Mi’Shebeirakh for the Planet
Many centuries ago a Jewish sage wrote: “When God created the first human beings and led them around the Garden of Eden, God said: ‘Look at My works! See how beautiful they are – how excellent! See to it that you don’t destroy My world: for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.’”
The contemporary Native American and Jewish sage Winona LaDuke wrote:
“We are a part of everything that is beneath us, above us, and around us. Our past is our present, our present is our future, and our future is seven generations past and present.”
“We are a part of everything that is beneath us, above us, and around us. Our past is our present, our present is our future, and our future is seven generations past and present.”
Creator of all that is, guide us to find within ourselves a love of Your world, and inspire us, in our own lives and together in community, to do the acts of global healing that will leave our descendants a lush, beautiful, and sustainable garden paradise, just as You created it. And let us say: Amen
The first quotation above can be found in Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13. The quotation from Winona LaDuke can be found in her book All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
Al Het for Climate Healing
In a traditional translation of the Al Het prayer we read: “For the sin we committed…” But “het” in Hebrew is an archery term that means “to miss the mark.” As we face the effects of global warming, let’s step away from the concept of “sin” and come back to the mark, to the ways that we’ve all missed it.
For missing the mark by our denial of what’s happening…
For missing the mark by collapsing into our fear about what’s happening…
For missing the mark by getting lost in our anger about what’s happening…
For missing the mark by turning away in grief or shame about what’s happening…
For missing the marking by failing to grasp the interconnectivity of all communities and ecosystems, and for our indifference about the impact of our actions and inactions on communities and ecosystems who have been more impacted than us…
For all these, God of pardon, pardon us, forgive us, help us atone – to be at-one with the world again.
For missing the mark by the ways that we misuse gas, electricity, and water…
For missing the mark by purchasing things we do not need…
For missing the mark by making poor food choices and wasting food…
For missing the mark by failing to compost and recycle what we use…
For missing the mark by making purchases without considering the impact of the packaging, of plastic and other toxic materials…
For all these, God of pardon, pardon us, forgive us, help us atone – to be at-one with the world again.
For missing the mark by not getting involved in climate action work in our communities and in the world…
For missing the mark by investing in and by keeping our investments in banks and companies that invest in the fossil fuel and other toxic industries…
For missing the mark by not using public transportation whenever possible…
For missing the mark by not supporting lawmakers and legislation that would have made a difference in stopping the heating up of the planet…
For missing the mark by not planting trees and restoring waterways and doing all the things we could have done to bring the world back to the lush beautiful garden You created and put us in…
For all these, God of pardon, please pardon us, forgive us, and help us learn to be at-one with the world again – NOW – while we still have time to heal it, for our children, grandchildren, their descendants, for all of life on Planet Earth, and for the Earth itself. Amen.
Kaddish for the Planet
Let God’s Name be great and holy in the world that God created, that we are doing a wonderful job of destroying.
May God’s life-affirming Name be blessed forever and ever.
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, honored and lauded, uplifted and hallowed, will be God’s great Name – blessed is God, the creator of all that is!
May great wisdom descend from heaven, to awaken all of humanity, so that life on Planet Earth, and the planet itself, will be renewed, and let us say, Amen.
May the One who makes wholeness in the universe guide us to wholeness for ourselves and for all the world, and let us say, Amen.
Prayer After a Fire
May the One who spared our ancestor Isaac from the flames, bless and heal everyone whose lives have just been touched by fire. Grant them comfort, safety, health, and shelter, now and always. May they be covered by the shelter of your peace, and held fast in the support and caring of our community. And let us say, Amen.
Prayer for When You’re Feeling Climate Anxiety, Fear, Despair
From the east,
may the angel Uriella
bring you always
her light, openness, and insights.
From the south,
may the angel Gabriella
bring you always
her strength, focus, and clarity.
From the west,
may the angel Raphella
bring you always
her tenderness, healing, and renewal.
From the north,
may the angel Mikhaela
bring you always
her love, spirit, and devotion.
May the wings of the Shekhinah
spread over you and your new home
sheltering you and all who love you,
now and always.
And may the earth beneath you
even if she sometimes rumbles
be a source of solidity and wholeness
here and wherever you go.
Amen.
This prayer is grounded in our traditional bedtime prayers around the Shema
Invocation in the Midst of Climate Crises
Holy One – may You who created us as we are,
here now in the midst of fires and smoke,
please email or text us the fine print to the contract
that tells us why you sent us to such a difficult planet
in such a challenging time
so that we can learn new ways for everyone to be present.
Amen
Prayer for Inspiration in this Troubling Time
May You who renews the work of creation every day –
please lend me a little bit of that energy
so that I
weary and afraid
can more deeply participate
in being a global healer
now
and every day.
Amen
Vidui for our collective guilt
Our God and God of our ancestors, although we did not invent environmental destruction, for the way the creation story in the Torah and how its words, “to fill the earth and subdue it” have been used by our people and others to destroy the planet You created and called good, we atone.
But atonement is not enough. We vow to rectify by our actions every day all the wrongs done by us in Your name, so that we all live together in peace and wholeness, sharing the Earth’s restored bounty. We vow to create a global society in which all loving hearts, minds, and bodies, made in Your divine image, find their sacred paths and places in Your holy world, in the face of a global climate crisis, while we still have a chance.
And let us say: Amen.
