“Between the Fires: A Prayer for lighting Candles of Commitment” was composed by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, drawing on traditional midrash about the danger of a Flood of Fire, and the passage from Malachi.

Categories:

Erev Shabbat, Shavuot, Erev Pesaḥ, Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Sukkot, Yom Kippur, Ecotastrophes

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., candle lighting, eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, כוונות kavvanot, kindling, North America

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

קִינָה לְחֻרְבַּן גַּן עֵדֶן | Qinah leḤurban Gan Aden, an eco-lament by Richard Kaplan (2003)

“Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden” was written by Richard Kaplan and first published as the fourth track to his album Life of the Worlds: Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music (2003). This work is under the copyright stewardship of the estate of Richard Kaplan and was republished here at the request of Barak Gale who made a recording of the song with the permission of Richard Kaplan while he was alive.

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Ecotastrophes

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, lamentation, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Richard Kaplan

על חטא | For the Sin of Destroying God’s Creation by Rabbi Danny Nevins, adapted by Rabbi David Seidenberg (2007)

Eternal God, You created earth and heavens with mercy,
and blew the breath of life into animals and human beings.
We were created amidst a world of wholeness,
a world called “very good,” pure and beautiful,
but now your many works are being erased by us from the book of life.

Categories:

Yom Kippur, Ecotastrophes

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., על חטא Al Ḥeyt, communal confession, eco-conscious, וידוי vidui

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg

כַּעֲבוֹר סוּפָה | After the Storm, a prayer to “choose life” in the face of climate disruption by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

The prayers for hurricane victims that are circulating through the Open Siddur Project and elsewhere are poignant and heartfelt, but they don’t speak an important piece of the truth that we need to hear. What about our collective responsibility for climate disruption that undoubtedly increases the harm caused by this and every major storm? And what about the Deuteronomic promise that God brings us recompense for our actions davka through the weather? Here’s an attempt at a prayer that incorporates a deeper understanding of our responsibility. For the final version of this prayer, I started with an anonymous Hebrew translation of my original English prayer, then I tweaked it and wove in scriptural references, and retranslated it back into English.

Categories:

Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, Dangerous Storms & Floods, Drought & Wildfire, Ecotastrophes

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., בקשות Baqashot, danger, eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, emergency, Hebrew translation, Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Sandy, taking responsibility, תחינות teḥinot, weather

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and Neohasid·org

וְהָיָה אִם שָׁמֹעַ | V’haya Im Shamo’a (And If You Listen): a prayer in a time of planetary danger by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

A midrashic translation/ interpretation of the second paragraph of the Sh’ma.

Categories:

Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, the Shema, Ecotastrophes

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, interconnectedness, interpretation as prayer, paraliturgical shema, Philadelphia, Pnai Ohr, שמע shemaŋ, והיה אם שמע v'haya im shemo'a

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

Hoshanot Liturgy for the Climate Crisis, adapted by R’ Ezra Weinberg from the words of Greta Thunberg

The words of Greta Thunberg adapted for a prayer for intervention in the anthropogenic climate crisis, for a Honshana ritual for Sukkot.

Categories:

Sukkot, Ecotastrophes, Hoshana Rabba

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., alphabetic mesostic, climate crisis, English vernacular prayer, global climate change, הושענות hoshanot, mesostic

Contributor(s):

Ezra Weinberg

I can’t breathe, We can’t breathe, Earth can’t breathe, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2020)

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere.

Categories:

Ecotastrophes, Epidemics & Pandemics, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

2020 coronavirus pandemic, 2020 United States racial reckoning, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical elohai neshamah, paraliturgical nishmat kol ḥai, Prayers as poems, September 2020 Western United States wildfires

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

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)

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

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Ecotastrophes

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and Neohasid·org

Who Can’t Breathe? Three Outcries and a Prayer, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2021)

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in 2021 reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere.

Categories:

Ecotastrophes, Epidemics & Pandemics, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

תחינה לחזק ידינו במצוות ”כיבוד אב ואם“ ביחס לאמנו, האדמה | A prayer for strengthening our commitment to the commandment of “Honoring our Parents” in relation to Mother Earth, by Rabbi Gila Caine

This teḥinah calls us to remember that we are all personally, as well as communally, responsible for our relationship with the Earth. It also calls us to action, and to recall that even small actions realigning ourselves with the work of the Earth, can be seen as a mitsvah.

Categories:

Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, 🌐 Earth Day (22 April), Ecotastrophes, 🇺🇸 Mother's Day (2nd Sunday of May)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., earth, eco-conscious, eco-feminism, כיבוד אב ואם kibud av va-em, מי שברך mi sheberakh, prayers for mothers, טבע Teva

Contributor(s):

Gila Caine

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

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