![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
Contributor(s):
Shared on:
Categories:
Tags:
TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.
| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
We are assembled today under God’s heaven to express the gratitude that is in our hearts for the trees of forest and orchard, for all growth of the soil, and for all the living creatures that, like us, can find shelter and sustenance in the products of wood and field. We acknowledge our dependence on them and our responsibility to their Creator. May we ever use the gifts they offer us for the good of all humanity. May we never waste this store of blessing. May we never rob the generations to come of their heritage. Let us instead, by our planting, replenish the wealth of vegetation which we consume for our needs. | |
We thank you, O God, not only for the uses of trees, but also for their beauty. That beauty helps sustain the spirit of humanity, calming us in our anxieties, cheering us in our disappointments, and comforting us in our sorrows. It is a token of divine love, an assurance of the goodness of life, of humanity’s at-homeness in the universe, as in the house of a loving Parent. | |
We acknowledge on this day our kinship with the trees of the forest. Like them we are born, we grow, we die. Like them, our lives are rooted in the soil of our country. As they grow by the light of day, so does our civilization thrive by the spiritual light of truth. And even as the trees perish, but the forest survives, so do we perish but the nation endures. And even as the dead leaves and the roots of dead trees fertilize the soil, and give nourishment to fresh growth, so do the deeds of departed generations nourish the growth of the generations yet unborn. | |
We therefore invoke your blessing, O God, upon all growing things, upon America and the civilization that is the growth of its soil. Cause the cleansing water of your grace to rain upon it and the radiant sunshine of your love to shine upon it that our nation may live forever and give to all who partake in its life a share in its immortality. Amen. |
This opening prayer for Arbor 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. 71-72 — 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.) as well as adapted it with gender-neutral instead of male-by-default language. –Aharon Varady
Source(s)
“Opening Prayer on the Significance of Arbor 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.
Stable Link:
https://opensiddur.org/?p=35063
Associated Image:
Arbor Day, Wild Animal Park, U.S. Forest Service Employee, Susan Blankenbaker with Woodsy Owl, U.S. Forest Service Employee, Robert Sanders and Children (ca. 1979-1986)(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category lists and in shared links on social media.)
Terms of Use:
Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:
- Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription), John Paul Williams, Eugene Kohn and Mordecai Kaplan.
- Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
- Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=35063>.
- Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)
Note:
The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.
Support this work:
The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.
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
Comments, Corrections, and Queries