This July 4th haftarah/prophetic chant is an opportunity to engage with and re-imagine some of our country’s iconic texts on freedom and independence. Kohenet Shoshana Bricklin characterizes this particular haftarah as ‘vulvic’—representing a powerful and sacred portal into truth, creativity and transformation.
The call for Revolutionary Re-imagining on July 4th: The words of Psalms, the Declaration of Independence, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Emma Lazarus, Valerie Kaur, Starhawk and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. 11 Tammuz 5780
פִּתְחוּ־לִ֥י שַׁעֲרֵי־צֶ֑דֶק אָֽבֹא־בָ֝ם אֹודֶ֥ה יָֽהּ
זֶה־הַשַּׁ֥עַר לַיהֹוָ֑ה צַ֝דִּיקִ֗ים יָבֹ֥אוּ בֽוֹ׃
Open to me the Gates of Justice, that I may enter and give thanks to the Breath of Life. This is the gate to Shechinah; those who work for justice shall enter through.*
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all . . . are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted . . . deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.*
It wasn’t the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or the Stars and Stripes that gave birth to America. It was the Black vagina that laid the golden egg, or rather, the chattel slave. That’s right–during America’s formative years, the most valuable property it produced, the property that the entire economy was based on, the property that was mortgaged to build America 2 was property in slaves. Twelve billion dollars worth. One can’t begin to fathom it in today’s dollars. And where did it come from?
Whose vaginas passed this twelve billion dollars?
Whose vaginas were capitalized, colonized, and amortized all to give birth to America? Whose vaginas have been appropriated, syndicated, deprecated, but never, ever vindicated in the process of building this country?*
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. . . “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”*
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive . . . it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, . . . laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. *
What if our America is not dead but a country still waiting to be born? What if the story of America is one long labor? What if all the mothers who came before us, who survived genocide and occupation, slavery and Jim Crow, racism and xenophobia and Islamophobia, political oppression and sexual assault, are standing behind us now, whispering in our ear: You are brave? What if this is our Great Contraction before we birth a new future?
All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance; only ecological balance can sustain freedom. . . To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive.vii
Let us make an oath to fight for the soul of America. . . with Revolutionary Love and relentless optimism. In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.*
אֶ֭בֶן מָאֲס֣וּ הַבּוֹנִ֑ים הָ֝יְתָ֗ה לְרֹ֣אשׁ פִּנָּֽה׃
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.*
Compiled and cantillated by Kohenet Shoshana Bricklin, Oreget ba’chochim (knitter in the thorns). This is the first of my vulvic haftarot—embracing the vulva as sacred gateway to transformation. Many thanks to Rav Kohenet TayaMa for her question that prompted this exploration. It is my hope that these haftarot, which knit together many voices that speak truth to power, will contribute to the work of justice-fighters everywhere who empower us by pushing open the gates of change. For more information on creative haftarot, contact Shoshana at sbricklin@comcast.net. For more information about Kohenet, see www.kohenet.com and/or The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership by Jill Hammer and Taya Shere (Ben Yehuda Press).
*Footnotes:
- Psalms 118:19-20 (translation of Tzadikim is mine)
- Declaration of Independence (the word “men” has been deleted), July 4, 1776.
- “Respect” by Kimberlé Crenshaw (leading feminist theorist, law professor who coined the term “intersectionaity” to examine converging oppression and the need to fight all “isms simultaneously), in A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, edited by Eve Ensler (2007)
- Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” 1883, https://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetry-of-america/americanidentity/aliciaostriker-emmalazarus.html v Declaration of Independence
- Valerie Kaur, A SIKH PRAYER FOR AMERICA ON NOV 9, 2016, https://valariekaur.com/2017/01/watch-nightspeech-breathe-push/
- Declaration of the Four Sacred Things in The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk (1993) viii Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement” (1972); later included in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity (1996)
- Psalms 118:22
