https://opensiddur.org/?p=28876Addition to the Rosh Hashanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim for the Shmitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)2019-12-31 22:24:58Many people eat special foods as part of a mini-seder at the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah meal and invoke blessings for the year as they eat them. This year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this <em>kavvanah</em> (intention).Textthe Open Siddur ProjectDavid SeidenbergDavid Seidenbergneohasid.orghttps://opensiddur.org/copyright-policy/David Seidenberghttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Seder Akhilat haSimanimSymbolic FoodsThe Shmitah Year (Earth's Shabbat)21st century C.E.58th century A.M.ecoḥasid
Many people eat special foods as part of a mini-seder at the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah meal and invoke blessings for the year as they eat them. For the Shmitah year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this kavvanah (intention):
☞ Need to adjust a column of text to the right or left? Click on the header row and drag the column where you want. Here's an animated GIF showing the process. ☞ Need to copy a column or column(s) of text? We recommend the CopyTables extension.
In the year of Shmitah, the sabbatical year,
our ancestors would let the land rest from their plows,
receiving and eating whatever grew and ripened by itself from the land.
And fig trees were especially prized in Shmitah,
because they would ripen little by little over many months,
always providing food.
And some say that the fig was the fruit of the tree of knowledge,
and that Shmitah is our time to receive the knowledge from Eden
in the right way and the right time,
when all us ripened toward understanding.
May it be Your will
YHVH our God and God of our ancestors
that during this year of Shmitah,
as the world ripens for us little by little,
always turning again toward us
to nourish and sustain us,
that may we turn
to receive in gratitude
what is offered so freely and lovingly,
so that we may turn
and ripen in justice and love
toward this world and all its creatures.
(Eat the fig!)
For a full Shmita Rosh Hashanah seder, see also R. Nina Beth Cardin’s seder at: The Sova Project.
“Addition to the Rosh Hashanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim for the Shmitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)” is shared by the living contributor(s) with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Rabbi David Seidenberg, founder of NeoHasid.org, teaches text and music, Jewish thought and spirituality, in their own right and in relation to ecology and the environment. With smikhah (ordination) from the Jewish Theological Seminary and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, he has taught at over 100 synagogues, communities, retreats and conferences across North America (and a few in Europe and Israel). Rabbi Seidenberg's teaching empowers learners to become creators of Judaism through deep study and communion with texts and tradition. Areas of specialty include Kabbalah and Ḥasidut, Talmud, davenning, evolution and cosmology, sustainability, Maimonides, Buber, and more. Rabbi Seidenberg has published widely on ecology and Judaism. He is the author of the acclaimed book Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World (Cambridge U. Press, 2015). To read selections and find out about ordering the book, go to kabbalahandecology.com.
NeoHasid.org was created by Rabbi David Seidenberg to help folks integrate Chasidic song, learning, and nusach into their davenning and communities and to explore embodied Torah. It evolved to focus on eco-Torah and to share liturgy that honors our relationship with the Earth and/or expresses gender parity.
Comments, Corrections, and Queries