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Rosh haShanah la-Behemah

Rosh haShanah la-Behemah

This is an archive of prayers and ritual activities prepared for, or relevant to, Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, the Jewish New Year's Day for [primarily, Domesticated] Animals (Behemot), celebrated on Alef b'Elul, the first day of the month of Elul in the Jewish calendar. The day is one of the four New Year's day festivals (Rosh Hashanot) in the Jewish calendar as explained in the Mishnah (Seder Moed Rosh Hashanah 1:1). During the Second Temple period, this was a day on which shepherds determined which of their mature animals were to be tithed for offerings. The day coincides with Rosh Ḥodesh Elul, exactly one month before Rosh Hashanah.

Beginning in 2009, the festival began to be revived by Jewish animal protection advocates and environmental educators to raise awareness of the mitsvah of tsar baalei ḥayim (obligating not causing undue suffering of any living creature), the source texts informing Jewish ethical relationships with domesticated animals, and the lived experience of animals impacted by human needs, especially in the industrial meat industry.

Click here to contribute your own prayers, song, or resource for an activity or ritual for Rosh haShanah la-Behemah!

PrayersReadings

Resources filtered by CATEGORY: “Epidemics & Pandemics” (clear filter)

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

תְּפִלַּת מַשְׁבִּית מִלְחָמוֹת וְהַדֶּבֶר מִן הַבְּהֵמוֹת | Prayer for the cessation of war and pestilence afflicting domesticated animals (ca. 1800)

This is a prayer for the welfare of domesticated animals (behemot), specifically cattle. “Tefilat mashbit milḥamot v’ha-dever min ha-behemot” (HUC MS 465) was composed by an unknown author, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century, and possibly in a Jewish community in Italy. The text contains the following clues: 1) a prayer for a local Duke (instead of the Emperor Napoleon), 2) mention of warfare, and 3) mention of some variety of epizootic contagious disease among cattle. Rinderpest, known since ancient times, is the most likely candidate for the latter, especially in Italy in the 18th century (where it was first described by early veterinary science) but it was also in Europe following the defeat of Napoleon. While typhus and hoof-and-mouth disease are also possible, Dr. Susan Einbinder, who brought our attention to this prayer via a lecture on epidemic prayers for the HUC Klau Library, notes that the biblical reference to the “bellowing of the cattle” evokes the actual tortuous lived experience of the afflicted animals, and the suffering of their human minders, helpless to relieve them. The tragedy of rinderpest only ended in the 20th century after a concerted multi-national effort to eradicate the disease — one of the earliest modern multinational initiatives to improve the world. (A related disease, Ovine Rinderpest, first described in the 20th century, has not yet been eradicated and affects goats and sheep as well as cattle.)

Categories:

Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Epidemics & Pandemics, War

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., animal protection, domesticated animals, epizootic contagion, Italian Jewry

Contributor(s):

Unknown and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for the cessation of a cattle plague and for protection from cholera, by Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler (1865)

This is a prayer for cattle afflicted by an epizootic contagion (in this case, Rinderpest, a/k/a cattle plague), and for the protection of human beings from cholera, prescribed by the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain, Nathan Marcus Adler, and published in The Hebrew Leader (24 November 1865), p. 1.

Categories:

Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Epidemics & Pandemics

Tags:

1863–1875 cholera pandemic, 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., animal protection, British Jewry, domesticated animals, English vernacular prayer, epizootic contagion

Contributor(s):

Nathan Marcus Adler, Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=410

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"Ohne Worte." without words (credit: Ruben Gralki)

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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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