‘Vidui For The Twenty-First Century’ — on the environment

The vidui prayers, recited multiple times on Yom Kippur, prayers of confession, now include in the Mishkan HaNefesh:Machzor for the Days of Awe, a highly meaningful and beautiful “Vidui For The Twenty-First Century”—on the environment.

It is based on an “Environmental Tachanun” delivered by Cantor Rachel Rhodes when she was a student at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion.

“We confess our sins against the earth,” it begins. “We commit ourselves to saving it.”

The vidui prayers involve a variety of transgressions.

This new one is enormously important, a major contribution, I believe to Jewish liturgy.

It goes on:

“We have assaulted our planet in countless ways

“We have blamed others for the spiraling, deepening crisis

“We have consumed thoughtlessly and irresponsibly

“We have driven myriad species to the point of extinction.

“We have exhausted irreplaceable resources

“We have failed to transcend borders and act unselfishly

“We have given in to our many appetites and our gluttony

“We have harmed beyond repair the habitats of living begins

“We have ignored the signs of change in our climate and our seasons

“We have jeopardized the well-being of future generations.

“We have known the problem but left problem-solving to others

“We have lost sight of our role as God’s partners is creation

“We have mocked, cynically, those who love creatures great and small

“We have neglected the environment, most of all, in places of poverty

“We have over-populated our cities and over-fished our oceans

“We have polluted seashore and sky, fertile soil and freshwater springs

“We have questioned and doubted solid evidence of danger

“We have ravaged the old growth forests—ecosystems created over centuries

“We have spewed poison into the bloodstream of our land: its rivers, lakes and estuaries

“We have transformed dazzling beauty into industrial ugliness

“We have used shared resources for personal gain and corporate profit

“We have violated the commandment ‘Do not destroy’

“We have wasted precious treasures, our God-given gifts

“We have exploited the weakest and most vulnerable in our midst

“And yet we yearn to be better guardians of this earth and the fullness thereof

“Let us be zealous now to care for this unique corner of the cosmos, this planet—our sacred home.”

Rhodes has been senior cantor since last year at Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C. For nine years earlier, she was associate cantor at Temple Rodef in Falls Church, Virginia.

She was raised in Boulder, Colorado and, as she related in an interview, “grew up hiking, camping, rafting, skiing—being outside.”

Her father, a doctor, a nephrologist, her mother an elementary school teacher, “my family was very dedicated to nature. We were an outdoor family,” said Cantor Rhodes.

And active in Congregation Har Hashem in Boulder.

Cantor Rhodes graduated from Indiana University in 2008 with a degree in Jewish studies and music and then attended the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union-JIR from which was ordained in 2014.

She has long focused on Judaism and the environment writing her thesis at Hebrew Union-JIR on “Jewish Environmentalism.”

“I do believe Judaism is an environmental religion,” Cantor Rhodes says. “Our responsibility is to the world around us, to every living thing, to the future of the planet. Judaism cares every deeply about the well-being of the next generation and the world around us.”

The “Environmental Tachanun” on which the “Vidui For The Twenty-First Century” is based is one she gave at Hebrew Union-JIR in 2013 as a part of mincha, the afternoon service, which she led together with rabbinical students at the school.

Mishkan HaNefesh:Machzor for the Days of Awe is published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. There are separate machzors for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.