veehollllu et sheemcha bemet haale yshoeahtaynu vezrahtaynu selah. Baruch
atah Yah hatove sheemcha oolchah naheh lhoedote.

For all these blessings we forever praise You! Inscribe all the people of your covenant
for a good life. Let all life acknowledge you! A fountain of blessings are You; Your
name is Goodness, and it gives us pleasure to give You thanks.

7. Shalom
We open ourselves to wholeness, completeness, fulfillment and peace.

The Image

Visualize yourself bathed in light. The light is a rainbow of contentment, moving from
your heart out to the people around you, into the ones you love, out into the community
and beyond. See the light bathing the earth in love and peace. See what your world
might look like filled with shalom: wholeness, completeness, perfection. Picture yourself
in a place of true peace. Allow one image to grow colorful, clear and radiant. Rest in
that image of yourself in shalom.

Meditations/Amidah Alternatives

Do not think that people are obligated to repent only for transgressions involving
acts, such as stealing and robbing and promiscuity. Just as individuals must turn
in repentance from such acts, so must they personally search out their evil
thoughts and turn in repentance from anger, from hatred, from jealousy, from
mocking thoughts, from over-concern with money or prestige, and from gluttony.
From all these thoughts a person must turn in repentance. They are more
serious than transgressions involving acts, for when a person is addicted to
them, it is difficult to give them up. Thus it is said: Let the wicked forsake their
way, the unrighteous their thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:7)
Moses Maimonides

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All the living are one and holy, let us remember
As we eat, as we work, as we walk and drive.
All living are one and holy, we must make ourselves worthy.
We must act out justice and mercy and healing
As the sun rises and as the sun sets,
As the moon rises and the stars wheel above us,
We must repair goodness.
We must praise the power of the one that joins us.
Whether we plunge in or thrust ourselves far out
Finally we reach the face of glory too bright
For our eyes and yet we burn and we give light.

We will try to be holy,
We will try to repair the world given to us to hand on.
Precious is this treasure of words and knowledge and deeds
That moves inside us.
Holy is the hand that works for peace and justice,
Holy is the mouth that speaks for goodness
Holy is the foot that walks towards mercy.

Let us lift each other on our shoulders and carry each other along.
Let holiness move in us.
Let us pay attention to its small voice.
Let us see the light in others and honor that light.
Remember the dead who paid our way here dearly, dearly
And remember the unborn for whom we build our houses.

Praise the light that shines before us, through us, after us.

Amen.
Marge Piercy

The sacrificial efficacy of the ritual of atonement is nil, and its symbolic power of no
value, unless the sense of sin leads us to seek reconstruction of our personalities in
accordance with highest ethical possibilities of human nature; only then can we
experience teshuvah, the sense of returning to God.
Mordecai M. Kaplan

A Reconstructionist Understanding of Sin and Salvation

What are we to do about our sins? In the first place, we must not permit them to lead to
self-hate or self-contempt. We must be able to see good in ourselves. We must believe
that we have within us something that reflects the goodness that exists in the world.
Most of our failures are due to distrust of our capacity for virtue. We, all of us, have
ideals of the man or woman we should like to be. Let us see in the very fact that we
114
project that ideal for ourselves the evidence that it must have some affinity with what we
really are. This is the image of God in us. Though it may be obscured by our sins, if we
can see it at all, we must come to live that ideal so much that we find satisfaction in
removing the moral stains which obscure it.

Nothing that we can say or think can really undo what has been done. The past can
never be relived and it always conditions the present and the future. Therein lies the
inexorable reality of sin. Having failed, however, does not mean that we are failures, for
the future lies before us with infinite possibilities.

In our discouragement, many of us brood over our incapacity for good behavior, instead
of trying to find out what bad consequences of our acts make them sinful, and how we
may put our conduct on the right track so that it will not lead to wreckage of our abiding
purpose. If, instead of thinking of our sin as though it were a taint on our ego, we regard
it as a form of bad behavior in our relations to the world about us, a disposition to
wrong-doing rather than wrong-being, we will not brood about what has already been
done, but try to learn from our experience how to do better.

In this way we answer the paradox of sin by a sort of paradox of salvation. We must
use our experience of sin to attain virtue. The power of teshuvah, that is turning in the
direction of the will to moral achievement, converts what were willful sins into virtues.
Mordecai M. Kaplan

All: I hereby forgive
Whoever has hurt me or has done me any wrong
Whether he did it deliberately or by accident
Whether he did it by word or by deed.

May no one be punished on my account
May I transgress no more
That I do not revert to my old ways
After that I do not do that which is wicked.

Let the wrongdoing that I have committed be wiped away
But not through sickness or suffering
May the words of my mouth
And the prayers that are in my heart
Be my inspiration for the coming year.

Reader: Through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Amos, Isaiah and Micah, a heritage
has come down to us along all the painful paths our people have traveled.

All: Through Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah
and Ruth, a heritage has come down to us.

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Reader: When others worshipped gods indifferent to goodness, our mothers and
fathers found the One whose law unites all people in justice and love.

All: A heritage of faith has come down to us out of the life of our people.

Reader: When knowledge was the secret lore of princes and priests, our sages
opened their doors to all who sought understanding.

All: A heritage of learning has come down to us out of the life of our people.

Please rise.
W We e A Ad dm mi it t O Ou ur r B Be et tr ra ay ya al ls s

Ashamnu

Who Are We?
We're light and truth, infinite wisdom, eternal goodness...

Yet
we've abused, we've betrayed,
we've been cruel, we've destroyed.

At our Core
We're light and truth, infinite wisdom, eternal goodness..

Yet
we've embittered, we have falsified,
we have slandered, we have hated.

Our Real Being is
Light and truth, infinite wisdom, eternal goodness...

Yet
we've insulted, we have jeered,
we have killed, we have lied.

Who are we?

Yet
we've mocked, we've neglected,
we've oppressed, we've perverted.

116
At our Core

Yet
we have quarreled, we've rebelled,
we have stolen, we've corrupted.

Our real Being is
light and truth, infinite wisdom, eternal goodness..

Yet
we've been unkind, we've been violent,
we've left the path, we've led others off the path.

,:_cn ,:_s ,:v_un ,:v_n .o :_5 ,::_s: ,:_:5 ,:c_u
,:v ,:_ ,:s_: ,:_c ,:s_: ,:5_\: ,v :s_v ._p_u ::_o_u
,:v ,:5_v ,:_nu ,:v_u ._v :up ,:_s ,:v_ue
.:vv

Ashamnu
Bagadnu
Gazalnu
Dibarnu Dofi

Heevinu
Vhirshanu
Zadnu
Chamasnu
Tafalnu Sheker

Yaatznu Ra
Kizavnu
Latsnu
Maradnu
Niatznu
Sararnu
Avinu
Pashahnu
Tsrarnu
Kisheenu Oref

117
Rashanu
Shicatnu
Tiavnu
Tainu
Teetahnu

A Modern Ol Chate

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves; for our failures of truth, O Lord, we
ask forgiveness:

for pretending to emotions we do not feel;
for using the sins of others to excuse our own;
for denying our responsibility for our own misfortunes;
for allowing others to do our thinking for us;
for refusing to admit our share in the troubles of others;
for condemning in others the faults we tolerate in ourselves;
for passing judgment without knowledge of the facts;
for remembering the price of things but forgetting their value;
for tolerating even the smallest act of cheating;
for teaching our children everything but the meaning of life;
for loving our egos better than the truth.

.::-_e_: ,:: :_nc ,:: n_: ,n: _n:_ ,o:: :_v

Val kulam, Eloha slichot Slach lanu, mchal lanu Kaper lanu.

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves; for our failures of love, O Lord, we
ask forgiveness:

for using people as steppingstones to advancement;
for confusing love and lust;
for withholding love to control those we claim to love;
for giving ourselves the fleeting pleasure of inflicting lasting hurts;
for hiding from others behind an armor of mistrust;
for treating with arrogance people weaker than ourselves;
for the condescending thought that others are inferior to us;
for a lack of respect for our children;
for shunting to a side those whose age is an embarrassment to us;
for refusing to compromise and choosing to be self-righteous;
for cynicism which eats away our faith in the possibility of love.

.::-_e_: ,:: :_nc ,:: n_: ,n: _n:_ ,o:: :_v

118

We sin against You when we sin against ourselves; for our failures of justice,
O Lord, we ask forgiveness for us and all humanity:

for the sin of keeping the poor in the chains of poverty;
for the sin of racial hatred and prejudice;
for the sin of denying its existence;
for the sin of using violence;
for the sin of separating ends from means;
for the sin of filling the common air with poisons;
for the sin of making our waters unfit to drink and unsafe for fish
for the sin of pouring noxious chemicals upon trees and soil;
for the sin of leaving our children an inheritance of nuclear fear;
for the sin of war;
for the sin of appeasing aggressors;
for the sin of building weapons of mass destruction;
for the sin of obeying criminal orders;
for the sin of lacking civic courage;
for the sin of silence and indifference;
for running to do evil but limping to do good.

For all these sins, teach us to forgive ourselves, and help us to overcome them.

.::-_e_: ,:: :_nc ,:: n_: ,n: _n:_ ,o:: :_v


Reader: Once our master, Rabbi Chaim of Zans, told us this parable:

A man had been wandering about in a forest for several days unable to
find the way out. Finally he saw a man approaching him in the distance.
His heart was filled with joy.

"Now I shall surely find out which is the right way out of this forest," he
thought to himself. When they neared each other, he asked the man,
"Brother, will you please tell me the way out of the forest? I have been
wandering about in here for several days and I am unable to find my way
out."

Said the other to him, "Brother, I do not know the way out either, for I too
have been wandering about in here for many days. But this much I can tell
you. Do not go the way that I have gone, for I know that it is not the way.
Now come, let us search for the way out together.

119

We Cannot Merely Pray to You

Reader: We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end war;
For we know that You have made the world in such a way
That we must find the path to peace
Within ourselves and with our neighbors.

All: We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end starvation
For You have already given us the resources
With which to feed the entire world,
If we would only use them wisely.

Reader: We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to root out prejudice
For You have already given us eyes
With which to see the good in all people
If we would only use them wisely.

All: We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end despair;
For You have already given us the power
To clear away slums and to give hope
If we would only use our power justly.

Reader: We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end disease;
For You have already given us great minds
With which to search out cures and healings
If we would only use them constructively.

All: Therefore we pray to You instead, O God,
For strength, determination and will power,
To do instead of only to pray,
To become instead of merely to wish.

Reader: For Your sake and for ours, speedily and soon,
That our land and world may be safe,
And that our lives may be blessed.

All: May the words that we pray,
and the deeds that we do
Be acceptable before You, O God,
Our Rock and our Redeemer.

120
Ribono Shel Olam o>v >_u :a

Ribono Shel Olam o:v :_u :5
Master of all the Worlds
I hereby forgive whoever has hurt me
and whoever has done me any wrong,
whether he or she did it deliberately or by accident,
whether by word or by deed,
whether in this incarnation or any previous one.

May no one be punished on my account.

May it be Your desire, Holy One of Blessing,
My Power, and Power of my parents,
that I miss the mark no more.
Let me not revert to my old ways,
that I do not cause anger with my actions;
that I do not do that which is evil in Your sight;

May this be Your will:
Wipe away the misdeeds that I have committed
with your great compassion,
but not through sickness or suffering.

May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be acceptable before you
nn Yah my God
my Rock and my Redeemer

n: Selichot Prayers for Forgiveness

:_:: n__ ,_p5c :_v_u 5 ,5__v_c :_::_n_ n_:_v_
.5_v _v

Yahahleh tahchahnoonanu mayerev. vyahvoe shavahtanu meebokare,
vyayraheh reenoonanu odd erev.
121

May our prayers rise at evening hour,
and may our cry come forth from the dawn,
and may our song be pleasing through the day.

May our voices rise at evening hour,
and may our merit come forth from the dawn,
and may our prayer redeem us through the day.

May our searching rise at evening hour,
and may our plea for pardon come at dawn,
and may our sigh reach you through the day.

May refuge rise at evening hour,
and may it come, for your sake, with the dawn,
and may atonement reach us through the day.

May salvation rise at evening hour,
and may our cleansing come forth with the dawn,
and may we plead for grace throughout the day.

May our memory rise at evening hour,
and may confession come forth with the dawn,
and may our glory ring out through the day.

May urgent prayer rise at evening hour,
and may rejoicing come forth with the dawn,
and may our plea be heard throughout the day.

May our weeping rise at evening hour,
and may it come forth to you with the dawn,
and may it find your favor through the day.

122

nn Yah!

nn Yah!

:_ Ale God,

on_ rachoom Nurturing Womb,

):_n vkanoon Compassionate,

o_e_ (__ erek ahpahyeem Patient,

__n 5_ vrav kesed Abounding in Loyal Love

_c_ vemet Faithfulness

oo:_: __n s: notser kesed Assuring Loyal Love for a
lahahlahfeem thousand generations,

v_u_o )v _u: nosay avone Forgiving bad behavior
vahpehshah intentional and unintentional,

nu_n vkahtahah When we miss the mark

n_p_: vnakeh And forgiving.

123
Just like the lump of clay
held in the sculptor's hands:
at will, the sculptor stretches it,
at will, the sculptor makes it small.
And so are we in your hands,
and so let love preserve;
look to your covenant, and
do not let your anger serve.

Just like the piece of stone
held in the mason's hands:
at will, the mason picks it up,
at will, the mason cuts.
you give life and take it away;
look to your covenant,
and do not let your anger sway.

Just like the axe's blade
held in the blacksmith's hands:
at will, it is plunged into the fire,
at will, it is taken out.
And so are we in your hands;
you feed the needy and the poor,
and let your anger rule no more.

Just like the wheel of the ship
held in the pilot's hands:
at will, the pilot turns it in,
at will, the pilot turns it out.
O, God who blesses and forgives;
and in your mercy let us live.

Just like the glass
held in the glassmaker's hands:
at will, it is given form,
at will, it is melted down.
And so are we in your hands;
you make wrongdoing pass away,
and don't let anger have its way.

124
Just like the curtain's cloth
held in the embroiderer's hands:
at will, it is made to lie flat,
at will, it is gathered up.
O, God of justice and of zeal;
and let your anger be concealed.

Just like the silver
held in the smelter's hands:
at will, it is blended with a metal,
at will, it is purified.
you who give healing to all ills;
and let not anger shape your will.

Shema Kolenu Hear our Voice :>p v_bu

)s5 oc_n_5 :5_p ,::v o_n_ n ,:_n:_ ,::p v_cu
.:_:o _
.o__p: :_c u__n ,n5u: (_:_ :5u_n
.:_cc n_p :_ (up _n ,(:o:c :::u_ :_
.:5s_v_ :_ :_n: ::: ,n:ps v: :::u_ :_
:cv n_u_v .:_cc p_n :_ ,:_n:_ ,:5s_v_ :_
.:c_n: :_s_v n_ : ,u5_ :_:u ,n5u:
):_n :o _c )s: n .:_::_n n:5 , n:s__n :_c_
.::_: :_s ,(:o: :5:
.:_n:_ :_ ,n:_v_ n_ ,::nn (: :

Shema kolenu Adonay Elohenu choos vrahchame aleynu vkahbale brahchahmeem
oovrahtsone et tefilahtanu. Hasheevanu Adonay alecha vnawshoevah chadashe
yamaynu kkedem. Oll tashleechanu meelfanehchah vrooach kadshehchah oll
teekahch meemehnu. Oll tashleekanu late zeeknah keechlote kochanu oll
tahozvanu. Oll tahozvanu, Adonay Elohenu oll teerchok meemehnu Oseh emanu
ote ltovah vyeeroo soneanu vyayvoshoe kee atah Adonay ahzartanu
vneekahmtanu. Ahmahranu haahzeenah Adonay beenah hageeganu yeeyou
125
lratzone eemray feenoo vhehgyone leebanu lfahnehcha Adonay tsooranu
vgoalanu kee lcha Adonay hoechahlnu Atah tahahneh Adonay Elohenu.

Hear our voice, ETERNAL ONE, our God, and accept our prayer with mercy and good
will. Turn us, ANCIENT ONE, toward you, that we might be enabled to return. Renew
our days like days of old. Do not cast us away from dwelling in your presence, and do
not remove your holy spirit from our midst. And do not cast us off as we grow old; do not
forsake us when our strength departs. Do not forsake us, GENTLE ONE, our God, do
not withdraw from us. Give us a sign of blessing, so that anyone who bears us ill shall
hesitate to harm us. For truly you, ETERNAL ONE, have always helped us and
consoled us. Hear now our words, GOD OF COMPASSION, and behold our
contemplation. May our words of prayer and meditations of our hearts be seen
favorably, PRECIOUS ONE, our rock, our champion. For we place our hope in you,
ETERNAL ONE, so may you answer us, Almighty One, our God.

Please be seated.

.::-_e_: ,:: :_nc :: n_:, :_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_
.:5 n_ (:_5 : ,:_n:_ n_ ,(_c_v : :
.:_p:_n n_ ,(_:np : ,:_:_ n_ ,(_5_v :
.:v n_ ,(:s : ,::: n_ ,(_:_n_: :
.:_s n_ ,(_:vo : ,:_u: n_ ,(_c_: :
.:5p n_ ,(_:: : ,:_ n_ ,(_v_ :
.:_c__c n_ ,(_c__c : ,:::_c n_ ,(_c_v :

Elohenu vaylowhay avotanu vemoetanu selahch lanu mchal lanu kapare lanu.
Kee anu amecha, vatah Elohenu, anu vahnehcha vatah avenu
Anu ahvahdehcha vatah ahdoenanu anu khahlehcha vatah chelkanu
Anu nahchahlahtecha vatah gorahlanu anu tsonehcha vatah roeanu
Anu karmecha vatah noteranu anu poolahtecha vatah yotsranu
Anu rahahtecha vatah dodanu anu sgoolahtecha vatah kroevanu
Anu ahmecha vatah malkenu anu mahahmeerehcha vatah mahahmeeranu

Our God, our ancients' God, forgive us, pardon us, help us atone,
We are Your People, and You are our God.
We are born from You, and You are our Source.
We serve You, and You are our Connection.
We are Your community; and You our only One.
We are Your heritage, and You are our Destiny.
We are Your sheep, and You are our Shepherd.
126
We are Your vineyard, and You are our Tender.
We are Your creatures, and You are our Creator.
We are Your faithful lovers, and You are our Beloved.
We are Your treasure, and You are our Kin.
We are Your people, and You are our Melech, our Ruler.
We are Your faithful, and You are our Source of Faith.

:_::_c :_c/:::_c :5
ou_v_c :5 )_ : ,:_:_v_ :_:n

Avinu malkeynu/eemahnu malchateynu
Chaneynu vaneynu. kee ayn banu maahseem
Oseh eemanu tsedahkah vchesed, Vhosheanu

Our Father, Our King, teach us how to make this year a new beginning.
Our Mother, Our Queen, teach us how to grow from the harshness of life.
Our Source and our Destiny, teach us to accept what we must accept.
Our Guide and our Truth, teach us to change what must be changed.

Our Father, Our King, teach us how to face disease and death.
Our Mother, Our Queen, teach us how to enjoy the gifts of life.
Our Source and our Destiny, teach us how to make peace with our enemies.
Our Guide and our Truth, teach us how to best help our people Israel.

Our Father, Our King, teach us how we can best help all humanity.
Our Mother, Our Queen, let us find pardon for our wrong-doings.
Our Source and our Destiny, let us return to You wholly and completely.
Our Guide and our Truth, teach us how to help those who are ill.

Our Father, Our King, let us write our names in the Book of Life.
Our Mother, Our Queen, help us find work that serves the good.
Our Source and our Destiny, help us to find inner freedom.
Our Guide and our Truth, help us to learn how to love.

Our Father, Our King, receive our prayers.
Our Mother, Our Queen, teach us how to be good lovers.
Our Source and our Destiny, teach us how to be good parents.
Our Guide and our Truth, teach us how to be good children.

127
Our Father, Our King, teach us how to be good friends.
Our Mother, Our Queen, teach us how to be good Jews.
Our Source and our Destiny, teach us how to be good people.
Our Guide and our Truth, teach us how to be in harmony with Your universe.

Aleynu ::v

Please rise. It is customary to bow at "vanachnu korim

,u_5 s: n:: _: ,::_n )__: _n5_u: ::v
,::5 v_u: o:v __n _c_ _ :: )_:u
.n (5 up_n ,o::c_n ::_c ,(_:_c _:o:
,:_v_cc o_cu_5 p 5_uc ,{_ _ o_cu n_u: n_u
.v )_ :_n:_ n ,occ _n5:5 \v _::u
5 5:_: ,:s _o_ :::_c _c_
on:_n n : ,(_55: :_ 5_u_n_ o_n v_
v )_ ,_nc {_n :_v ,:_v_cc o_cu_5
n_n o_5 {_n :: :_v (_:_c: nn _c_:
.n_ cu n_ nn

ode. V nehehmar, vhawyaw Adoenoy lmelek ol kole haahretz. Byome hahoo,
byome hahoo, yee-heh-yeah Ahdoenoy ehchad, ooshmoe, ooshmoe, ooshmoe
ehchad.

of creation, who gave to us teachings of truth and planted eternal life within us. And so,
we bend the knee and bow, acknowledging the sovereign who rules above all those
who rule, the blessed Holy One. Who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth,
128
God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other God."
And it is written: "THE EVERLASTING ONE will reign as sovereign over all the earth.

Reader: In my view, you are that power within me that will urge me to realize
divine ideals. For me, you are that force both within and without that
represents justice, righteousness, and peace. Through me, and
through all of us, those glorious ideals will be realized. For doing
justice is loving you, and acting righteously is praising you and actively
pursuing peace is following you. So, although we have trouble invoking
you and although we are not agreed on who you are, today, we join in
asking you to give us strength.

All: Give us the guts of Jeremiah, the ideals of Isaiah and the wisdom of
our Rabbinic tradition.

Reader: Give these not, only to us here but to all mankind. Help all the world
to realize that only in peace can life be worthwhile, that only in peace
can we be truly free to love, and create, and believe, and live. We
wish this not only for ourselves but for all and we wish it NOW.
Shalom Ba'olam. Peace in the world.
Arnold Rachlis (Adapted)

Congregation rises.
by Sylvia Kamens and Jack Reimer

We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

All: At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth-of summer
We remember them.

We remember them.

129
We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.


Traditional Mourner's Kaddish

(:c_ ,n_v: 5 c:v5 .5_ n_cu u__p :__:
::_v_5 ,.:_u 5 :: __n5 ):_c5 ):__n5 n_::_c
_c:v: o_:v: (_5c 5_ n_cu _n )_c c 5p )_cs5
_n _u_: o_c _e ,n_5_u (_5 _c:v
)c :v: :v: n (5 up n_cu ::_n n_:_v
,c:v5 )c__ ,c_n: n5u ,u :5 ::
:: :_v ::v o_n _cu )c 5_ c:u _n )_c c
o:u n_u_v_ n cc5 o:u n_uv )_c c ,:_u
)_c c :5_ 5u :: :_v ,:_u :: :_v ::v

Reader: Yitgadal veyitkadash shemey raba. Bealma divra chirutey veyamleech
malchutey bechayaychone oovyomaychone uvchahyay dechole beyt
Yisrael baagalah oovizman kariv veimru amen.
Reader: Yitbarach veyishtabach veyitpaar veyitromam veyitnasay veyithadar
veyitahel veyithahlal shemey dekudsha
All: bereech hu
130

Reader: Let God's name be made great and holy in the world that was created as
God willed. May God complete the holy realm in your own lifetime, in your
days, and in the days of all the house of Israel, quickly and soon. And say:
Amen.
All: May God's great name be blessed, forever and as long as worlds endure.
Reader: May it be blessed, and praised, and glorified, and held in honor, viewed
with awe, embellished, and revered; and may the blessed name of
holiness be hailed, though it be higher by far than all the blessings, songs,
praises, and consolations that we utter in this world. And say: Amen.
May Heaven grant a universal peace, and life for us, and for all Israel. And
say: Amen.
May the one who creates harmony above, make peace for us and for all
Israel, and for all who dwell on earth. And say: Amen.

Millennia ago we opted to choose
To burden ourselves with the yoke.
Yes, we have chosen our task
to be our own living torch,

A beam for our brothers to follow.
That is our destiny; our bittersweet task.
The lamp that we lit in ancient temples
No Haman, no tyrant could extinguish.

Inquisitor's cross and its misshapen offspring; the hooked one...
Horrendous and sterile abominations;
bony fingers of death
have touched us again and again.

But we are the seed of Jacob...
the Spirit of Mankind,
And our triumphant laughter (and muted sobs)
Will be our hymn to life
and will echo as long
As is heard the Sh'ma Yisrael!
Maurice Diamant

131

On a Sunny Evening

Reader: On a purple, sun-shot evening
Under wide-flowering chestnut trees
Upon the threshold full of dust
Yesterday, today, the days are all like these.

Trees flower forth in beauty,
Lovely too their very wood all gnarled and old
That I am half afraid to peer
Into their crowns of green and gold.

The sun has made a veil of gold
So lovely that my body aches.
Above, the heavens shriek with blue
Convinced I've smiled by some mistake,
The world's abloom and seems to smile.
I want to fly but where, how high?
If in barbed wire, things can bloom
Why couldn't I? I will not die!

"I Never Saw Another Butterfly" 1944 Anonymous Written by the children in Barracks L318
and L417, ages 10-16 years Terezin Concentration Camp

All: May we remember and honor tonight and at every Kol Nidre the bleak
and hopeless courage of those who during the Holocaust were
murdered. Yet may their sons and daughters, our cousins and comrades,
in Poland and Russia, In America and Israel, forever remember to stand
together across the borders as they have stood together across the
centuries. May they become free Jews wherever they live; may they
resist both coercion and cajolery. It is said, Am Yisrael chai--the Jewish
people live. But we say, more; Am Yisrael yigael--The Jewish people
will be free!

132
All sing. Repeat 6 times.

Lo Yissa Goy x v_u >

5__n : :_ : v_u :
nc_n:c v c: :

Lo Yisa goy el goy che-rev. Lo yil-mdu ode mil-cha-mah.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

And everyone 'neath their vine and fig tree Shall live at peace and unafraid.
And into plowshares beat their swords. Nations shall study war no more.

Isaiah 2:4

Crossing the Water

(Chorus) We are crossing the water our whole lives through.
We are making a passage that is straight and true.
Every heart is a vessel.
Every dream is a light.
Shining through the darkness of the blackest night.

Well there is no shallow water
And not but love to keep us safely
From the dangers and the devils of the deep
But with every breath within us
We search forever more
To find some peaceful harbor on that far off shore.

(Chorus)

For some it is a glory
For some it is a game
For some it is a story filled with emptiness and pain
But as rising winds in chorus
We search for steady ground
There is only that before us
There can be no turning round.

(Chorus)

133
Oh, there is no other journey that will ever be the same
No second chance horizon that will call you by your name
So when the welling waves wash oer you
And the stormy winds they drive
Give your heart a song
Sing it loud and long
Keep your dreams alive

(Chorus)
Bill Staines

Am Yisrael Chai _n >_u o_v

_n :_u o_v
_n :_u o_v
_n :_u o_v
_ :5 _v
_ :5 _v
_ :5 _v
_n :_u o_v

Am Yisrael Chai
Am Yisrael Chai
Am Yisrael Chai
Ad Blee Dai
Ad Blee Dai
Ad Blee Dai
Am Yisrael Chai

The Jewish people live!
Now and forever.

Travelers Prayer T'filat Haderech p__~_n n_>sn

May we be blessed as we go on our way
May we be guided in peace
May we be blessed with health and joy
May this be our blessing, Amen

134
May we be sheltered by the wings of peace
May we be kept in safety and in love
May grace and compassion find their way to every soul
May this be our blessing, Amen.

The Night The Same As The Day

Reader: On Yom Kippur the night is the same as the day. For during all the
days of the year the gates of compassion are open during the day;
during the night is the same as the day; for the gates of
understanding are open from nightfall on, and the night is the same
as the day, to our benefit. This is the muted evening hour-- lingering
always on the day's edge. It will not fail, believe in it. Walk erect to
meet it.

All: Until we come together again at the beginning of another
day...Shalom!

May you be inscribed in the book of
life for a joyous and healthy New
Year.
135

Northern Virginia
RECONSTRUCTIONIST
COMMUNITY

Yom Kippur

136

A Reconstructionist Understanding of Sin and Salvation

What are we to do about our sins? In the first place, we must not permit them to lead to
self-hate or self-contempt. We must be able to see good in ourselves. We must believe
that we have within us something that reflects the goodness that exists in the world.
Most of our failures are due to distrust of our capacity for virtue. We, all of us, have
ideals of the man or woman we should like to be. Let us see in the very fact that we
project that ideal for ourselves the evidence that it must have some affinity with what we
really are. This is the image of God in us. Though it may be obscured by our sins, if we
can see it at all, we must come to live that ideal so much that we find satisfaction in
removing the moral stains which obscure it.

Nothing that we can say or think can really undo what has been done. The past can
never be relived and it always conditions the present and the future. Therein lies the
inexorable reality of sin. Having failed, however, does not mean that we are failures, for
the future lies before us with infinite possibilities.

In our discouragement, many of us brood over our incapacity for good behavior, instead
of trying to find out what bad consequences of our acts make them sinful, and how we
may put our conduct on the right track so that it will not lead to wreckage of our abiding
purpose. If, instead of thinking of our sin as though it were a taint on our ego, we regard
it as a form of bad behavior in our relations to the world about us, a disposition to
wrong-doing rather than wrong-being, we will not brood about what has already been
done, but try to learn from our experience how to do better.

In this way we answer the paradox of sin by a sort of paradox of salvation. We must
use our experience of sin to attain virtue. The power of teshuvah, that is turning in the
direction of the will to moral achievement, converts what were willful sins into virtues.
Mordecai M. Kaplan
137
Four main reasons are given for the command to fast on Yom Kippur

Fasting as a penance. By fasting on Yom Kippur, we show contrition for the
wrong we have done and good we have failed to do. When we fast for our
sins, we are saying in so many words, we do not want to be let off lightly; we
deserve to be punished.

Fasting as self-discipline. Fasting on Yom Kippur serves a potent reminder of
the need of the self-discipline which leads to self-improvement.

Fasting as a means of focusing the mind on the spiritual. By fasting on Yom
Kippur, the needs of the body are left unattended for twenty-four hours and Jews
give all their concentration to the things of the spirit.

Fasting as a means of awakening compassion. By fasting we are moved to think
of the needs of others and to alleviate their suffering.
Louis Jacobs

When asked the reason for his leniency in permitting the sick to eat during Yom
Kippur, Rabbi Hayim of Brisk replied, "It's not that I am lenient when it comes to Yom
Kippur, but I am strict when it comes to saving a life." For those who are physically
well, fasting on Yom Kippur is a mitzvah that nourishes our souls. However, for those
of us who are physically frail, the mitzvah incumbent upon us is to nourish our
bodies, so that we may live. Teshuvah (inward turning) can only occur where life
allows for the turning.
Leila Gal Berner

Reader: Today is a day to reflect.
It is a day to contemplate your life,
To think of the good,
the bad,
and the changes you want.

It is a day to examine your life
in relationship with others,
in relationship with yourself.

And as the Torah directs us:
"... in the seventh month,
on the tenth day of the month ...
this day shall atonement be made for you,
to cleanse you ... it is a statute forever."

138
Reader: As Jews welcome the New Year, we will,
As we have for centuries,
Weigh the harsh realities
Against the total heritage of the Jewish people
Endurance, ingenuity, determination, hope and courage.
And we will arrive at the immemorial conclusion
That the Jewish People lives!

The road ahead is mined with dangerous possibilities ...
But there is no alternative but to move ahead
toward the beckoning vision of a peaceful world,

In which, Israel, the nation,
and Israel, the Jewish people,
Will occupy an honored place.
Adapted from The Reconstructionist

Masquerading A Parable

The Kelemer maggid asked: "Why is the Day of Atonement called in Hebrew Yom ki-
Purim (a day like Purim)?"

And he gave this answer: "The similarity between the two days is based on the fact that
on both days it is customary to masquerade. On Purim Jews masquerade and don the
costumes of non-Jews. On the Day of Atonement, they masquerade as pious Jews.

On this Yom Kippur, we are called upon to look behind our masks, the masks we wear
out of fear of non-conformity, the masks we wear to impress others, the masks we wear
to hide our feelings, and the masks we wear to avoid the pain of self examination. On
this Yom Kippur we are called upon to confront ourselves without masks.

_n_e_n n5a Birchote Hashachar Morning Blessings

:__ .:_u (_::uc ,5p_v_ (_:n 5u n_c
:_:_n :_ n_n_u_ ,(_5 5 (_n 55
opc ,(_5 )vc 5_n .(_5 (up
n:5_ ,nv:_ n_n_u_ :__ .(_5: )_:uc
on:_ ,)s v , (: :o ,:__ .uv _:o:
.(_vu _c__5 :_:_v ,(__n 55

139
Ma toe-vu oha lecha yaahcove mishknotehchah yisrael. Vani brove chasdcha,
eshtahchahveh el haychol kadshcha byearahtehcha Adonay ahavtee mone
baytecha, umakome meeshkan kvodecha. Vani eshtahchahveh vechrahah evrcha
leafnay Adonay ohsee vani tfeelahtee alecha Adonay ate rahsone eloheem brove
chasdecha, ahneenee bemet yeeshehcha.

How lovely are your tents, O Ya'akov,
how fine your encampments, Yisrael!

And as for me, drawn by your love,
I come into your house.

I lay me down in a humble surrender,
before your holy shrine in awe.

GREAT ONE, how I love your house's site,
adore your Glory's dwelling place.

And as for me, I fall in prayer,
my body I bend down,

I greet, I bless, I bend the knee,
before THE ONE who fashions me.

And as for me, my prayer is for you, GENTLE ONE,
may it be for you a time of desire,

O God, in the abundance of your love,
respond to me in truth with your help.

As the heart yearns for the waters of a brook,
so yearns my heart for you, O God.
My soul now thirsts for God, the living God.
When might I come to see the face of God?
My tears have been my food both day and night,
whenever people said to me: "Where is your God?"
These things I call to mind, and I pour out my soul,
as I now pass amid the crowd,
making my way with them up to the house of God,
amid the sound of jubilation and thanksgiving,
amid the roar of celebration.
Why are you downcast, my soul,
why do you sigh within me?
Place hope in God!
For soon I shall again give thanks
to God, whose presence is my saving force!
Psalm 42: 2 - 6
140
A Chassidic Teaching

Do not think that the words of prayer
as you say them
go up to God.

It is not the words themselves that ascend;
it is rather the burning desire of your heart
that rises like smoke toward the heavens.

If your prayer consists only of words and letters,
and does not contain your heart's desire,
how can it rise up to God?

Return again

Return again Return again
Return to who you are Return to what you are
Return to where you were born and reborn again
Return again Return again
Return to the home of your soul.
Shlomo Carlebach

o5 o:_cv np
nn :_ 5u 5u

K chu eemahchem dvahreem
Shoevu shoevu ale Adonay

Take with you your words (of tshuvah)
And return, return to the Source-of-All

o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay/Yah Elohenu melech haolam

141
Blessed is the Source of Life of all the World

...whose Image is mirrored in my own.

...whose Freedom challenges me to be free.

...whose Teaching makes of me a Jew.

...whose Wisdom opens the blind eye.

...whose Compassion commands us to clothe the naked.

...whose Justice bids us to free the captive.

...whose Love calls us to lift the fallen.

...whose Unity demands that we care for all life.

...whose Being provides us with infinite possibilities.

...whose Torah guides my every step.

...whose Wonder removes sleep from my eyes, that I might awake to the wonder of Life!
Rami M. Shapiro

n (5 o:vn nn _c_u (5
cu (5 u_5 n_uv (5
n (5 n_uv _c (5
cu (5 o__pc _s: (5
n (5 {_n :_v o_n_c (5

Baruch shehahmahr vhayah haolam baruch hoo
Baruch oseh vraysheet baruch shmoe
Baruch omare voseh baruch hoo
Baruch gozare oomkahyame baruch shmoe
Baruch mrahchame ol haaretz baruch hoo

142
Blessed is the one who spoke and the world became.
Blessed is the one.
Blessed is the one who in the beginning gave birth.
Blessed is the one who says and performs.
Blessed is the one who declares and fulfills.
Blessed is the one whose womb covers the earth.
Blessed is the one whose womb protects all creatures.
Blessed is the one who nourishes those who are in awe of Her.
Blessed is the one who lives forever, and exists eternally.
Blessed is the one who redeems and saves.
Blessed is God's name.
Naomi Janowitz and Margaret Moers Wenig

:5_n_ n5_ n5_n_

Ahavah rabah ahavtanu

We are loved by an unending love.
We are embraced by arms that find us,
even when we are hidden from ourselves.
We are touched by fingers that soothe us,
even when we are too proud for soothing.
We are counseled by voices that guide us,
even when we are too embittered to hear.

We are supported by hands that uplift us,
even in the midst of a fall.
We are urged on by eyes that meet us,
even when we are too weak for meeting.

Embraced, touched, soothed, counseled...
ours are the arms, the fingers, the voices;
ours are the hands the eyes, the smiles.
Rami M. Shapiro

143
Oon'tahneh Toekef _p n:_:
We are aware of the majesty of the day.

Please rise.

All sing:
)c_n_ o: os o5 )5_: n:u_n u5

Brosh, brosh, brosh hashana yay-chataymoon.
Uvyome, uvyome, uvyome tsome keepour yay-cha-taymoon.

All: On New Year's Day it is written,
and on the Day of Atonement, it is sealed ...

Reader: When we really begin a new year it is decided,
And when we actually repent it is determined:

Who shall be truly alive,
And who shall merely exist;

Who shall be happy
And who shall be miserable;

Who shall attain fulfillment in his days,
And who shall not attain fulfillment in her days;

All sing:
)c_n_ o: os o5 )5_: n:u_n u5


Reader: Who shall be tormented by the fire of ambition.
And whose hopes shall be quenched by the waters of failure;

Who shall be pierced by the sharp sword of envy,
And who shall be torn by the wild beast of resentment;

Who shall hunger for companionship,
And who shall thirst for approval;

Who shall be shattered by the earthquake of social change,
And who shall be plagued by the pressures of conformity;

144
All sing:
)c_n_ o: os o5 )5_: n:u_n u5


Reader: Who shall be strangled by insecurity
And who shall be stoned into submission;

Who shall be content with their lot
And who shall go wandering in search of satisfaction;

Who shall be serene,
And who shall be distraught;

Who shall be at ease,
And who shall be afflicted with anxiety;

Who shall be poor in their own eyes,
And who shall be rich in tranquility;

Who shall be brought low with futility,
And who shall become exalted through achievement.

Reader: But teshuvah, tefillah and ts'dakah nps n:o n5u
Repentance/turning, prayer and righteous deeds
Have the power to change
The character of our lives.

Let us resolve
To repent, to pray, and to do righteous deeds
That we may begin a truly New Year.

All sing:
)c_n_ o: os o5 )5_: n:u_n u5


On the Day of Renewal--we can decide
And on the Day of Repentance-we can determine:

Who shall truly live,
And who shall cease to live-although in the midst of life;
145

Who shall attain fullness of life through sharing,
And who shall cut him/her-self off from living by selfishness;

Who shall be consumed by the fires of arrogance,
And who shall be quenched by the waters of despair;

Who shall be cut down by the sword of envy,
And who shall be devoured by beastly hatred;

Who shall hunger for love,
And who shall thirst for friendship;

Who shall be shaken by the rejection of sacred values,
And who shall be plagued by the scorning of cherished virtues;

Who shall be strangled to silence,
And who shall be stoned into submission;

Who shall find rest in home and hearth,
And who shall be driven to wandering;

Who shall attain tranquility of mind and soul,
And who shall be beset with anxiety and doubt;

Who shall have a life poor in accomplishment,
And who shall have a life rich in satisfactions

146

We are clay.
You are the potter
Who shapes us at his will.
Mold us into worthy vessels
Even though we're only clay.
Do not smash us if we prove imperfect,
Remember we are only clay.

We are glass.
You are the craftsman
Who can blow us into many shapes.
Form us into finest crystal
Even if You have to twist and turn us.
But do not smash us if we are not pure,
Remember we are only glass.

We are silver
You are the smith
Who molds us as he wishes.
Hammer us as You design
Even though we are not gold.
Do not smash us if we tarnish
Remember we are only silver.

We are the rudder.
You are the helmsman
Who steers us to the left or to the right.
Direct us to the shore you choose.
Do not let us idly spin
Even if we constantly resist Your grasp,
Remember that the waves are very strong.

We are threads.
You are the weaver
Who creates the pattern that he likes.
Weave us, God, into Your plan.
Make us supple, straight and true.
And do not throw us in a heap
If we should not be perfect.
Remember we are only threads.

147

From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,
From the laziness that is content with half-truths,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth
O God of truth, deliver us.
Mordecai M. Kaplan

It is customary to bow. The reader chants the first line, and the congregation responds with
the second.

(5c_n _ :5

Bless THE INFINITE, the blessed ONE!

_v o:v: (5c_n (5

Baruch Adonay hamvorach lolam va-ed!

Blessed is THE INFINITE, the blessed ONE, now and forever.

On this Day of Atonement

We will not seek to escape responsibility for our own selves. We will not fault parents,
siblings or childhood traumas for the weaknesses we display. Nor will we blame
society, the economy, or our institutions for their failure to make us perfect. Judaism
teaches us that we are free, not free to do anything we want, for we have obligations
to others, nor free to be anyone we wish, for we are influenced by others. But free to
choose, a dozen times a day how we will react to lifes challenges and in this small
way to mold ourselves to become better than we are.

On this Day of Atonement

We need to accept responsibility for our own selves. We cannot be perfect,
continuously happy and successful, always attractive, popular and healthy. We seek
only to be better, to be a little kinder, braver, and more patient. To do a few more
mitzvote, to share a few more simchas. To be at one with ourselves, our values and
our dreams, as well as being at one with our people, our traditions and our God.

148
_n-o_: n_/on_ _5_u ov:-n_c 5u-n_c n_:n

Heenay mah tove oomah naheem shevet achim/achot gam yachad.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity!

5: {_n :: :c ,5s ,up ,up ,up

Kadoshe, kadoshe, kadoshe Adonay tsvahote mlow chole haahretz kvoedoe.

Holy, holy, holy is THE RULER of the multitudes of heaven. The whole world overflows
with divine glory!

cpcc 5: (5

Baruch kevode Adonay meemkoemoe.

Blessed be the glory of THE ONE wherever God may dwell!

v_cu Shema

n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu


._v o:v: ::_c 5: o_u (5


.(_c-::5 ,(uo_:-::5 ,(55:-::5 ,(_n:_ _ 5_n
(_55:-:_v ,o_n (_sc :: _u_ ,n_:_n o5_n n
(___5 (:_:5 ,(_55 (5u5 o5 _5 ,(:5: o:_:u
ouu: n ,(_-:_v : o_up .(_cp5 ,(5:u5
(_vu5 (_5 ssc :_v o5_: ,(:v )5

Veahavta et Adonay Elohecha bechole levovcha uvechole nafshecha uvechole
levahvehcha. Vishinamtam levanecha vedibarta bam beshivtecha beveytecha
149
evelechtecha vaderech uveshochbecha oovkumecha. Ookeshartam leot al yadecha
vehayu letotafote beyn eynehcha oochtavtam al mezuzot beytecha uvisharecha.

Listen Israel: THE ETERNAL is our GOD,
THE ETERNAL ONE alone!


You shall love Adonay your God, with all your passions, with every fiber of your being, and with
all that you

possess. Let these words by which I join Myself to you today enter your heart.
Pattern your days on them, that your children may discover Torah within you. Make your life
into a voice of God, both in your stillness and in your movement. Renew these words each
morning and each evening in devotion. Bind them in tefillin on your arm and head as
symbols of acts and thoughts consecrated to Me. Write them on parchments at the entrance to
your home, as a sign that all people may discover Me as they enter your home and your life.
Burt Jacobson (Adapted)

SH'MA: LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN!

Let us take each other's hands
and walk toward the light of God.
Let us stay in the presence of God
and in the nowness of Joy.

Let us be free of separation
of all kinds.
Let us resist the temptation
to judge each other's behavior.

Let us stop our suffering.
Let us together, once and for all,
let go of all our past hurts, and unmet desires.
Let us put our total trust in God and
then see only the God-Self in each other
and feel God's never-ending Love
filling us to the brim and over.

Let us let go of all our self-doubts
that we have projected onto each other.
Let us join our wills as one
and be directed only by the godliness within ourselves
and God's gentle caring for us.

Let us join in Love.
Let us join in Joy.
Let us join in Peace.
Let us LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN to the
still, small voice of God,
to our Breath that brings God's voice to Life.
Gerold Jampolsky (adapted)

150

GUIDED MEDITATION: Think of someone who loves you. Feel his or her presence.
Take a deep breath and open up to the love that is coming to you. Focus on that feeling
of love.
Levi W. Kelman

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never
was before and will never be again-and what do we teach our children? We teach them
that two and two is four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach
them what they are? We should say to each of them, "Do you know what you are? You
are a marvel! You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you.
In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you.
And look at your bodywhat a wonder it is. You may become a Shakespeare, a
Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel.
And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is like you, a marvel? You must
cherish one another. You must work-we all must work-to make this world worthy of its
children."
Pablo Casals

Repentance is not just a psychological phenomenon, a storm within a human teacup,
but is a process that can effect real change in the world, in all the worlds. Every human
action elicits certain inevitable results that extend beyond their immediate context,
passing from one level of existence to another, from one aspect of reality to another.
The act of repentance is, in the first place, a severance of the chain of cause and effect
in which one transgression follows inevitably upon another. Beyond this, it is an attempt
to nullify and even to alter the past. This can only be achieved when we subjectively
shatter the order of our own existence. The thrust of repentance is to break through the
ordinary limits of the Self. Obviously this cannot take place within the routine of life; it
[must] be an ongoing activity throughout life. Repentance is thus something that
persists; it is an ever-renewed extrication from causality and limitation.
Adin Steinsaltz

ou_: ,_5 op_s ::_ ,5: cu up oc ,_v ):u
,(_5 op_s _55 ,oc ou o5 .n:n n:
.::_n oup 5__p5 ,u_p o_n )u:5

Shochane odd mahrome vkadoshe shmoe. Vchatoov, rahnnu tsahdeekeem
bAdonay lahshahreem nahvah theelah. Bfee yshahreem teetroemom,
oovedeevray tsahdeekeem teetbahroch, ooveelshone chasidim teetkahdosh,
oovekehrehv kdosheem teethahlahl.

151
Forever dwelling in the heights, forever holy is God's name! And it is written: "Sing
joyously, you fervent ones, about THE FOUNT OF LIFE, for, from the upright, praise is
fitting!"

By the mouths of all the upright you are raised!
And in the words of all the just ones you are blessed!
And on the tongues of all the fervent you are sanctified!
And in the midst of all the saintly, you are praised

Guided meditation. The astounding moment of awe and thanksgiving experienced by
the Israelites upon the crossing of the Red Sea has parallels in all of our lives. We have
all had difficult crossings, experiences that we struggled through in spite of the pain they
caused us. Thus completion afforded us a sublime sense of inner joy and peace. Take a
moment to recall one of those times. Allow the feelings of celebration to envelop you.
Hold on to those feelings as you recite the Mi chamochah.
Devora Bartnoff

,:n : ,u_p_5 : n:c: c , o:_5 n:c: c
_:_o n_uv
,o_n _ou :_v (cu: o:: n5u nu_n nu
c ::cn n o:: _n_
_v o:v: (:c
(_c:: n_o ,:_u _s_v5 ncp ,:_u s
.:_u up ,cu 5s ::_: .:_u nn
:_u :_: n_ (5
152

Me chamochah baelim Adonay. Me kamochah nedor bakodesh, Nora tehilot osey
feleh. Shira chadashah sheebchoo gooleem lsheemcha ol safat hayam, yachad
koolam hoedoo vheemleechu vamru: Adonay yimloch leolam vaed. Tzoor Yisrael,
koomah bezrot Yisrael, oofday cheenoomehchah yhoodah vyisrael. Goaleynu
Adonay tzvaote shmo. Kdoshe Yisrael. Baruch atah Adonay gaal yisrael.


A new song did the redeemed ones sing out to your name, beside the Sea. Together, all
of them gave thanks, declared your sovereignty, and said: "THE HOLY ONE will reign
forever!"

Rock of Israel, rise up to the help of Israel, redeem, according to your word, Judah and
Israel. Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, the champion of Israel.

Open unto me - Light for my darkness
Open unto me - Courage for my fear
Open unto me - Hope for my despair
Open unto me - Peace for my turmoil
Open unto me --Joy for my sorrow
Open unto me - Strength for my weakness
Open unto me - Wisdom for my confusion
Open unto me - Forgiveness for my sins
Open unto me - Tenderness for my toughness
Open unto me - Love for my hates
Open unto me - Thy self for my self
O dear God, Open unto me
Text: Howard Thurmond
Music: Shawn Israel Zevit

153
n~b_v The Yom Kippur Silent Amidah
The Standing Prayer

bowing left and right, a reminder of our entry into the divine presence.

The Yom Kippur Amidah has seven blessings, seven opportunities for laying bare our most
vulnerable private self before the One Self with whom pretense is useless. The Amidah is one of
the most powerful meditations in Jewish spiritual practice. The full traditional text, when softly
chanted (or davvened) is like a mantra, enabling the "davven-er" to use its images as aids to
deep inner work. Seven is the number of creation completed, creation's purpose fulfilled.

There are two alternative versions that follow. On 158-162 there is a guided visualization
Amidah. On 162-167 there are alternative readings in English. This time can also be used for the
personal silent meditation of your heart.

(_:n :_ o no _ou :_

Adonay sfatee teeftahch oo fee yageed tehilahtehcha



:_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ n_ (5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu vElohay avotenu vemoetaynu.

Blessed are you, ANCIENT ONE, our God, God of our ancestors.


And God of Leah;

,o5u o_n :_c: ,):_v :_ ,:_n 5:_n ::_n :_n
n:: 5_c ,c 5 __n :s ,::_n n_:p
154
n5_n_5 cu )_v_c: o__n_:5 _:5:
(:_v_c: ,o_n_n _o_5 :5: ,o_n_5 {on (_:_c ,o_n: :_:s
.o_n on:_
on5_ )_:c , n_ (5 )_:c _vuc _sv (_:_c
nu _s_v

hakole, vzochare chasday avot vemote, oomayvee goolah leevnay vnayhem lmaan
shmo bahavah. Zochraynu lchaim, melech chafatze bchaim, ookatvanu bsayfare
hachaim lmahahnehchah Eloheem chaim. Melech ozare oomosheah oomahgane.
Baruch atah Adonay magane Avrahom vehzraht Sarah.


for your sake, ever-living God. Regal One, our help, salvation and protector: Blessed
are you, KIND ONE the shield of Abraham and help of Sarah.


_vun: 5_ ,n_ o_c n__nc ,:_ o:v: 5: n_
oc_n_5 n :: n__nc ,__n5 o_n :::_:c :u_n 'c
o__pc ,o_ _c ,o:n o ,o:o: (_c ,o5_
,(: n_c c 5: :_v_5 (c: c ,ov _:_u: :c_
nvu ncs_c n_nc c_c (_:_c
oc_n_5 o_n: s :s ,oc_n_n 5_ (c: c
nn n_ (5 n :: _n_n: n_ )c_:
n :: n__nc

resemble you, the source of life and death who makes salvation grow? Who can
155



You are holy. Your name is holy. And all holy beings hail you each day.


:5__p ,(_sc5 :u_p :5 s :5_n_ n_
p ::v up_n ::_n (cu ,(_5_v_: :::_c



:_u_p (:_n:c5 ns) :_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_
:_nc_u (_5uc :v5_u ,(_5 :_p:_n )_ (_sc5
_5_u )s5 n5_n_5 ,:_n:_ ,::n:_n) (_vu5
:5: _n_u ((_cu _u_pc :_u n5 n: ,(_up
(5 ,_c_ on:_ n_ : ,_c__5 (5v:
,{_n :: :_v (_:_c , ,n_ (5 ._v: o_p _c_
):\_n o :_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc

Remembrance.

156

n5_n_5 o:o 5_n_: :_u (c_v5 ,:_n:_ ,ns
(_c_v :_u _5_v c )s: n ,)s5 :5_p
s_n_c_n , n_ (5 oc_n_5 )s: (5u5 :_:v n:s_n_
)s: ::u

fervent prayer. May Israels worship always be acceptable to you.

And may our eyes behold your forthcoming, with merciful intent, to Zion; Blessed are


,:_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ ,n n_u ,(: :n_:_ oc
n n_ ,:vu )_:c ,:__n s ,_v o:v: :_c
oc_n :__n :_v (_:n e_: (: n_: :
o ::5_u (_c: :_v (: pe_n :_cu: :_v (_5
_p5 5__v v ::5_u (_5u (_:o: :_v :cv
c_ : : o_n_c_n (_c_n_ :: : : 5u_n ons
(: :p o:v_c (__n

_v o:v: c :::_c (cu o_c (_5 o:: :_v
(_5 _:5 :: o5u o_n: 5:

:_n _c__5 (cu _ ::_n n:_c ( o_n_n ::
n_: (: (cu 5u_n n_ (5 n:_ :_s_v :_vu
n:

157
in you.




:: :_v ::v ,oc_n_ __n )_n ,n:5 n5u o:u ou
5 : (:e 5 n_: ::: ,:5 ,::5 (_c_v :_u
nps ,__n _5_n_ o_n _ ,:_n:_ ,:: _: (:e
(c_v _ (_5: (:v5 5u o:u o_n oc_n_ n:5
o:u sv-55 oc_vn-::-_ :_u

5_:: :\: ,n5u n:_o o:u n:5 ,o_n _o_5
o:u: o5u o_n: ,:_u 5 (c_v :: :n_:_ ,(:o:
o:u_n n_uv , n_ (5

Seem shalom tovah oovracha, kane vchesed vrachameem.
Bsayfare chaim, brahcha vshalom oofarnahsah tovah nzahchare vneekatave
lfanehcha. Anachnu vchole amcha bate Yisrael lchaim toveem ulashalome. Baruch
atah Adonay oseh hashalome.

Grant peace, goodness and blessing in the world, grace, love, and mercy over us and
over all your people Israel. Bless us, SOURCE OF BEING, all of us, as one amid your
light, for by your light,

WISE ONE, our God, you give to us the Torah of life, and love of kindness, justice,
blessing, mercy, life, and peace. So may it be a good thing in your eyes, to bless your
people Israel, and all peoples, with abundant strength and peace.

In the book of life, blessing, and peace, and proper sustenance may we be remembered


158
Amidah in images

This version of the Amidah is an image-oriented Amidah using visualizations to guide you
through the spiritual journey of the blessings of the Amidah.

1. Avot
We call upon our ancestors for support in our journey.

The Image

Visualize Abraham and Sarah standing before you. They can be seen as two radiant
light sources. Extend from them two rays of interwoven light. The light forms a chain
that comes down through the generations into you. Receive the light from your feet.
Connect it to the ground. Allow the light to grow up around you, following your spine
until it comes to rest on the crown of your head. Spiral it down, clockwise, until you
are enclosed in this light. The light is your protection.

Enveloped by protecting light, feel your vitality, your urge to live. Bring to awareness
the link between your own urge to live and the great Power that sustains you: This
Power is Melech.

The Blessing

Once you have established the image, chant its blessing:

(:_v_c: ,o_n_n _o_5 :5: ,o_n_5 {on (_:_c ,o_n: :_:s
, n_ (5 )_:c _vuc _sv (_:_c .o_n on:_
nu _s_v on5_ )_:c

Zochranu lchaim, melech chafatze bchaim, vchatvanu bsayfare hachaim
lmahahnehchah Eloheem chaim. Melech ozare oomosheah oomahgane. Baruch
atah Adonay magane Avrahum vehzraht Sarah.

Remember us that we may live, Melech, who delights in Life!
Inscribe us in the Sefer Chayim the Book of Life, for your sake, God of Life.
Helping, saving and protecting power! You are a fountain of blessing Yah, protector
of Avraham, supporter of Sarah.

159
2. Chesed and Gevurah: We open to Divine expansiveness and power.

The Image

See yourself (or someone you love) in a time of your life in which you felt lost, confused,
despairing. See a light come into your heart. Allow it to grow until you shine with your
own Source. Imagine yourself lying down at first, and gradually; as the light fills you, you
come to standing.

The Blessing

oc_n_5 o_n: s :s ,oc_n_n 5_ (c: c
o_c_n n__nc , n_ (5 .o_c _n_n: n_ )c_:

Mee chamocha av harochahmeem zochare ytsoorov lchaim brahchahmeem.
Vnehehmon lhachahyote mayteem. Baruch atah Adonay mchayay hamateem.

Incomparable Source of Womb-like Compassion! With compassion You recall all Your
creatures towards Life; Loyal restorer of life! You are a fountain of blessing Yah,
restorer of life to the deadened.

3. Kedushat HaShem: We Name the Holy.
The Image

Breathe in and out, seeing the purity of your breath come into your body. Breathe out
slowly, allowing all impurities to leave you. Experience the wholeness and
completeness of each breath. Feel its circularity, its roundness, its holiness. God's
Name is in each breath.

Allow yourself to sense God's awesome power. Circulate this power
through your body as you ask each part of you to become an extension of
God's desire.

Let your awareness shift to the others who fill the room with you. Can you
feel the others, like yourself, inviting their own selves to also become
extensions of God? Feel their and your longing to serve God merge into
one combined longing, like a woven wick that supports a great flame.

Search within you for your old defenses and arrogances. They block your
progress. If you can find them, this is a time to diminish their tyranny. Take a
good look at where they come from, how they have served you and also
ruled you.
160

As you begin to identify and work through each knot of negativity, you will
feel yourself becoming lighter and more open. You will feel Godly energy
move through you and into the world. This is the spiritual state of
becoming a "throne", a seat of the Divine Presence.

Breathe deeply, allowing your breath to enter and soften all the sore,
cramped muscles of your soul. As your breath fills you, an exaltation
enters your being! You truly know your source in the One. Through your
loving justice and compassion God's Kedusha holiness enters the world.

The Blessing

.up_n (_:_c_n , ,n_ (5

Baruch ata Yah (Adonay) haMelech haKadosh.

You are a fountain of blessings, Yah, Breath-of-Life, Sacred Melech Power.

4. Kedushat HaYome: We open ourselves to the sacred in this Day of The
Second Chance.

The Image

Look around the space you are in. We gather not only as individuals, but
also as a people. We share deep conscious and unconscious memories.
Whether Jew by birth or choice, throughout our history our souls were
together. We bring with us all our human imperfections, and still we each
feel called to the holiness that is possible here.

This day is the Day of Forgiveness, the Day of the Second Chance. Fill your
heart with your prayer that your failures can be forgiven. Embraced by the
warm light of God's compassion you can shed layers of hurt, pain and
despair and return again to live as your highest self.

Locate in your body any remaining knots of cynicism and despair. Imagine
hands massaging those knots. The hands are gentle and loving. Each time
they touch you, you feel a warm rush of hope.

Hope and gratitude blend, as you and we allow Godly guidance, Torah and
mitzvote, to fill our lives. Feel the purity of your heart's desire to serve the
One Light.

161
The Blessing

:_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc ,{_n :: :_v (_:_c , ,n_ (5
.oe:_n o

Baruch atah Yah (Adonay) Melech ol kol ha'aretz, m'kadesh (hashabbat v)
Yisrael, v'Yom haKeepurim

You are a fountain of blessings, Yah, Melech - Source of Power filling the earth,
making our people and this Yom Kippur sacred.

5. Avodah: We open ourselves to sacred service.

The Image

See yourself as a pure flame, offering yourself to God. Feel the flame burning inside
you. Feel your longing, your desire to know God, to serve God. Experience the great
yearning that rests in that flame.

The Blessing

s_n_c_n , n_ (5 .oc_n_5 )s: (5u5 :_:v n:s_n_
.)s: ::u

Vtehchehzehna aynaynu bshoovchah ltsion brahchahmeem. Baruch atah Yah
hamahchahzeer Shechinahtoe ltsion.

May our eves behold your loving homecoming to Zion. A fountain of blessing are you,
Yah, who brings your Shechinah home. (Shechinah is our name for the Divine Feminine, that
aspect of God that dwells closest and most intimately with us. and which feels most profoundly the
pain of being exiled by our hardness of heart and alienation).

6. Modim: We open ourselves to gratitude.

The Image

See yourself as being grounded in the Earth and touching heaven. Know that you are a
vessel for miracles. Contemplate for yourself some simple miracles that occur in your
daily life. Find one that has happened to you this very day.

The Blessing
._v o:v: c :::_c (cu o_c (_5 o:: :_v
.(_5 _:5 :: o5u o_n: 5:
162
:_vu :_n ,_c__5 (cu _ ::_n ,n:_c ( o_n_n ::
.n: n_: (: (cu 5u_n , n_ (5 .n:_ :_s_v

For all these blessings we forever praise You! Inscribe all the people of your covenant
for a good life. Let all life acknowledge you! A fountain of blessings are You; Your
name is Goodness, and it gives us pleasure to give You thanks.

7. Shalom: We open ourselves to wholeness, completeness, fulfillment and peace.

The Image

Visualize yourself bathed in light. The light is a rainbow of contentment, moving from
your heart out to the people around you; into the ones you love, out into the community
and beyond. See the light bathing the Earth in love and peace. See what your world
might look like filled with shalom: wholeness, completeness, perfection. Picture yourself
in a place of true peace. Allow one image to grow colorful, clear and radiant. Rest in
that image of yourself in shalom.

Meditations Amidah Alternatives

Well maybe it's the time of the year
or maybe it's the time of man.
I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.
Joni Mitchell

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not
knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of
daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of
each other, above all, for those upon whose smile and well-being our own
happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we
are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my
own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of others, both living and dead, and
how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have
received and am still receiving.
Albert Einstein (adapted)

163
Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do
against the enormous array of the world's ills, misery, ignorance and violence.
Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a
small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history
of a generation. It is from numberless, diverse acts of courage and belief that
human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal or acts to
improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends a tiny
ripple of hope. Crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and
daring, those ripples can build a current which can sweep down the mightiest
walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy

Once there were two brothers. One had a wife and children, the other did not. They
lived together in one house-happy, quiet, and satisfied with the portions which they
inherited from their father. Together they worked the fields with the sweat of their brows.

And the harvest came. The brothers bound their sheaves and brought them to the
threshing floor. There they divided the crops of the field in two parts equally between
them, and left them.

That night, the brother who had no family lay on his bed and thought: I am alone ... but
my brother has a wife and children. Why should my share be equal to his? And he rose
from his bed, went stealthily out into the threshing floor, took from the stalks of his own
sheaf, and added them to the sheaf of his brother.

That same night, the other brother turned to his wife and said: "It is not right that we
have divided the crop into two equal parts, one for me and one for my brother. He is
alone and has no other joy or happiness, only the yield of the field. Therefore, come
with me, my wife, and we will secretly take from our share and add to his." And they did
so.

In the morning, the brothers went out into the threshing floor, and they wondered that
the sheaves were still equal. Each one decided to investigate. During the night each
one rose from his bed to repeat his deed. And they met each other on the threshing
floor, each with his sheaves in his arms. Thus the mystery was explained. The brothers
embraced, and kissed each other.

And God looked with favor on this threshing floor where the two brothers conceived
their good thoughts...and the children of Israel chose it for the site of their Holy Temple.
Zev Vilnay

164
What is a new song?
When we break our habits of heart and mind
We step out of the past and into the Present.
What is new is what is no longer habitual.
What is new is what arises out of the Moment.
Rami M. Shapiro

If you always assume
the one sitting next to you is the Messiah
waiting for some simple human kindness

You will soon come to weigh your words
and watch your hands.

And if the Messiah chooses
not to be revealed
in your time
It will not matter.
Daniel Siegel

A Woman's Meditation

When men were children, they thought of God as a father;
When men were slaves, they thought of God as a master;
When men were subjects, they thought of God as a king.
But I am a woman, not a slave, not a subject,
not a child who longs for God as father or mother.

I might imagine God as teacher or friend, but those images,
like king, master, father or mother, are too small for me now.

God is the force of motion and light in the universe;
God is the strength of life on our planet;
God is the power moving us to do good;
God is the source of love springing up in us.
God is far beyond what we can comprehend.
Ruth Brin

165
You knew me long before you fashioned me,
and as long as your breath lives in me, you shall preserve me.
Would I have any place to stand were you to push me on?
Would I have power to walk were you to hold me back?
What can I say other than thoughts your hand has shaped in me?
What can I do unless you shall enable me?
I seek you in this hour of desire: Please answer me!
May your desire, like a shield, surround me.
So raise me up to hasten early to your dwelling place,
to bless your Name alone, please waken me!
Yehudah Halevi

To everything there is a season,
And an appointed time for every purpose under heaven.
Now is the time for turning.
The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red and orange.
The birds are beginning to turn
And are flying once more towards the south.
The animals are beginning to turn
To storing their food for the winter.
For leaves, birds, and animals
Turning comes instinctively,
But for us, turning does not come so easily.
It takes an act of will for us to make a turn.
It means breaking with old habits,
It means admitting that we have been wrong.
And this is never easy.
It means losing face.
It means starting all over again,
And this is always painful.
It means saying, "I am sorry."
It means recognizing that we have the ability to change,
And this is always embarrassing.
These things are terribly hard to do.
But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday's ways.
Therefore, may we find the strength to turn
From callousness to sensitivity,
From hostility to love,
From pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment,
From carelessness to discipline, from fear to trust.
May we turn ourselves around and toward all that is noble,
true and life-affirming to revive our lives, as at the beginning.
Then may we turn toward one another,
For in isolation there is no life.
Jack Riemer (Adapted)

166

It is up to us
to hallow Creation, to respond to Life
with the fullness of our lives.
It is up to us
to meet the World,
to embrace the Whole
even as we wrestle
with its parts.
It is up to us
to repair the World
and to bind our lives to Truth.
Therefore we bend the knee
and shake off the stiffness that keeps us
from the subtle
graces of Life
and the supple
gestures of Love.
With reverence
and thanksgiving
we accept our destiny
and set for ourselves
the task of redemption.
Rami M. Shapiro

Prayer for Yom Kippur

Shechina, Spirit of comfort and peace
here I am, my silver platter readied

for your sacred, holy hearth
I bring You offerings to burn.

Remember when I spoke
in brutal anger to my spouse?

Here, I throw hot cayenne
across Your crackly flame.

And when I whispered falsehoods
about a former friend?

Now, let me sprinkle bitter sage
above Your red-hot coals.

167
And all those times I buried myself
murky soiled pity?

I will add my pinch of dolorous clove
to smolder in your soot.

Shechina, take this, my bouquet garner of sin
the mistakes I made last year

As I absolve myself of these,
please discharge me from their weight

And as they flare up on the altar
of Your forgiving Love,

Add their pungent breath
To your mysterious, smoky veil.

Ann Metlay

:_::_c :_c/:::_c :5
ou_v_c :5 )_ : ,:_:_v_ :_:n




Our Mother, Our Queen, let us find pardon for our wrongdoings.

168



Both Sides Now

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air,
And feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way.
But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone,
So many things I could have done, but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud's illusion I recall,
I really don't know clouds at all.

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real, I've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show, you leave then laughing when you go
And if you care don't let them know, don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its love's illusions I recall,
I really don't know love at all.

Tears and fears and feeling proud, to say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I've looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, the say I've changed,
But something's lost, and something's gained, in living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now,
From win and lose, and still somehow,
Its life's illusions I recall,
I really don't know life at all.
Joni Mitchell
169

()s n ):) .(_cu (:_5
()s n ):) .;:n (_:_ :e _
()s n ):) .o:u (: o_u (_:_ :e u

Yvarehchachah Adonay vyeeshmarehcha. (Kane yehi ratzone))
Yaare Adonay pahnov alechah veekoonehcha. (Kane yehi ratzone)
Yeesah Adonay panov alechah vyasame lechah shalom. (Kane yehi ratzone)

Our God, our ancients' God, bless us with the threefold blessing spoken from the mouth
of Aaron and his sons, as is said:

May THE ETERNAL bless you and protect you.
Let it be God's will.

May THE ETERNAL'S face give light to you, and show you favor.

May THE ETERNAL'S face be lifted toward you, and bestow upon you peace.

The Torah Service

:: ::_c (::_c (_u_v_c: )_ , ,on:_5 (c: )_
(:c ,(:c ,(_:_c ::5 (:_uc_c ,oc:v
o:u_5 c_v _ (_5 )_ c_v: sv _v o:v:

cn n:5 ,)s _ (:s5 n5u_n ,oc_n_n 5_
oc:v )_ ,u: o :_ (_:_c ,:nu5 _5: (5 : o:u

Ane Kahmocha balim Adonay vane kmaasehcha. Molchutehcha malchoot chole
olamim oomemshalthechah bchole dore vdore. Adonay melech, Adonay malach,
Adonay yeemloch lolam vaed. Adonay oze lamo yeetane Adonay yvarach et amo
vshalom.

Av Harachameem hayteevah veersonechah et tzion teevneh komote yerushalayim.
Kee vchay lvod bahtochnu melech ale rom vneesah adone olamim.

There is none like you among the powerful,
170
ETERNAL ONE, and there are no deeds like your deeds.
Your realm embraces all the worlds, your reign encompasses all generations.
THE ETERNAL ONE reigns!
THE ETERNAL ONE has always reigned!
THE ETERNAL ONE shall reign beyond all time.
THE ETERNAL ONE gives strength to our people.
May THE ETERNAL ONE bless our people with enduring peace.
Source of all mercy, deal kindly and in good will with Zion. Rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem,
For in you alone we place our trust, God, sovereign, high and revered, the life of all the
worlds.

The ark is opened.

: ,(_5 so , ncp n_uc _c_ )n _v:5 n_
o:uc _5 n s_ )sc : (:ec (_:_uc
up5 :_u c_v: n )_:_u (5

Vayhi beensoeah haarone vayomare Moshe: Koomah Adonay vayaahfootzoo
oyveycha vyahnootzoo meesahnehcha meepanehcha: Kee meetzion tatsay torah
oodvar Adonay meerooshalieeem. Baruch shehnahtahn torah lamo Yisrael
beekdooshahtoe.

And it happened, when the Ark began its journey, that Moses said: Arise, ASCENDANT
ONE, and may your enemies be scattered, May the ones who oppose you be afraid of
your might! Behold, out of Zion emerges our Torah, and the word of THE WISE ONE
from Jerusalem's heights. Blessed is God who has given us Torah, to Israel, our
people, with holy intent.

__n 5_ ,o_e_ (__ ,):_n on_ :_ , ,
n_p_: ,nu_n v_u_o )v _u: ,oo:_: __n s: _c_

Adonay, Adonay el rahchoom vchahnoon ehrech ahpahyeem vrav chesed vemet.
Notzare chesed lahahlahfeem nosay ahvoen vfehshah vchahtahah vnahkay.

ADONAY ADONAY, God loving and gracious, patient, and abundant in kindness and
truth, keeping kindness for a thousand ages, forgiving sin and rebellion and
transgression, making pure!

n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu


171
Listen, Israel: THE ETERNAL is our God, THE ETERNAL is one!

.cu : up ,:_:_ :: ,:_n:_ n_

Ehchad Elohenu gadole adonaynu kadoshe vnorah shemo.

One is our God, great is our sovereign, holy and awesome is God's name.

The leader faces the ark, bows and says:

.n_ cu ncc: , _: :_:

Gadlu lahAdonay eetee oonromemah shmo yachdov.

Declare with me the greatness of THE INFINITE, together let us raise God's name.

The leader carries the Torah around the room as the leader and congregation sing:

o_cu_5 :: : ,n_n n_s_:_n __o_n n5:_n n::_n (:
nn cc u: ::: _u_:c_n n::c_c_n (: {_5
,:_n:_ cc n up ::_ o_n_: _n_un :_n:_
:_n:_ up : ,up _n: _n_un

Lecha Adonay hagdoolah vhahgvoorah vhateefehret vhanaytzahch vhahode.
Kee chole bahshahmahyeem oovaahretz. Lecha Adonay hamamlahchah
vahmeetnahsay lchole lroshe. Rommu Adonay Elohenu vheeshtahchahvu
lahhahdome roglov kadoshe hoo. Rommu Adonay Elohenu vheeshtahchahvu lhar
kodsho kee kadoshe Adonay Elohenu.

To you, ETERNAL ONE, is all majesty, and might, and splendor, and eternity, and
power! For everything that is, in the heavens and the Earth, is yours, ALMIGHTY ONE,
as is all sovereignty, and highest eminence above all beings. Exalt THE MIGHTY ONE
our God, bow down before God's footstool. God is holy! Exalt the name of THE
INEFFABLE, bow down before God's holy mount, for holy is THE AWESOME ONE, our
God!

172
Bi rkot Hatorah Torah Bl essi ngs n_n :5
Those who receive an aliyah to the Torah say the following blessings:

(5c_n _ :5

Barchu et Adonay Hamvorach

Bless THE INFINITE, the blessed One!

All:

_v o:v: (5c_n (5

Baruch Adonay Hamvorach lolam va-ed!


The response of the congregation is repeated, and the blessing continues as follows:

5_v_: :5_p _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
n_n )_: , n_ (5 _ :: )_:

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu melech haolam ashare karevahnu lahahvoedahtoe
vnatan lanu et torahtoe. Baruch atah Adonay notane hatorah.

drawn us to your service, and has given us your Torah. Blessed are you, ETERNAL

After the section of the Torah is read, the following blessing is recited:

,_c_ _ :: )_: _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
n_n )_: , n_ (5 ::5 v_u: o:v __n

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu melech haholam ashare natan lanu toraht emet
vchahyay olam natah btochanu. Baruch atah Adonay notane hatorah.

Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, who has given
us a Torah of truth, and planted in our midst eternal life. Blessed are you, ETERNAL

173
First Aliyah

o_:_u5u o_:_u o_:_n:_ nn _:o: o_::: o_n o5s: o__
_u_ (_: o_:_u: o_:e_u :_u u :: o_:_uu o_:_:ps
55 (5v: (_c_c 5_u _v (_sv 5_un_c (:_n_c 5__p5
o_n (cv _: (_n:_ nn _u_ :5 (_n:_ nn

You stand here, all of you, today, before THE FOUNT of LIFE, your God, your leaders
and your tribes, your elders, your officials, every person of the people Israel, your
children and your spouses, and the stranger in your midst where you encamp, those
who cut wood, those who draw water all of you, prepared to enter into covenant with
THE ETERNAL ONE, your God, into the oath that THE ETERNAL ONE, your God,
concludes with you today.
Deuteronomy 29:9-11

Second Aliyah

_u__: on:: (:-nn n ov: : o_n (-opn )_v_c:
: 5p_v_: pns: on5_: (_5__: v_5u: _u__: (:-_5
\_n n:n-_ \_n 5_n-_ _: :: o_:_5: o_:
_ :_n:_ nn _:o: o_n _cv :cv ne :u _u_-_ :
o_n :cv ne ::_ _u_

And God will raise you up to be a people dedicated to divinity, and God, in turn, shall
pledge to be your God, as God has promised you, according to the oath God made with
your ancestors, with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Not with you alone do I now
make this covenant and oath, but in addition to whoever stands with us today before THE
FOUNT OF LIFE, our God, all those who are not here with us today.
Deuteronomy 29:12-14

Third Aliyah

:_5v-_u_ _ osc {__5 :5_u-_u_ _ o_v_ o__-:
o_n::: _ o_nspu-_ _ o__5_v _u_ o:_n 5__p5
nu- u o_:5 u_-)_e o_ncv _u_ 5ns __: )_5_ {v
:_n:_ nn ov_c o_n n:o 55: _u_ u_5_u- nneuc
n_e u_u o_:5 u_-)_e o_nn o:_n _n:_-_ 5_v_: _:_::
(_5n \_n n:n _5-_ vcu5 nn n:_v_: u
174
)_v_c: (:_ 5: u5 : :-nn o:uc: 55:5
)_uv s : : _n: nn n_5-: n_cs_n-_ nn o
n5:_n n:n-:: 5 ns5 n_n u5 :p nn-_
cp _u_ o_:_:5 )_n_n _n _c n\_nn_n _o_5
:_c-_ npn {___c 5 _u_::_n o_:__n__c
n5 nn n:n-_u_ n_:_n_-_ n_n {_n

n_:_v_-: _ncs_ : v_\ : ns_-:: no_u n_:_c o:
(_on _u_ o5s nc_ nc_v_ o _:en_c: 5_uv-:: n5
n:: nn nuv n_c-:_v o:_n-:: c c_n_5 e_5 nn
5sv _u_ :_v c n\_n ::_n _n n n_c \_n {_:
o sn5 ocv _: _u_ o5_ _n:_ nn 5-_
on_: _n_u_ o_n_ on:_ 5_v__ ::__ osc {___c
{_5 nn _-_n_ o_n: p_:n : ov-: _u_ on:_
n\_n _o_c_5 n5:_n n::p_n-::-_ n_:v 5n: n_n
o::u__ :: _s_p5 _5 oc_ :_v_c nn __n_ o_u_
:: :::_n :_n:_ nn_: :_n n\_n o_: {__-:_
\_n n_n _5-::-_ u_v_: o:v-_v :_:5:

For you have known how we have dwelt inside the land of Egypt, how we traveled
through the nations in whose midst you passed. And you have seen their futile forms of
worship and their idols-fetishes of wood and stone, of silver and of gold, which they
cherished as their own. Perhaps among you there are some a man, a woman, or a
family, or a tribe whose heart still yearns to turn away from THE ETERNAL ONE, our
God, who yearns to go and worship as those nations do. Or perhaps among you there
is still the root of poison weed or wormwood.

And should they hear these solemn words of promise, and should think themselves
more fortunate in claiming: "It is better I should go according to the prompting of my
heart for better or for worse, whatever the result," then THE ALMIGHTY ONE shall not
forgive. But rather, then God's anger will be kindled, and all the punishments recorded
in this scroll shall fall upon them, and their names shall be erased from heaven's book.

And THE ALMIGHTY ONE shall mark them for misfortune from among all Israel's
tribes, according to the oaths of covenant recorded in this scroll. And a later generation
from among your children who will rise up after you, and the stranger who will come
from a remote land and behold the afflictions and diseases of your land, which GOD will
175
cause to come upon it a land ablaze with salt and sulphur, where no seed can dwell, no
plant can sprout, no grass can grow, like the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah
and Tzevoyim, which THE ALMIGHTY ONE had overturned in anger and in fury-all the
nations then will ask: "Why has God done this to the land? Why this great fury of God's
anger?" And they shall be told: "Because they have forsaken the covenant of THE
ETERNAL ONE, God of their ancestors, which God had sworn with them when they
were brought forth from the land of Egypt." For they have gone and worshipped other
powers, have bowed to things they never knew, which they were never meant to serve.
Gods anger has been kindled at their land, to bring upon them all the curses written in
this scroll.

And THE ALMIGHTY has uprooted them from where they dwell, with anger, and with
terror and great wrath, and cast them out to other lands this very day. The hidden things
are for THE HOLY ONE, our God, but those that are revealed are ours to do, and for
our children, to eternity, in order that this Torah shall be carried out.

Fourth Aliyah

_u_ n::p_n n:5_n n_:_n o5_n-:: (_:v 5-: nn
nn (_nn _u_ o:_n-::5 (_55:-:_ 5_u_n_ (:o: _:
::: :p5 _cu (_n:_ nn-_v 5_u ncu (_n:_
5u(_uo_:-::5 (55:-::5 (:5 n_ o_n (_sc::-_u_
oc_vn ::c (s_5p 5u (_c_n (5u-_ (_n:_ nn
(_n:_ nn (_5_n (_np ouc (_n:_ nn (so_n _u_
(_5__c (5n (5u_n nu (_5_u-_u_ {_n-:_
n5_n_: (_v_s 5_5:-_ (55:-_ (_n:_ nn :c
(_n )_v_c: (_uo_:-::5 (55:-::5 (_n:_ nn-_

When all these things have come upon you, both the blessing and the curse that I
have placed before you, you shall take to heart what I have said, when you are dwelling
among all the nations where THE ALMIGHTY ONE, your God has driven you, then shall
you return to THE ALL-MERCIFUL, your God, and listen to God's voice, fulfilling all that
I have commanded you today, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all
your soul. Then THE ETERNAL ONE, your God, will restore you from captivity and love
you, gathering you again from all the nations where THE ALMIGHTY ONE, your God,
has scattered you. Even if GOD scattered you to the ends of the horizon, THE ALL-
MERCIFUL, your God, will gather you from there and bring you back. And THE
REDEEMING ONE, your God, will bring you to the land your ancestors inherited, and
you shall have possession of it once again, and God will bring good fortune on you,
making you more numerous than your ancestors. And THE REDEEMING ONE, your
176
God, will open up your hearts, yours and your children's, to love THE BOUNTIFUL, your
God, with all your heart and all your soul that you may live.
Deuteronomy 176:1-6

Fifth Aliyah

(_:u-:_v (_5-:_v n_:_n :n-:: _ (_n:_ nn )_:
uv nn :p5 v_cu 5u n_ (o _u_
(_n:_ nn (n o_n-(5_sc :: _u_ sc-::-_
(c_ o5 (c_n5 o5 (:u5 o5 (_ n_u_v_c ::5
(_5_-:_v uu _u__: 5u: (_:v uu: nn 5u : n5u:
n5:_n 5pn sc cu: (_n:_ nn :p5 v_cu :
(55:-::5 (_n:_ nn-:_ 5u : n\_n n_n _o_o5
(_uo_:-::5

(cc n :o:-: o_n (5_sc :: _u_ \_n nsc_n :
nc_cu_n ::-n_:_v_ c c: n o_cu_5 : n npn-:
c: n o_: _5v_c-: n:_u_v_: n :vcu_ :: (_np
n:_u_v_: n :vcu_ :: (_np o_n _5v-:_ ::-5_v_ c
u_v_: (55:5 (o5 c 5_n (_:_ 5p-:

And THE ALMIGHTY ONE, your God, shall cast all of the curses mentioned here upon
your enemies, on those who hate you and have persecuted you, and you shall come to
listen once again to the voice of THE ETERNAL, doing what God asks of you, as I
command you here today. THE BOUNTIFUL, your God, will grant abundance for the
labor of your hands and for the fruit of your womb, and for the offspring of your cattle
and the produce of your land. It will go well with you, for truly, THE REDEEMING ONE
will once again rejoice In your well-being, just as THE ETERNAL ONE had taken joy in
your ancestors, for you shall listen to the voice of THE ALL-MERCIFUL, your God, to
keep the mitzvote and laws recorded in this scroll of Torah. Yes, you shall return to THE
ETERNAL ONE, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.

For this mitzvah, which I enjoin on you today, is not too puzzling for you, nor too remote.
It is not something high up in the heavens, so that you might say: "Who shall go up to
the sky for us, and bring it to us and make it understandable to us? Then we might do
it!" It is not beyond the ocean, so that you might say: "Who shall cross the ocean for us,
and bring it to us, and enable us to hear it-then we might do it!" But rather it is very close
to you, upon your mouth and in your heart-it can be done!
Deuteronomy 30:7-14
177

Sixth Aliyah

c_n-_ 5u_n-_ o_n_n-_ o_n (:o: _: n_
_:_:: (_n:_ nn-_ n5_n_: o_n (_sc :: _u_ vn-_
(:_5 5 n ueuc pn sc cu: :5
n:o-o nu: ncu-5 n_-_u_ {_5 (_n:_ nn
o_5_v_ o_n_ on:: _n_un n_: vcu : (55:
:_v oc ):__-: )5 5 : o_n o_:: _:n
nu: ncu 5: )___n-_ 5v n_ _u_ nc_n
_: c_n o_n_n {_n-_ o_cu_n-_ o_n o_:5 v_n
n_ nn )_v_c: o_n_5 _n5 n::p_n n:5_n (:o:
: 5-np5: :p5 _vcu: (_n:_ nn-_ n5_n_: (_v_s
nn v_5u: _u_ nc_n-:_v _5_u: (_c (_ (_n n
o_n: _: 5p_v_: pns: on5_: (_5__:

Behold, I set in front of you today both life and good, both death and evil. I ask of you
today to love THE FOUNT OF LIFE, your God, walk in God's ways, and keep what God
commands, God's statutes and God's justice-that you may live and multiply, and THE
ETERNAL ONE your God will bless you in the Land that you are coming to inherit.
But if your heart should turn away, and fail to hear, and be misled, and if you bow to
other powers and become enslaved to them, I tell you now that you shall surely
perish, and shall not prolong your days upon the Land that you are now about to
cross the Jordan to possess. I call as witnesses for you today the heavens and the
earth: both life and death I place before you now, both blessing and a curse. Choose life
that you may live, you and the seed of life within you, loving THE FOUNT OF LIFE, your
God, hearing God's voice, and clinging to divinity. For that is your life, your length of
days to dwell upon the ground that THE ETERNAL ONE has promised to your
ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.

Maftir Torah Reading for Yom Kippur

o_:v o_:: nn u_p-pc n\_n v5u_n u_n_: uv_5
nn_: n:v o_5_pn u_v_ : n::c-:: o_:_uo_:-_
n:u-_:5 ou5: n_ :_ n_ p5-)_5 _e _nn: _n_
)_cu_5 n::5 _: on:c o_:: n occ nv5u
178
n_n :_: o:u_v _:u e_: o:u_v nu:u
n_ o\v-vu ou5:_n _v5u: n_n u_5_:_: )uv )uv
o_n:: nn:c c_n _:v oe:_n _u_n _5:c u_n

And on the tenth day of the seventh month, you will have a holy convocation, and you
will afflict your souls. No work will you perform. And you will offer a burnt-offering: a
sacrifice of sweet aroma, one male of cattle oxen, one ram, and seven lambs, a year
old and unblemished, you will have, along with minhah offering of finest flour, mixed
with oil, three tenths of a measure for the bull, and two tenths for the ram, and seven
tenths apiece for the seven lambs. A goat kid shall be an offering for sins, apart from
the sin offering for the atonement, and the perpetual burnt offering, its minhah offering,
and its libations.
Numbers 29:7-11

Birkat Haftarah Haftarah Blessing nos_n n_5a
o5:5 _n5 _u_ ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
_c__5 oc_:_n o_n_55 ns ,o5u
,c_v :_u5 ,5_v n_uc5 n_5 _n5_n , n_ (5
.p__s _c_n _5:5

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu melech haolam ashare bahchar beenveeeem toveem,
vrahtsah vdeevrayhem hahnehehmareem bemet.

Baruch atah Adonay hahbochare bahtorah oovmoesheh avdo, oovyisrael amo
ooveenveeay haemet vahtsehdek.
called upon the righteous prophets and desired their words, spoken in truth. Blessed
are you, WISE ONE, who takes pleasure in the Torah, and in Moses, servant of
God, and in the prophets of truth and justice.

Yonah
Translation by Everett Fox

nns word was to Yonah son of Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great
city, and call out concerning it that their evil-doing has come up before my face.
Yonah arose to flee to Tarshish, away from nns face. He went down to Yafo,
179
found a ship traveling to Tarshish, gave (them) the fare, and went down aboard it,
to travel to Tarshish, away from nns face.

But God hurled a great wind upon the sea, and a great storm was on the sea, so that
the ship was on the brink of breaking up. The sailors were afraid, they cried out,
each man to his god, and hurled the implements, which were in the ship into the
sea, to be lightened from them.

Now Yonah had gone down into the hindmost deck, had lay down and had gone
to sleep. The captain approached him and said to him: How can you sleep! Arise,
call upon your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, so that we will not have to
perish! Now each man said to his fellow: Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know on
whose account this evil has happened to us.

They cast lots and the cast-lot fell upon Yonah. They said to him: Now tell us, you on
whose account this evil has happened to us, what is your business? Where do you
come from? What is your land? And from what people are you? He said to them: I
am a Hebrew, and I fear nn The God of Heaven, who made the sea and the dry-
land.

The men were afraid - a great fear, and said to him: What have you done here! For the
men knew that he was fleeing from nns face, for he had told them of it. They said to
him: What should we do with you so that the sea may quiet down from us? For the sea
keeps on storming more fiercely! He said to them: Take me and hurl me into the sea,
so that the sea may quiet down from you! For I know that this great storm is upon
you on my account.

The men rowed hard to return it to the land, but they could not, for the sea kept on
storming more fiercely against them. They called upon nn. They said, Ah, nn
now do not let us perish because of the soul of this man! And may you not put innocent
blood upon us! For you yourself, O nn as has pleased you, you have done.

They took Yonah and hurled him into the sea. And the sea ceased from its rage. The
men feared nn a great fear, they slaughtered a slaughter-meal to nn and
vowed vows. Now nn had appointed a great fish to swallow Yonah. And Yonah
was in the body of the fish three days and three nights. Yonah prayed to nn
from the body of the fish, he said: I called from my distress to nn and he
answered me, I implored from the belly of Sheol, you hearkened to my voice. The vortex
threw me into the heart of the seas, The River surrounded me, all your breakers and
your waves passed over me. Already I said, I am driven away from your eyes; may I but
look once more toward the Hall of your Holy-Place! The waters raged about me, up
180
to the soul, the primeval-flood surrounded me; seaweed was wound around my
head. (Sinking) to the roots of the mountains I went down, the land, its bar (shut) behind
me forever, yet you lift up my life from destruction, nn my God. When my soul was
about to faint within me I remembered nn and to you came my prayer, to the Hall
of your Holy-Place. Those who wait for the mists of illusion, they must forsake their
Love! But I, with the voice of praise I will slaughter-offer to you, to repay what I
have vowed, deliverance is YOURS!

nn spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Yonah onto the dry land. And nns
word was to Yonah a second time, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call
out the call to it which I speak to you. Yonah arose and went to Nineveh,
according to nns word.

Now Nineveh was a great city before nn, (taking) three days to go through. Yonah
began to come into the city, one day's going, and called out, he said, Another forty
days, and Nineveh is overthrown! The men of Nineveh trusted in nn, they called a
fast and dressed themselves in sackcloth, from the greatest to the smallest.

The word reached the king of Nineveh; he arose from his throne, took off his mantle,
covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in ashes. He had (them) cry out and
say: In Nineveh, by order of the king and his great-ones, saying: Man and
animal, ox and sheep, they shall not feed on the slightest, they shall not give
pasture, water they shall not drink! They shall cover themselves with sackcloth,
man and animal, they shall call out to nn with might, and they shall turn, each
man from his evil way, from the wrongdoing that is in their hands! Who knows,
nn may turn and be sorry, and turn from the flaming of his anger, and we will
not perish! nn saw what they did, that they turned from their evil way, and
nn was sorry concerning the evil which he had said that he would do to them,
and he did not do it.

This was evil to Yonah - a great evil, he became inflamed, and he prayed to
nn, he said: Ah, nn! Was this not my word when I was on my (own) soil?
Because of this I wanted to forestall, to flee to Tarshish! Indeed, I know that you are
compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and of much love, and would be sorry
concerning the evil. So then
,
O nn now take my soul from me, for it is more
right that I should die than that I should live. But nn said, Have you rightly
become inflamed?

181
Yonah left the city and sat down east of the city, there he made himself a hut and sat
beneath it in the shade, until he would see what was to happen in the city. Now nn
had appointed a castor-oil plant that it should shoot up over Yonah to be shade over his
head, to shade from his evil. And Yonah rejoiced over the plant - a great joy. But nn
appointed a worm when the next dawn came up, which bit into the plant, so that it
withered away. And it was, when the sun shone, that nn appointed a cutting east
wind; the sun beat down on Yonahs head, he became faint and wished his soul to
die, he said, It is more right that I should die than that I should live.

Now nn said to Yonah: Have you rightly become inflamed concerning the plant?
nn said, I have rightly become inflamed, up to (the point of) death. Now nn
said So you took pity on the plant for which you did not labor, which you did not cause
to grow, which as a child of a night came to be and as a child of a night perished! Now
should I not take pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than twelve
myriads of men who do not know (the difference) between right and left, and many
animals?

182
The Book of Yonah explores, among other things, the tragic human instinct to seek
the destruction of the other in the name of legitimate national interests. Yonah
was prepared to go to the end of the known world to avoid saving the people of
Nineveh. More, he was ready, willing and eager to give up his life in order not to
save them. That is what I told you when I was on my land he cries out to God,
And therefore I tried to flee to Tarshish. The focus of the Hebrew words is painfully
clear: I and my land. But God is, as it were, incredulous: Does being an instrument
for doing good pain you? What do you mean my land? Have you let a pretentious
and presumptuous patriotism poison your soul? And do you think that in fact your
actions are protecting your land and your people? See how the Sun beats down
upon you, now that the gourd, that I had grown over you to protect you, Ive now
caused to wither and die? And do you know why the sukkah that you built is giving
you no shade? Because just as the frail sukkah stands upright because of the
interconnectedness of its parts, so human beings survive and are protected, not by
power, but by the interaction of their common humanity. Therefore, as you were so
reluctant to protect Nineveh and are now watching and hoping she will perish, so this
sukkah that you built with the hope of seeing harm befell them, is not protecting you
from harm. For just as the Yonah sent from Noahs ark was to herald the resumption
and the renewal of life, so Yonah, who is Israel, is sent-even against her will, to
preserve life, to protect life and to enhance life even of people who dont know their
right hand from their left hand. It is the role we are destined to play in a land where
existence and co-existence are one, and the Will of the One. The narrative
concludes without indicating Yonahs response to Gods impassioned plea, because
since Yonah is Israel, the Book of Yonah anxiously awaits our response, each Yom
Kippur, and particularly this Yom Kippur.
Benjamin Hollander

After the haftarah is chanted, the following blessings are said:

p_s ,oc:vn :: s ,o:vn (_:_c :_n:_ n_ (5
::_u ,o__pc 5_c_n ,n_uv _cn )c_:_n :_n ,_n ::5
,(_5 o:c_: ,:_n:_ n n_ )c_: .p__s _c_ 5
)c_: (_:_c :_ : ,op_ 5u : n (_5c n_ 5
.5 ::5 )c_:_n :_n , n_ (5 .n ()c_n_)
n_nc5 _vu :_u (c_v: ,:__n 5 n : )s :_v o_n_
.n:55 )s _n_c_uc , n_ (5 .:_c5
,(_5_v 5:_n n:_5 :_n:_ :_nc_u
5: o:5 :_v 5 5: 5_u_n ,:5: :_: 5 n_nc5
(5 oc_vn ::: _p n:o 5 (5 o5_ :_v o:5
_v: o:u 5_c nn n_
183

Baruch atah Adonay Elohenu melech haolam tsoor kole haolameem tsadeek
bchole hadoerote haale hanehehmon haomare voseh hahmdahbare
oomkieyame dvarhrov emet vtsedek. Nehehmon atah hoo Adonay Elohenu v
nehehmoneem dvahrehcha oodavar echad meedvahrehcha ahchore low
yahshoove raykom kee ale melech nehehmon (vrahchahmon) atah. Baruch atah
Adonay haale hanehehmon bchole dvahrov. Rahchame ol tsion kee hee bate
chahyaynu oolamcha Yisrael toesheah beemhayrah vyahmaynu. Baruch atah
Adonay msahmayoch bvahnehha. Somchanu Adonay Elohenu baleyahoo
hanahvee ovdehcha beemhayrah yahvoe vyahgale leebaynu. Vhaysheeve lave
avote ol bahneem vlave bahneem ol ahvotom oovaysecha bate tefilah yeekahray
lchole haahmeem. Baruch atah Adonay mayvee shalom lahodd.

Blessed are you ETERNAL ONE, our God, the sovereign of all worlds, the rock of all
the worlds, the righteous one throughout all generations, the faithful God, whose
word is deed, who speaks and fulfills, whose words are truth and justice.

Faithful are you, ETERNAL ONE, our God, and faithful are your words; not a single
word of yours is unfulfilled, for you are a sovereign God, faithful and merciful.
Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, the God faithful in all your words.

Be merciful to Zion, which is the house of life to us, and be a help to Israel, your
people, soon and in our days. Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, who gives joy to
Zion through her children.

Give us joy, ETERNAL ONE, our God, in Elijah, your prophet and your servant. Soon
may redemption come and give joy to our hearts. May God turn the hearts of the
parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents. And may
your house be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Blessed are you, ETERNAL
ONE, who brings an everlasting peace.

(,n\_n 5_u_n o :_v) ,o5:_n :_v ,n5_vn :_v ,n_n :_v
(nn:c: nup:) :_n:_ :: _:_u ,n\_n oe:_n o :_v
5:: :_:_v :: _ 5-:nc: ne_:: nn:: n:nc:
,( o:5c (: oc :n_:_ ,:_n:_ ::_n :_v .__o:
o_p _c_ (5 _v o:v: c _n :: o5 (cu (_5
:_v_: :_:_v_: _n: :_nc (_:_c , n_ (5 ._v:
(_:_c n:u n:u ::5 :_cu_ 5_v_c :_u 5 c_v
.oe:_n o :_u ( 5_u_n) u__pc {_n :: :_v

Ol hatorah vol haahvodah vol hanveeeem (vol yome haShabbat hazeh) vol yome
hakeepoorim hazeh shehnahtahtah lanu Adonay Elohenu (leekdoshah
184
vleemnewchah) leemcheelah vleesleechah oolchapayrah vleemchol-bow et kole
ahvoenotanu lchavode oolteefahret ol hakole Adonay Elohenu anachnu modeem
loch oomvahrcheem otach yeetbahroch sheemcha bfee kole chai tameed lolam vaed
oodvahrcha emet vkayam lahodd. Baruch atah Adonay melech mochale
vsowlayoch lahahvoetaynu vlahahvoenote amo bate Yisrael oomahahveer
oshmotanu bchole shanah vshanah melech ol kole haahretz mkahdayshe
(haShabbat v) Yisrael vyome hahkeepoorim.

For the Torah, and for worship, for the prophets (and for this day of Shabbat), and for
this Day of Atonement, which you have given us, ABUNDANT ONE, our God, for
holiness and for rest, for pardon, for forgiveness, and for atonement, for honor and for
splendor-for everything, WISE ONE, our God, we offer thanks to you, and bless you.
May your name be blessed continually by every living being, forever and eternally. Your
word is truth, and stands forever. Blessed are you, ETERNAL ONE, the sovereign of
mercy and forgiveness for our wrongdoing, and for that of all your people, the House of
Israel, you who make our guilt to pass away year after year-the sovereign over all the
earth, source of the holiness of (Shabbat) Israel and the Day of Atonement.

nn _s_o n_o:5_n Haknasat Sefer Torah Returning the Torah to the Ark

_5: cu 5:u: : , o_u _ ::_n
,_n ::: n:n ,c_v: )__p o__ .ocu {__ :_v n
.n::_n ,5p o_v :_u _:5:

Yhallelu et shame Adonay, key neesgov shmo lvado. Hoedoe ol Eretz
vshahmahyeem. Vahyahrem keren lamo tehilah lchole chahseedov leevnay Yisrael
om krovo, Halleluyah!

Let all bless the name of THE ETERNAL, for it alone is to be exalted. God's splendor
dwells on earth and in the heavens, God has lifted up our people's strength. Praise to all
God's fervent ones, to the children of Israel, people near to God. Halleluyah!

The ark is opened and the Torah placed inside. Please rise.

,n5 ops_n_c_: n o_n {v
:5u_n .o:u n_5: :: ,o_v::_ n_: .uc n_:c
.o__p: :_c u__n, n5u: (_:_ nn

Atze chaim hee lahmahchahzeekeem bah, vtomechehhah mooshar.
Drahchehhah. Dahrchaynoam vchole nteevoetehhah shalom. Hasheevanu
Adonay alecha vnahshoovah chadayshe yamaynu kkedem.

185
And when the Ark was set at rest, they would proclaim: Restore, ETERNAL ONE, the
many thousand troops of Israel! For it is a precious teaching I have given you, my
Torah: Don't abandon it! It is a Tree of Life to those that hold fast to it, all who uphold it
may be counted fortunate. Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are
peace. Return US, PRECIOUS ONE, let us return! Renew our days, as you have done
of old!

The ark is closed. Please be seated.

A Different Kind of a Heenaynee

Heenaynee was meant to be a personal, intimate private prayer in which the chazzan
asked for God's help in the service he was about to lead. But unfortunately, it has become
in many synagogues a spectacle, in which the chazzan, instead of confessing his fears to
God in secret, proclaims them aloud to a congregation that thinks it is the audience.

What if there were a Hinaynee that the congregation said, a prayer in which everyone
who was present admitted their trepidation and asked for strength as the service began?
It would

change the whole focus of the service if we began this way. We would
understand that the service is a show, but not in the way we usually understand that
phrase. We think that that phrase means that the rabbi and the chazzan are the actors,
that the prayer book is the prompter, and that the congregants are the audience. But if we
each said a Heenaynee prayer of some kind, we would realize that each one of us is the
actor, that the rabbi and the chazzan are the prompters and that God is the audience.

Heenaynee
Heenaynee. Here I am.
A little bit nervous, a bit self-conscious.
After all, who am I talking to?
And what have I done?
Am I a sinner in search of grace or
a saint seeking salvation?
Am I so evil
or so good
as to warrant this season of introspection?
And yet here it is, and here I am:
this time of change and correction,
this heart of confusion and contrition.
Oh, if I could change!
If I could be so sure of myself
that I no longer had to imagine the slights of others;
to be so loving of myself
that I no longer had to ration my loving of others;
to be so bold with myself
that I no longer had to fear the bravery of others.
186
Oh, if I could change
there is so much I would change.
Maybe I will, but it scares me so.
Maybe I won't and that should scare me more.
But it doesn't.
So let me pray just this:
Let no one be put to shame because of me.
Wouldn't that make this a wonderful year?
Heenaynee -Here I am!
Rami M. Shapiro

In the evening when we were alone together my mother would make me sit on her
footstool, and while her deft fingers manipulated the knitting needles she would gaze
into my eyes as if she tried to absorb enough of me to last her for the coming months of
absence. "You will write us, dear?" she kept asking continually. "And if I should die
when you are gone, you will remember me in your prayers."

At the moment of departure [from Eastern Europe to America], when the train drew into
the station, she lost control of her feelings. As she embraced me, her sobs became
violent, and father had to separate us. There was a despair in her way of clinging to me
which I could not then understand. I understand it now. I never saw her again.
Marcus Ravage

Shema Kolenu Hear our Voice :>p v_bu

)s5 oc_n_5 :5_p ,::v o_n_ n ,:_n:_ ,::p v_cu
.:_:o _

Shema kolenu Adonay Elohenu choos vrahchame aleynu vkahbale brahchahmeem
oovrahtsone et tefilahtanu.

Hear our voice, ETERNAL ONE, our God, and accept our prayer with mercy and good
will.

.o__p: :_c u__n ,n5u: (_:_ :5u_n

Hasheevanu Adonay alecha vnawshoevah chadayshe yamaynu kkedem.

Turn us, ANCIENT ONE, toward you, that we might be enabled to return. Renew our
days like days of old.

187
Because We and You Belong to Each Other

.:5 n_ (:_5 : ,:_n:_ n_ ,(_c_v : :
.:_p:_n n_ ,(_:np : ,:_:_ n_ ,(_5_v :
.:v n_ ,(:s : ,::: n_ ,(_:_n_: :
.:_s n_ ,(_:vo : ,:_u: n_ ,(_c_: :
.:5p n_ ,(_:: : ,:_ n_ ,(_v_ :
.:_c__c n_ ,(_c__c : ,:::_c n_ ,(_c_v :

Kee anu amecha, vatah Elohenu, anu vahnehcha vatah avenu
Anu ahvahdehcha vatah ahdoenanu anu khahlehcha vatah chelkanu
Anu nahchahlahtecha vatah gorahlanu anu tsonehcha vatah roeanu
Anu karmecha vatah noteranu anu poolahtecha vatah yotsranu
Anu rahahtecha vatah dodanu anu sgoolahtecha vatah kroevanu
Anu ahmecha vatah malkenu anu mahahmeerehcha vatah mahahmeeranu

We are Your People, and You are our God.
We are born from You, and You are our Source.
We serve You, and You are our Connection.
We are Your community; and You our only One.
We are Your heritage, and You are our Destiny.
We are Your sheep, and You are our Shepherd.
We are Your vineyard, and You are our Tender.
We are Your creatures, and You are our Creator.
We are Your faithful lovers, and You are our Beloved.
We are Your treasure, and You are our Kin.
We are Your people, and You are our Melech, our Ruler.
We are Your faithful, and You are our Source of Faith.

Please rise.

Ashamnu

Who Are We?

Yet
188

At our Core

Yet

Our Real Being is

Yet

Who are we?

Yet

At our Core

Yet

Our real Being is

Yet

189
,:_cn ,:_s ,:v_un ,:v_n .o :_5 ,::_s: ,:_:5 ,:c_u
,:v ,:_ ,:s_: ,:_c ,:s_: ,:5_\: ,v :s_v ._p_u ::_o_u
,:v ,:5_v ,:_nu ,:v_u ._v :up ,:_s ,:v_ue
.:vv

Ashamnu
Bagadnu
Gazalnu
Dibarnu Dofi

Heevinu
Vhirshanu
Zadnu
Chamasnu
Tafalnu Sheker

Yaatznu Ra
Kizavnu
Latsnu
Maradnu
Niatznu
Sararnu
Avinu
Pashahnu
Tsrarnu
Kisheenu Oref

Rashanu
Shicatnu
Tiavnu
Tainu
Teetahnu

Ol Chate u_n :_v

.::-_e_: ,:: :_nc ,:: n_: ,n: _n:_ ,o:: :_v

Val kulam, Eloha slichot slach lanu, mchal lanu kaper lanu.

For all these wrongs, O God of forgiveness, forgive us, wipe the slate clean, grant us
atonement.

190
For the sin we committed before you:

By not reading enough.
By reading too much and not acting on our reading.

By not serving our community.
By serving our community and neglecting ourselves and our families.

By having a narrow point of view and not listening to those who disagree.
By listening to others always and not having convictions of our own.

By chasing after material possessions.
By thinking we are unworthy of owning nice things.

By neglecting our dearest friends.
By chasing friends and running away from ourselves.

By saving the world and ignoring our own people.
By saving Jews and ignoring the rest of the world.

By disobeying our parents.
By obeying our parents and suspending our rational mind.

By ignoring our children.
By indulging our children.

By letting our anger control us.
By suppressing our rage and righteous indignation.

By foolishness and childishness.
By not laughing enough and not playing enough.

By being selfish.
By not loving ourselves and not caring enough for ourselves.

By ignoring God.
By relying on God instead of ourselves.

By ignoring the past.
By living only in the past.

By saying "We don't make a difference.
By pretending we can save the world.
Dov Peretz Elkins

191

We take a moment to recall our deeds about which we can be proud:

Kane Yhee May it be soAgain n ):

For the mitzvah we have done when we held back a sharp and critical
tongue. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we gave a compliment. Kane
Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we withheld unsolicited
criticism. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we helped strangers or
friends in need. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we studied Torah. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we put the needs of
the community ahead of our individual needs. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we thought well of
ourselves in situations where we used to shame ourselves. Kane
Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we took action for the
sake of Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we have honor and
respect for parents and elders. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we have loving attention
to children. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we opened our homes in
hospitality to guests. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we chose not to use
products which harm the environment. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we took action in the
face of hopelessness. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we acted or spoke out in the face of racism,
sexism and homophobia and acted as an ally to people of color, women,
gays and lesbians. Kane Yhee. n ):
For the mitzvah we have done when we resisted all forms of addictive use of
alcohol, drugs, food or sex and instead acted in loving and responsible ways
towards ourselves and others. Kane Yhee. n ):
192
For the mitzvah we have done when we let elders, children; those in poor health,
anyone in need, or anyone at all know that we cared about them. Kane
Yhee. n ):
Stephen Booth

The Past Got in my Eyes

Just recently a "Peanuts" cartoon caught my eye. In case you missed it, I would like to
share it with you for it is "food for thought" for the High Holy Days.

In the cartoon, Lucy walks toward Charlie Brown, who is standing on the pitching
mound, tosses him the baseball and says, "Sorry, I missed that easy fly ball. I thought I
had it, but suddenly I remembered all the others I've missed, and the Past got in my
eyes!"

As I see it, the whole purpose of the High Holy Days is to acknowledge the past, deal
with it and ask for forgiveness for our failure to live up to God's expectations; and then
leave it behind and begin our lives over again with a clean slate.

This cartoon reminds us that if we choose to allow it, the past can continue to influence
our present and, in turn, the future.

To what avail, we might ask? Are we to let our past misdeeds be the sole determinant of
what happens to us? Or perhaps, if we enter the New Year with a new image, one in
which the past does not get in our eyes, this time we may catch on to the importance of
taking a renewed look at dealing with life.
Daniel A. Roberts

The Three Things My Father Discovered

The great Jewish humorist, Sam Levenson, in describing the Jewish American
experience, once wrote, "My folks were immigrants and they fell under the spell of the
American legend that the streets of America were paved with gold. When my father got
here, though, he found out three things: First, he saw that the streets were not paved
with gold. The second thing he noticed was that the streets were not even paved, and
last, but not least, he discovered that he was the one who was expected to do the
paving." There are three precepts that the Jew must understand before beginning
anything new: First, the dream of what ought to be; Secondly the reality of how it is, and
Last, but not least, what must be done to make life more livable for everyone. Perhaps
that, above all, should be the Jewish watchword during this New Year.
Stephen Chaim Listfield

193
nn Yah!

nn Yah!

:_ Ale God,

on_ rachoom Nurturing Womb,

):_n vchanoon Compassionate,

o_e_ (__ erech ahpahyeem Patient,

__n 5_ vrav chesed Abounding in Loyal Love

_c_ vemet Faithfulness

oo:_: __n s: notser chesed Assuring Loyal Love for a
lahahlahfeem thousand generations,

v_u_o )v _u: nosay avone Forgiving bad behavior
vahpehshah intentional and unintentional,

nu_n vchahtahah When we miss the mark

n_p_: vnakeh And forgiving.

194

Introduction to n:s_ n_:_ Eleh Ezkerah Martyrology

What is our life without remembering the days of their lives?
What is our piety without the example of their pious way?
What is our righteousness without their righteous deeds?
What is our courage in the face of their giving their lives to sanctify God's name?
What can we say if we do not to remember their stories?
They were people of renown, wise and righteous.
All who elaborate in telling about them are called the students of their students and are
praiseworthy.
Michael Strassfeld

n:eu_ _:v uo_: n:s_ n_:_

Eleh ezkerah venafshee ahlie eshpechah.

These I remember and pour out my soul.
We walk the world of slaughter,
stumbling and falling in wreckage,
surrounded by the fear of death,
and eyes which gaze at us in silence,
the eyes of other martyred Jews,
of hunted, harried, persecuted souls
who never had a choice,
who've huddled all together in a corner
and press each other closer still and quake.
For here it was the sharpened axes found them
and they have come to take another look
at the stark terror of their savage death.
Their staring eyes all ask the ancient question: Why?
Hayim Naham Bialik (Adapted)

All the generations that preceded me contributed me
in small amounts, so that I would be erected here in Jerusalem
all at once, like a house of prayer or a charity institution.
That commits one. My name is the name of my contributors.
That commits one.
I am getting to be the age my father was when he died.
My last will shows many superscriptions.
I must change my life and my death
daily, to fulfill all the predictions
concerning me. So they won't be lies.
That commits one.
195
I have passed my fortieth year.
There are posts they will not let me fill
because of that. Were I in Auschwitz,
they wouldn't put me to work.
They'd burn me right away.
That commits one.
Yehuda Amichai

They wrapped him in the Torah he loved,
and lived by, and taught with awe,
in defiance of the Romans,
craving the teaching
as fish crave water.
Hanina was not the first Jew to be bound
and burned by the Amalek-enemy
nor would he be the last that was certain
there were still the Priests and Princes of Spain
and Crusaders and Cossacks
and the most mass-efficient of all,
the Germans
to come.
But his tortured vision-message
was the first,
and would somehow make the Death of History easier
for his students and students-of-students
down to the Last Generation of Jews
who would have to suffer
for whatever there is
that calls for Jewish screams to
lullaby the world to restful sleep.
As the flames cracked
And the body sizzled
Hanina was heard to say:
He Who will see this desecrated Torah
avenged
Will make good, somehow, my dying.
I see the parchment burn,
but the letters are soaring to their source.
You may burn a Torah,
But Torah will not be consumed.
You may kill Jews,
But the Jews will survive
And serve witness
To the Genesis patterns of Creation
And the Isaiah prophecies of hope.
Daniel Siegel
196

Anne Frank was a young girl in Amsterdam, Holland during the terrible days of Nazi
Germany. Two weeks before she died-one of six million Jews who perished in the
Holocaust-she wrote the following words in her diary:

Its really a wonder that I havent dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd
and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe
that people are really good at heart. I simply cant build my hopes on a foundation of
confusion, misery and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness.
I hear the approaching thunder, I can feel the suffering of millions and yet, if I look into the
heavens, I think that it will all come out right one of these days, that cruelty will end,
and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals
for perhaps the day will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

In the city of Warsaw such a long time ago
Two hundred children stand lined row on row
With their freshly washed faces and freshly washed clothes
The children of Poland who never grow old.

In the orphanage yard not a child remains
The soldiers have herded them down to the trains
Carrying small flasks of water and bags of dry bread
To march in the ranks of the unquiet dead.

With their small Jewish faces and pale haunted eyes
They march hand in hand down the street-no one cries,
No one laughs, no one looks, no one turns, no one talks
As they walk down the streets where my grandparents walked.

Had my grand parents stayed in that dark bloody land
My own children too would have marched hand in hand
To the beat of the soldiers, the jackbooted stamp
That would measure their lives till they died in those camps.

The cries of my children at night take me back
To those pale hollow faces in stark white and black
Only the blood of the children remains
It runs in the street-and it runs in our veins.
Si Kahn

197
Now, as always, Jews are intimately linked one to another. Shout here and you will be
heard in Kiev. Shout in Jerusalem, Jews everywhere reflect their sadness. An assault
on Jews anywhere means an attempt to humiliate Jews everywhere. Thus a Jew lives in
more than one place, in more than one era, on more than one level. To be Jewish is to
be possessed of a historical consciousness that transcends individual consciousness....

All we want as Jews is to live and uphold the sanctity of life, all we want is to create
peace and create in peace, to bear witness that people are not necessarily one
another's enemies, that every war is senseless, that the solution lies in compassion and
that compassion is possible.

All we want is peace. And yet ... there is upheaval.

So how can one not be sad today? How can one be in this world of ours and not
despair?

One day Chasidim came to inform the great Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav of renewed
persecutions of Jews in the Ukraine. The Master listened and said nothing. Then they
told him of pogroms in certain villages. Again the Master listened and said nothing.
Then they told of slaughtered families, of desecrated cemeteries, of children burned
alive. The Master listened, listened and shook his head. "I know," he whispered. "I know
what you want. I know. You want me to shout with pain, weep in despair. I know, I
know. But I will not, you hear me, I will not." Then, after a long silence, he did begin to
shout, louder and louder, "Gevalt, Yidden...! Jews, for heaven's sake, do not despair. ..
Gevalt, Yidden, Jews do not despair."
Elie Wiesel

Choose another people.
We are tired of death, tired of corpses,
We have no more prayers.
For the time being
Choose another people.
We have run out of blood for victims,
Our houses have been turned into desert,
The earth lacks space for tombstones,
There are no more lamentations
Nor songs of woe
In the ancient texts.
God of mercy
Sanctify another land
Another Sinai.
We have covered every field and stone
With ashes and holiness.
With our crones
With our young
With our infants
198
We have paid for each letter in your Commandments.
God of Mercy
Lift up your fiery brow,
Look on the peoples of the world,
Let them have the prophecies and Holy Days...
And O God of mercy
Grant us one more blessing-
Take back the divine glory of our genius.
Kadya Molodowsky

Lament

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its destruction-about seven meters,
and in it four killed and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, are scattered
two hospitals and one cemetery.
But the young woman
who was buried in the place
from where she came, at a distance
of more than one hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably.
And the lonely man
who is mourning her death in a distant country
incorporates into the circle
the whole world. And I wont speak
of the cry of the orphans
that reaches Gods chair and from there
makes the circle endless and godless.
Yehuda Amichai

For the 500
th
Dead Palestinian, Ibtisam Bozieh

Little sister Ibtisam,
our sleep flounders, our sleep tugs
on the cord of your name.
Dead at thirteen, for staring through
the window into a gun barrel
which did not know you wanted to be a doctor.
I would smooth your life in my hands,
pull you back. Had I stayed in your land
I might have been dead too,
for something simple like staring
or shouting what was true
199
and getting kicked out of school.
I wandered the stony afternoons
owning all their vastness.
Now I would give them to you, guiltily, you. Not me.
Throwing this ragged grief into the street,
scissoring news stories free from the page,
but they live on my desk like letters, not cries.
How do we carry the endless surprise
of all the deaths? Becoming doctors
for one another, Arab, Jew,
instead of guarding tumors of pain
as if they hold us upright?
Little sister, once our supple fingers
curled around any twig.
Now even the orchards weep.
People in other countries speak easily
of being early, being late.
Some will live to be eighty.
Some never saw it
will not forget your face.
Naomi Shihab Nye

:s Yizkor
:s Yizkor is the name popularly applied to the whole memorial service. The word is
taken from the specific memorial prayer which is said for departed close relatives at certain
designated times these being the last day of Passover, Shavuot, Shemini Azeret and Yom
Kippur. The first word of the prayer is yizkor which means, he shall remember. Some
scholars believe that the custom of reciting Yizkor in the synagogue began at the time of the
Crusades, during the 13
th
century.

As if
Yizkor wasnt full enough already
September has a new emptiness now.
We gather to remember
Innocents
From all the world
Whose death was an accident of address.
And we remember
Those of Israel
More innocents
And those innocents of Ishmael
All these lives taken
By faith turned to hate.
Let us remember the difference.
Herb Cooper-Levy
200
Death" and "dying" two simple figures of speech; an abstract noun and a present
participle.
"Death: a permanent cessation of all vital functions."
"Dying: the cause or occasion or loss of life."
How wonderfully concise is the dictionary!
How exact its definitions!
Death for us is a mixture of moods,

Fear of abandonment, separation, being left alone,
brooding anger,
fists shaken against the sky,
voices shouted against the grave,

regrets over things that could have been,
that should have been,
but that were not.

bittersweet nostalgia,
ugly scenes transmuted into memories of mere mischief.

Sharp quarrels softened by the passing of time,
Words of stone smoothed by perspective,
tears, salt of self pity, brine of resentment

and remembrance of that gray day,
of a tear in the cloth, of a handful of earth,

and now this moment
when together we cling to courage
we who have the right to mourn
for others and for ourselves.

It is the dignity of the soul to
hold on to the past;
it is the dignity of the spirit to
take hold of the future,

To love again and to forgive
others and ourselves,
to rise from grief,
to sew the torn garment,
to live, to love, even to laugh again,
and at the same time to remember
always to remember,
always.
Harold Schulweis
201
Please rise.

Reader: We turn our thoughts to yesterday, to a world that lives only in our
memory. As we recall the days gone by, we know the past is
irretrievable. Yet through the haze of memory we may recapture
treasured moments and memories. We are thankful for the happiness
we knew, for those no longer here with whom we lived and laughed and
loved.

All: We praise the Eternal wellspring of life who links yesterday to
tomorrow. We affirm that despite all the tragedy bound up with living, it
is still good to be alive. We understand that there can be no love
without loss, no joy without sorrow. May we have the courage to accept
the all of life, the love and the loss, the joy and the sorrow, as we
remember them.
Adapted from Whats It All About? People! Temple Beth Eli Birmingham, Alabama


We remember them.

All: At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of Winter
We remember them.

We remember them.

All: At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us,

We remember them.

We remember them.

202
We remember them.

We remember them.

We remember them.

All: As long as we live, they too will live;
For they are now a part of us
Sylvan Kamens and Jack Reimer
Please be seated.

All: The days pass by and another year is gone. But the melody remains
eternal.

Reader: Lord, what is man that You care for him?
Or the son of man that You think of him?
Man is like a breath;
His days are like a fleeting shadow.

n5u_n__ u:_ )_5 nv__ o-nc nn
5v :s: c nc :_5_n_: o

Adonay mah-adam vietaydahayhoe ben ehnoshe vahtahchahshvayhu.
Adam lahchehvehl dahmah yahmov ktsale ovare.

u5 ::c 5__v: :n {s _p5_5
nc:n 5_5: 5: v_n ): :_c :c:

Bahbokare yahtseets vchahlahf laherev ymolale vyahvashe.
Leemnote yahmanu kane hoedah vnahvee lvov chahchmah.

203
Sorrow Can Enlarge the Domain of our Life

Reader: Sorrow can bring understanding as well as pain, breadth as well as the
contraction that comes with pain.

Out of love and sorrow can come a compassion that endures.

All: The needs of others, hitherto unnoticed, now come into the ken of our
experience, or our sorrow has opened our life to the needs of others.

Sorrow can enlarge the domain of our life so that we may now
understand the triviality of the things many pursue.

Reader: What is important is not luxury but love; not wealth but wisdom; not gold
but goodness.

There is a God in a world in which human beings can experience
tenderness. There is a God in a world in which two lives can be bound
together by a tie stronger than death.

All: Out of love may come sorrow. But out of sorrow can come light for
others who dwell in darkness.

And out of the light we bring to others will come light for ourselves -- the
light of solace, of strength, of transfiguring and consecrating purpose.
S. Greenberg (adapted)

Reader: One generation comes into the world to be blessed with days of peace
and safety. Another travels the valley of the shadow, enduring the
cruelties of persecution and war, Sorrowful and dangerous have been our
times. We have lived through years of tyranny and destruction; we are
schooled in sorrow and well acquainted with grief. We have seen the just
defeated, the innocent driven into exile, and the righteous brought to a
martyrdom as merciless as any the ages have ever beheld.

Reader: At this Memorial Hour, we recall with loving reverence all of Your
children who have perished through the cruelty of the oppressor. Not
punished for any individual guilt, but without distinction -the aged and
the young, the learned and the simple -- all were driven along the road
of pain and pitiless death. Their very presence on earth was
begrudged them for they brought to the mind of man the recollection
of the Covenant of mercy and justice. For no sin of theirs did they
perish, but because they were a symbol of Your eternal teaching.
They died for the sanctification of Your name.

204
All: They lie at rest in nameless graves. Their resting-places in far-off
forests and abandoned fields are now lost to the eyes of revering kin.
Yet they must not be forgotten.

Reader: We shall remember them in their pain and their agony. We shall
remember them as we would remember our own brothers and sisters; for
had we lived with them in Europe we would have died with them at
Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen and Babi-Yar, at Treblinka
and Terezin.

All sing:
_nuc_n _55 nc:u n:c__5 )c__c :_
)c__c :_ ns-:: ov _n_c_u e :_v _

Ahnee mahahmeen behehmoenah shlaymah bveeot hamahsheeoch.
Vaf ol pee shehyeesmayha eem kole zeh ahnee mahahmeen.

All: I believe in a hope for the future -- Ahnee mahahmeen!

Ahnee mahahmeen was the frequent song of the martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Reader: We remember them because the world would like to forget them.
To forget how they cried for help and the nations overlooked them;
how they tried to escape and the nations excluded them;
how they died in the camps and the nations ignored them.

All: They must not be forgotten.

Reader: Our Yizkor prayers enshrine their memory
Of hallowed loves conjoined to God in soul,
Who chant the hymn of immortality
From frontiers where eternities unroll.
Marc Raphael (adapted)

On a Sunny Evening

Reader: On a purple, sun-shot evening
Under wide-flowering chestnut trees
Upon the threshold full of dust
Yesterday, today, the days are all like these.
Trees flower forth in beauty,
Lovely too their very wood all gnarled and old
That I am half afraid to peer
Into their crowns of green and gold.
205
Congregation rises.

Traditional Mourners Kaddish

(:c_ ,n_v: 5 c:v5 .5_ n_cu u__p :__:
)_cs5 ::_v_5.:_u 5 :: __n5 ):_c5 ):__n5 n_::_c
_c:v _c:v: o_:v: (_5c 5_ n_cu _n )_c c 5p
n_:_v _n _u_: o_c _e ,n_5_u (_5
:5 :: )c :v: :v: n (5 up n_cu ::_n
)_c c ,c:v5 )c__ ,c_n: n5u ,u
,:_u :: :_v ::v o_n _cu )c 5_ c:u _n
)_c c
)_c c :5_ 5u :: :_v ,:_u :: :_v

Bechayaychone oovyomaychone uvchahyay dechole beyt Yisrael
veyitnasay veyithadar veyitaleh veyithahlal
shemey dekudsha
All: bereech hu

206
It is customary to bow at "vanaknu korim

,u_5 s: n:: _: ,::_n )__: _n5_u: ::v
,::5 v_u: o:v __n _c_ _ :: )_:u
.n (5 up_n ,o::c_n ::_c ,(_:_c _:o:
,{_ _ o_cu n_u: n_u
,occ _n5:5 \v _::u
.v )_ :_n:_ n
5 5:_: ,:s _o_ :::_c _c_
on:_n n : ,(_55: :_ 5_u_n_ o_n v_
v )_ ,_nc {_n :_v ,:_v_cc o_cu_5
n_n o_5 {_n :: :_v (_:_c: nn _c_:
.n_ cu n_ nn

ode. V nehehmar, vhayaw Adoenoy lmelech ol kole haahretz. Byome hahoo,
byome hahoo, yee-heh-yeah Adonay ehchad, ooshmoe, ooshmoe, ooshmoe ehchad.

of creation, who gave to us teachings of truth and planted eternal life within us. And
so, we bend the knee and bow, acknowledging the sovereign who rules above all those
who rule, the blessed Holy One. Who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth,
God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other God." And it is
written: "THE EVERLASTING ONE will reign as sovereign over all the earth. On that
day shall THE MANY NAMED be one, God's name be one!"

207
Ayalon

In the hills of Ayalon above the
Broken earth
Two boys shout and play with a ball
on a field of shrub and dirt.
Divided sons of Abraham exhausted embrace.
Prince of Islam, Prince of Judah
Know each others face.

If we met on the sands of Sinai
Under a molten sky
And if you held me in your sights
And looked me in the eye, what would you do?

If we met of the sands of the Sinai
Under a molten sky
and if I held you in my sights and
looked you in the eye, I
would shoot you dead.

In the hills of Ayalon that once were a
no-mans land. Young shepherds
chase their wandering sheep and lead
them home again.

My grandfather died at Dachau, never
will I forget.
The British set fire to my
grandfathers village and left twelve
Muslims dead.

If we meet on the hills of Haramoun
stunned by the rockets flash, and if
you found my heart exposed and a
pistol in your grasp,
what would you do?

If we met on the hills of Haramoun
Stunned by a rockets flash. And if I
found your heart exposed and a pistol
in my grasp, I would take you
prisoner, hide you away,
then set you free.

208
In the hills of Ayalon, the young ones play a
game. Toss an orange into the air and call
each others name.
Ricky Shimon Sheon Naomi catch it before it
falls. Yousef Hassan Aria Amira tear
down the walls.

If we met by the river Jordan under a rain of nails,
And if I raised my rifle up and your aim could not fail,
what would you do?

If we met by the river Jordan
Under a rain of nails,
And if I raised my rifle up
and my aim could not fail,
I would put down my gun
open my arms
and weep. I would weep.
I would weep.
Fred Small

ADON OLAM CROWN OF ALL TI ME

.5: s :: o__u5 ,(_:c _u_ o:v )_
.p: cu (_:_c _s_ ,:: so_n5 nu_v_: v:
.: (:c _5: ,::_n ::: __n_
.no5 ,nn n ,nn n ,nn n
.n5n_n: : :uc_n: ,:_u )_ n_ n
.nuc_n svn : ,::_ :5 u_ :5
.ns v5 :5_n s ,:_: _n :_ n
.p_ o5 : :c : :c c: n
.nv )_u v5 ,n po_ 5
. : : ,: n ov

Adon olam asher mahloch btehrem kole ytseer neevrah
Leet naasah vecheftzo kol, azay melech shemoe neekrah.
Veachahray keechlot hakole, levado yimloch norah.
Vehu hayah vehu hoveh, vehu yeeyeh beteefarah.
Vehu ehchad veane shaynee, lehomsheel lo lehachbeerah.
Belee raysheet belee tockleet, veloe haoze vehamisrah.
209
Vehu aylee vchai goahlee, vetzur chevlee beate tzarah.
Vehu neesee oomanos lee, menat kosee beyome ekrah.
Beyahdoe afkeed roochie, beate eeshan veaweeraw.
Veem roochie geveeyahtee, Adonoy lee veloe eerah.

Crown of all time, the one who reigned
before all mortal shape was made,
and when God's will brought forth all things
then was the name supreme proclaimed.

And after everything is gone,
yet One alone, awesome, will reign.
God was, and is, and will remain,
in splendid balance, over all.

And God is One, no second is,
none can compare, or share God's place.
Without beginning, without end,
God's is all might and royal grace.

This is my God, my help who lives,
refuge from pain in time of trial,
my banner, and my place to fly,
my cup's portion when, dry, I cr y.

To God's kind hand I pledge my soul
each time I sleep, again to wake,
and with my soul, this body, here.
YAH' S love is mine; I shall not fear.

npn_n Hateekvah

ncn n u_o: nc:e 55:_5 v ::
nos )s: )_v ncp nsc ___o:
o_e:_ :u np_n :_p n5 : v
o:u )s {__ :s_5 uon o_v n:

Kole ode bahlayvov pneemah. Nefesh yhoodee hoemeeyah.
Oolfaahtay meezeroch kahdeemah. Ayeen ltsion tsoefeeyah.
Ode low ovdah teekvahtanu. Hateekvah shnote olpieyeem.
Leeyote am chafshee bartsanu. Eretz tsion yrooshahlahyeem.

210
As long as in a Jewish breast
The souls stirring has not ceased.
The longing eye will not rest
Until it gazes on Zion in the East.

Our ancient hope will not perish,
Hope from ages long since past.
To live free in the land we cherish
Zion and Jerusalem, at last.

Until we come together again at the close of the day, Shalom!
211
Meditation Before Neelah n>v:

At the dusk of N'eelah the world hangs in the balance. The sun rests just at the horizon,
already dimming; at the Eastern gates the shadows grow, poised for a moment before
they wrap the Earth In darkness. Everything is still; life pauses and is still; it Is a time
when souls pass from the world.

At N'eelah we weigh our own souls in the balance. We measure the good we gave, the
bad we inflicted, the acts that gave meaning to our lives and the acts which seemed to
take it away. Our prayer becomes more urgent: let our evil be swallowed up, and let
only our good be measured; then our worth will be assured.

But what is the measure of our good deeds? They hover like motes of dust in the
twilight, hardly of enough weight to settle on the balance, powerless to tip it from its
center. The scales hang steady, and it seems we have added nothing to either side.

What have we to put on the scales to match the gift of creation? For we are favored
amid all creation. The matter around us, the sky and the stone and the water, exists and
endures; but we create as well as endure; we exist and know that we exist. We have
been given life. What should be the measure of our repayment?

The answer is in the twilight, in the ordered motion of sun and earth. Our lives bear
witness to the Mind that has set the stars in motion; that ordains the dawning and
setting of each day; that marks the passage of every human soul. Like the stars, our
part in the universe has been devised from its beginning, and we each have a rightful
place here. We do not justify our creation with our deeds; we are not set the impossible
task of repaying the miracle of life with accomplishments of our own devising.

Justification for our lives lies far beyond our power, knowing the purpose of our creation
is even more distant from our understanding. This hour of N'eelah will not storm heaven
for us and bring us justification and eternal wisdom. But before the sun yet sets, we can
find the strength to begin the labor ordained for us, the task placed wholly within our
grasp:

For what does God require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

The time of N'eelah has come, the time of the closing of the gates. The sun approaches
the place of Its setting; like every day, this Day of Atonement draws to its end. Before
the next Day of Atonement will come, the lives of some of us here will have ended. It is
given to us to see the approach of each day's end; but our own deaths, which approach
with equal certainty, come with no sure warning.

And now the gates of heaven begin to close.

212
In truth, we should not say that N'eelah brings the closing of the gates. Let us
not blaspheme the Most High, by saying that there ever comes a time when
sincere prayer is not heard, when sincere repentance is turned away. But If we
cannot find prayer and repentance on this Day of Repentance, if we cannot
make a start towards peace and wholeness before the sun sets on this one Day
of Peace, then when shall repentance come? And how many days are left us in
which to seek it?


A few precious moments are left us, in this Day, in our lives, to turn from sin and
pain, and to embrace hope, and holiness, and peace. For us and for our world:
There is so little time.


Gates

At each moment of our lives

we encounter gates behind which beckon the unknown.
We have little choice but to enter,
and, as we do,

the gates swing shut behind us.
We can never go back.
The known, the comfortable, the safe
all these are in the past.
Only the unknown, the dangerous,

the mysterious and the terrifying lay ahead.

Moving on makes us human,
do so lightly and at peace makes us divine.

Eventually we come to the final gate,
the final closing.
The trail ends,

leaving behind only memories

of steps taken, leaps tried, grace achieved and shared.
How do we honor this final gate?
With tears and stories,
with memories and love,
213
with food and friends.
And with silence.

Silence is the heart of death, and silence alone does it justice. But silence does not
mean passivity, and our tradition speaks of four virtues that form the core of silence.
The first is hearing:

hearing the inner voice of our pain and love, rejoicing that
nothing,
not even the grave,

can rob us of that supreme human emotion.

The second is memory:

reclaiming the past by refusing to forget the
joys it once held.

The third is action:

we must honor our dead by continuing to live ourselves.

Their memory is quickened only in the fullness of our own
lives our own futures,
our own on-going struggles
to make sense out of an often senseless world.

The fourth is wisdom:

every life is a teaching, every person a guide to truth.

Hearing, memory, action, wisdom...
May each of these find a place in our silence, our grief, and
our moving out again into the world
where yet another gate beckons wide.
- Rami M. Shapiro

Forgive us, our Mother and Father, for we have sinned. Pardon us and all those who
call on You for forgiveness. Help us to bring You Into our hearts. As it is written:

And if you seek Adonay your God, you shall find Me, but only if you seek Me with all
your heart and with all your soul.

214
Vidui Confession of Sins

Among the sins we acknowledge today is that of vidui peh - a confession of the mouth.
To deal with sins merely by reciting a confession with our mouths is itself a sin; only if
our hearts regret the deeds, only if our minds determine to work hard at turning from
wrongdoing, is our confession acceptable.

:_ ,:_:o (:o: 5 ,:_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_
_c: ,_v _up o:o _\_v :n_:_ )__u ,:_:nc o_:_v
:n_:_ op_s ,:_c :_5_ _n:_ :_n:_ (:o:
.:un :n_:_ :5_ ,:un :

Elohay vaylohay avotaynu vemoetaynu, tahvoe lfahnecha tefeelahtaynu vol
teetahlom meecheenahtaynu shehane anahchnu ahzay fahneem ookshay oref
lomar lfahnecha Adonay Elohenu vaylohay avotaynu vemoetaynu tsahdee;keem
anahchnu vloe chatahnu avol anachnu chatahnu.

Our God, God of all generations: Let our prayers come before You, and do not turn
away from our pleas. For at least we are not brazen or stiff-necked, to say before You,
the almighty and eternal God, that we are righteous and have not sinned. Rather, we,
like those before us, have sinned.

:_v :_nc ,_n_5 :_n_:c ,oc_n_ _c: :_v 5_u (_:_c :_
nn: ,ou_n: n:nc n_5_c ,)u )u 5_v_c ,c_v
.:c: ov: : ,_n u5 :: ov ps n_uv ,ovuo:
u:u 5 o_n :: :s ,n_u_v u:u _c: :: _n ,:_
,):v_5 ___ 5: ): ,o__pc :v_: v_n_u c: ,n_u_v
. o_u5 p_ ,ou cv 5s__

Ale melech yoshave ol keesay rahchahmeen meetnahhage bahchaseedoot
mochale ahvoenote ahmoe mahahveer reeshone reeshone mahrbeh mcheelah
lchahtaheem oosleecha lfoesheem oseh tsdahkote eem chole basar
vahrooach loe chrahahtahm teegmole. Ale horaytah lahnu loemar shloshe
ehsray zchar lahnu hayome breet shloshe ehsray kmoe shehhodahtah
lehahnov meekehdehm, vchane kahtoov. Vahyeered Adonay behahnon.
Vahyeetyahtsave emoe sham vahyeekrah vshame Adonay.

Our Ruler, enthroned on a throne of mercy; You tenderly grant pardon, forgiving our
transgressions. Our human weaknesses are known to You, and You are filled with
compassion for us, despite our sins. You have taught us Your thirteen attributes, as You
215
revealed them long ago to Your prophets, when You descended in glory and stood with
them. Stand with us now, and teach us to emulate Your ways:

p_ :e :_v 5_v__
__n s: ._c_ __n 5_ ,o_e_ (__ ,):_n on_ :_ ,
.n_p_: ,nu_n v_u_o )v _u: ,oo:_:

Vahyahahvore Adonay ol pahnov vahyeekrah. Adonay, Adonay ale rahchoom
vchahnoon erek ahpahyeem vrov chesed vehemet. Notsare chesed
lahahlahfeem nosay ahvone vahfehshah vchatahah vnahkay.

Adonay, Adonay. Compassionate and Gracious God, Slow to Anger, Rich in Steadfast
Kindness, Extending Mercy to the Thousandth Generation, Forgiving Iniquity,
Transgression and Sin and Acquitting the Penitent.

Please rise.

Ashamnu

Who Are We?

Yet

At our Core
We're light and truth, infinite wisdom, eternal goodness.

Yet

Our Real Being is

Yet

216
Who are we?

Yet

At our Core

Yet

Our real Being is

Yet

,:_cn ,:_s ,:v_un ,:v_n .o :_5 ,::_s: ,:_:5 ,:c_u
,:v ,:_ ,:s_: ,:_c ,:s_: ,:5_\: ,v :s_v ._p_u ::_o_u
,:v ,:5_v ,:_nu ,:v_u ._v :up ,:_s ,:v_ue
.:vv
Ashamnu
Bagadnu
Gazalnu
Dibarnu Dofi

Heevinu
Vhirshanu
Zadnu
Chamasnu
Tafalnu Sheker

Yaatznu Ra
Kizavnu
Latsnu
Maradnu
Niatznu
Sararnu
Avinu
217
Pashahnu
Tsrarnu
Kisheenu Oref

Rashanu
Shicatnu
Tiavnu
Tainu
Teetahnu

Ol Chate u_n :_v

.::-_e_: ,:: :_nc ,:: n_: ,n: _n:_ ,o:: :_v

Val kulam, Eloha slichot slach lanu, mchal lanu kaper lanu.

For all these wrongs, O God of forgiveness, forgive us, wipe the slate clean, grant us
atonement.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by hardening our hearts
Ignoring grinding poverty and despair.

And for the sin which we have sinned against You by exploitation
Living well while others live in poverty.

For the sin which we have sinned against You consciously or unconsciously
Preventing fellow Israelis fully and equally from participating in Israeli society and
leaving them underrepresented in government, academia and business.

For the sin which we have sinned against You through slander
Claiming that the unemployed are lazy, that they do not want to get real jobs.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by rashly blaming others
Declaring war against the unemployed rather than against unemployment.

And for the sin which we have sinned against You knowingly or unknowingly
Allowing the Israeli government to continue expropriating land, demolishing homes,
building roads, uprooting trees, besieging towns, and denying water to innocent civilians
in our name, even while publicly speaking words of peace.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by causeless hatred
Demonizing the other.

218
And for the sin which we have sinned against You with our words of incitement
Provoking instead of problem solving, fueling tensions instead of nurturing
reconciliation.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by desecrating Your Name
Abusing others and calling it Your will.

And for the sin which we have sinned against You through insolence
Claiming that only Jews have rights to the Land.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by silence
Saying nothing when we knew that human beings were being mistreated.

And for the sin which we have sinned against You by standing by
Protecting those who took the law into their own hands.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by failure to distinguish
Not recognizing the difference between legitimate self-defense and the collective
punishment of innocent civilians.

And for the sin which we have sinned against You by justification
Using excessive lethal force.

For the sin which we have sinned against You by narrow-mindedness
Feeling only our own pain, closing our hearts to the agony of bereaved Palestinian
mothers and fathers.
Rabbis for Human Rights-Israel

We have shared many words together. That we could speak them and hear them
spoken, means that there is a place in the world for them, that our songs of praise and
prayers of hope have not gone empty from our mouths; but still remain in the air,
waiting for other words to join them. Too often they are not` joined, rhetoric propounded
but not meant, accents without acts. If the hopes that we have shared tonight are not to
have been shared in vain, we must not leave our words here in our seats, neatly folded
in our books. Our words must leave with us, go streaming out the doors of this New
Year, accompany us as we walk on the road, when we sit in our homes, when we lie
down and when we rise up. They must emblazon the doorposts of our house, and seal
themselves into our hands before our eyes, that the world might remember the words it
has so long forgotten, and compose from them a new song which all might sing in
celebration of the world we all desire.
Richard N. Levy

Open for us the gates of light, blessing, joy, knowledge, splendor, confession, merit,
compassion, purity, salvation, atonement, kindness, forgiveness, solace, pardon,
assistance, sustenance, righteousness, uprightness, healing, peace and repentance.
219

Avinu Malkaynu :::_c :5

:_::_c :_c Eemahnu Malchateynu, hear our voice!

While we, who need each other so much. segregate ourselves into opposing
camps: young against old, race against race; progressive against traditionalists,
rich against poor.

:::_c :5 Avinu Malkeynu, we have sinned before you.

As long as we are content with half-measures, or cannot be hopeful or refuse to
trust one another because we will not understand one another, as long as we will
not be generous or avoid the good we might have accomplished.

:_::_c :_c Eemahnu Malchateynu, we have sinned before you.

The Ark is opened.

:_::_c :_c/:::_c :5
ou_v_c :5 )_ : ,:_:_v_ :_:n

220


Our Mother, Our Queen, let us find pardon for our wrongdoings.




The Ark is closed, but we remain standing.

It is Never Too Late

The

last word has not been spoken, the
last sentence has not been written, the
final verdict is not in.
It is never too late to change my
mind, my direction,
to say no to the past
and yes to the
future, to offer
remorse,
to ask and give forgiveness.

221
It is never too late to
start over again, to
feel again
to love again to
hope again.

It is never too late

to overcome despair,

to turn sorrow into resolve and pain into purpose.
It is never too late to alter my world,
not by magic incantations
or. manipulations of the cards
or deciphering the stars.

But by opening myself

to curative forces buried within,
to hidden energies,
the powers in my interior self.

In sickness and in dying, it is never too late.
Living, I teach.
Dying, I teach,

how I face pain and fear,

Others observe me, children, adults,
students of life and death, Learn from
my bearing, my posture, my
philosophy.
Harold Schulweis

As Yom Kippur reaches its finale, we are as close to purified and sin-free as Jews can
hope to be in this life. Having devoted a day to rethinking our priorities, we end Yom
Kippur with three statements of faith. The Shema asserts our membership in the Jewish
people and awareness of the divine unity. We then affirm God's sovereignty by reciting
three times the second line of the Shema, which traditional Jews only recite silently the
rest of the year. Thus do we underline our effort to have the divine rule our hearts,
minds and hands every day in the year ahead. And then we proclaim seven times that
we have but one God. The sevenfold repetition not only joyously and emphatically
communicates the most central message of these days of awe; it creates seven fences
built by the community to protect our fragile resolve as we step forward to meet the
challenges of the new year.
David A. Teutsch
222

We chant once:

n_ ,:_n:_ ,:_u v_cu


Listen, Israel: THE ETERNAL is our God, THE ETERNAL ONE alone!

We chant three times:

._v o:v: ::_c 5: o_u (5


A fountain of blessings is the Holy Name, whose Kavode/Presence fills creation,
through whose Malchoot/Reign is born Time, Space and more beyond!

We chant seven times:

on:_n n

Yah hu haEloheem!

nn is God!

We are seated.

Final Sounding of the Shofar ou

n:: nvp Teki'ah Gdoelah

5_: n5u n:u:

Lshanah tovah teekatayvu

May a good year be written for you!

Rosh HaShanah Machzor

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the Northern Virginia

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