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David Seidenberg
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 and is the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Aleinu | Art & Craft | Blessings After Eating | Blessings Before Eating | Tashlikh | 🌐 Day of Democracy (September 15th) | the Dry Season (Spring & Summer) | Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System | 🌐 Earth Day (22 April) | Ecotastrophes | 🇺🇸 Election Day (1st Tuesday after November 1st) | Elections & Voting | Erev Pesaḥ | Fasting | Rosh haShanah la-Behemah | Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat) | Rosh haShanah la-Melakhim | Government & Country | Ḥanukkah | Hoshana Rabba | 🇺🇸 Inauguration Day (January 20th) | Rosh Ḥodesh Iyyar (אִיָּר) | Yom haMabul (Day of the Flood, 17 Iyyar, Lev ba-Omer) | Yom haQeshet (Day of the Rainbow, 27 Iyyar) | Ḳaddish | Rosh Ḥodesh Marḥeshvan (מַרְחֶשְׁוָן) | 🇮🇱 Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel) | Meteorological and Astronomical Observations | Mourning | Prayers for the Sun's Renewal | Rosh Ḥodesh Nisan (נִיסָן) | Pesaḥ | Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag | Phonaesthetics | Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit) | Seder Akhilat haSimanim | the Shmitah Year (Earth's Shabbat) | Dangerous Storms & Floods | Sukkot | Symbolic Foods | Rosh Ḥodesh Tevet (טֵבֵת) | 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November) | Tishah b'Av | Tishah b'Av Readings | Rosh Ḥodesh Tishrei (תִּשְׁרֵי) | Seder Leil Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat) | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 🇺🇸 United States of America | War | the Winter Solstice (21 December) | Yom haḲeshet (27 Iyyar) Readings | Yom Kippur
זאת חנוכה Zot Ḥanukkah | מוריד הטל morid hatal | 117th Congress | 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine | 2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war | 46th President of the United States | 59th Presidential Inauguration | על חטא Al Ḥeyt | עלינו Aleinu | all inhabitants | alphabetic mesostic | American Jewry of the United States | עמידה amidah | Ancestors | Aramaic | archetypes | Aseret Yemei Tshuvah | Atah Qadosh (Third Blessing of the Amidah) | אבינו מלכינו avinu malkeinu | Avot and Imahot | באנו חשך לגרש banu ḥoshekh l'garesh | בקשות Baqashot | blessings | ברכות brakhot | Breslov | clapping | commentary as prayer | communal confession | Coronation | Crowning | danger | democracy | democratic process | Donald Trump | d'var t'fillah | earth | Eclipse | eco-conscious | ecoḥasid | ecumenical prayers | emergency | English vernacular prayer | four worlds | global climate change | global warming | חמץ ḥametz | HaRaḥaman | חסידי ברצלב Ḥasidei Bratslav (Breslov) | Ḥasidic | היום תאמצנו Hayom T'amtsenu | Hebrew translation | הושענות hoshanot | Hurricane Florence | Hurricane Harvey | Hurricane Sandy | in the merit of our ancestors | Israelis and Palestinians | Joe Biden | קדיש יתום Mourner's Ḳaddish | Kamala Harris | כוונות kavvanot | ל״ג בעומר lag baomer | Liberal Zionist Prayers | life | Lunar Eclipse | מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael | mesostic | Musaf Rosh Hashanah | Needing Translation (into Hebrew) | Needing Source Images | neo-lurianic | North America | Northampton | Nusaḥ Ha-Ari z"l | paraliturgical avinu malkeinu | paraliturgical tefilat tal | photosynthesis | פיוטים piyyutim | Prayers as poems | Prayers inside sukkot | prayers of orphans | Private Amidah | Public Amidah | punning | קבלה ḳabbalah | קדושה Qedushah | קינות Ḳinōt | Rainbow Day | school of the ARI z"l | ספירות sefirot | סליחות səliḥot | שבת תשובה Shabbat Teshuvah | Shadow of the Earth | שבועות Shavuot | שמיטה shmitah | sol | solar | solstice | sourcesheet | spirits | symbolic foods | taking responsibility | תשליך tashlikh | תחינות teḥinot | thanksgivukkah | the moon | the Occupation | the sun | total solar eclipse | Trees | United States | United States General Election 2024 | universalist | אושפיזתא Ushpizata | אושפיזין ushpizin | וידוי vidui | voting | water cycle | weather | weekday amidah | זמירות zemirot | Zionist Prayers | 21st century C.E. | 58th century A.M.
בָּאנוּ חׇשֵׁךְ לְקַדֵּשׁ | Banu Ḥoshekh l’Ḳadesh (We come to sanctify the dark), by rabbis David Seidenberg and Jill Hammer
Contributed on: 09 Dec 2018 by David Seidenberg | Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D. | Neohasid [dot] org | ❧
This is a new version of the popular Ḥanukkah song, Banu Ḥoshekh. (The original by Sara Levi-Tanai can be found here.) Our new version does two things: 1) it avoids the association of darkness and blackness (shḥor) with evil and harm, which in our society gets tangled up with white supremacy, and 2) honors the darkness as something precious that we need, especially in our time of light pollution when so much of the time, so many people can’t even see the stars. . . .
