Episode 25: Tree Time (Amidah Middle Blessing 6) (with Hazzan Jessi Roemer)
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Tree Time
It’s time to talk about time. And trees! We’re back in the flow of the weekday Amidah, exploring the sixth of the middle petitionary blessings. We get into the connection between time and land, being “farmer-adjacent,” giving the earth a voice, and the shmita year of land-rest. Plus, an interview with Hazzan Jessi Roemer about t’fillah, shmita, and her beautiful song “Seij Años.”
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00:36 When do you feel the most connected to the earth?
01:51 Cornerstone
01:56 Dr. Daniel Shore
05:26 Counting of the Omer
06:10 Why are we talking about trees and the earth?
06:17 Amidah
07:53 Lev Shalem Conservitive Siddur
08:08 Text of Shanim blessing:
בָּרֵךְ עָלֵֽינוּ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ אֶת־הַשָּׁנָה הַזֹּאת וְאֶת־כָּל־מִינֵי תְבוּאָתָהּ לְטוֹבָה, וְתֵן
Pesach- December 3rd
בְּרָכָה
December 4th-Pesach
טַל וּמָטָר לִבְרָכָה
עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה וְשַׂבְּ֒עֵֽנוּ מִטּוּבֶֽךָ/מִטּוֹּבָה וּבָרֵךְ שְׁנָתֵֽנוּ כַּשָּׁנִים הַטּוֹבוֹת: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְבָרֵךְ הַשָּׁנִים:
Barech Aleinu Adonai Eloheinu Et Hashanah Ha’zoat, v’et kol minei t’vuatah l’tovah, v’tein
Pesach- December 3rd:
Bracha
December 4th-Pesach:
Tal u’matar livracha
Al p’nei ha’adamah v’sabeinu mituvecha/ mituvah u’varech shnateinu kashanim hatovot.
Baruch atah adonai, mevarech hashanim
Adonai our g?d make this a blessed year for us. May its varied hardest harvest yield prosperity, may the land be blessed, or be blessed with the dew and rain and satisfy us with its goodness. Bless this year that it’d be like the best of yours. Baruch ata Adonai, Who is the source of blessing of each year.
09:12 Kol ha Shema the Reconstructionist Daily Siddur
10:33 This is about what is happening now
10:42 My People’s Prayer Book
11:16 The gifts that nature provides us are entirely dependent upon the seasons happening
11:44 The Jewish calendar adjusts itself to the seasons
12:24 Tov, means “good”
12:31 Mituvah, “its goodness” (meaning the land’s goodness,) vs Mituvecha, “your goodness” (meaning g?d’s goodness.)
13:45 Version of the prayer from the Cairo Genizah
15:30 The middle of the prayer changes based on the calendar.
15:40 Shanim- Years
16:42 Connection to the 2nd blessing in the Amidah, G’vurot, where we say in the winter time “mashiv ha’ruach u’morid hagashem,” “who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.” Many people add “bivracha,” “with blessing.”
18:10 Shema
19:00 Shmita
19:14 Climate Change
19:54 Dedi Graucher Song: Lecha Eten et Ha’aretz Ha’zoat
20:28 Genesis 13:15
כִּי אֶת־כׇּל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּה רֹאֶה לְךָ אֶתְּנֶנָּה וּלְזַרְעֲךָ עַד־עוֹלָם׃
for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever.
20:52 The Experiment: The Problem with America’s National Parks
22:40 One Soil Farm
23:28 Pesach, Shavout, Sukkot: Three Pilgrimage Festivals
24:04 Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist, scientist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation
26:48 We are all Earthlings from Sesame Street
29:34 Echad-ity, Ellen’s word for Oneness, using the Hebrew word for one, “echad”
30:27 Chazzan Jessi Roemer
31:08 chavurah
31:46 Rabbi Arthur Waskow
32:06 Z”l zikhronó liv’rakhá
32:42 The Aleph Program: The Renewal Movement’s Cantorial Program
36:58 Sej Anos
40:37 Ladino
40:57 Yiddish
44:05 Leviticus 25:3
Vayikra 25:3: Hebrew and English
45:40 Cantor Jessi Roemer’s band, Ezuz
40:25 Lyrics (Ladino) : Leviticus 25:3. Music: Jessi Roemer.
Video https://vimeo.com/552643853
Seij años sembraras
sembraras la tierra
Seij años podaras
podaras tu vinya
Pero el septimo
anyo la tierra
tendra completo
descanso para El Dio
Translation:
For six years, till the land
For six years, prune your vineyards
But the seventh year
is for the land
a complete rest
for g?d
49:24 Bartrams Garden in Philadelphia
53:09 Hazon: Jewish Sustainability
55:50 Olam Habah- world to come
Olam she’hayah- world that was
Ha’olam hazeh- this world