What is Shabbat Shirah?
On Shabbat Shirah (שירה שבת” / Shabbat of Song”), we read the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea in a climatic moment of exodus from mitzrayim (מצרים ,Egypt). Science and midrash (מדרש , rabbinic story) tell us that in the skies above, a mass migration of birds joined the path of the Israelites as they made their annual journey from their Winter homes in Africa to their Summer breeding grounds. The rebbes teach that as we reached the shore and lifted our voices in the celebratory Song of the Sea (הים שירת) , the birds sang with us. Some say they joined in our song; others say it was their songs that inspired ours.
On Shabbat Shirah, in honor of the birds who shared in our moment of exaltation, we set out offerings of food or seeds for our avian neighbors as a minhag (מנהג ,custom) to remember and honor our kinship.
This zine is an invitation to remember and reawaken our ancestral relationships with birds.
May it serve.
attributions
poetry and drawings by Kohenet Riv Shapiro
essays and invocation by Shlomo Pesach
dedications
dedicated to Batikletcawi and Huchin, Konhomtara Pomo and Chochenyo Ohlone Lands. dedicated to our teachers, human and more-than-human. dedicated to queer decolonial futures. dedicated to dawn Laguna walks and idle rose garden afternoons. dedicated to the birds.
