avinu malkeinu lo/low named and nameless name avinu malkeinu who has looked away avinu malkeinu who does not answer avinu malkeinu who gives charitably but without justice not once in kind avinu malkeinu who did not will not and cannot save us avinu malkeinu who is no father ours or mine your name is as … Continue reading Avinu Malkeinu: Petition for New Loyalities
who knew? (9/11/18)
who knew we were standing in the shadow of buildings this whole time some of us even forgot the sky. how remembrance must be earthly straight there in front of us and yet, heaven-facing, always beyond us.
battlefields
the trenches were empty now and between loss and limb, an otherworldly whisper- “the warzone you have been fighting in is, willfully, a pasture” and from the blood-soaked battlefield, plants enough to outlive even death.
woman and paper wings
and woman is a bird who arrives at the end carrying us to a new beginning (we thought we were torn, like paper, but really, we were making room for our wings).
Me Too: A Jewish Response to Abuse
I have a name but too often I have been rendered nameless. Me too. I have a voice but too often my voice has not been heeded. Me too. I have a shape but too often my body has been leered at or made invisible. Me too. All these acts. To make a person. This … Continue reading Me Too: A Jewish Response to Abuse
To Ascend Does Not Mean to Not Speak: Blessing for an Intersectional Hanukkah
To ascend does not mean to not speak Of the dead and the dying And the insidiousness of silence that stamps out women in the realm of the living. And to ascend does not mean to pour oil over the living dead Of anointing our joy over our starvation And the draping of miracles over … Continue reading To Ascend Does Not Mean to Not Speak: Blessing for an Intersectional Hanukkah
Shake Us & Unsettle Us: A Modern Tefilat Ha-Geshem
To be inserted in the Amidah on Shemini Atzeret in memory of the fallen during the Yom Kippur War. The former generally coincides with the last day or two of the latter. Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha’olam… G-d, let us remember the moment of this cease-fire and pray that the downpour of your tears and ours softens the hearts of … Continue reading Shake Us & Unsettle Us: A Modern Tefilat Ha-Geshem
Devon Spier 