Image: Foster City Double Rainbow by Peter Kaminski (License: CC-BY 2.0)

DOWNLOAD: Rainbow Day — Ideas, Texts, and Projects (v.4.1.1)
Rainbow Covenenant Study Sheet
Genesis, Covenant, Jubilee and the Land Ethic | abridged
Midrash on Parshat Noah and the Preservation of Species
Also see Rabbi David Seidenberg’s Prayer for the Earth.
Additional Rainbow Day resources available at jewcology.com (some resources not shared with a free-culture license)

In the Jewish seasonal calendar, the days of the Omer, between the 17th and 27th of Iyyar, fall on the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. The 42nd day of the Omer ends the week associated with the divine attribute (sephira) of Yesod — foundation, and is a gateway for entering the week associated with the innermost sephira, Malkhut (Majesty) — the divine kingdom in nature revealed before all.

Rainbow Day^[1] — the 42nd day of the Omer (מ״ב בעומר) is the 27th of Iyyar (“the 27th day of the second month” in Genesis 8:14), when the animals, along with Noaḥ’s family, left the ark, and the rainbow (keshet) appeared as a sign of covenant. This should be a time of celebration. According to the kabbalistic counting of the Omer, Rainbow Day is also the day of Malkhut in Yesod, a unity of masculine and feminine that represents a milestone on the way to the revelation of Shavuot. For us, it can represent a chance to commit ourselves to the rainbow covenant, to turn from actions that destroy the earth, to turn our lives away from unraveling earth’s climate and the web of life, from diminishing earth’s abundance.

In the story of the Great Flood, the deluge lasted for over a year, but the time separating the beginning from the end on the calendar is only 10 days. According to the Torah, the flood began on the 17th of Iyyar (“the 17th day of the second month” in Genesis 7:11). The 17th of Iyyar falls on ל״ב בעומר (Lev BaOmer — the heart of the Omer) the day before Lag BaOmer, days already associated with fire.^[2]

As we move from the flood waters of Lev baOmer through the fires of Lag baOmer and through the coming week, we are reaching toward a different kind of illumination, the rainbow, which balances water and fire to create such a powerful expression of beauty and diversity. The rainbow covenant is special—not only because it’s the first covenant in the Torah. It’s also not just a covenant with humanity, but rather a covenant between God and all living creatures, and between G!d and the land.

There’s also a special connection between the Rainbow covenant and the covenant of the sabbatical year (shmitah), which we will read on Shabbat Behar (Leviticus 25). Like in the rainbow covenant, the land is also a primary partner in the Sinai/shmitah covenant. In Leviticus 26:34, G!d even puts the land before the people, declaring that the people will be exiled from the land if they don’t observe Shmitah, so that the land can “enjoy her sabbaths.”

The wild animals are also remembered in the Shmitah covenant, and what grows from the land is left for them as well as for people. In this respect, the Shmitah covenant is more like a return to Eden, to before the Flood, when animals and people shared the food of the garden. (The rabbis took this very seriously: fields were not allowed to be completely enclose during Shmitah, and people could only eat and store the foods that were actually growing in the field at that time.)

The mitzvah of shmitah evokes the first commandment to humankind: וַיִּקַּ֛ח יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הוּ בְגַן־עֵ֔דֶן לְעָבְדָ֖הּ וּלְשָׁמְרָֽהּ׃ — “And YHVH Elohim took the Adam, and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to protect it” (Bereshit 2:15). The corruption of the world is illustrated in the transgression of גזל — theft — a description of a host of depraved acts whereby nature itself was corrupted by the non-consensual predatory acts of humankind: violent, terrifying, and motivated by unquenchable desire.^[3]

The time we are in today is thus a time to ask: are we so determined to undo God’s rainbow covenant? Will we truly burn the sea, chemically and literally, with the oil we unleash from inside the Earth as we did several years ago? Will we flood the sea with death as the land was flooded according to the Noah story of so long ago? Will mercury precipitating out of the atmosphere from the dust of our burnt fossil fuels continue to build up and debilitate marine life? Will our fellow human beings continue to over-fish and destroy the oceans food web, finning its sharks and slaughtering its whales? Will our earth’s defenders be imprisoned and remain imprisoned for their important work? As the cleanup from the Gulf of Mexico fades from memory, and its effects will continue for decades, what new floods will we unleash in the coming years? What enduring harm awaits from tapping the limited supply of fossil fuel from the Tar Sands of Canada? How many more aquifers will we poison and earthquakes will we trigger through hydraulic fracturing (fracking)? How much more of the global food web on which wildlife and healthy ecosystems rely will we disrupt causing untold extinctions of creatures we have only just discovered or have yet to discover?

The rainbow signified a new covenant between God and the land. It’s time for us to imagine a new covenant between humanity and the Earth, including the land and the seas, one that we start to live by as we change our lifestyles and habits. And maybe next year it will be time to celebrate that new covenant.

Prayers and Meditations for the days between י״ז and כ״ז באייר (the 17th and the 27th of Iyyar)

Today we stand between the 17th of Iyyar, the day when the rains of the flood began, and the 27th of Iyyar, the day when Noah left the ark, the day the first covenant was made between God and all life upon the earth. Today we stand between the bonfires of Lag baOmer and the many lights of the rainbow, the sign of the first covenant. Today we stand between the fires: the fires that rose from Auschwitz, from Hiroshima, and the specter of a flood of fire and water from the burning of the Amazon and the melting of the Antarctic, “the day that comes burning like an oven,” a day when our flames could consume so much of the earth.

Malakhi the seer prophesied: “Here! I am sending you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of YHVH, the Breath of Life. And he shall turn the heart of parents unto children and the heart of children unto their parents, lest I come and strike the earth utterly.” Teach us to turn our hearts away from chasing wrong desires (zonim), and to turn our hearts toward our children and toward our parents, “in order that you will increase your days and the days of your children on the earth which God granted you.”

It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze but a light in which we can see each other fully. All of us different, all of us bearing the spark of the One. Let us use our light to see clearly that the earth and all who live as part of it are not for burning. Let us use our light to see clearly the rainbow in the many-hued faces of all life.

May this therefore be the will that comes from you, our God and God of our ancestors: That just as you turned your bow towards the heavens, promising to never again destroy the earth for humanity’s sake, that we too turn our arrows away from the earth. May we turn over our hearts and strengthen our will, so that we care for the earth and all life, for all life now depends on our goodness and rests in our hands.

May you sustain the word which you promised us by the hands of Malakhi your seer: “And the fruit of the earth will not be destroyed because of you, said YHVH of hosts.”

Help us learn to use our fires to bring blessing to all life, that we add might and majesty to the Tree of Life.

May you bring upon all life a blessing of goodness, as it says, “Let them drink blessings forever, let them celebrate in joy your presence.”

May the Tree of Life return now to its original strength, and may the strength of the Righteous One’s bow return, that we may see the rainbow, joyful and beautified with its colors; and from there may the flow of compassion and mercy flow over us, for pardoning and fixing our sins and errors;

Make the flow of desire and blessing and shefa (abundance) flow over the earth to make all life grow and bloom, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year, for good and for blessing, for good life and for peace. “And then the Sun of Righteousness will shine forth and heal with her wings” and “the trees of the forest will sing out” and “the tree of the field will make fruit, day by day” and we will bring the bikurim offering, first of all the fruits of the ground on Shavuot before the altar of YHVH” with praise and thanks.

And may all the sparks of lives and species scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, be returned and included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life.

Kavvanah between Lag BaOmer and Rainbow Day

As we played with arrows on Lag B’Omer, may we remember that God overturned “God’s bow” towards the heavens, promising to never again destroy the Earth and the land for humanity’s sake. May we too turn our arrows away from the earth. (As Rabbi Waskow has taught,) “It is our task make from fire not an all-consuming blaze but a light in which we can see each other fully. Let us use our light to see clearly that the Earth and all who live as part of it are not for burning. Let us use our light to see clearly the rainbow in the many-hued faces of all Life.”

May the Holy One help us to learn to use our fires, fires of Spirit and imagination, to bring blessing to all life. (As the tikkun Pri Eitz Hadar says,) may our actions “add might and majesty to the Tree of Life, so that we may see the rainbow, rejoicing in its colors”. May all living creatures, alongside all people, receive the blessings of goodness and sustenance, as it says in Psalms, “Let them drink blessings forever, let them celebrate in joy Your presence.”

Let us learn to be more than stewards of the land; may we become true citizens of the community of species that lives in each ecosystem. On Lag BaOmer we remembered the quality of “Hod within Hod,” (“Majesty within Majesty”). But Hod can also be related to gratitude, submission or surrender. It is when we submit ourselves to the Earth, surrender to the Spirit that enlivens all matter, that we can truly witness the Majesty of this world, created by the Majestic One. Majesty within Majesty, Majesty surrounding Majesty: may the majesty that is within us unite with the majesty that surrounds us, and may we serve the One with humility, by serving all Life.

Image: Map of Jericho in the Farhi Bible by Elisha ben Avraham Crescas (circa 14th century, Public Domain)

The illustration above, by Elisha ben Avraham Crescas in the Farhi Bible (circa 14th century), represents Yeriḥo as a seven walled Cretan labyrinth.

Psalm 67 is a priestly blessing for all the peoples of the earth to be sustained by the earth’s harvest (yevulah), and it is a petition that all humanity recognize the divine nature (Elohim) illuminating the world. Composed of seven verses, the psalm is often visually depicted as a seven branched menorah. There are 49 words in the entire psalm, and in the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l there is one word for each day of the Sefirat haOmer. Similarly, the fifth verse has 49 letters and each letter can be used as a focal point for meditating on the meaning of the day in its week in the journey to Shavuot, the festival of weeks (the culmination of the barley harvest), and the festival of oaths (shevuot) in celebration of receiving the Torah. Many of the themes of Psalm 67 are repeated in the prayer Ana b’Koaḥ, which also has 49 words, and which are also used to focus on the meaning of each day on the cyclical and labyrinthine journey towards Shavuot. I am finding these prayers helpful to guide my steps and intention in traveling through the Sefirat haOmer as a Labyrinth.

Rabbi Seidenberg teaches,

Ana b’Koaḥ is one of the masterpieces of mystical prayer. You’ll notice something unusual about Ana b’Koaḥ: the word “God” does not appear, nor do any traditional names for God like Adonai-YHVH or Eloheinu. Like the Kaddish, Ana b’Koaḥ addresses the divine at a level that is beyond the names for God that we normally use. This special language makes it a very powerful prayer, whether it’s said in (well-translated) English or Hebrew.

How to use Ana b’Koaḥ

Ana b’Koaḥ is traditionally recited right before L’kha Dodi on Friday night, which makes it easy to fit into the Kabbalat Shabbat service even if it doesn’t appear in your prayerbook. (It’s also recited after counting the omer and even as part of lighting the Menorah.) One way to introduce the prayer to a community that hasn’t seen it before is for the shaliaḥ tsibur (prayer leader) to chant each line in Hebrew, and then have the community respond by chanting or reading the corresponding line in English.

While Ana b’Koaḥ is sung aloud in many communities, it’s also traditional to recite Ana b’Koaḥ in a whisper, reflecting the mystical idea that the initial letters of Ana b’Koaḥ spell out the secret 42-letter name (or names) of G!d. Because of this belief, the line “Barukh Shem K’vod…” (Blessed be the name…) is added after the last verse of the prayer.

With perseverance and help, any obstacle can be overcome. In the story of the Israelite conquest of Yeriḥo in Sefer Yehoshua, it is the heroine Raḥab who helps Yehoshua’s scouts. Living her life trapped as a sex worker inside Yeriḥo’s labyrinthine walls, she hides Yehoshua’s scouts on her rooftop. The Rebbe Maharash of ḤaBaD would say, “When you cannot go under go over!” If you are lost in a labyrinth, scale its walls.

Rav Avidmi in Talmud Bavli Shabbat 88a provides a midrash to Exodus 19:17 (referred to by Rashi) that to receive the Torah, bnei Yisrael went beneath Har Sinai, submitting to the labyrinth of a new redemptive halakhah. As I travel towards receiving gnosis in the theophany of revelation, I recommit myself to the covenants between G!d and bnei Noaḥ (justice for all humanity without acting as a predator) and between G!d and bnei Yisrael (opposing and redeeming predatory nature in all of my actions). I traverse the walls of my internal seven walled labyrinth, channeling the voice of Shalma ben Naḥson (ben Amindav):

Scaling walls with Raḥab’s
scarlet twine, we escape
and liberate worlds^[2]

The words of Psalms 67 and Ana B’koach are the footholds directing my intention. Saving me are my friends — all the earth’s peoples, who like Raḥab, seek liberation.

Image by Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (License: CC BY-SA 2.0)

Al Hanissim for Yom ha-Atzmaut

Final Thoughts

Image: Miriam and Elijahs cup by Shoshanah (License: CC-BY 2.0)

A Kavannah and Prayer

What was the seder table when we only had Elijah’s cup? Incomplete.

We open the door for Elijah,
Angry prophet of the world to come.
And we ask God to pay attention
To the fire from the sky that was Elijah’s gift.
Regretted necessity.
Elijah announces the Moshiaḥ
Who then saves the Jews!
Elijah, the bringer of justice.
When you open the door don’t just say the prayer
Read the translation,
It’s a little scary
So invite that in.
Bring down the anger, bring down the plagues
Sometimes we need them,
It’s part of the story.
We were slaves in Egypt and it was horrible.
But
If there is a child at the table
Let her open the door for Uncle Elijah
And hope that there’s some wind tonight
And when it blows
Tell her that’s Elijah as he comes inside
Visiting each Jewish home on Pesaḥ
To have his cup of wine.
And when the child sits back down
Jiggle the table just a little
And tell her to watch the wine shake in the cup
So the kid thinks Elijah is there, taking a sip.
The anger will wait.

We lift Miriam’s cup,
Dancing prophet celebrating the world that is now.
And we tell God we are grateful
For the water from the earth that was Miriam’s gift,
Welcome necessity,
On God’s behalf.
Miriam announces joy!
And teaches us to save ourselves.
Miriam, the bringer of mercy,
There’s no prayer for her in the haggadah–
So make one up!
It’s a little scary
But what the heck.
Bring up the water, start the party
Sometimes we need it
And it’s part of the story:
We were slaves in Egypt and now we are free.
But
If there is a child at the table
Let him take a sip from Miriam’s cup,
If all the talking makes him thirsty,
And while he drinks
Tell him about Miriam the artist
Singing Mi Ḳhamoḳhah on the Red Sea Shore
Making sure we have fun at the table.
And when the child is finished
Remember that Miriam was a truth teller
And for that the prophet paid a heavy price
Make sure the kid respects Miriam, and values her water.
The fun will wait.

So together on the seder table
Fire and Water, Justice and Mercy
Tzedek v’ Raḥameem,
The cup of wine to stir the flame
The cup of water to quench it.
Only with both cups are we complete.
So for all this,
Baruḳh Atah Adonai, Bruḳha At Sheḥinah
Elijah and Miriam
We are blessed this Pesaḥ night.
Amen.

We are grateful to Trisha Arlin for sharing her prayer and kavvanah for Pesaḥ, “Two Cups: Elijah and Miriam,” first published online on her website, with a CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.

Jacob b. Jehuda of London, the author of that valuable contribution to the literary side of Anglo-Jewish history, the Talmudical compendium Etz Chaim, so providentially rescued and preserved for us, never dreamt, when he noted down, in the year 1287, the Ritual and Agada of the Seder Nights according to English usage, that he was fixing a permanent picture of what was doomed to destruction, and was recording not a mere portion of the liturgy, but a page of Jewish history. Faithfully copying his great prototype, Maimonides, the English Chazan also embodied in his work the texts of the Recitations on the Seder Nights in the form customary among his countrymen, and appended the correlated rites according to Minhag England.

The Hagada has hitherto been considered the piece, par excellence, common to all the liturgies, and bearing the least and fewest marks of national differentiation. The examination of our MS. shows, however, that this part of the Service reflects as clearly and unmistakably the characteristic independence of the English liturgy, already noted in a previous article, as the rest of the prayers. Notwithstanding its small bulk, several variations distinguish and mark it off from the French ritual. Thus, for example, the repetition, in the vernacular, of the first two pieces, before and after the second cup—which, we learn from Rashi’s Pardess was the French usage—was not customary in England.^[22] Had it been so, how valuable would the English renderings from the pre-expulsion period have been to us. Or, perhaps, they too would have been in French. The single non-Hebraic term which R. Jacob gives in his Ritual of the Seder, cerfeuil, the name of the vegetable handed round after the first cup, is French, and is met with in authorities of French origin or descriptive of the French ritual, e.g., in the Machzor Vitry (ed. Hurwitz, p. 294: ויקח מן הצרפוייל).

In the third part of his Hilchot Pesach, R. Jacob gives detailed instructions for the preparation of charoseth. But we look in vain in his work for a translation of the term, though such is given in Zidkiah b. Abraham’s שבלי הלקט (ed. S. Buber, p. 184).

The directions for the preparation of the mixture are as follows:—

We need but compare this with Zidkiah b. Abraham’s recipe, to notice the difference of national usage, even in this trifling detail. In England, all the fruits named in the Song of Songs—dates, figs, pomegranates, nuts and apples—were crushed with almonds and moistened with vinegar. In Italy, spices, vegetables, blossoms, and even a sprinkling of lime formed some of the ingredients of the paste. R. Moses of London, quoted in this connection, appears here as an unquestioned authority for the Seder ritual. For the first time, an English Rabbi, a master in Halacha and an authority in traditions, confronts us as a living personality and not merely a nominis umbra. R. Moses’ decisions were recognised even when opposed to the pronouncements of such great French teachers as the famous R. Isaac b. Abraham=Isaac of Dampierre, brother of R. Simson of Sens, who, by the way, was known in England by the abbreviation ריברא, not ריבא or ריצבא. As in France, they relied for their knowledge of the Seder ceremonies on such revered teachers as R. Solomon b. Isaac of Troyes, R. Joseph Tob Elem and others, who worked out arrangements of the Seder ritual, in prose and verse; so R. Moses of London stood out as the central authority in tradition for the whole of England. Most probably he also left a compilation of the rules appertaining to this service, which Jacob b. Judah possessed in manuscript, just as he left compilations of other ritual laws, e.g.:— הלכות מליחת בשר וכל הדינים כאשר סדרם רבינו מלונדרושא ת׳נ׳ב׳ה (Bodleian Library, codex 882).

But apart from the historical interest of R. Jacob’s Agada, it deserves examination for its deviations from, and additions to, the textus receptus. In the following pages I have carefully copied the rubrics which precede the Agada and are interspersed in it; and also noted all the essential variants of the Agadah as contained in the fourth part of the 26th Book of the Etz Chaim. Thus an idea may be formed of the text of the Agada which, three years before the expulsion, was already accepted by the English Jews as a heirloom of the past:—

After the formula כהא לחמא, which corresponds completely with the ordinary reading, the direction follows:—

The form of the questions exhibits no difference whatever, except that אנחנו is used throughout instead of אנו.

In the opening of the response עבדים היינו we read:—
כלנו זקנים ; ובזרוע נטויה ובאותות ובמופתים ובמורא גדול
^[30] is wanting; מצוה לספר alone is found.

The passage concerning the night spent in Bené Brak, which is only known from the Agada—its original source being still undiscovered—arranges the names in the following order:— מעשה ב֗ר֗ אליעז֗ בן עזריה ור֗ אלע֗ ורבי יהושע ור֗ עקיבא ור֗ טרפון. It only reads כל הלילה.

The formula ברוך המקום is peculiar and against Reifmann’s hypothesis, that this piece is of the nature of a responsorial song. It begins as follows:— ברוך המקום ברוך הוא ברו׳ שמו ברוך הוא שנתן תורה לעמו ישר׳ כנגד ארבעה…….‏

The wise son says, in contradistinction to his wicked counterpart:— אשר צוה יי’ אלהינו אותנו ואפ, as, indeed the Mechilta and all ancient texts of the Agada read (comp. Hoffmann in Berliner’s Magazin, 13,193). The speech put into the mouth of the רשע has the readings:— שאילו היה שם ,שהוציא עצמו. In the fourth son’s speech לאמר is omitted.

The piece יכול contains the reading:— לא אמרתי לך.

After ברוך שומר it is said:— ב״ה ב׳׳ש שהק֗ חשב לגלות הקץ כמה שאמ׳.

In צא ולמד the reading is מלמד שלא ירד להשתקע ,לעקור הכל שם אלא לגור שם כי כבד הרעב is wanting,— גדול ועצום שנ׳ וירעו עבודה קשה and וישימו עליו שרי מסים are omitted,

After the words אני הוא ולא אחר, a passage follows which has hitherto been regarded as specially and exclusively interpolated in the Provençal Ritual. Here it boldly appears in the text without the suspicion of a hint that it was condemned by some authorities. Juda Halevi (Kusari, III., 73), who sought it in vain in the Talmud, i.e., the ancient authorities, correctly recognised it as a poetical elaboration of the conception that the Exodus was God’s own direct and immediate work. That the piece did not belong to the Spanish Ritual is proved by his remark that it is only found in one ritual—as we now know—the Provençal. If the author of Amfoth (Gross in Berliner’s Magazin X., 64) was correctly informed, this piece and its recitation at this portion of the service were condemned by the Rabbis of Palestine (see Luzzatto in Polak’s הליכות קדם, page 41). Mr. Schechter has already pointed out (Jewish Quarterly Review, IV., p. 255) that R. Judah b. Jakar also failed to discover the source of this Agada. The English reading of the passage is undoubtedly more correct than that given in Machzor Vitry, p. 293:^[31] —

In the following passage the reading is:— זו החרב שנ׳, דבר אחר ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטועה שתים ובאתת ,זו נלד שכינה של ,מהו או׳ ,מנין שלקו המצריים ,שתים ובמורא נתל שתים ובמפתים שתים אמור מעתה ,ואל הים מהו או ,אצבע אלהים הוא זה is wanting.

For הקדוש ברוך הוא, the reading throughout is ‘הק.

In כמה מעלות the single variant is לנו ממונם.

In עלינו ,אל אחת is wanting after למקום. The reading is:— לחרבה ,ועשה בהם שפמי׳ ובאלהיהם.‏

The piece commencing ר’ גמליאל varies:— שלשה ,ר׳ל או׳ בזמן שבית המקדש קים ,אלו הן ,דברים הללו is wanting.

במצרים ,על שום שפסח המקום על בתי בני ישר׳ שנ׳ before בנגפו is wanting.

עד שיגלה ,בצקת אבותינו ,ויקח מצה ויאמ׳.‏

את כל עברתם ,המצריים חיי ,ויק֨ח ה֨מרור ו֨יאמ׳ is wanting; לראות עצמו כאלו יצא :

ולברך ,חייבין ,ויגבי֨ה כ֨ל אח֨ד כוס֨ו יא֨מ׳ :‏ לפיכך is wanting.

ומאפלה לאור גדול ומאבל לי״ט ,שעשה נסים לאבותינו is wanting.

Against the tradition in Ibn Jarchi (המנהיג, Pesach, p. 75), the conclusion here reads:— ונאמר לפניו שיר חדש הללויה.

Before the recitation of the Hallel, which, in spite of its being unabbreviated, appears without the customary introductory blessing, the remark is made:—

After למעינו מים, the direction is given ואומ׳ בע֨ל הבי֨ת. In the blessing מן הפסחים ומן הזבחים לכשיגיע ,והגיענו הלילה הזה.

Here follow the rules for the blessings to be recited before the meal:—

The curious passage שפוך חמתך, which appears immediately after Grace and before the continuation of the Hallel, and has become associated with Elijah’s Cup, but for which there is no authority in the ancient Talmudical literature, was recited in the following characteristic form:

While, therefore, the Italian Jews recited only Ps. 59:6 (cp. Roman Machzor), and the Sephardic Jews added v. 7, and the present form has in addition Lam. 3:66, we see here, in contradistinction even to the North-French Ritual, as preserved in Machzor Vitry, p. 296, with its many verses, the following independent selection of Scriptural texts: Psalm 69:6, 7, 28; Lam. 3:64-66; Ps. 69:26, 29; Ps. 2:9 ; Hosea 9:14; Jer. 10:25. The margin contains, in addition, Ps. 35:5, 6; Jer. 17:18; Ps. 37:15; Ps. 69: 24; Ps. 83:18, in the same hand as the text:—

Then follows the rubric:—

Before מן המצר the direction is given:— ויע֨נו המסוב֨י׳ הודו בכל פסוק, and before מיכאן ואילך כופל—אבן מאסו.

Before יהללוך the remark is made:—

The conclusion here reads:—

Then comes the following passage:—

The conclusion consists of the brief memoria technica of the Seder Ritual. A commentary on it is not given, though the writer probably composed one; just like Samuel b. Solomon, styled Sir Morel of Falaise, who wrote one on Joseph Tob Elem’s rhymed Pesach arrangement which is preserved by R. Isaac, Or Saruah (II. 114-20); or, to quote a later instance, Solomon b. Jechiel Luria, who provided a Commentary to his own verses on this theme, in which he gives his name acrostically (Resp. 88):—

Then follow rules for those who perform the Seder in other households:—

Of free poetical additions, which certainly embellished the Seder Evening Service in Anglo-Jewish, as in French and Italian homes, the author of our compendium has preserved only one specimen in his work. Before passing on to the chapter on the Middle Days of the Festivals, he gives the piece כי לו נאה כי לו יאה. Zunz says (Gottesdienstl. Vort., 2nd edition, p. 133) that it, together with the last three passages of the Agada, was added in the 10th century. But, at the close of the 13th century, we see it a firmly established portion of the English Ritual, before the expulsion. The author of the Etz Chaim has even taken care to anticipate all questions as to its antiquity, by adding a stanza in which he introduces his own name, Jacob, acrostically. There can be no doubt, therefore, that in his time already this poetical effusion formed an integral portion of the Seder Ritual. Its original form is that given here. In our Ritual and in the Roman it has suffered several modifications. It may fitly form the pendant to this note:—

Image: Barley Field by net_efekt (License: CC-BY 2.0)

A Chabad Haggadah, based on the Rebbe’s Haggadah, made for my family. I began work on this Haggadah many years ago, when there wasn’t this glut of Chabad Haggadahs that currently saturates the market. Still, I think this is a valuable contribution in that it provides the complete Hebrew text and translation for free, in every sense of the word.

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I have been asked to write a healing prayer
So I tried
But I can’t do it
I don’t have the soothing words
I’m in pain
Right now
And it’s been going on for a while
And it looks like it’s going to last longer than it takes to write this prayer

So instead
I offer to you
A pain prayer

A friend died suddenly
And I miss her.
I lost my job
And my despair is showing.
I don’t have a partner
And I’m lonely
I’m losing my home
And I will never be comfortable again
My body hurts
And I’m becoming my pain.

Did I name any of your sorrows?
Do you want to name them now?

What was solid is porous,
What was secure is scary.
And everyone wants to hurry me through my grief.
It will be so much better, they say, when this is over
You will be transformed!
Yes, I say, but into what?
Yes, I say, but I’m not there now!
Yes, I say, but please, let me mourn first.

“Refah’aynu Adonai V’Nayrahfay
Heal us God, and we shall be healed.”
Can this be true?
“Elohai neshamah
Shenahtahtahbi,
The soul placed within me is pure
And cannot be lost.”
So I’m searching, where is that pure soul?
Where is that healing of the body, mind and spirit,
Is it in the music?
Is it in my friends?
Is it in prayer?

Then I listen to the music
And I am transported away from the hurt.
I look around at my community
And I feel taken care of.
I write this prayer
And speak to God.

I guess this is a healing prayer after all.

Barukh Atah Adonai, The One Who Blessed Our Ancestors, Ruaḥ HaOlam, Breath of the Universe:

Heal me.

Amen

The complete reading of Megillat Esther

"The Washington Family," stipple print by Edward Savage, published by Robert Wilkinson, Philadelphia, London. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.

The following prayer for the government, quite possibly the first prayer for the government composed for the fledgling democracy of the United States of America, was written by Congregation Beth Shalome^[1] in Richmond, Virginia in 1789. The original copy of this prayer is currently on display at the Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Much thanks to the museum for sharing a digital copy of the prayer for our transcription.) Please note the acrostic portion of the prayer in which the initial letters of the succeeding lines form the name: Washington.

Prayer for the United States government and George Washington by K.K. Beth Shalome, Richmond, Virginia (1789) ("1979.10.1 b , The Richmond Prayer" Courtesy of The National Museum of Jewish History). Image provided has been gamma corrected for heightened contrast.