A Shabbat Morning with Adrienne Rich’s words
In memory of Adrienne Rich we included segments of her work in Shabbat Morning service on March 31 which connected to the prayers of the morning.
For the V-Ahavta of the Shma:
“It will take all your heart, it will take all your breath
It will be short, it will not be simple”
― Adrienne Rich
For the end of the Shma where it says “YHVH your God is truth” (Adonai Eloheychem emet)
“There is no ‘the truth’,’a truth’ – truth is not one thing, or even a system. It is an increasing complexity. the pattern of the carpet is a surface. When we look closely, or when we become weavers, we learn of the tiny multiple threads unseen in the overall pattern, the knots on the underside of the carpet”
― Adrienne Rich
As an introduction to the Aleynu where we sang “Takeyn olam b-malchut Shaddai” (“Repair the world into a sovereignty of the divine”)
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.” ― Adrienne Rich
As an introduction to the Mourner’s Kaddish
Tattered Kaddish
Taurean reaper of the wild apple field
messenger from earthmire gleaning
transcripts of fog
In the nineteenth year and the eleventh month
speak your tattered Kaddish for all suicides:
Praise to life though it crumbled in like a tunnel
on ones we knew and loved
Praise to life though its windows blew shut
on the breathing-room of ones we knew and loved
Praise to life though ones we knew and loved
loved it badly, too well, and not enough
Praise to life though it tightened like a knot
on the hearts of ones we thought we knew loved us
Praise to life giving room and reason
to ones we knew and loved who felt unpraisable
Praise to them, how they loved it, when they could.
“Tattered Kaddish” by Adrienne Rich, from An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991
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