GREENING SYNAGOGUES RESOURCES

Eco-Avodah:
Liturgy that Reflects Environmental Values

Compiled by
R. Fred Scherlinder Dobb
COEJL & Adat Shalom, 6/04
(See also Philadelphia COEJL’s entry on social action.com)

In their introduction to the 1945 Reconstructionist Prayer Book, Mordecai Kaplan and company suggest that "Each of us should learn to think of himself [sic] as though he were a cell in some living organism -- which, in a sense, he actually is -- in his relation to the universe or cosmos." Word for word, this expresses the yet-un-named ‘Gaia hypothesis’, wherein each creature is like a cell within the self-regulating organism known as Earth. The siddur’s (prayer book’s) editors add that the world "is more than nature; it is nature with a soul. That soul is God."

Respect for nature has been found in the siddur throughout its development; it has only become more visible in recent decades. The commentary offered in many modern siddurim is helpful in drawing out this sense of the world as sacred, but our greatest interest remains in the prayers themselves. The siddur, embodying Jewish values and beliefs and hopes for nearly two millennia, is a vital resource for today’s construction of a Jewish-environmental ethic.

Below you will find resources for conducting an environmentally-themed service. Page numbers refer to the Reconstructionist Press’ Kol Haneshama: Shabbat V’Chagim, which is replete with many ecologically-oriented poems (see Marge Piercy’s “Alternative Nishmat” on pp. 232-33, and the entire “Nature” section on pp. 754-766) and kavvanot (in Ma’ariv alone, for instance: p. 20 on psalms; p. 68 on Sh’ma; p. 94 on G’vurot; and “And Then” on p. 127). This is a particularly helpful siddur to pick up when leading an environmental-themed service. Yet any siddur will do!

A few annotated highlights from a Shabbat shacharit service follow. (Weekday services are similar, with a shorter lead-up and a longer amidah; most of the themes, and many of the prayers, in the 3rd and 4th sections also hold for evening/ma’ariv services.) Prayers from the morning liturgy with clear environmental significance are cited, along with “below-the-line” (BTL) readings from Kol Haneshama which elucidate these environmental themes. Along with readings elsewhere in that siddur or drawn from other sources, a short sample sustainable shacharit might include:

Birkot Hashachar / Blessings of the Dawn
      Birkot Hashachar (152-161) -- beginning the morning with gratitude and blessing, getting us 1/5 of the way toward Rabbi Meir’s goal of saying 100 blessings each day.
      Asher Yatzar (162-3) -- giving thanks for the body’s intricacy, and the miracle of exist-ence. See Art Green, 162 BTL: “A sense of awe at our own creation is a starting point of prayer.”
      Elohai Neshama (164-7) -- cultivating humility, even mortality, before the owner of all.

Psukei d’Zimra / Verses of Praise
      Barukh Sh’amar (176-9) -- “blessed is…the Creator… with compassion for the creatures.”
      Psalm 19 (184-7) -- “the skies recount the glory of God;” global warming now proves that “nothing is hidden from the sun’s warmth.” See Rami Shapiro, ‘Nature is God’s Niggun,’ 185 btl.
      Psalm 136 (200-03) -- seeing hesed / Divine loving-kindness in Creation as well as history.
      Psalm 92 (208-11) -- Sabbath psalm, where we acknowledge the depth of Divine thought.
      Psalm 121 (214-5) -- Esa einai: seeing mountains help me recognize God as my help.
      Psalm 146 (218-21) -- “mustering justice on behalf of the oppressed” is environmental.
      Psalm 148 (226-9) -- even what is not obviously useful to, or even dangerous for, humans (ha-khayah / wild animal and arazim / non-fruit-bearing trees) sing praise to the One equally with ‘safe’ and ‘useful’ creations (behemah/cattle and etz pri/fruit trees). It’s all part of the Plan.
      Psalm 150 (230-1) – let every thing / all that breathes -- not just humans! -- sing praise.

Sh’ma u’virkhoteha / the Shema and its Blessings
      Nishmat Kol Chai -- the service shifts as we say “the soul of every living thing shall bless Your name.” See 235 & 236 BTL, and Marge Piercy’s amazing “Interpretive Nishmat” (232-3).
      Yotzeir (247-269) -- the entire Yotzeir liturgy (and many BTL comments) reflects eco-themes. Dark and bad, like light and good, are natural and needed. And God “every day, always, in goodness, renews the work of Creation.” See Sheila Peltz Weinberg’s “Every Day,” 268 BTL.
      Shema, 2nd paragraph (282-283, from Deut. 11:13-21) -- a prescient warning of the doom we may yet bring upon ourselves if we serve false gods (money, power, materialism?), causing God to shut up the heavens, cease photosynthesizing, and speedily evict us from God’s good land. See David Teutsch, 283 BTL: This “vital message of the Torah urges us to choose life.”

Amidah / the central Standing Prayer
      Gevurot (#2, 298-9) -- the first great saving act we mention is making “the wind blow and the rain fall,” or “the dew descend” -- a seasonal distinction, rooting us in (Israel’s) outdoors.
      Kedushat Hashem (#3, 302-05) -- ledor vador, from generation to generation, says it all.
      Kedushat Hayom (#4, 306-11) -- this prayer marks the centrality of Shabbat as an ‘eco-day’ (see below); see BTL on 307 & 308. It’s replaced by 13 petionary prayers during the week.
      Modim (#6, 314-17) -- thank God for everyday miracles: the very order of creation / Seder Bereshit (birth, life, nature, photosynthesis, etc), rather than the suspension of that natural order.
      Oseh Shalom (after #7, 322-3) -- “Shalom” (see also 321, etc.) comes from Shalem: whole, healthy, sustainable. Reconstructionist liturgy extends hope for peace to all who dwell on Earth.

Other useful resources for regular (i.e. Shabbat) worship include readings like these:

On the Sabbath, the traditionally observant Jew does more than rest, pray, and refrain from ordinary work. There are at least three other elements of Sabbath observance that are relevant to stewardship: we create nothing, we destroy nothing, and we enjoy the bounty of the earth. In this way the Sabbath becomes a celebration of our tenancy and stewardship in the world.

Nothing is created, and this reminds us of God’s supremacy as Creator and own comparative inadequacy. Nothing is destroyed, and this reminds us that the creations of this world are not ours to ruin. We enjoy the bounty of the earth, and this reminds us that although our work, if properly done, will uncover for us far more of God’s bounty than we would otherwise have enjoyed, nevertheless God, and not human invention, is still the ultimate source of that bounty…

For Jews, it is the awareness of the Sabbath during the working days that can bring the realm of time and its accompanying sense of restraint and limit to stewardship. It is the Sabbath that defines the relationship between steward and Ruler. It is the Sabbath, ultimately, that completes and confirms the environmental wisdom of Judaism.
     (David Ehrenfeld and Philip Bentley, 1985, Judaism 34:310-311)

‘Sabbath in our time! To cease for a whole day from all business, from all work, in the frenzied hurry-scurry of our time? To close the exchanges, the workshops and factories, to stop all railway services – great heavens! How would it be possible? The pulse of life would stop beating and the world perish!’ The world perish? On the contrary – it would be saved.
     (Samson Raphael Hirsch, 19th Century German Orthodox Rabbi, Judaism Eternal 2:30)

To set apart one day a week for freedom, a day on which we would not use the instruments which have been so easily turned into weapons of destruction – a day for being with ourselves, a day of detachment from the vulgar, of independence from external obligations – a day on which we stop worshipping the idols of technical civilization, a day on which we use no money, a day of armistice in the economic struggle with our fellow humans and the forces of nature – is there any institution that holds out a greater hope for humanity’s progress than the Sabbath?
     (Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1951, The Sabbath, p. 28, slightly adapted)