בְּכָל מָקוֹם שֶׁיֵּשׁ גַּאֲוָה, יֵשׁ תִּקְוָה 

(Bekhol makom she’yeish ga’avah, yeish tikvah)

We gather every week,

For this most sacred of days.

We light our candles, sing our praises,

eat our challahBraided egg bread eaten on Shabbat and holidays. Reminiscent of bread eaten by Priests in the Temple, of manna in the desert, and sustenance in general. Plural: Hallot and drink our wine.

We say prayers of thanks,

of health and of honor.

We honor the name our G-d,

who brought us out of Egypt.

HaShemLit. The Name, referring to the ineffable name of God; used as a substitute for any of the more sacred names of God when not speaking in prayer. Particularly used in conversation., HaShem HaKadosh, 

HaShem HaDomem, the Silent name.

We remember our ancestors,

and we invoke them by name.

Avoteinu v’imoteinu. 

AvrahamAbraham is the first patriarch and the father of the Jewish people. He is the husband of Sarah and the father of Isaac and Ishmael. God's covenant - that we will be a great people and inherit the land of Israel - begins with Abraham and is marked by his circumcision, the first in Jewish history. His Hebrew name is Avraham., Yitzkhak v’Ya’akov. 

SarahThe first matriarch, wife of Abraham, and mother of Isaac, whom she birthed at the age of 90. Sarah, in Rabbinic tradition, is considered holy, beautiful, and hospitable. Many prayers, particularly the Amidah (the central silent prayer), refer to God as Magen Avraham – protector of Abraham. Many Jews now add: pokehd or ezrat Sarah – guardian or helper of Sarah., Rivkah, Rakhel, LeahThe third of the Jewish matriarchs, Lead is the eldest of Lavan's daughters and one of the wives of Jacob. She is the daughter whom Lavan tricks Jacob into marrying instead of his younger daughter Rachel, whom Jacob has requested to marry. Leah is mother to six of the the twelve tribes and to one daughter, Dinah., 

Bilhah v’Zilpah. 

But in this month, for some of us,

there are more we must remember.

More to honor and sanctify.

We remember our queer predecessors,

Gilbert Baker, who gave us color,

Harvey Milk who gave us hope,

Marcia Johnson who gave us strength,

Larry Kramer, who gave us a voice.

We remember those we lost, and

honor those who we’ve carried.

We look to the future with love,

we cry for justice, we pray for peace,

and we long for an equality we don’t have.

We strive, and sweat, and cry, and hope,

we yearn for love; we mourn for loss.

We are human beings too, and we,

yes we all, as queers, as Jews,

as any which way we see ourselves,

we hope that together we find peace.

Peace in a world of suffering and injustice.

But, as we move towards that Justice,

which we are so called to pursue,

we can cling to a simple dream

that started with a rainbow and a brick.

A riot is where we started,

and a parade is where we are.

But when we are persecuted and even

executed in more than seventy nations

around God’s beautiful creation,

we can only look for hope from where we were,

and remember how we got here.

Hope is what led Marcia to throw the brick,

hope is what gave Larry the words for the pen,

hope is what gave Harvey the strength to run,

and Hope is what gave Gilbert our color.

When we mourn the death of many of our own

from AIDS, injustice, war and violence,

we can only cling to hope for a better world.

And wherever there is Pride, there is hope.

And wherever there is hope, there is joy.

And wherever there is joy, there is life.

And that life is sweet, and full of love.

So, when we say the AmidahLit. Standing One of the central prayers of the Jewish prayer service, recited silently while standing.,

I rise for Harvey and Marcia

who gave their lives, so we could be proud.

And unlike the silence of the Amidah,

unlike the silence of the unspeakable name,

as Harvey once said, “hope will not be silent.”