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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).

https://neohasid.org
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🆕 Mi sheBerakh for the safety and safe return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, by Rabbi David Seidenberg

Contributed by: David Seidenberg

This mi sheberakh by Rabbi David Seidenberg, for the safety and safe return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia detained by the United States government and deported “in error” to captivity under dangerous and vulnerable conditions in El Salvador, was first shared on his Facebook page on 10 April 2025. . . .


A Prayer for All Eight Nights of Ḥanukkah, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org, 2024)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

Eight qualities are mentioned in the prayer: Peace, Blessing, Hope, Return, Promise, Strength, Life, Courage. You can pick one to focus on each night. (You can do them in the order they appear in if you like.) Where do you find that quality in you? Where do you find it in the world? What will a life, or a world, transformed by that quality look like? Feel like? . . .


Prayer for Sukkot 5785, by Rabbi David Seidenberg

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

This prayer by Rabbi Seidenberg was shared via his English newsletter and social media in the days preceding Sukkot 2024. . . .


בִּשְּׁבִיל דֵמוֹקרָטִיָה וְצֶדֶק | For democracy and justice: additions to the Amidah to add from now through US election day (and afterward), by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

Additions to the Amidah for the sake of democracy and justice for offering now through US election day 2024. . . .


מוריד הטל | Morid Hatal — to the One who settles the dew, post-October 7 — by Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg (neohasid·org 2024)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

On Passover we end the prayers for rain that began on October 7, and begin the prayers for dew. The prayers end, but the war that began with the October 7 attack does not. Here is a reflection on that. . . .


Kavvanah and prayer for Zōt Ḥanukkah, the last night and day of Ḥanukkah 5784, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

Four things to pray and learn for the last night and day of Ḥanukkah. . . .


A Prayer for Democracies Everywhere with the Welfare of Ukraine Foremost in Mind, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org, 2022)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

A prayer for democracy everywhere, with Ukraine foremost in mind. . . .


“Avinu Malkeinu,” dvar tefillah by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg

The words of Avinu Malkeinu are a little different from the standard translation. It doesn’t say in Hebrew, “we have no good deeds” (ein lanu ma’asim tovim), but rather, “there are no deeds in us” (ein banu ma’asim). The p’shat (literal meaning) implies that whatever we have done in the past does not have to live inside of us — we can release our deeds and be released from them, fully, to start over, like a newborn, to become whoever we need to become. . . .


Inauguration Day Prayer for the Government of the United States, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org 2021)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

A prayer for the government of the United States of America on the day of the 59th Presidential Inauguration. . . .


Additions to the Rosh haShanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim, from Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

If you are doing a Rosh Hashanah seder of simanim (signs, augurs, portents) using food puns, here are some topical additions including for beginning the Shmitah year. . . .


בַּעָל חוֹבֵנוּ | Ba’al Ḥoveinu, a piyut for Seliḥot on the advent of the Shmitah year by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

This short piyut touches on these four themes related to Shmitah: release of debts, the rights of the land, the rights of wild animals (who share our food during Shmitah), and the freeing of slaves. The piyut would fit as part of Seliḥot before Rosh haShanah and during Yom Kippur. . . .


Kavvanot for before and after Tashlikh, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

Two kavvanot, one for before and one for after casting away in a Tashlikh ritual. . . .


על אלה אנו בוכים | Al eleh anu bokhim (For these we weep), a lamentation for humanity’s destruction of habitat and species, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

A ḳinnah for humanity’s willful, negligent, and callous destruction of habitat and species known and unknown. . . .


תפילה להצבעה | A Prayer for Voting with a Pledge to Help Repair the World, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

This prayer is broadly speaking a prayer that we learn to work together to create a better future, and it incorporates a pledge to do one thing for healing the world, for tikkun olam, that will make this future a reality. It’s not a prayer about winning or getting other people to see things our way, like some of the others I’ve seen. Whomever we support, we need to pray for strength for the next president, and for the whole country, to face what will be challenging times. . . .


Additions to Piyyutim on the High Holidays for the Shemitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

Two suggestions for ḥazanim (cantors) and shliḥei tzibur on the High Holidays. . . .


Additions to the Rosh Hashanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim for the Shmitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

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. This year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this kavvanah (intention). . . .


Hosha-na for Our Planet, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot. . . .


Seven Hoshanot for Creation, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org

A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot. . . .


📄 סֵדֶר ט״וּ בִּשְׁבָט לִקּוּיֵי הַיָּרֵחַ | A Tu BiShvat Seder Haggadah for the Total Lunar Eclipse, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org, 5779/2019)

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

A Tu Bishvat Seder Haggadah prepared for a time when the Jewish New Year’s Day festival for trees coincides with a total lunar eclipse, as occurred in Tevet 5779 (January 2019). . . .


בָּאנוּ חׇשֵׁךְ לְקַדֵּשׁ | Banu Ḥoshekh l’Ḳadesh (We come to sanctify the dark), by rabbis David Seidenberg and Jill Hammer

Contributed by: David Seidenberg, Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D., Neohasid·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. . . .