This is an archive of prayers and song composed in response to (or in anxious anticipation of) ecological catastrophes. If you have composed a prayer for an ecotastrophe, please share it here. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category
“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. . . .
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. . . .
A supplemental Hoshanot liturgy for Sukkot confessing a selection of humanity’s crimes against creation. . . .
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. . . .
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
A midrashic translation/ interpretation of the second paragraph of the Sh’ma. . . .
“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. . . .
The words of Greta Thunberg adapted for a prayer for intervention in the anthropogenic climate crisis, for a Honshana ritual for Sukkot. . . .
A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere. . . .
A ḳinnah for humanity’s willful, negligent, and callous destruction of habitat and species known and unknown. . . .
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. . . .
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, State v. Chauvin
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. . . .
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