Jonas Actor, SWUSY Genesis 2011-2012

Seussian Service

SWUSY regionals 2011

This is an alternative service for shabbat shacharit, including psukei dzmrah and birchot hashachar. it is meant to replicate seussian style. feel free to elaborate or create your own components. if this is not done on shabbat then possibly usyers could break into groups and write their own seussian prayers.

Good morning y’all, and שבת שלום. We are going to start today with מודה אני on page ____.

<lead מודה אני>.

Allright, so next up we have ברכות השחר. Instead of doing this the traditional way, we are going to run with the theme here and read a lovely poem written by Dr. Seuss

You have brains in your head

You have feet in your shoes

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose

You're on your own

And you know what you know

You are the guy who decides where you'll go.

So, this poem is really similar to what we say in ברכות השחר. In b''h we thank HaShem for everything that we do in the day. Here, in Dr. Seuss's poem, we describe all the things that we need to get ready for our journeys in the new day.

So next up is ברוך שאמר. In this prayer, we thank HaShem for all He does for us every day. This prayer gives us a sense of our relationship with HaShem, how He waits for us hand and foot. Think about it- we are constantly receiving from HaShem and we give very little in return. This Dr. Seuss poem also is about waiting on someone or something in our daily lives.

Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night

or waiting perhaps for their uncle Jake

or a pot to boil or a better break

or a string of pearls or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls or another chance

Everyone is just waiting.

Allright, so next in our service is אשרי. אשרי is itself a poem and while it doesn't rhyme like Dr. Seuss poems, it is special in its own right. It is in the form of an acrostics where every verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It's kinda cool. What we are gonna do for אשרי is we are going to read it responsively, those who are _____ lead and the rest of us will respond.

<lead אשרי>.

Next is another poem in Hebrew, called אז ישיר. This poem is actually in the תורה itself and celebrates our freedom from slavery way back when, when we were leaving slavery in Egypt. When you look at the poem when it is written in the תורה, its really cool and written across the columns with really strange spacing in between the verses of the song. So we're now gonna say אז ישיר on page ____.

<lead אז ישיר>.

Now at this point in the service we start the set of prayers that are special for שבת. Before we start the next big chunk of prayers, theres actually a Hebrew poem that is really cool that summarizes the block of prayers. It's really cool because it rhymes both in english and in Hebrew.

At dawn I seek you, refuge rock sublime

my morning prayers I offer and those at evening time

I tremble in your awesome presence contrite

for my deepest secrets lie stripped before your sight

my tongue what can it say? My heart what can it do?

what is my strength, what is my spirit too?

but should music be sweet to you in mortal key

your praises will I sing so long as breath's in me.

and with that, we are now going go say נשמת and then continue on to שוכן עד, page ____.

Go into ישתבחnormally.

Now, to summarize what we just said inישתבח here are a few haikus:

you are always great

ruler of heaven and earth

you are amazing

praised are you o god

ruler of the universe

thanks for all the songs

follow directly with חצי קדיש and ברכו

There are two blessings before one of the staple prayers that we say every day, the שמע. The first one is about the wonders of the world and the hope of a better future

in this blessing we have another poem, also an acrostic, called אל אדון. Let's sing it together.

say it in Hebrewfollow by reading the English translation (cut if there is a time constraint)

The rest of this blessing is summarized in this poem, from a different siddur:

something is very gently

invisibly silently

pulling at me - a thread

or net of threads

finer than cobweb and as

elastic. I haven't tried

the strength of it. No barbed hook

pierced and tore me. Was it

not long ago this thread

began to draw me? Or

way back? Was I

born with its knot about my

neck, a bridle? Not fear

but a stirring

of wonder makes me

catch my breath when I feel

the tug of it when I thought

it had loosened itself and gone...

Say closing blessing of first blessing for the שמע and then go into the second blessing in hebrew aloudthen say the שמע

so next up we have the עמידה. This is a time of personal reflection and the chance that you have to say your own, individual poem to God and express your own feelings and desires. Feel free to spread out within this room/area, I'll give y'all a few minutes, and when I start singing עושה שלום yall should gather back here.

Passage 1: