Prayer for the Earth, Air, Water, Fire of our Planet — by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in memory of Barry Commoner

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=5333

open_content_license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Date: 2012-10-03

Last Updated: 2025-02-10

Categories: Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), 🌐 Earth Day (22 April)

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, English vernacular prayer, global climate change, global warming, interbreathing, interconnectedness, Memorial prayers

Excerpt: May the words we are with Your help sharing today, Speak deeply –- with Your help -- to our nation and the world. Help us all to know that the sharing of our breath with all of life Is the very proof, the very truth, that we are One. . . .

Content:
Contribute a translation Source (English)

You, O Holy One of Being –-
Interbreathing of all life —
Known to all Your cultures and communities
By many sacred Names;
You, YYYYhhhhwwwwhhhh,[1] pronounce by just breathing  
Who breathe transforming life into us
Just as we breathe a transforming Voice into the Shofar;
You, Who breathe life into us all
So that we breathe in what the trees breathe out
And the trees breathe in what we breathe out –
You who breathe into us the wisdom
To shape our breath into words,
To shape our words so that they aim
Toward wisdom –-

May the words we are with Your help sharing today,
Speak deeply –- with Your help — to our nation and the world.
Help us all to know that the sharing of our breath with all of life
Is the very proof, the very truth, that we are One.

These ancient words remind us:
“I am The Interbreathing of all life,
And of Me, for Me, from Me, with Me,
Comes all the Earth.
You do not own it.
You must not poison and destroy it.
You must share its bounty with all life —
As but My guests and visitors.”[2] paraphrased from Leviticus 25  

Remind us that if some few among us,
Drunk on their own wealth and power,
Pour poison into earth and air and water,
Then it is poison that we ALL eat and breathe and drink.
Our sustenance arises from the interweb of life,
And it is only through greed and coercion
That it is gobbled and poisoned by the few.

Together today we call upon our selves
And all our neighbors
To prevent the over-burning of our fossil fuels
That imposes drought and famine on our farms,
Floods our rivers and our coastlines,
Scorches our planet.

We know that what we call the Climate Crisis
Is a crisis in the balance of the gases
In our planet’s atmosphere,
A crisis in the Breathing of our planet,
A Crisis in Your Name,
YyyyHhhhWwwwHhhh[3] pronounce by just breathing  
Yes, a crisis in the very Name of God.

So we light for You this candle,
This fire of enlightenment,
To light up the Rainbow
In the many-colored faces of Your human cultures
And in the many-colored faces of all life-forms;
To affirm that the Earth is not for burning;
To affirm that in all our faces
Is the One Spark of Your Presence. [4] Light candle  

Send us forth from here,
With the commitment to turn these words into action;
Into compassion, into justice, into healing —
Into shaping the Beloved Community
Throughout the Earth.

We call out
In the Name of the One Who is many;
In the name of the many who are One.

And may the people say, Amen! Ah’meyn! Ah’min!

In memory of Barry Commoner (1917-2012), an honest scholar and passionate advocate for justice and the Earth.

Notes

Notes
1 pronounce by just breathing
2 paraphrased from Leviticus 25
3 pronounce by just breathing
4 Light candle

Contributor: Arthur Waskow

Co-authors:

Featured Image:
AS11-44-6552 (crop) by NASA
Title: AS11-44-6552 (crop) by NASA
Caption: AS11-44-6552" -- a photo in the public domain from the Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. (cropped by Aharon Varady).