This English translation, using a mix of traditional and non-traditional gender neutral pronouns, was first published on Gabbai Seth Fishman’s website, Jewish Renewal Hasidus on February 15th, 2016. This segment of Reb Zalman’s writing in Hebrew was first published in his work, Yishmru Daat: Hasidic Teachings of the Fourth Turning (Albion Andalus, 2013), p. 30.

This prayer was originally posted with translation to Jewish Renewal Hasidus by Gabbai Seth Fishman, here.

This list of thirteen supplications for emunah (faith) was included by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009) under the heading, “The Teaching of the Beit Ha Midrash at Elat Chayyim.” Sentence parsing by Aharon Varady.

Source

Being thankful and offering prayers of thanksgiving are part of the daily spiritual practice of rabbinic Judaism. Prayers of thanksgiving are a critical piece in our liturgies for the Amida (modim) and in our prayer after eating (nodeh l’cha) and those are only two ancient and familiar prayers composed for our devotional recitation to guide and structure our intentions. There are also the myriad of unpublished prayers composed in whispers, spoken privately by us and our ancestors throughout history.

With this in mind, I want to invite all Jews in North America who celebrate the secular/national holiday of Thanksgiving to consider what might be a thoughtful prayer on this day. For the few hundred years that our people have been here, as refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition and as immigrants simply seeking better fortunes in a safer land, this Land has been a sanctuary. At the same time, even through the storied travails of our immediate ancestors, we cannot ignore the suffering endured by the indigenous peoples of this land who, first by devastating plague, and later through intentional acts of dispossession, were murdered, massacred, forcibly displaced, and assimilated (forbidden to speak their language, separated from their families, made ignorant of their traditions) — experiences that must resonate with our own historical experience in the Diaspora. It seems immoral to me to be thankful without also being mindful of this complexity — how the fruits we enjoy in this Land have a rotten and dramatic history that we, now as residents of this continent, must at least consider in our prayers of thanksgiving.

Familiar liturgies were composed to commemorate and celebrate the mytho-historical events of Purim and Ḥanukkah, and modern liturgies have been composed for Yom Ha’atzmaut. What about a special Al Hanissim prayer for Thanksgiving Day in North America? Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi had these earlier prayers in mind, as well as the story of the “First Thanksgiving” of the Plymouth Colony settlers in Massachusetts, when he composed the prayer above, Tanksgiv All the Boona.

I consider this prayer problematic for several reasons most of which were already voiced by others when this prayer was first shared at the Reb Zalman Legacy Project website in 2007. Varda Brahms made the following important criticism:

If you look into the history a little more deeply, there is definitely pain there.

I am not an expert on the history and the details, but it is my understanding that first of all, the Natives, as decent human beings, did the generous thing – they fed the strangers. (They didn’t necessarily have to be ROUSED by the Almighty to do so, but the Almighty may, of course, be understood to be behind everything.) So I think that in the phrasing of the prayer, we need to hear the Natives getting more credit for acting appropriately when people needing help showed up unexpectedly.

Emphasis mine. Reb Zalman’s formulation here is problematic in terms of theology and it is problematic in terms of narrative. Hospitality towards strangers is a central value of the Torah — the kindness of the Wampanoag people towards the pilgrims was witness to their excellent middot (attributes), not a miracle of divine intervention. The prayer implicitly, unfortunately suggests that their kindness wasn’t due to their free-will. Thus, it casts them either as less than human, having no free will of their own, or else in the role of Pharaoh, whose free-will was manipulated, to do good or ill in the context of the story of the Exodus and the ten plagues.

Varda Brahms continues,

Secondly, the Pilgrims and Puritans repaid them very poorly, (though perhaps not the specific group that was fed). In general, the ‘invaders’ attacked the Natives, robbed them, deprived them of their homes, treated them as inferior, judging them based upon their skin color, lifestyle, etc. Irregardless of their rationale, they took for themselves and they didn’t ‘play fair.’ And there is huge sorrow for the Natives that they were so mistreated. They are shocked by what came to them as a result of the trauma of the arrival of these strangers, despite having behaved generously. So, in a further development of your prayer, I feel there should be a recognition of the shamefulness of the behavior of the Pilgrims, an expression of sorrow about that, and a prayer for healing for the Natives, who have spent the last centuries reeling from the destruction of their traditional ways.

Again, emphasis mine. Internalizing this empathetic understanding is crucial in order to bridge our historical experience in the Diaspora with the stories of so many other peoples. If we truly intend to be a light unto the nations, we must cultivate an awareness born of seeing the suffering and injustice done to others clearly.

There could be, as well, a prayer for healing of the relationship of the Natives and The Strangers in a Strange Land, who received from them, took, and certainly have not always acted fairly in return. Their people are still suffering, and have to process much grief and loss, sorrow and anger, and deal with recovery, struggling to retain their traditions, and acceptance of the changes that impacted them.

As I write this, I realize that this prayer would also apply to other situations where two very different cultures have met, interacted -sometimes positively and sometimes poorly — have hurt each other, and have an unhealed relationship – for example, Jews and Palestinians. May there be Refuah Shlemah!

Amen. Reading this, Reb Simcha Daniel Burstyn remarked:

Regarding the truth above by Varda….perhaps our master will teach us, yilamdenu Rabbenu, why are we still calling them, following Columbus, Indianim?

The people who greeted the Mayflower pilgrims were of the Wampanoag nation,^[1] Wampanoag, literally “People of the First Light” [–Aharon Varady]   specifically of the Pokanoket tribe, including Ousameqin, who was Massassoit, or Grand Sachem of the whole Wampanoag nation. That was after the English pilgrims had had a violent and unfriendly encounter with people of the Nauset tribe near what is now Provincetown.

In other words, the Wampanoag people behaved towards the Pilgrims with a level of ḥesed (lovingkindness) that might objectively be seen as undeserved. By referring to the Wampanoag under the accidental label of “Indianim” (Indians) we obscure the singular merit of this people. We also conflate their identity with that of all the indigenous people of North America. This may be convenient for storytellers who wish to make a myth of natives welcoming settlers to their New World, but it doesn’t help us recognize and wrestle with a colonization that pit one group against another in the incremental conquest of the Land.

One more thing that might be considered is that the ritual of the first Thanksgiving is connected to the three sisters of Native agriculture, corn (maize), beans, and squash. So just as we say, on Pesach, Rabban Gamaliel’s reminder “one who has not mentioned Pesach, Matzo, and Maror…” – it seems to me that we must be sure that these three foods are on the table, and that we mention them specifically. In which case, we must mention “shi’u’im, delu’im, ve’tiras” [beans, pumpkins, and corn]. Thus the turkey falls by the wayside: just as we have no specific bracha for eating meat in our tradition.

Reb Simcha’s ideas concerning the symbolic food of a Thanksgiving seder alludes to the significance of corn grown from a land amidst much sorrow. It highlights a very difficult element of the story of the Plymouth Colony’s first year among the Massachusetts peoples: the colonists survived in part by discovering, disturbing, and stealing caches of corn that had been intended for the dead. In 1617–1619, before the arrival of the Mayflower, an epidemic wiped out up to 90% of the Native Americans along the Massachusetts coast. The colonist’s town of New Plymouth was built atop the town of Patuxet, abandoned after its inhabitants had been wiped out by one of many plagues that decimated the indigenous populations of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Reb Simcha’s suggestion to avoid the focus on the Turkey is also welcomed. Our הוֺדוּ — our thankfulness — is not signified by the meat of the Turkey, the meat of which also obscures the sorrowful life of deprivation and nigh unimaginable endured by millions of birds and other domesticated animals each year, harvested only to suffice unnecessary gluttony. A refocus on the meaningful elements of our thanksgiving, must be courageous enough to look beyond what is hidden by immediate, convenient desires.

The time has come for us to take seriously and revisit these important questions and concerns. If the most precious and prized myths in our own tradition are the repository of some of the deepest and profound wisdom revealed to our ancestors, then it behooves to think critically about any myths we adopt from our host cultures that may be convenient stories they tell to obscure a depth of suffering to harrowing to look closely at.

The original Thanksgiving festival was probably held in early October 1621 and was celebrated by the 53 (out of 102) surviving Pilgrims, along with Ousameqin, the Wampanoag sachem (chief) of the Massasoit, and 90 of his men. The celebration lasted three days and featured a feast that included numerous types of waterfowl, wild turkeys and fish procured by the colonists, and five deer brought by the Wampanoag. Within a year, this spirit of cooperation was destroyed in one of many incidents presaging the centuries of tragedy to come to the indigenous peoples of North America.

Perhaps, a more honest declaration of thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day would be balanced by a memorial for the dead, and an intention to pursue justice for those victimized either through outright theft or passively through stories that marginalize and silence, and thereby help the storytellers evade honest awareness and responsibility. Perhaps, it might be as simple as stating:

(Click here for the prayer above in Hebrew and English.)

Source(s)

In his Siddur Tehilat Hashem Yedaber Pi (2009), this untitled teḥinah appears just below Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi’s translation of Psalms 15 (recited on joyful and celebrative days when Taḥanun is not recited) and just above the Psalms of the Day section. We are not certain whether this teḥinah is an original prayer by Reb Zalman, a translation of an existing teḥinah found for Taḥanun, or a composite of teḥinot found in the Taḥanun service.

A version of this prayer was published in Reb Zalman and Netanel Miles-Yepez’s A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters (p. 316-317. JPS 2009). A full translation of Rabbi Yitsḥaq Luria’s original Prayer Before Studying Kabbalah can be found here.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, included this prescription in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). –Aharon N. Varady

Source(s)

These “Shabbat Affirmations” appear in Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s Sabbath Supplement to his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi ~ As I Can Say It (for Praying in the Vernacular) (2009).

Source(s)

This is the “Amidah for Shabbat (Day)” as found in Rab Zalman’s Sabbath Supplement to Tefilat Hashem Yedaber Pi (2009). I have set Reb Zalman’s text in a linear style, side-by-side with the Hebrew liturgy of the Amidah for Shabbat Day in Reb Zalman’s particular nusaḥ of prayer. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, included these Weekday Affirmations based on the Amidah, in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). I have replaced anglicizations and removed capitalization for divine pronouns. –Aharon N. Varady

One might wonder where the practice of reciting daily affirmations intersects with Jewish prayer. These wikipedia articles on Affirmations (New Age) and especially, Affirmative Prayer provide some information on how affirmations have been used in the context of self-improvement movements, including the bygone Jewish Science movement. Reflecting on the language of these kabbalistic affirmations by Reb Zalman, I feel that he subverts the self-centered formulas typical of positive thinking “prayers” and centers the Jewish values of worldly tikkun through individuals taking upon themselves to act righteously and justly.

Source(s)

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, included this list of peer blessings for after davvening in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009).

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DOWNLOAD: ODT | PDF

This is Reb Zalman’s Sabbath Supplement to his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi ~ As I Can Say It (for Praying in the Vernacular) (2009).

ODT | PDF Siddur Tehillat HaShem Yidaber Pi — Sabbath Evening Supplement

TXT Siddur Tehillat HaShem Y’daber Pi — Weekdays and Sabbath Supplement

TXT Reb Zalman’s translation of select Tehillim (6, 15, 24, 25, 30, 48, 67, 81-82, 93-94, 100, 104, 139, 145-150)

When Reb Zalman shared his siddur with the Open Siddur Project in 2009, it was the first contribution of a contemporary translation of the siddur with an Open Content license. Thank you so much, Reb Zalman!

If you are not used to reading Hebrew with comprehension and with the ability to dilate the Hebrew from the literal meaning, or if you cannot read Hebrew and need a resource for daily davvenen, I offer you this set of texts, which I, too, use frequently for myself.

I translated the Psalms and the liturgy in the way in which I experience them in my feeling consciousness. This does not offer the ‘pshat’, the literal meaning of the words, but the devotional interpretation that can make it a prayer of the heart.

I suggest that you davven it first all the way through, reading it out loud enough to hear it yourself with feeling. You will like some sections better than others.

However, as you will note, there are 5 sections to this heart siddur. They describe the raising of your awareness from the realm of sensation, the prayer of Assiyah, to the realm of feelings, the prayer of Yetzirah, from there to the realm of reason and the intellect, the world of B’riyah and to the summit, the world of the intuition, Atzilut.

When you are done with this ascent, coming back to the grounded world of sensation and action, you will need to reflect on the stirrings you felt on the way up and ask yourself these questions:

• How am I to apply this in my consensus reality and with my family and other contacts?
• How am I to act in a manner that will lead to the healing of our planet and society?

This part is called the bringing down of the Divine influx, yeridat hashefa’.

You may need to pick some paragraphs from each plane of prayer if all of it is too much for you. Some days you may wish to vary some parts and say others. This ‘siddur’ is meant to help you stay in daily touch with God, to gain blessed assistance from God, to lighten your burdens, not to add to them. Then recite some of the sentences of blessings and proceed with your daily tasks.

May you experience
your praying
as a blessed meeting
with your God.

Years ago, my teacher, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, of blessed memory, told me that he had once hiked into the mountains and spray-painted “holy graffiti” on a water reserve tank. He was inspired by the experiments of Dr. Masaru Emoto who claimed that even writing emotionally charged words on a bottle of water changed the structure of the water itself. Words of hate created chaotic structures, and words of love, beautiful patterns. So Reb Zalman took a path into the mountains behind his home in Boulder and hiked up to a large water tank that provided water to the community and spray-painted on it: “Blessings for peace, health, joy, prosperity, and kindness.” Today, a little over a year since his passing, I decided to hike up into the mountains to see if I could find the water tank and see if his holy graffiti still existed. I reached the water tank just after six o’clock in the evening. There was plenty of graffiti on it, but none of it “holy”—at least not on the part of it I could see. I decided to look around the back of it. The ground was wet, so I walked the narrow cement edge around the tank, until finally, I came to the faded black remains of Reb Zalman’s graffiti. After some twenty years, and probably more than one paint over, it was still here! There was no vantage point from which to take a picture of all of it, so I did what I could to capture it in a series of photos.

Since I’m nowhere near Colorado I figured that if I could stitch together the images Reb Netanel took, I too could take part in Reb Zalman’s intention and blessing. So I brought them together and had them printed up on a mug to drink from. The stitched together image is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license in case you want to print out this image on your own. (If you wish to buy the one that I made, they’re available here for anyone who wants. All proceeds benefit the Open Siddur Project. Reb Zalman was one of the very first contributors to the Open Siddur Project, a realization of his dream for a Database Davennen.)

My desk with a blessing from Reb Zalman (credit: Aharon Varady, license: CC BY-SA)

If you do drink from this mug, don’t forget to prepare it as a holy vessel by saying the following blessing and immersing it in a mikveh or natural flowing body of water.

Sources

Reb Zalman’s Watertank Blessing, a collage stitched from photos taken by R’ Netanel Miles-Yépez (credit: Reb Zalman, Netanel Miles Yépez, and Aharon Varady, CC BY-SA)

Reb Zalman’s Watertank Blessing, a collage stitched from photos taken by R’ Netanel Miles-Yépez (credit: Reb Zalman, Netanel Miles Yépez, and Aharon Varady, CC BY-SA)

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Reb Arthur Waskow, and others helped to formulate this grammatically feminine Hebrew blessing for an oleh in their blessing over the Torah reading, in the early years of Congregation Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia (1988-1993).

Source

Torah Blessings (Divine Feminine) at Mishkan Shalom, Philadelphia