A Hoshana for Our Planet, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and neohasid.org

Shared on:

13 October 2019 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Sukkot, Hoshana Rabbah

Tags:

mesostic, eco-conscious, alphabetic mesostic, United States, הושענות hoshanot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, ecoḥasid, Northampton

I was first inspired to write a Hoshana for the planet related to ills we are facing today by the protests against the Dakota access pipeline (DAPL) in 2016. The native American-led protest camp was one of the more extraordinary environmental actions of the decade. The Dakota pipeline protest focused on protecting sacred water as well as sacred land, both important themes of Sukkot.

The Hoshanah I wrote (“A Hoshana for our planet”) focused especially on aspects of climate change like drought, flooding, and ocean acidification and on other impacts of oil and gas, though it also includes a few other ecosystem threats that we face today, as well as a plea for refugees. Similar to traditional Hoshanot, this Hoshana goes (approximately) in alphabetical order, though I don’t try to hit every letter.

The second liturgy, a cycle of seven Hoshanot roughly corresponding to the days of creation, was written more recently. It includes climate change issues and extinctions, but also more general appreciations and prayers for the order of the natural world.

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Source (Romanized Hebrew)	Source (English)
Hoshana Eloheinu Hoshana! Hoshana Bor’einu Hoshana! Hoshana Go’aleinu Hoshana! Hoshana Dorsheinu Hoshana!	Our God, Please save! Our Creator, Please save! Our Redeemer, Please save! Our Seeker, Please save!
!הושענא	Hoshana! Please save aquifers from poison and drought! Hoshana! Save bees from pesticides and fungus and collapse! Hoshana! Save bedrock from fracking and earthquakes! Hoshana! Save the breathing of this blue planet! Hoshana!
Hoshana ananim mil’ham’ni’a otzroteihem!	Save clouds from withholding their treasures! Hoshana!
Hoshana Eretz u-m’lo’ah! Hoshana! Hoshana basar v’ruach u-n’shamah b’khol b’ri’ah!	Save Earth and all that fills her! Hoshana! Save the forests from clearcutting, and from conflagration! Hoshana! Save flesh and spirit and soul in every being! Hoshana!
	Save glistening rivers from becoming rivers of oil and blood! Hoshana! Save habitat and home and species! Hoshana!
	Please save! Keep drought from decimating! Hoshana! Save lodgepole and ponderosa from pine beetle! Hoshana! Save mollusk and plankton shells from being eaten away by the sea they drink and breathe! Hoshana! Save northern plains from flowing oil! Hoshana! Save our will and vision from despair! Hoshana! Save our prayers from being empty words! Hoshana! Save pipelines already pumping from leaks! Hoshana! Save refugees from drowning and war and hate! Hoshana!
Hoshana! Chidush p’nei ha’adamah!	Please save! Renew the face of the Earth! Hoshana! Save sacred lands from being stripped and stolen and despoiled! Hoshana! Save seas from inundating islands and cities! Hoshana!
Hoshana! Her’eh lanu et ha-keshet sas u-mit’pa’er b’govanin shelo!	Please save! Show us the rainbow rejoicing in its colors! Hoshana! Save the weave and web of Life! Hoshana!
Hoshana olam t’luyah al b’li mah!	Please save a world suspended in the nothingness of space! Hoshana!
!הושענא	Save, please! Hoshana!

“A Hoshana for our planet” was first published by Rabbi David Seidenberg at neohasid.org.

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“A Hoshana for Our Planet, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

David Seidenberg

Rabbi David Seidenberg, founder of NeoHasid.org, teaches text and music, Jewish thought and spirituality, in their own right and in relation to ecology and the environment. With smikhah (ordination) from the Jewish Theological Seminary and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, he has taught at over 100 synagogues, communities, retreats and conferences across North America (and a few in Europe and Israel). Rabbi Seidenberg's teaching empowers learners to become creators of Judaism through deep study and communion with texts and tradition. Areas of specialty include Kabbalah and Ḥasidut, Talmud, davenning, evolution and cosmology, sustainability, Maimonides, Buber, and more. Rabbi Seidenberg has published widely on ecology and Judaism and is the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

neohasid.org

NeoHasid.org was created by Rabbi David Seidenberg to help folks integrate ḥasidic song, learning, and nusaḥ into their davenning and communities and to explore embodied Torah. It evolved to focus on eco-Torah and to share liturgy that honors our relationship with the Earth and/or expresses gender parity.

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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