Opening Prayer on the Significance of New Year’s Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Eugene Kohn, John Paul Williams and Mordecai Kaplan

Shared on:

22 December 2020 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Gregorian New Year's Day (January 1st)

Tags:

20th century C.E., ecumenical prayers, 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, civic prayers, American Jewry of the United States

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O God, we have assembled here at the beginning of the new year, to rededicate our lives to the sacred ideals of America. We gratefully acknowledge all that the past year has brought to us and our fellow countrymen of life and health, of love and joy, of beauty and truth, of fortitude and courage. Whatever of good we have known, we recognize as coming from you. Therefore are we emboldened, Our Guardian, to pray for further gifts of your grace.
	We cannot be contented with ourselves and our achievements, or with the world in which we live— a world in which injustice, cruelty, and deceit hold sway. Disillusioned with ourselves and with our failure to rise to the height of our national ideals in the service of humanity, we entreat you to help us fulfill the promise of America.
	Give us the courage to be honest: to be true to ourselves and to deal sincerely and forthrightly with our neighbors.
	Give us the forbearance that lets live and the love that helps live.
	Give us the fortitude to endure the blows of misfortune with serenity.
	And when fortune smiles upon us, give us the humility to accept prosperity as your gift, to be used in accordance with your will.
	Help us to build on these shores a free nation of free people. Open our hearts to the truth that every human soul has a worth of its own and must be free to develop that worth to the utmost. Grant that our nation may further the welfare of all its citizens and be of service to them in their pursuit of happiness. Bind all its citizens to the nation and to one another by ties of loyalty. May they ever be willing to share in the nation’s enterprise, ever ready to make sacrifices for the good of all. We know that there is no liberty but one: the right, which is also a duty, of making oneself and others free through absolute allegiance to the final goal of humanity. Keep us aware of all that we owe to our country, that its expectations of us may curb our impulses to do evil and give free rein to our will to do good, for our own true happiness and that of our nation. Amen.

This opening prayer for New Year’s Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 3-4 — as preface to a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day. It is unclear from this publication whether the prayer was written by Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, or Eugene Kohn separately or together in collaboration. I have replaced archaisms in this prayer (thee, thy, thou, etc.) and replaced “Father” with “Guardian” in addition to other gender-neutral changed. –Aharon Varady

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. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“Opening Prayer on the Significance of New Year’s Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Eugene Kohn

Eugene Kohn (January 26, 1887 - April 1, 1977) was an American Reconstructionist rabbi, writer and editor. Born in Newark, New Jersey he attended the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and in 1912 received ordination. It was here that he met Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan who taught him homiletics. Between 1912 and 1939 he served as a congregational rabbi in Conservative synagogues in the U.S. states of Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and Ohio. He also served as the president of the Rabbinical Assembly 1936-1937. He played a central role in the Reconstructionist movement. He edited its journal The Reconstructionist and, alongside Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein, edited The New Haggadah (1941), The Sabbath Prayer Book (1945) and The Reconstructionist Prayer Book (1948). Alongside Jack Cohen, Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg he was one of Kaplan's main disciples.

John Paul Williams

Dr. John Paul Williams (1900-1973) was chairman of the department of religion at Mount Holyoke College. In 1946, he served as president of the National Association of Biblical Instructors (now known as the American Academy of Religion). He wrote What Americans Believe and How They Worship (1952, revised 1962) containing the chapter "Judaism -- the Mother Institution." Together with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and Eugene Kohn he co-authored the anthology of civic prayers, Faith in America (1951).

Mordecai Kaplan

Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.

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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