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2018 —⟶ Page 7 💬 “I have a Dream” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1963), cantillated by Rabbi David Evan MarkusIn 2017, Rabbi David Evan Markus prepared the end of Dr. King’s famous speech read at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963) with trope (t’amim, cantillation). The following year on Facebook he shared a recording of the reading hosted on Soundcloud. Rabbi Markus writes, “This weekend at Temple Beth El of City Island, I offered the end of Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, which I set to haftarah trope because I hold Dr. King to be a prophet. When my community applauded, I offered President Obama’s response, ‘Don’t clap: vote.’ And do more than vote: organize, donate, volunteer, help, heal, advocate. Only then, in Dr. King’s words quoting Isaiah 40:5, will ‘all flesh see it together.'” . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cantillated readings in English, civil rights, Hafatarot, social justice, צדק צדק תרדוף tsedeq tsedeq tirdof, United States Contributor(s): These quotations from Dr. King’s speeches were edited by Rabbi Marcia Prager and set to Haftarah Trop by Hazzan Jack Kessler. This adaptation was first published in Kerem (Fall 2014), in Jack Kessler’s article, “English Leyning: Bringing New Meaning to the Torah Service.” . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cantillated readings in English, civil rights, Hafatarot, social justice, צדק צדק תרדוף tsedeq tsedeq tirdof, United States Contributor(s): “The Spirit of Jewish Prayer,” by Abraham Joshua Heschel was a speech given at the Fifty-Third Annual Convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of America which took place at the Breakers Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey from Tammuz 9 to Tammuz 14, 5713 (June 22 To June 27, 1953). The speech was subsequently published in the Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly of America v.17. . . . The service in 1953 by the S&P Synagogue (Bevis Marks, London) in celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth. . . . “Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 433-4 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . . Categories: Bedtime Shema, Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), Well-being, health, and caregiving Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Amits Koaḥ, apotropaic prayers of protection, ayin hara, English vernacular prayer, lashon hara, loneliness, lonely man of faith, Psalms 4, social anxiety, יצר הרע yetser hara Contributor(s): “God the Life of Nature” by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan was first published in his Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p. 382-391, where it appears side-by-side with its translation into Hebrew by Abraham Regelson. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “That Religion Be Not a Cloak for Hypocrisy,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 435-5 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . . Categories: Tishah b'Av, 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th), Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation, Roleplaying Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., communal shame, corruption, difference disagreement and deviance, English vernacular prayer, false piety, חלול ה׳ Ḥillul Hashem, improper use of the crown, inclusion and exclusion, labor exploitation, Psalms 5, religious hypocrisy, tolerance and intolerance Contributor(s): “Salvation through Labor,” adapted by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan from the writings of Aaron David Gordon, can be found on p. 548-551 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). The translation was attributed in the Sabbath Prayer Book to its editors (Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn, assisted by Ira Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg). . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Hapoel Hatsair, labor, Labor Zionism, Nature, טבע Teva, work, work as worship, worship as work, Yom Ha'Avodah Contributor(s): “Prayer in behalf of one celebrating a birthday,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 494-497 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) . . . The essay, “Prayer,” by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, then Associate Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew Union College, published in Review of Religion vol. 9 no. 2, January 1945. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, first penned in his diary for 23 August 1942, was first published in The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, by Mel Scult (1990). Although the prayer was not included in Kaplan’s Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945), it was added to the loose-leaf prayerbook he kept at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism synagogue. . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Early Reconstructionist, English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems, prophetic revelation, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Transcendentalism Contributor(s): “The Pious Man” is a prayer-poem from Mordecai Kaplan’s diary entry, September 19, 1942, on the virtue of piety as expressed in an essay published earlier that year by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Piety was a Roman virtue, but in this essay, A.J. Heschel appears to be describing an idealization of Ḥasidut. . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Abraham Joshua Heschel, English vernacular prayer, חסידות Ḥasidut, neoḥasidic idealization, Prayers as poems Contributor(s): This is the תפילת הנוטע (Prayer for Planting [trees]) by Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Ḥai Uziel. . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Early Religious Zionist, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, JNF, KKL, planting trees, Prayers for Planting, קקל Ḳeren Ḳayemet l'Yisrael (ḲḲL), תחינות teḥinot, Zionist Arbor Day Prayers Contributor(s): A good preparation and a bridge for the next phase of prayer, as you enter into the world of B’riyah,[foot]i.e., the Shaḥarit service beginning with the blessings prededing the Shema[/foot] is Reb Ahrele Roth’s list of Mitsvot One Can Do With Consciousness Alone. Reb Ahrele Roth, a”h, wrote a list of 32 mitsvot whose fulfillment is completed in the brain, the heart and the mouth. (The Hebrew alphabetical equivalent of 32 is ל”ב, the letters of which spell the Hebrew word LEV for Heart.) –Reb Zalman . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., devotional interpretation, English vernacular prayer, חסידות Ḥasidut, interpretive translation, כוונות kavvanot, Openers Contributor(s): Abraham Joshua Heschel’s essay “Das Gebet Als Äußerung Und Einfühlung” published in Monatsschrift Für Geschichte Und Wissenschaft Des Judenthums, vol. 83 (1939). . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The words of the prayer for Armistice Day 1938, “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin, in English and Yiddish. . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, doikayt, hereness, Patriotic hymns, United States, Yiddish songs, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): This prayer by Hillel Zeitlin was published as “That We Be Reborn” with an English translation by Eugene Kohn in the Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945) of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. I have slightly modified Kohn’s translation by replacing thee and thou with you and your, etc. Zeitlin’s prayer is undated and likely was published earlier and elsewhere. If you have more information on the original publication of this prayer, please contact us or leave a comment. . . . A kavvanah for focusing one’s intention before working with the soil of Erets Yisrael. . . . Categories: Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🇮🇱 Yom haNətiōt (Planting Day), 🇮🇱 Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel), Planting Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Early Religious Zionist, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, farming, Prayers for Planting, Prayers of Jewish Farmers, Problematic prayers, Shami, Yemenite Aliyah, Yemenite Jewry Contributor(s): A compilation of Jewish women’s prayers in Yiddish published in Vilna in 1910, with prayers attributed to Rokhl Esther bat Aviḥayil, a Jewish woman living in Jerusalem. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The poem, Ayekh (Where are you?), by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik. . . . Categories: Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, eros, modern hebrew poetry, Mrozy, Prayers as poems, Queens, מי או מה who or what Contributor(s): | ||
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