An American Covenant of Brotherhood, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and Eugene Kohn (1945)
Contributed by: Eugene Kohn, Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A civic prayer for the Sabbath occurring during Brotherhood Week (February 19th-28th) in the United States. . . .
אלהים חיי הטבע | Elohim the Life of Nature, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Abraham Regelson (translation), Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“God the Life of Nature” by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan was first published in his Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p. 382-391, where it appears side-by-side with its translation into Hebrew by Abraham Regelson. . . .
That America Fulfil the Promise of Its Founding, a prayer for Independence Day by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer for Independence Day in the United States by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, prefaced by an abridged reading of the Declaration of Independence. . . .
“That America’s Heroes Shall Not Have Died in Vain” with a special El Malé Raḥamim prayer for Memorial Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A service and prayer for Memorial Day in the United States, containing a variation of El Malé Raḥamim, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. . . .
That Religion Be Not a Cloak for Hypocrisy, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“That Religion Be Not a Cloak for Hypocrisy,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 435-5 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . .
Salvation through Labor, a prayer for the Sabbath before Labor Day, adapted from the writings of A.D. Gordon by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aaron David Gordon, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“Salvation through Labor,” adapted by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan from the writings of Aaron David Gordon, can be found on p. 548-551 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). The translation was attributed in the Sabbath Prayer Book to its editors (Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn, assisted by Ira Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg). . . .
Life Is What We Make It, a prayer-poem based on the writings of Rabbi Leo Baeck by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Leo Baeck, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer-poem by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan based on the writings of Rabbi Leo Baeck, as published in the Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p.426-7. . . .
מי שברך לתקופת יום הולדת | Mi sheBerakh on behalf of one celebrating a birthday, by Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“Prayer in behalf of one celebrating a birthday,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 494-497 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) . . .
ספר תפילות לשבת | Sabbath Prayer Book, by the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation (1945)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, Ira Eisenstein, Milton Steinberg, Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation)
Arranged and translated by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the Sabbath Prayer Book is the first Reconstructionist prayerbook we know of to have entered the Public Domain. . . .
Needed Prophets for Our Day, a prayer-poem by Mordecai Kaplan (1942) adapted from “The Divinity School Address” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1838)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This prayer by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, first penned in his diary for 23 August 1942, was first published in The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, by Mel Scult (1990). Although the prayer was not included in Kaplan’s Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945), it was added to the loose-leaf prayerbook he kept at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism synagogue. . . .
A Kavvanah on Praying, Singing, and Listening to Torah Readings, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1942)
Contributed by: Mel Scult, Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer on praying, singing, and Torah learning by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. . . .
The Pious Man, a prayer-poem by Mordecai Kaplan adapted from the essay “An Analysis of Piety” by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1942)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“The Pious Man” is a prayer-poem from Mordecai Kaplan’s diary entry, September 19, 1942, on the virtue of piety as expressed in an essay published earlier that year by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Piety was a Roman virtue, but in this essay, A.J. Heschel appears to be describing an idealization of Ḥasidut. . . .
📖 Supplementary Prayers and Readings for the High Holidays, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1934)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation)
The first prayerbook compiled by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, published by the United Synagogue as a selection of supplemental readings on Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur. . . .
On the Decalogue, life wisdom for a Bnei Mitsvah by Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan (ca. 1920s)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is a restatement of the Decalogue offered as life wisdom by Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan for his daughters, sometime in the 1920s, possibly as early as 1922 at the Bat Mitsvah of his oldest daughter Judith. The document was found by Mel Scult and shared by him from his Mordecai Kaplan Discussion Group on Facebook. . . .
💬 בן סירא מב:כא-מג:לא | ben Sira 42:21-43:31, a hymn of creation translated by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Ecclesiasticus (ben Sira) 42:21-43:31 is presented as “God the Lord of Nature” in The Sabbath Prayer Book of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (The Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p. 376-372 in the Supplements subsection, “God in Nature.” The text of Ben Sira used here differs in places found in other manuscripts. . . .
תהלים ק״ד | Psalms 104, a hymn of creation (translated by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan)
Contributed by: Mordecai Kaplan, the Mesorah (TaNaKh), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Psalms 104, translated by Mordecai Kaplan and presented as “God as Creator and Renewer of Nature” can be found on p. 360-5 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945), the first prayer in a subsection of supplementary prayers called “GOD IN NATURE.” . . .