Words on Recycling Pages with God’s Name

 

Reader:

We are going to mark the transition from older to newer by reciting a chatzi kaddish, the short, or half-kaddish, prayer used when one section of a service has been completed but the entire prayer service has not been completed.

 

Reader:

We think Bnei Havurah will never complete our prayer service; we will be revisiting and revising—reconstructing—as long as we’re around. This chatzi kaddish in English is adapted from the Ed Towbin version:

 

All readers:

May the wellspring of life be blessed as life unfolds, forever

and ever.

 

May the source of life be blessed, and praised, and glorified, and

held in honor, viewed with awe, embellished, and

revered; peace is sanctified… it is blessed;

elevated higher than all the blessings, songs,

praises, and consolations that we utter in this

world.

 

And we say: Amen

 

Reader: [these are the first few lines of our current Rosh Hashanah service]

 

One thing have I asked of god, one goal do I pursue:

to dwell in the eternal’s house throughout my days,

to know the bliss of the sublime, to visit in god’s temple.

 

Awaken,

                        Here.

 

                        Awaken to light,

                        to breath,

                        to hope.

 

                        Enwrapped in the warmth of our community,

                        Embraced in the joy of our tradition.

 

                        Awaken to creation,

                        to beauty,

                        to awe,

                        to the blasts of the shofar proclaiming: 

 

                                    Remember.

                                    Forgive.

                                    Return.

                                                                                    Gail A benEzra, Ed Towbin

Reader:

Nu, may new leaves grow.