Prayer

Rabbi David Seidenberg has provided us with a prayer focused on global climate disruption (aka “global warming”), healing the skies, and the original blessing of creation. Rabbi Seidenberg writes, “The liturgy is partly based on P’ri Eitz Hadar (the first published Tu Bish’vat seder), and on the Sefardi liturgy for Sukkot. It can be used after Torah reading every Shabbat, alongside prayers for the government, Israel, peace (in many synagogues), and the congregation. It could also be used many other times, e.g. after the counting of the omer or on Lag B’Omer.”   Read more »

What follows is a service for Birkat HaChamah, the traditional Jewish ceremony for Blessing of the Sun, which comes in a cycle of 28 years — next on April 8, 2009.

Though rooted in Jewish tradition, the service invites participation by all. Its universal calling is especially apt in a generation when the world is threatened by the overuse of fossil fuels, and needs to turn toward the sun for the sources of energy to heal and sustain our lives.

This version of the service integrates support for solar energy in the Asiyah (“Actuality”) world with the other three of the Four Worlds of Kabbalistic thought: the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual aspects of the ceremony.   Read more »

May 1, 2008 is Yom HaShoah (the Day of Remembrance of the Nazi Holocaust), observed one day earlier in the Jewish calendar than usual, because of not wanting to observe it on Friday as Shabbat is coming into the world.   Read more »

By Timothy Shriver

Washington Post, December 25, 2007; Page A25

This Christmas, one might be forgiven for praying for the second coming of Jesus rather than for the joy to celebrate his initial appearance 20 centuries ago. Taking the long view of history, you could argue that we have collectively proved how inadequate we are in fulfilling the Bethlehem announcement of peace and justice. While we celebrate the mystery of God’s coming in human form, can’t we also pray for an expedited return?

That type of prayer would give many Christians common ground with our Jewish brothers and sisters during a season when we otherwise seem to part ways. We both want the Messiah to come; is it such a big deal whether we want Him for the first or the second time?   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 6/24/2005

[This new version of the Passover Haggadah was published by Ramparts Magazine in February 1969. Its origins are explained in its Preface, below. For the fuller story, see the Preface to my book GODWRESTLING — ROUND 2. It seems to have been the first Haggadah, certainly the first widely circulated, that celebrated the liberation of other peoples as well as the liberation of the Jewish people.   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow *, 6/8/2005

American Jewish efforts to renew Judaism have been exploring new forms of tikkun olam (healing the world toward peace and social justice) and tikkun halev (healing the heart toward calm and equanimity).

In the social   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 10/2/2003

Sh'sh'sh'ma Yisra'el —
Listen, You Godwrestlers!
Pause from your wrestling and hush'sh'sh
To hear —
YHWH/ Yahh

Hear in the stillness the still silent voice,
The silent breathing that intertwines life;

YHW   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

When Torah Says the Breath of Life is ONE:
2d Paragraph of Sh'ma

This week, the Jewish reading of the Torah moves deeper into the Book of Deuteronomy. One of the powerful passages in this week's portion is Deuteronomy 11: 13-21 -- so powerful that in traditional prayer-books, it was treated as the second paragraph that comes just after the Sh'ma – the affirmation/ reminder of God's unity.

In quite direct translation, it says:   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Ahava -- English

You whose Unity is acted out
In the wheeling of the galaxies
And the pulsing of each atom,
In the double spiral that spins in every living cell
And in the loop of memory and imagination --

We praise You for loving us so deeply
As to let your Unity become transparent,
Seen, heard, savored, known to us.

We praise You for loving us so deeply
As to let our Unity become apparent,
Felt, touched, nurtured, known to us.

We praise You for the Unity, tall and majestic,
That leaps from the letters on the parchment of Your Torah,   Read more »

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Aliyot in Jewish Renewal

A new practice for aliyot that emerged in P'nai Or/Aleph/ Jewish renewal circles and has begun to spread more broadly. It works
especially easily in communities that do not have 7 separate aliyot for Shabbat, but it could be used where there are 7, especially for those from #3 on.   Read more »