A prayer on behalf of Canada: its government, its leaders, and its people. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 13 May 1992. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 2 April 1992. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 20 February 1992. . . .

The full text of Rabbi Jacob Goldstein’s prayer offered at the Democratic National Convention, July 14th, 1992. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 7 November 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 16 October 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 16 October 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 12 June 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 14 May 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 8 May 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 20 March 1991. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 19 March 1991. . . .

Tu biShvat, the 15th of the month of Shevat, was designated by the Talmud as the New Year for the Trees. It was tax time for HaShem, a time of tithing for the poor. This tithing has its origin in the following Torah verse: “Every year, you shall set aside a tenth part of the yield, so that you may learn to revere your God forever.” The Kabbalists of 17th century Safed developed the model of tikkun olam that we embrace today — healing the world by gathering the scattered holy sparks. To encourage the Divine flow — shefa — and to effect Tikkun Olam, the Kabbalists of Safed (16th century) created a Tu biShvat seder loosely modeled after the Passover seder. In recent decades we have learned how the well being of trees is intimately connected to the well being of all creation. This relationship is clearly stated in the following Midrash: “If not for the trees, human life could not exist.” (Midrsh Sifre to Deut. 20:19) Today the stakes of environmental stewardship have become very high. Tu biShvat calls upon us to cry out against the enormity of destruction and degradation being inflicted upon God’s world. This degradation includes global warming, massive deforestation, the extinction of species, poisonous deposits of toxic chemicals and nuclear wastes, and exponential population growth. We are also deeply concerned that the poor suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation. Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote: “[Human beings have] indeed become primarily tool-making animal[s], and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of [their] needs…” . . .

The unabridged edition of the Tu biShvat seder haggadah, The Trees are Davvening. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 13 September 1990. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 12 September 1990. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 8 May 1990. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 6 September 1990. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 24 April 1990. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 1 February 1990. . . .

“[I’m Spending] Hanukkah in Santa Monica” by Tom Lehrer was first written at the request of Garrison Keillor for his radio show The American Radio Company on which it was performed twice, in 1990 and 1992. The song was later released on the album, Bible & Beyond (Larry Milder, 1999). The first recording of Tom Lehrer singing his song can be heard on The Remains of Tom Lehrer (Disc 3) (2000). In 2022, Tom Lehrer gave an enormous Ḥanukkah present to the world, dedicating his entire oeuvre to the Public Domain including this song. . . .

The Megillah of Esther: An Original English Rendition (set to trop) by Ḥazzan Jack Kessler was first published in 1990. This second “version 2.0” edition was published in 2016. . . .

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Reb Arthur Waskow, and others helped to formulate this grammatically feminine Hebrew blessing for an oleh in their blessing over the Torah reading, in the early years of Congregation Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia (1988-1983). . . .

It is the responsibility of leadership in every generation to remove stumbling blocks from paths provided for seekers of Hashem. The needs of the faith community have dramatically changed. In our generation, many of the paths to Heaven that used to work very well in the past, don’t work any more. Why is that? For several reasons: . . .

A ceremony for the naming of a baby daughter. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 13 September 1989. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 14 July 1989. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 13 June 1989. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 11 April 1989. . . .

A Proclamation of Fundamental Animal Rights drafted by the West German Green Party in 1989 upon the 200th anniversary of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” (1789), in German with translations in English, French, and Portuguese. . . .

The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UDAR) was first proclaimed in Paris on 15 October 1978 at the headquarters of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) with the ambition of it being formally adopted in the United Nations General Assembly. The French League of Animal Rights spurred the development of a revised text written during the General Assembly of the International League of Animal Rights, held June 3–4, 1989 in Luxembourg, and adopted on October 21, 1989. The declaration was submitted to the UNESCO Director General in 1990 however it has never been formally adopted. . . .

A discussion of the nature of truth and belief in Jewish liturgical prayer, suggesting that fixed liturgy is less a vehicle for conveying theological or philosophical outcomes than a practice for developing an emotionally religious personality. Shabbat musaf is used as an example. “Meaning What We Pray, Praying What We Mean: The Otherness of the Liturgy” by Rabbi Dr. Joshua Gutoff was first published in Conservative Judaism, Vol. 42(2), Winter 1989-90, pp. 12-20. . . .

The “Pledge of Allegiance to the Family of Earth” was offered by the Women’s Foreign Policy Council (co-chaired by Bella Abzug and Mim Kelber). The earliest publiclation of the pledge that we were able to located is as found in the article, “Earthlings Unite” by Nina Combs in Ms. Magazine, vol. 18:1&2 (July/August 1989), p. 19. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 29 September 1988. . . .

The full text of Rabbi Morris Shmidman’s benediction offered at the Democratic National Convention, July 20th, 1988. . . .

This “Global Pledge of Allegiance” by Edna A. Meisner-Reitz was first published in The Quest, vol. 2, issue 4, Winter 1989 (Theosophical Society of America), back cover. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 14 June 1988. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 17 May 1988. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 25 May 1988. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 4 May 1988. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 20 April 1988. . . .

A Tu Bishvat seder haggadah by Ellen Bernstein (1988, revised: 2017) . . .

This prayer was delivered by the U.S. Navy Chaplain, Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, at the 1987 National Civic Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance, in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. It was first published in Days of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust: a Department of Defense guide for commemorative observance (Office of the Secretary of Defence, 1988). . . .

We name our daughters on their fifteenth day of life. This is based on Vayiqra 12:1-5, which describes the length of a woman’s period of impurity after childbirth. If she gives birth to a son, she is impure for seven days; if she gives birth to a daughter, she is impure for fourteen days. The passage seems to connect the baby boy’s circumcision on the eighth day to the conclusion of the mother’s seven day period of impurity. (Similarly, Vayiqra 22:27 says that a newborn animal must remain with its mother for seven days, and on the eighth day and onward it is acceptable as a sacrificial offering.) It seems, then, that for the first seven days of a little boy’s life, and the first fourteen days of a little girl’s life, the child and mother are still closely linked, and both remain separate from the larger family and community. Then, on the eighth day of her son’s life, and on the fifteenth day of her daughter’s life, the mother begins to rejoin her family and community, and the child too becomes incorporated as a member of the family and community. That is why a baby boy’s father becomes obligated to circumcise his son only on the eighth day, and why the baby boy first receives his name at his brit milah; it is then that the baby boy becomes a member of the community of Israel. On our daughter’s fifteenth day, we come together as a family and as a community to welcome this new member and to give her a name. . . .

Aleinu, as rewritten in Hebrew and English for Ḥavurat Shalom, Somerville, Massachusetts. . . .

Suggestions for chaplains on offering public prayers in interfaith settings. . . .

The following work was published by a Havurah publication in the late 1970s or early 1980s by Rab Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. In it, Rab Zalman presciently describes a digital database of liturgy and liturgy-related work that havurah groups across the world could use to bring together custom designed and crafted works for use in communal prayer. We are grateful to Reb Zalman for bringing this work to our attention. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 18 June 1986. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 25 February 1986. . . .