ט״וּ בִּשְׁבָט | Rebirthing the Tree(s) of Life: Four Teachings for the Four Worlds of Tu BiShvat/Yah BiShvat by Arthur Waskow

The four teachings above are connected with the Four Worlds that the kabbalists saw as the architecture of the universe. When the Kabbalistic community of Tz’fat created the Seder for Tu BiShvat/ Yah BiShvat, they unfolded these Four Worlds in four cups of wine and four sorts of fruit and nuts (one sort so ethereal it was invisible and untouchable). This year, the full moon of Shvat will fall on Shabbat Shira itself, January 24-25. . . .

Categories: Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat)

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., four worlds, neo-lurianic, North America, Renewal, Yah Bishvat

Contributor(s): Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

תפילה לבוחר טרם הבחירות | A Prayer for Voters Before the Israeli Election, by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried

A prayer for voting on election day in the State of Israel. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haB'ḥirut, Elections & Voting

Tags: 2013 Israeli legislative election, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Beit Tefillah Yisraeli, democratic process, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, Needing Proofreading, Parliamentary Election

Contributor(s): Esteban Gottfried, Josh Soref (translation) and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Rosh Ḥodesh Shevat, a prayer-poem by Trisha Arlin

This is the month when we tell the story Of the escape from the narrow place. This is the month of Shabbat Shirah, When we sing the song of liberation. We give thanks for freedom. This is the month when we talk of wine and nuts and fruit, The New Year of the Trees. This is the month of Tu Bishvat When we eat the gifts of our planet. We give thanks to the earth. . . .

Categories: Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat), Rosh Ḥodesh Shəvat (שְׁבָט)

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems, שבת שירה shabbat shirah

Contributor(s): Trisha Arlin

Adventures in Ancient Jewish Liturgy: the Birkat Kohanim

The earliest artifacts recording Jewish liturgy (or for that matter any Hebrew formulation found in the Torah) are two small silver amulets, discovered in 1979 by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay. He discovered the amulets in a burial chamber while excavating in Ketef Hinnom, a section of the Hinnom Valley south of Jerusalem’s Old City. The inscriptions on these amulets conclude with parts of the Birkat Kohanim (Priestly Blessing), the three-part blessing in which the Kohanim are instructed to bless the people of Israel in Numbers 6:22-27. The script in the amulets dates them approximately to the reign of King Yoshiyahu (late 7th or early 6th century BCE) predating the Nash papyrus, and the earliest of the Dead Sea Scrolls by four centuries. . . .

Categories: Birkat Kohanim

Tags: קמעות qame'ot (amulets), Kohanim, Priestly Blessing

Contributor(s): Aharon N. Varady