Our community met on the shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Our service launched from questions posed in the Unetanneh Tokef – who by fire and who by water – as we pray in full acknowledgement of the destruction being caused by global warming. Acknowledging the brokenness of our world, our liturgy held the hurt while also holding joy and endless possibilities of repair and redemption.

Find the liturgy we prayed here.

In addition to our live music we listened to Coco Love Alcorn’s “The River” and “Hope Comes” from The Bengsons.

For torah study we looked at three different texts about how we hold on to hope and joy, from Rebecca Solnit, Aurora Levins Morales, and a story about river renewal after a dam was breached. Find the text slide deck here. For longer versions of the texts, read Solnit’s introduction to “Hope in the Dark,” read the story of the redemption of the Kennebec River, read the text of Morales’ “Tai: a Yom Kippur Sermon” or watch a video of that speech.