Rabbi David Seidenberg writes (neohasid.org):

Cantor Richard Kaplan, z”l, composed this qinah (lament) for Tishah b’Av about the destruction of the earth. Gan Aden of course is the Garden of Eden, both a place and a time. It is the imagined birthplace of all life and species, and an echo of the time when the real Earth was untrammeled. Ḥurban usually refers to the destruction of the First and Second Temples, but here to the Temple of the Earth, which the Jewish Temple was meant to represent according to midrash.^[1] For the Mishkan as microcosm and the Temple as omphalos, find Bamidbar Rabbah Naso 12:4. 

The song articulates the voice of Gaia, the Earth, embodied in Richard’s plaintive voice. Richard died on the first day of Sukkkot [in 2021],^[2] Also, his birthday in the Jewish calendar.  and thinking about him has made me want so much to hear his voice, calling us to truth.

“Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden” was written by Richard Kaplan and first published as the fourth track to his album Life of the Worlds: Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music (2003). This work is under the copyright stewardship of the estate of Richard Kaplan and was republished here at the request of Barak Gale who made a recording of the song with the permission of Richard Kaplan while he was alive.

Recordings

“קִינָה לְחֻרְבַּן גַּן עֵדֶן | Qinah leḤurban Gan Aden, an eco-lament by Richard Kaplan (2003)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project under their Fair Use Right (17 U.S. Code §107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use), in respect to the copyrighted material included. Any additional work that is not already in the Public Domain is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Richard Kaplan

Richard Neil Kaplan (1948-2021) was a musician and synagogue cantor. He served for twenty-two years at the Oakland Conservative synagogue, retiring in 2018. An emeritus member of the Spiritual Advisory Council of Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Kaplan received his cantorial smikhah (ordination) from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. He studied Ḥasidic music extensively over many years with Reb Zalman who joked that he was “downloading” his own tremendous knowledge of Eastern European spiritual music into Kaplan. His bachelor’s degree from UCLA was in ethnomusicology, which he continued to pursue for a masters degree at UC Berkeley. After working as a jazz pianist in Manhattan, Kaplan returned to California and taught music history in numerous colleges.

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Ḥai Olamim (Life of the Worlds): Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music (Richard Kaplain 2003)

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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

Works of related interest:

 

מָעוֹז צָרוֹת | A Fortress of Troubles, a qinah for Tishah b’Av by Aryeh Baruch

קִינָה עַל חֻרְבָּן הָאַחֲרוֹן | Lamentation on the Holocaust, by Shimon Zuker (1980)

על אלה אנו בוכים | Al eleh anu bokhim (For these we weep), a lamentation for humanity’s destruction of habitat and species, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

קְבֵלְתָּא דְּלִבָּאִי | Qevelta de-Liba’i (My Heart’s Lament), by Asher Hillel Burstein

Prayer for Our Country, a lament on the necessity of war by Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick (1917)

Brich aus in lauten Klagen | Break out in loud lamenting, a qinah by Heinrich Heine (1824)

עַד אָנָה בִּכְיָּה בְצִיּוֹן | Ad Ana Bikhya b’Tsiyon (How Long Will Crying Be In Zion), a qinah for Tishah b’Av (ca. 7th c.)

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