This piece is part of Exploring Judaism’s 5785 High Holiday Reader. Download the whole reader here.
רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם,
כָּל־מָה שֶׁבָּרָאתָ,
לֹא בָּרָאתָ דָּבָר אֶחָד לְבַטָּלָה.
אֲוִיר לִנְשִׁימָה,
מַיִם לִשְׁתִיָּה
וּלְרַחֲצָה,
אֲדָמָה לְמִחְיָה
וּלְכַלְכָּלָה,
צְמָחִים וְחַיּוּת
לִרְוָחָה,
וְאָדָם לְעָבְדָהּ
וּלְשָׁמְרָהּ.
תֵּן בְּלִבֵּנוּ כָּל־יוֹם לַעֲסֹק בְּאוֹצָרְךָ
בֶּאֱמוּנָה,
וְכֵן נְקַיֵּם
רְצוֹנְךָ,
כְּדִבְרֵי נְבִיאֲךָ: לֹא תֹּהוּ בְּרָאָהּ,
לָשֶׁבֶת יְצָרָה:
ישעיהו מ״ה:י״ח
God,
everything You have made
has a purpose:
air for breathing,
water for drinking and
bathing,
land for living and
growing,
plants and animals in
gracious abundance,
and humanity to work and
care for Your earth.
Inspire us every day to care
Faithfully
for Your treasure,
so that we may fulfill Your
vision:
Not as a wasteland did
God create the earth, but
as a home where we may
live” (Isaiah 45:18).
Authors
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Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is the Chair of the Sustainability Committee of the Social Justice Commission of the Masorti Movement and the co-author (with her husband, Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner) of the Conservative Movement's teshuvah on sustainability. She has worked in the field of environmental advocacy for over twenty years, most recently promoting environmental human rights and intergenerational environmental equity for all.
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Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner is rabbi emeritus at Chevrei Tzedek Congregation in Baltimore, MD. He is a long-standing member of the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. He earned a PhD in TalmudReferring to one of two collections, the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, edited in the 6th century, that contains hundreds of years of commentary, discussion, and exploration of the ideas in the Mishnah. One could describe it as Mishnah + Gemara = Talmud at JTSA and an MA in Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and serves as an appointee on the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission. He is the author, most recently, of a teshuvah on eating at vegetarian restaurants and co-author of one on the mitzvah of sustainability. He has authored other significant teshuvot on End-of-Life Treatment, Genetically Modified Food and Forming a Minyan Over the Internet, and is a co-author of the landmark teshuvah permitting same-sex marriage.
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