Hareini Mekabel Alai
Hareini mekabel alai et mitzvat ha boreh v'ahavta l'rei acha kamocha
Hareinu, mekableem aleinu et mitzvat ha boreh v'ahavta l'rei acha kamocha
Here I am (Here we are), ready to accept the mitzvah of The Creator to love my neighbor as myself.
Open Up Our Eyes - Cantor Jeff Klepper
- Open up our eyes, teach us how to live.
- Fill our hearts with joy, and all the love You have to give.
- Gather us in peace as You lead us to Your Name,
- And we will know that You are One.
Shema
(ד) שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה ׀ אֶחָֽד׃
Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Ehad.
Listen! We are God-wrestlers. YHVH is our God (to wrestle with), YHVH is oneness.
Two Alternative Al Cheit Readings
Parable of The Dubner Maggid
A villager, born and raised in an isolated rural environment, came to a big city for the first time and stayed at an inn. Awakened in the middle of the night by the loud beating of drums, he inquired drowsily, “What's this all about?" Informed that a fire had broken out and that the drum beating was the city's fire alarm, he turned over and went back to sleep. On his return home he reported to the village authorities: "They have a wonderful system in the big city; when a fire breaks out the people beat their drums and before long the fire burns out." All excited, they ordered a supply of drums and distributed them to the population. Some time later, when a fire broke out there was a deafening explosion of drum beating, and while the people waited expectantly for the flames to subside, a number of their homes burned to the ground. A visitor passing through that village at that time derided the villagers: "Simpletons! Do you think a fire can be put out by beating drums? They only sound an alarm for the people to wake up and take measures to extinguish the fire."
The Maggid of Dubno applies this parable to those of us who believe that beating our breast during the Al Cheit confessional, raising our voices during worship, and listening to the shofar will put out the fires of cheit (missing the mark/sin) that burn in us. These are only an alarm - our warning to wake up and do our soul-searching.”
Al Cheit for 2020
We - both as part of a collective and each of us personally - take responsibility for all our collective and personal actions that missed the mark, that became so apparent to us these past few months. For missing the mark of:
- Racism - For being silent when we could have spoken up; for our unconscious or conscious racial bias; for denying that black and brown bodies are made B'tzelem Yah (in the image of The Divine).
- Global Warming & Climate Change - For not taking seriously and doing more to change our behavior and take better care of mother earth.
For all this and more, we ask for forgiveness.
SHOFAR
1st & 2nd: T'kiah ~ Sh'varim-teruah ~ T'kiah
Reading for #2
Moses shattered the first set of tablets and then he helped write the second set of tablets. The rabbis say, that in the holy traveling ark, the pieces from the first smashed set were placed in with the second set of whole tablets.
This shows us that the shattered co-exists with the whole and that wholeness comes not from ignoring our broken pieces, or even trying to glue them back together. The Divine exists amid our brokenness, in our darkest shadows, and in the darkest times of our lives. Our brokenness helps us to see the potential to return to wholeness for ourselves and our ability to return divine sparks that are scattered in the world from the moment of creation. Every moment has the potential for redemption and wholeness.
3rd & 4th: T'kiah ~ Sh'varim ~ T'kiah
Reading for #3 - Adina Allen's Kavannah For Listening to the Shofar (edited)
When we consider the creation of the world, we often imagine it as creation from nothing. Yet, in Genesis we read that the earth was “tohu va’vohu”- “chaos and void”- before God’s creative process even began. Chaos and void are the raw materials of Creation. God delves into chaos and void and transforms these elements into land, stars, animals and human beings. Within each one of us there exists elements of chaos and void. Just as God transforms the “tohu va’vohu” of the world, …each of us are invited to work with all that is unresolved, complicated or unclear within ourselves and to transform what we find.
5th & 6th: T'kiah ~ T'ruah ~ T'kiah
Reading for #6 - As I Breathe, May I Receive by Elaine Gilner Freidman
- As I breath, may I receive. May I be surrounded in the protective glow of Divine light. May I allow myself to feel and absorb this Divine presence.
- As I breathe, may I receive. May it awaken within me the force of my vitality and the strength of my own will.
- As I breathe, may I receive. May my willingness to believe in my own well-being be enhanced, embellished and enriched. May my faith in my own healing powers be renewed.
- As I breathe, may I receive. May I cherish and love myself for who I really am: weak and strong; selfish and selfless; learner and teacher; prideful and humble; believer and non-believer.
- As I breathe, may I receive. May this love for self, merge with God’s love and with the love of all humanity.
- As I breathe, may I receive. May I feel this love, acknowledge it, and take it in, knowing and recognizing that love and God’s presence is always there. As I breathe, may I receive. As I breathe, may I believe.
7th: T'kiah ~ Sh'varim ~ T'ruah ~ T'kiah G'dolah
Ending Shofar: T'kiah ~ Sh'varim ~ Teruah ~ T'kiah G'dolah