A Blessing for the Bugs on the Jewish New Year’s Day for Animals, Rosh Hashana La-Behemah, by Trisha Arlin

Contributor(s): Trisha Arlin

Shared on: 12 October 2015 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories: Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Rosh Ḥodesh Elul (אֶלוּל)

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., crawling things, English vernacular prayer, first person, four worlds, Fourth Day of Creation, insects, neo-lurianic, New York City, North America, Prayers as poems

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Contribute a translation	English
	Blessed One-ness! On this beautiful summer day Under this large and welcoming tree, Our green tallit, We gather together to give thanks To the animals who make all life possible: The bugs. Big and small Beautiful and hideous Helpful and hurtful They build They pollinate They amuse They are the food of our food.
	Most of the time we can’t even see them And for that I am deeply and profoundly grateful. Frightened by a giant spider movie in my childhood, When I was little I wanted nothing more than to see all bugs dead.
	But I was wrong. I have come to see That we are not the only creatures who are B’tselem Elohim, We are all in God’s image. So today, on Rosh Ḥodesh Elul, On the New Year of the Domesticated Beasts, Let’s give thanks to the bugs Like the four questioning children Wise and snarky and simple and oblivious, Like the four worlds of the kabbala The earth, the sky, the heart and the spirit We give thanks and acknowledge The bugs we have domesticated The bugs who serve us in their wild state The bugs that hurt us or gross us out And the bugs who live only for themselves, without any reference to us.
	First, in the world of Assiyah, (Touch the earth) Let us touch this earth. the world of Doing, of the dirt, the world of the body, of physical pleasure and need And know that in every square inch of this dirt there are bugs. Segmented, slithering, multiple legs, Whether we walk or sit or lie down on this earth, there are the bugs. We give thanks for the domesticated bugs, such as the earthworms, Who make our compost And who make agriculture possible; And let us give thanks for the bugs of the earth that we have not domesticated Who feed the birds and each other; And let us acknowledge the creepy crawlies of the earth living under rocks and the spiders that make children scream; And pray with the bugs of the earth who exist only for themselves.
	Second, in the world of Briah, (reach into the air) Let us reach into the air The world of Thinking, the world of the mind, the intellect And give thanks for the domesticated bugs of the air, the bees Who pollinate our flowers And make the sweet sweet honey; And let us give thanks for the undomesticated bugs of the air who give us pleasure with their beauty, the butterflies and the dragonflies and the ladybugs; And let us acknowledge the bugs of the air who annoy us, the mosquitoes and the moths; And pray with the bugs of the air who fly all around without any reference to us whatsover.
	Third, in the world of Yetsirah, (Touch the heart and the gut) The world of Feeling, heart, the emotions. Touch your own body, touch your heart and your gut And give thanks for the domesticated bugs that we eat, the bacteria that give us yogurt and yeast, That we may live and feel and react; And give thanks for the bugs and the bacteria that live in or on our bodies In symbiosis, helping our digestion and our immunity, That we may love and be loved; Let us acknowledge the bugs, the ticks and the bedbugs and the germs, That make us sick and sometimes kill us, so that we are sometimes angry or sad; And the bugs in and on our bodies that, thank God, most of us don’t even know about because, yuck, right?
	And last, in the world Atsilut, of Being/Soul SPIRIT, I invite you to turn you face to the sun and close your eyes. This is the world of the spirit, of spirituality, of God, however you approach God and even if you don’t. And let’s imagine another kind of bug– What are the creepy crawly things, the ear worms and the brain bugs The spiritual insights and thoughts and the annoying doubts and fears that we cannot let go, both good and bad? And let us give thanks for the ideas that make us so creative in our holy conversations; And thanks for the anxieties and sensitivities that come to us whether we want them or not, that make us empathetic and compassionate; And let us acknowledge the obsessions with no basis in reality and the nagging regrets about things long past that keep us up at night and away from our true selves; And pray for ourselves, amidst all the buzzing distractions of technology and entertainment that go on without any reference to ourselves whatsoever.
	Blessed One-ness Bless all these bugs and all the creatures: The ones we have domesticated, The ones who serve us in their wild state, The ones that hurt us or gross us out, And the animals who live only for themselves, without any reference to us, Whatsoever. Amen

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“A Blessing for the Bugs on the Jewish New Year’s Day for Animals, Rosh Hashana La-Behemah, by Trisha Arlin” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Trisha Arlin

Trisha Arlin is a liturgist, teacher, performer and student of prayer in Brooklyn, NY and was a part-time rabbinic student at the Academy of Jewish Religion (AJR), 2012-18. Trisha was the Liturgist-In-Residence during the National Havurah Committee’s 2014 Summer Institute, has served as Scholar or Artist In Residence at many synagogues where she has read, led services and taught her class, Writing Prayer. since the pandemic began, Trisha has been on Zoom teaching prayer writing, sharing her liturgy and doing readings with Ritualwell, Haggadot.com, for synagogues around the country as well as small freelance groups. She is a founding builder of Bayit’s Liturgical Arts project. Trisha received a BA in Theater from Antioch College in 1975 and MFA in Film (Screenwriting) in 1997 from Columbia University. In 2009/2010, Trisha was an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute. In 2011, she graduated from the sixth cohort of the Davennen Leadership Training Institute (DLTI). A longtime member of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of our Lives, a progressive unaffiliated congregation in Brooklyn NY, Trisha’s liturgy has been used at services and ritual occasions and in newsletter there and at venues of many denominations around the world. Her work has been published in her book, Place Yourself: Words of Poetry and Intention (a collection of liturgy and kavannot. Foreword by Rabbi Jill Hammer, Artwork by Mike Cockrill. 2019 Dimus Parrhesia Press); the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion; Seder Tefillot, Forms of Prayer: Prayers for the High Holydays (Movement for Reform Judaism); B’chol Levavecha (CCAR Press); Beside Still Waters: A Journey of Comfort and Renewal (Bayit & Ben Yehuda Press); A Poet’s Siddur (Ain’t Got No Press); Studies in Judaism and Pluralism (Ben Yehuda Press) and can be found online at TrishaArlin.com, at RitualWell, and of course, the Open Siddur Project. You can support her work by buying her book, making a one time donation through PayPal @trishaarlin or monthly support via Patreon.

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“Peripatidae. Found in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador” (credit: Geoff Gallice, license CC BY)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17