https://opensiddur.org/?p=25392God’s Goodness — the Testament of [Am] Yisrael, a prayer for Thanksgiving Day by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1945)2019-05-28 22:57:04"God’s Goodness — the Testament of Israel" by Rabbi Milton Steinberg appears on page 558 of <em><a href="https://opensiddur.org/compilations/shabbat-siddur/sabbath-prayer-book-by-mordecai-kaplan-1945/">The Sabbath Prayer Book</a></em> (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) as part of a service for Thanksgiving Day. It is the last of four "testaments," the other three being the testament of <a href="https://opensiddur.org/prayers/secular-calendar/united-states/thanksgiving-day/gods-goodness-the-testament-of-nature-by-milton-steinberg-1945/">Nature</a>, <a href="https://opensiddur.org/prayers/secular-calendar/united-states/thanksgiving-day/gods-goodness-the-testament-of-man-by-milton-steinberg-1945/">Man</a>, and <a href="https://opensiddur.org/prayers/secular-calendar/united-states/thanksgiving-day/gods-goodness-the-testament-of-america-by-milton-steinberg-1945/">America</a> respectively.Textthe Open Siddur ProjectAharon N. Varady (transcription)Aharon N. Varady (transcription)Milton Steinberghttps://opensiddur.org/copyright-policy/Aharon N. Varady (transcription)https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November)20th century C.E.58th century A.M.English vernacular prayerAmerican Jewry of the United Statesעם ישראל Am Yisrael
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God’s Goodness — the Testament of [Am] Yisrael[1] Israel here refers to the people (Am) of Israel, rather than the State of Israel (Medinat Yisrael).
O God, your goodness is manifest in the Testament of Yisrael.
From Egypt you redeemed us, O YHVH our elo’ah,
and from the house of bondage you delivered us.
In famine you have fed us,
and in plenty sustained us.
From the sword you have rescued us,
from pestilence hast you saved us,
and from sore and grievous ills you delivered us.
With everlasting love you have loved the House of Yisrael, your people;
Torah and commandments, laws and judgments you have taught us.
Eternal life you implanted in our midst.
By your Torah we lived,
by your Torah we live now,
and by your Torah we shall continue to live
and labor for the coming of your Kingdom.
Shall we not thank you, O God,
on this Thanksgiving Day,
for having kept Yisrael alive,
for having bestowed on us the gracious gift of your Torah,
and for having brought us near to your service?
Even as it is written by the prophet:
You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
And called from its uttermost parts,
Saying: “You are my servant,
I have chosen you, not rejected you;”[3] Isaiah 41:9.
Fear not, for I am with you,
Be not dismayed, for I am your elo’ah;
I will strengthen you, yea, I will help you;
Yea, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.[4] Isaiah 41:10.
I, YHVH, have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand;
I have kept you and made you a covenanted people,
A light to the nations;[5] Isaiah 42:6.
To open eyes that are blind,
To bring captives out of the dungeon,
Those who sit in darkness out of prison.[6] Isaiah 42:7.
“God’s Goodness — the Testament of Israel” by Rabbi Milton Steinberg appears on page 558 of The Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) as part of a service for Thanksgiving Day. It is the last of four “testaments,” the other three being the testament of Nature, Man, and America respectively. I have supplied the Hebrew verses corresponding to the vernacular English text provided by Rabbi Steinberg. I have replaced “Lord” with YHVH as the circumlocution for the Tetragrammaton, replaced Anglicizations and other archaisms. –Aharon Varady
“God’s Goodness — the Testament of [Am] Yisrael, a prayer for Thanksgiving Day by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1945)” is shared by the living contributor(s) with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
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 naqeniשְׁגִיאוֹת 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.)
Milton Steinberg (November 25, 1903 – March 20, 1950) was an American rabbi, philosopher, theologian and author. Born in Rochester, New York, he was raised with the combination of his grandparents' traditional Jewish piety and his father's modernist socialism. He graduated as valedictorian of his class at DeWitt Clinton High School and then majored in Classics at City College of New York which he graduated from summa cum laude in 1924. Steinberg received his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in 1928 and then entered the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he was ordained. In seminary, he was strongly influenced by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983), the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. After five years in a pulpit in Indiana, he was invited by the Seminary to assume the pulpit of Manhattan's Park Avenue Synagogue, then a small congregation with a Reform orientation. In his sixteen years at the congregation, he grew it from 120 to 750 families. In 1943 he had a near fatal heart attack. While a disciple of Kaplan who considered himself a Reconstructionist, Steinberg was critical of Kaplan's dismissal of metaphysics. Steinberg's works included Basic Judaism, The Making of the Modern Jew, A Partisan Guide to the Jewish Problem, and As A Driven Leaf, a historical novel revolving around the talmudic characters Elisha ben Abuyah and Rabbi Akiva. In his final years, he began writing a series of theological essays. This project, which he had hoped would conclude in a book of theology, was cut short by his death at age 46. An unfinished second novel, The Prophet's Wife, about the Tanakh characters Hosea and Gomer, was published in March 2010. (via his entry in Wikipedia)
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