The following is an excerpt from “Fragments III: Democracy, “ a journal from T’ruah.
Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh,[1] Ever-Being-And-Becoming-One:
Just one thing we ask of you: to dwell in Your House.
A house — a country — that is becoming.
A house that reflects and inspires goodness and justice.
Mi She-anah,[2] One Who Answered our ancestors,
Please answer us — Hu Ya’aneinu.
Bless us with the energy and hope
to move toward the future we want to manifest,
even when it feels out of reach…
Grant us the grit
to make this country Your House,
regardless of what the elections deliver.
May we have the courage and resilience
to stand in the Tragic Gap[3] —
the gap between the world as it is and as it ought
to be
and to shout HINENI — I am here
to be counted and to care, open/brave/broken-hearted…
Eheyeh, be with us as you were with our ancestors…
Answer us as you answered Abraham & Sarah:
Do not allow the vulnerable to be cast out.
Just one thing we ask of you:
to dwell in Your House,
a house — a country — that is becoming —
that reflects and inspires goodness and justice…
May the one who answered our ancestors in their time of need, please
answer us now.
Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh, One Who Is What Will Be,
sign us and seal us for a year of goodness and justice.
NOTES
1 This is the name with which the God of the Bible first makes God’s Self known to Moses in the book of Exodus. Literally, it means “I Will Be What I Will Be.” When Moses asks God who he should say sent him to Pharaoh, God shares this name. This is the God of Redemption.
2 This name is drawn from an evocative piyyut (liturgical poem) found in the High Hoy Day liturgy. You can find a beautiful, egalitarian, rendering of it by Lisa Exler and Julia Andelman here: https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/days-of-judgement-new-year-days/yom-kippur/mi-sheanah-hu-yaanenu-a-selihah-for-yom-kippur-egalitarian-adaptation-by-lisa-exler-and-julia-andelman-2004/
3 This is an image drawn from the teachings of Parker Palmer, founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal and author of books, including “Healing the Heart of Democracy”.
RABBI MICHELLE DARDASHTI (she/her) is the rabbi of the Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn. Prior to that, she spent nine years on College Hill in Providence, RI, where she served as Associate University Chaplain for the Jewish Community at Brown University and Rabbi at Brown RISD Hillel. She served as a Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at B’nai Jeshurun and is excited to be back in New York after over a decade away. Rabbi Dardashti is the daughter of an American folk-singer and teacher and an Iranian-born cantor. She was raised on a brand of Judaism that is multicultural, meta-denominational, musical, and global. She became a rabbi to share the gifts her parents’ eclectic Judaism afforded her: passion, hope, wonder, gratitude, empathy, responsibility, and joy.