Earthquakes & Tsunamis • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

This is an archive of prayers in the event of an earthquake causing the collapse of buildings and infrastructure near fault lines, or a tsunami causing sudden devastating inundation flooding, endangering life along coasts, estuaries, and outflowing rivers.
Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and/or translation of a relevant historic prayer, in the event of an earthquake or tsunami.
Looking for something else?
For prayers composed in anticipation of or response to man-made disasters, go here.
For prayers composed in anticipation of or response to dangerous storms, go here.
For prayers composed in anticipation of or response to ecotastrophes, go here.

🆕 Prayer after the Earthquake in Guadeloupe, by Rabbi Isaac Lopez (Jamaica, 1843)

Contributor(s):

A prayer of repentance and thanksgiving recited at the Shaare Shalom synagogue in Kingston, Jamaica in response to the massive Guadeloupe earthquake of 1843. . . .

מי שברך לאסונות טבע | Mi sheBerakh for Natural Disasters, by Isaac Gantwerk-Mayer

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

A Mi Sheberakh prayer for those affected by natural disasters. This prayer uses many standard liturgical phrases in a new context to stress that God, while full of great power, is not a God of destruction but one of peace and life. Quoting the famous vision of Elijah at Ḥorev, this prayer is for those who seek comfort and tranquility from their God. . . .

אחרי הצונמי | Prayer in the Wake of a Tsunami, by Rabbi Shai Held (2004)

Contributor(s):

Shai Held

A prayer composed by Rabbi Shai Held in the aftermath of the devastating 2004 Asian Tsunami. . . .

[Prayer] on the Los Angeles Earthquake, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (12 March 1933)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Norman Michael Goldburg

“On the Los Angeles Earthquake” by Rabbi Norman Michael Goldburg, was offered before the California state legislature on 12 March 1933, and published in California Legislature 50th Session 1933: Prayers Offered at the Daily Sessions of the Assembly, pp. 44-45. The earthquake, now known as the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, registered 6.4 on the Richter scale. . . .

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=234

Associated Image:

Estimated tsunami travel time forecast map for the 2011 Sendai earthquake from the U.S. NOAA

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category pages and in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute any information in the description of this archive page to the Open Siddur Project (<https://opensiddur.org>).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed this page and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this archive: <https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=234>.
Indicate that the original page was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this page in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the CC BY-SA license.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed on this page and in these shared works represents the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17