This is designed for you to choose the elements you wish to include, there is more here than is likely needed for any one ceremony.
Leader: As we gather in holiness around our [Thanksgiving tables] and/or [Shabbat dinners worldwide], we truly know our tables are mikd'shei m'aht, "little sanctuaries" of sacred time, affording us the opportunity to know how truly we are blessed. Gathering in freedom, our gratitude includes the lives of all humane-ity who have survived these difficult times--those leaving bomb and storm shelters, dining in homeless and abuse shelters, those being served by hosts in orphanages, hospitals, nursing homes, even those who are grateful the US elections are behind us! and much more.
Let us pass a cup of gratitude.* Each can fill it in a bit water from the pitcher. Water is hessed in Judaism, our symbol of abundance and loving-kindness. Each person who so wishes, can express points of gratitude during their turn at pouring. (Correlate this with using a Miriam's Cup, if you wish, using the Kol Isha blessing: "Zot Kos Miryam, kos mayim hayim. Zeikher l'yitziat Mitztrayim.This is the cup of Miriam, the cup of living waters. A reminder of leaving Egypt [i.e., narrow places])**
Next we pass the tzedakah (justice/charity) box or bowl to gather funds to feed those who have not. World-wide 16,000 children die of hunger each day, one child every five seconds…$180 feeds one child for an entire year. In America alone, one million children go to sleep hungry every day. Please join me in setting this intention:
All: Here I am invited and prepared to perform the mitzvah of giving charity to feed the hungry. Whenever I am able, I pledge to do more."
Song possibility as the box is passed:
Mitzvah-Centered Life
Hineini Muchana U’m’zumenet,
L’kayem et mitzvat Borai
lasuk b’divrei Torah.
Here I am, ready and invited,
to fulfill the mitzvah of my Creator,
to immerse in deeds of Torah, deeds of Torah.
Bending my knee at the Pond of Blessings,
at the Threshold of Eternity,
where we are made holy,
my intention is to be fully engaged with Torah
challenging our tradition while loving it,
daily striving to serve You
by living a mitzvah-centered life.
by R'Goldie Milgram with R'Steve Rubenstein, orchestrated by Joel Morris
Leader: Tonight our hearts are also with our extended kinship network in Israel. Here is a poem created by Maggid-Educator Cassandra Sagan:
Select a reader (if possible prepared in advance):
All of Jerusalem is quiet.
The sun is setting and the sky is pink and full of beauty.
I am alone, Bruce is already at the Beit Knesset (shul).
One moment is filled with shalom,
and then……..the voice of the Great Machine
calls out “Red, Red”.
My blood runs cold
and my ears bring all of Israel into my heart.
My body takes on an animal strength
and I am connected to all the Jewish people in all Times.
Something in my neshama (soul) receives a Tikkun (repair.)
My whole life I imagined that if I ever heard an air raid siren
I would shrivel up like a tiny insect
but I do not.
I walk to the Beit Knesset
for Shabbat, to pray with Israelis.
I take strength from them.
Their lives are always like this,
and yet they give me comfort.
You guard something
huge and holy here
for the whole world.
All your lives you work with love for the people of Israel.
I am not trying to flatter you, I am like a young child.
I don’t know if I will stay or leave,
But I know that you will stay
and my heart will stay with you
and I will return.
And until I return I will pray for peace in Yerushelayim,
for Israel, and for all the world.
And everyone who heard it said, Amen.
Leader: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught, that in a democracy, not everyone is guilty, but all are responsible.* So it is that we never do enough mitzvot (mitzvahs) to truly merit the gift of life that we receive each day. Those who wish, please join in saying this adapted blessing for not having succumbed to a life-threatening event – be it missiles, storms, a major health situation, childbirth, and more -- the rest of us will respond with the traditional rejoinder that follows on this page:
The Blessing (an adapted birkat hagomel, prayer after a close call):
barukh a-tah a-do-nai e-lo-hei-nu me
-lech ha-olam ha-go-mel le-kha-ya-vim to-vot she-ge-ma-la-nu tov. Interpretive Translation:
Blessed be the divine organization of the universe--bestowing kindness upon the culpable, precisely as goodness has been bestowed to us.
All: ameyn, mi-she'gemalkhem kol tov hu [yigmalkha [m] yigmaleikh [f] kol tov selah
[an ancient phrase to the effect that you have been so fortunate, may this good fortune continue always]
Leader: Adults, a toast of blessed intention. Please lift a glass of your chosen beverage and recite with me:
As in the home of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac a feast of thanks-giving was made at times of weaning, may humanity be weaned from hatred and violence and blessed with healing of renewed traumas into new possibilities for peace.
Children (if there are, or together): Ameyn!
[On Shabbat, continue with your normal form of Kiddush and then]
Handwashing and blessing, if this is your custom. And now with everyone touching someone who is holding the bread for the meal (if there is):
All: As Hannah brought Samuel in gratitude to serve in the Temple and a feast of thanks-giving was served to honor this dedication, so too we commit to sacred service – to feed the hungry and pursue darkhei shalom, pathways of peace.
barukh atah adonai ha-motzi lekhem min ha-aretz
Interpretative Translation:
Blessed be the divine discovery that bread can be brought forth from [caring for] the earth.
Ameyn.
*Rabbi Shohama Wiener has done a ritual for Shabbat using an empty kiddush cup and the addition by each person present of a bit of wine while calling out a quality you wish to come to pass during Shabbat.
**("Miriam's Cup blessing" 1996 Kol Ishah, PO Box 132, Wayland, Mass. 01778)
***Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer quoting Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in a recent discussion.
****Birkat Hagomel was first suggested by Rabbi David Dunn Bauer as a blessing in relation to the ceasefire declared between Israel and Hamas on 11/21/2012.
Learn more about Jewish holy days
in Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice [2];
Holy Days and Shabbat by
Rabbi Goldie Milgram