I can't breathe, We can't breathe, Earth can't breathe, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2020)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=33691
open_content_license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Date: 2020-09-17
Last Updated: 2024-12-20
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., English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical elohai neshamah, paraliturgical nishmat kol ḥai, Prayers as poems, September 2020 Western United States wildfires, אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah
Excerpt: A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere. . . .
Content:
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“I Can’t Breathe”
Again and again,
With gun or choke-hold.
Police steal the breath of Black Americans
The police are not merely police
For they hold a national authority
To use violence on behalf of the nation:
To serve us all, protect us all.
When they subjugate the Black community
They implicate us all,
They make us all Subjugators
And their misdeeds have stirred
A great Uprising against racism.
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We can’t breathe.
All humanity is choking
From a virus that invades our lungs.
We have left no space for other species
And the virus leaps into our lives,
And then when our rulers ignore the danger
It becomes still worse–
Choking our societies, our jobs, our businesses,
Our democracy. Our lives.
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Earth Can’t Breathe
All life on Earth depends on Interbreathing
Plants breathe in Carbon dioxide, breathe out Oxygen.
Animals breathe in Oxygen, breathe out Carbon dioxide.
Our Interbreathing is the Breath that keeps all Earth alive.
Nishmat kol chai, tivarekh et shimcha: Yahhhh elohenu:
The breath of all life praises Your Name;
For your Name in truth whispers all life.
YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh/ Yah, is our God.
Not the Jewish God alone,
Not the human God alone,
The God of all life.
But too much CO2 is the “climate crisis” —
Chokes our breathing.
And when Earth can’t breathe
We ourselves can’t breathe:
The fires that ravage California
Send smoke that chokes our breathing.
Earth can’t breathe.
Can’t —– br— the.
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“You shall not take My Name with an empty heart.”
Every breath we take
Is Itself the Name,
Part of that great Breath that is the Holy One.
You shall not rob My peoples
And My life-forms
Of My Name, My Breath.
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We must breathe.
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“I can’t breathe, we can’t breathe, Earth can’t breath” was first published by Arthur Waskow on 27 July 2020 on the website of the Shalom Center.
Contributor: Arthur Waskow
Co-authors:
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Name: Arthur Waskow
Bio: Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of The Shalom Center. In 2013, Rabbi Waskow received T’ruah’s first Lifetime Achievement Award as a “Human Rights Hero.” His chapter, “Jewish Environmental Ethics: Adam and Adamah,” appears in Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality (Dorff & Crane, eds.; Oxford Univ. Press, 2013). Rabbi Waskow is the author of 22 books including Godwrestling, Seasons of Our Joy (JPS, 2012), and Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life. With Sister Joan Chittister and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisht he co-authored The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and with with Rabbi Phyllis Berman wrote Freedom Journeys: Exodus & Wilderness Across Millennia (Jewish Lts, 2011). He edited Torah of the Earth (two volumes, eco-Jewish thought from earliest Torah to our own generation). These pioneering books on eco-Judaism are available at discount from “Shouk Shalom,” The Shalom center's online bookstore.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waskow
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/arthur-waskow
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Name: the Shalom Center
Bio: Founded by Arthur Waskow, the Shalom Center equips activists and spiritual leaders with awareness and skills needed to lead in shaping a transformed and transformative Judaism that can help create a world of peace, justice, healing for the earth, and respect for the interconnectedness of all life.
Website: https://theshalomcenter.org
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/shalom-center
Featured Image:
Title: earth-254584_1280
Caption: Earth Red (credit: jarmoluk, license: PD)