Shabbat is Earth Day
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David Seidenberg
Apr 19, 2023, 2:57:22 PM4/19/23
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This shabbat is not just Rosh Chodesh Iyyar but also Earth Day. I encourage you to take a moment this shabbat to remember Earth Day. Here are some ideas:
1) Read a prayer for the Earth in the place where liturgy is recited for the community and the government. Here’s a link to some Earth prayers on neohasid.org that you can use directly or get inspiration from:
2) Lead people from your community outside to say the blessing for flowering fruit trees on shabbat. Follow this link for a handout with the blessing plus some teachings that you can print out:
3) Incorporate neohasid’s “Kaddish for a Human Minyan” (“May the Name that weaves together all Life and all creatures be blessed and praised, made beautiful and resplendent, lifted up and exalted, to the highest and most majestic” etc.) as one of your kaddishes (e.g. for kaddish shalem after shacharit). Inspired by Reb Arthur Waskow’s teachings, here’s a link to the liturgy and PDF:
4) Teach people the amazing and ecologically profound Borei Nfashot prayer for bentsching at kiddush. Download cards with the blessing and translation here:
5) Commit to using non-disposable kiddush cups. Stainless steel sauce cups that are not too shallow work well and can be had for pretty cheap, and there are some steel shot glasses as well. You can even get them in time for this shabbat! See links below.
6) Get your community committed to a spring river cleanup day or similar project. Learn/teach about the Atlanta Forest Defenders: https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/. Learn/teach about the villages of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron hills: https://www.972mag.com/photos-masafer-yatta-expulsion/ and https://www.972mag.com/anthropologist-masafer-yatta-firing-zone/.
7) Omer Counter app has quotes related to Earth Day for the rest of the week. From today’s quotes:
“Master of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass, among all growing things and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer, to talk with the One to whom I belong.” ~Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, as interpreted by Rabbi Nosson
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.” ~ Aldo Leopold, Round River, 165
“Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut you more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few human or even divine ingredients can. Something missing in my heart tonight has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender, my need of God absolutely clear.” ~ Hafiz
“We normally ignore the wounds of the world as we go about our everyday business. The pandemic, and the solitude it brought us, helped many to notice not just the wounds from human busy-ness, but also the healing that can come from a pause in this busy-ness. How do we keep our eyes "soft" now that we have (mostly) returned to normal? How do we redeem a civilization bent on self-destruction?” (my commentary, l’havdil)
May the whole Earth be blessed,
David Seidenberg
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5) (reprise) back to kiddush cups:
I found the following on Amazon that you can even get in time for this shabbat:
$.67 per/ 12 - 1 oz shot glasses for $8, with Prime next-day delivery:
$.60 per/ 48 - 2.5 oz cups for $29, with Prime next-day delivery:
$.45 per/ 100 - 1.5 oz cups for $45, with Prime next-day delivery:
$.45 per/ 100 - 1.5 oz cups for $45, with Prime two-day delivery:
(Note: I have sometimes found similar cups at Walmart on the shelves, and they can also be found at restaurant supply stores.)
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