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

Contributor(s):

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

Shared on:

11 January 2021 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

National Arbor Day (last Friday in April), Planting

Tags:

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

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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)

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“Opening Prayer on the Significance of Arbor Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)” is shared by the living contributor(s) with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (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.)

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).

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.

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.

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)

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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