This blessing for the consumption of meat (or poultry, or fish) is based on a verse from Vayikra / Leviticus, ch. 17: כִּי נֶפֶשׁ הַבָּשָׂר בַּדָּם הִוא וַאֲנִי נְתַתִּיו לָכֶם עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְכַפֵּר עַל־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם כִּי־הַדָּם הוּא בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּר׃ (“For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And as for me, I have given it to you on the alter to ransom your lives, for it is the blood that ransoms in exchange for life.”) This verse helps us remember (and how can we ever forget?!) that any bloodshed, is a loss of life – human or animal. And, it helps us understand that even when we kill for our own sustanance (or even in a ritual offering), we cause a loss of life. The burden is on us. We are commanded to release the blood-life so we can use the meat. (I wrote more in detail about this blessing here.) . . .

I composed this short blessing when passing by a dead coyote once. Crows and Magpies were congregating around the corpse and I felt this was a moment to notice, sanctify and bless. It was my way of connecting with all of them, dead and alive. . . .

A Torah reading ceremony proposed for Rosh Hashanah using the traditional texts read but organized in a novel way to juxtapose the stories of Yitsḥaq and Yishmael. . . .

A kavvanah written in preparation for an online class at the Green Sabbath Project, “Follow the Goat: using the scapegoat ritual in creating new kavvanot / sacred intentions for lighting Shabbat candles.” . . .

This teḥinah calls us to remember that we are all personally, as well as communally, responsible for our relationship with the Earth. It also calls us to action, and to recall that even small actions realigning ourselves with the work of the Earth, can be seen as a mitsvah. . . .