A poem-blessing for the Hebrew month of Kislev, suitable for Birkat HaḤodesh, Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev, and the whole month.

Today I turned my heart toward the new year and wrote a prayer-poem for Tashlikh, the Rosh haShanah ritual of casting bread or stones into the water to cast off one’s past wrongdoings.

An interpretive version of Al HaNisim for Ḥanukkah that is playful, powerful, and embodied. May it fuel our activism, including the self-care and community-building that is part of activism.

A kavvanah for affirming one’s Jewish identity in a mikvah before immersion.

A gender-neutral certificate of conversion for a minor, in Hebrew and English.

A gender-neutral certificate of affirmation of Jewish identity for a minor, in Hebrew and English.

A gender-neutral Hebrew-English conversion certificate template for adults.

A gender-neutral certificate of affirmation of Jewish identity for an adult, in Hebrew and English.

This replacement barkhu arranges multiple Biblical verses in a catena. It is introduced and closed with verses from the book of Neḥemiah, verses often considered the source for the custom of calling to prayer. In between are poetic texts from the Song of Deborah and from Psalms that direct the term “Barkhu” — the plural imperative “Bless ye!” — at God. It could be recited alone in the location where the Barkhu would traditionally be recited, or said aloud in a community when no minyan is available. Alternatively, it could be used WITH a minyan as a text to introduce the Barkhu, a new step in of a line of poetic introductions to the service written for multiple generations.

This text uses the passage for the Askenazi nusach of the Modim d’Rabbanan and incorporates it into an extended version of the Modim, slightly editing it so as to fit more appropriately and so as not to repeat the word “modim” (which is forbidden on the grounds of appearing, ḥas v’shalom, to pray to multiple deities—see Berakhot 33b). It was first written for a separate project by the editor (https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/musaf/dukhening-in-a-musaf-amidah-after-a-heykhe-qedushah-by-isaac-gantwerk-mayer/) but here it can be found alone. It can be silently recited when praying alone or after a heykhe kedusha, to replace the first paragraph of the Modim prayer.

A Passover seder supplement containing seven additional symbolic foods and their associated ritual presentations, along with their collective organization on a second seder plate.

One of the great things about Pesukei and Kabbalat Shabbat is that it enhances our feeling of holiness, that what we’re about to do is outside the secular world we’ve just left. Minḥah is the shortest service, and usually gone through the fastest. But it is still a spot of holiness in our afternoons, and we should keep that in mind. I hope that this text can help us remember that we can always take a break from our day to access some afternoon holiness.

A prayer of thanksgiving for when it rains in a land needing rainfall.

This text is a version of the concluding three blessings (Avodah, Hoda’ah, and Shalom) for kohanim to use during the silent Amidah of a festival Musaf where dukhening is, for one reason or another, impossible.

A Mi sheBerakh prayer, in the manner of those used during the Torah service, to honor those receiving a true Hebrew name reflecting their gender after undergoing gender confirmation.

A prayer of thanksgiving for when it snows in a land needing snowfall (and ultimately, snowmelt).

A kiddush for the se’udah (feast) preceding Yom Kippur and its fast.

Adir Hu, a classic Pesaḥ song if ever there was one, is a part of Seder tables all over the planet. Its alphabetical list of God’s attributes, combined with its repeated pleas for a return to Jerusalem, make it a classic, to the point where the traditional German farewell greeting for Passover was not “chag sameach” or “gut yontef” but “bau gut” – build well. This interpretation, while not a direct translation by any means, has the same rhythmic pattern and alphabetical structure, giving a sense of the greatness of God.

A guiding text and haggadah for a Seder Pesaḥ Sheni.

This text takes the basic idea of the Baladi-rite ‘Brikh Shmeh d’Kudsha Brikh Hu’ and adapts it for the Askenazi nusach of the Kaddish. It can be used when praying alone wherever a minyan would say the entire Kaddish. It could also be recited by a community in unison out loud when it can’t make a minyan, to show that even if we don’t have a full minyan, we still welcome mourners as part of our community.

Two suggestions for ḥazanim (cantors) and shliḥei tzibur on the High Holidays.

Many people eat special foods as part of a mini-seder at the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah meal and invoke blessings for the year as they eat them. This year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this kavvanah (intention).

A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot.

A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot.

A meditation which can be used to prepare for Pesaḥ, or for sharing at the Seder, to deepen the experience of liberation for yourself and others.

A prayer in solidarity with the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, whose building was the target of hateful vandalism.

One small request to accompany the seliḥot service.

A meditation on living through the lens of dying.

This prayer is a line by line interpretative translation of a traditional Ashkenazi variation of the Hashkiveinu prayer recited for Ma’ariv Leil Shabbat.

The words of Greta Thunberg adapted for a prayer for intervention in the anthropogenic climate crisis, for a Honshana ritual for Sukkot.

A prayer for a teacher to say or adapt as needed at the beginning of their school year.

A “mi sheberakh” blessing for children and the parents of children returning to school at the beginning of the new school year.

A prayer for the correction of the United States immigration policy in support of immigrants and open borders.

“A Prayer for the Spiritual Welfare of the United States at a Time of Trial,” by Rabbi Joe Schwartz was first published at The Forward on 28 June 2019.

A prayer in English to end gun violence before Rosh haShanah,

A prayer on the first anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh.

A ḳinah for the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Boston in 2018.

Psalms 140 decries the injustice tolerated, supported, and rallied around within the community of Israel. This contemporary adaptation does the same.

A prayer for a government when that government is causing pain through malicious policies.

A ḳinnah composed in response to the agonizing and cruel United States immigration policy implemented under the presidency of Donald Trump.

A prayer for universal peace offered by Hillel Yisraeli-Lavery as an opening prayer to a talk given in Hamilton, Canada by 2011 Nobel Prize winner Leymah Gbowee.

A prayer written in response to the massacre of Muslim worshipers during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand.

A prayer for the welfare of the Kurdish People in Northern Syria (Rojava) following their betrayal by Donald Trump acting as commander-in-chief of the United States armed forces and their oppression by the Republic of Turkey.

A prayer offered by Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff at the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day May 28th 2018.

This is an undated prayer written attributed to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (1937-2020) and shared via the Facebook page of Merkaz Steinsaltz (the Steinsaltz Center). The English translation (possibly also made by Rabbi Steinsaltz) was shared by the Center in a separate document.

This is a new version of the popular Ḥanukkah song, Banu Ḥoshekh. (The original by Sara Levi-Tanai can be found here.) Our new version does two things: 1) it avoids the association of darkness and blackness (shḥor) with evil and harm, which in our society gets tangled up with white supremacy, and 2) honors the darkness as something precious that we need, especially in our time of light pollution when so much of the time, so many people can’t even see the stars.

Especially for those of us who use the Torah passages on the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael and the Binding of Isaac for Rosh Hashanah, together with Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman, I want to recommend that you read from the Sefer Torah the passage in Genesis 25:7-11 on the reconciliation of the two brothers as they come together to bury their dangerous father Avraham/Ibrahim/Abraham.

This is a prayer to be read between the 17th and the 27th of Iyyar (בין י״ז ו-כ״ז באייר), between the 32nd (ל״ב) and 42nd (מ״ב) days of the Omer.

This is a prayer to be read between the 18th and the 27th of Iyyar (בין י״ח ו-כ״ז באייר), between the 33rd (ל״ג) and 42nd (מ״ב) days of the Omer.

A “secular” kaddish after my mother died so that I could say kaddish under circumstances where I could gather ten people but not ten Jews.