Four Cups - Four Ways to Action (For. Tu Bishvat Seder)

 

​​Blessed Holy Wholeness

We drink four cups in honor of the actions

That we might do, that we can do

That we should do, that we must do

For our trees and our planet

In honor of the possibilities of God. 

 

First Cup - Live Small

You have to be rich to live small.

It ain’t cheap to shop local,

Do the poor eat organic?

But bravo to those of us who can manage it

And no shame to those of us who cannot.

But if you are able:

Use public transportation

Shop locally

Don’t use plastic

Plant a tree

Vote

And drink that first cup

 

Second Cup - Act Small

You have to be caring to act small,

Like dripping water slowly eroding a boulder. 

Maybe you don’t have time or energy or leisure

To do everything that’s needed 

But you can do something. 

So, if you are able:

Write letters

Make phone calls

Show up at a rally

Send a little money

Vote

And drink that second cup

 

Third Cup - Live Big

You have to be committed to live big. 

Most of us don’t do it because 

These choices are, well, big. 

They will change your life

And maybe change others. 

Then, if you’re able:

Get rid of your car

Move into a tiny home

Install solar energy

Become a vegetarian

Vote

And drink that third cup.

 

Fourth Cup - Act Big

You have to be patient to act big. 

This is where systemic change occurs,

Much slower than we’d like,

But the earth is desperate and we must persist,

We have no choice. 

So make yourself able and get it done:

Enact a Green New Deal

Organize for voting rights

End the use of fossil fuels

End environmental racism

Vote

And drink that fourth cup (you’re gonna need it)

 

Blessed Holy Wholeness

We give thanks for the possibilities of

What we could, can, should, and must do

For our trees and for ourselves, 

Taking action for the possibilities of God. 

Amen.

 

 

Our Tallis Trees (slides from Bayit)

This was written for the Tu Bishvat 2022 release from the Bayit Liturgical Artists Workin Group.   

To see all our releases since the summer of 2020, as Google slides and/or as a text only PDFs,  go to Bayit Liturgical Arts.   

To get the our book, a collection of our work in the first 18 months:  FROM NARROW PLACES: LITURGY, POETRY AND ART OF THE PANDEMIC ERA

 With gratitude and love to Congregation Kolot Chayeinu, our clergy and our members and friends:

Slides by Joanne Fink

Our Tallis Trees

 

Our home shul in Brooklyn meets in a church.

We don’t have a yard or a roof or air conditioning 

So for many years during the summer we have met in Prospect Park

Under two large trees that overlook the ball fields. 

There used to be three trees but one fell down after Hurricane Sandy. 

 

These two big trees have trunks that have become our bimah. 

We place our camp chairs and blankets around them 

And we are shaded by their joined canopies

Which we have come to feel is like

Being covered by a giant green tallis. 

The many leaves are the fringes and

Everything inside is kodosh, holy, 

In Shabbat time and space,

And everything outside is khol, mundane, 

Prospect Park on a Saturday morning. 

Inside are study, prayers, songs, meditations, poems, potluck, community and words of Torah. 

Outside are ball games, the Dog Pond, bicycles and the guy who sells ice cream from a cart between the 9th Street entrance and the Long Meadow. 

It would be perfect if only there was a bathroom. 

 

That summer before Covid we planted a sapling in place of the lost third tree

In honor of our beloved retiring founding rabbi,

Bless her. 

That same day we acknowledged our summer Beit Knesset

When our Hazzan surreptitiously placed a wooden mezuzah in the crook of the biggest of the two trees. 

We sang and said a blessing. 

We didn’t have permission from the Park for this

But our cantor did check with an arborist who said it wouldn’t hurt the tree. 

This small outlaw act made us giggle and kvell and cry

For our founding rabbi

For the future

For our clever hidden mezuzah 

And for our sheltering Tallis Trees. 

 

Many of us liked to visit this sacred space when it wasn’t Shabbat 

To touch the mezuzah and say a private prayer. 

But last year the mezuzah disappeared. 

Our Hazzan asked a Park guy about it

(He knew her, because of the tree we planted).

He said he’d seen it almost immediately and decided to ignore it,

Bless him,

But that one day it had disappeared. 

What happened to the mezuzah?

Was it brought low by a bad storm?

Did a bird make a nest with it?

Was it taken down by a passing Jew with a strict interpretation of where a mezuzah should be?

Maybe it fell into the earth below

And our holy words were broken down into their smallest component parts,

Becoming Holy Mulch,

Feeding the Tallis Tree. 

 

HaShleimut, Blessed Totality,

We give thanks to the Tallis Trees 

For their shelter and their beauty.

We give thanks for having this special outside sanctuary 

During the years of Covid.

We give thanks to the deep rest

That comes when we are in Shabbat with nature. 

We give thanks to the staff of Prospect Park 

For their vigilant maintenance of the green spaces. 

And we ask for the clarity, endurance and skills needed

To keep our trees safe and flourishing. 

 

Because all trees are Tallis Trees. 

Bless them. 

Amen