Meat and Feathers: We Confess (For Rosh HaShanah LaBehama/Rosh Chodesh Elul)

(leader)

I feel the Presence

Of what today I call God

Tomorrow I may call nature--

The Fierce Mystery

All around us,

This connection that must know everything because it is everything.

During Elul we must confess to people before we confess to God

And perhaps on Rosh HaShana LaBehama we must confess to animals before we confess to people.

So let us begin.

We acknowledge our debts to and our transgressions against

The domesticated beasts, 

Our food, our clothes, our decoration.

They are

Our property, our friends, our victims.

And we ask that they hear our confessions and our blessings: 

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

We celebrate the many gifts you give us, willingly and unwillingly.

(leader)

We eat you,

We eat your bodies and reminisce over the best parts,

We share recipes.

We eat your children,

We drink the milk and the honey you make to feed those children,

We eat your eggs before they can even  be children.

We keep ourselves warm with your skin

And steal your beauty to enhance our own.

We cultivate you for your fur and feathers and kill you whenever we need them.

We like the way you look.

We make art and poetry to celebrate you in the fields and farms

Just before we slaughter you.

For thousands of years

We have used your bodies to plow our fields and mill our grain,

We have used your bodies to ride from place to place

And now that we don't need you quite as as much

We use you for sport or dog food.

We bless your memory.

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

We acknowledge how we have abused you.

(leader)

We imprison you.

We torture you.

We test our make up and drugs on you.

We ride you.

We train you.

And we discard you when you're old.

We enclose herd animals alone in stalls instead of with their own kind,

We cram  you into metal enclosures that won't allow any movement,

We raise thousands in spaces fit only for hundreds.

We murder you.

We wring your necks.

We behead you.

We bang you on the head.

We shoot you.

We pluck you.

We skin you.

We chop and grind you up.

We acknowledge our cruelty and ask for your forgiveness. 

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Ostriches

Peacocks

Horses

We confess how we have lied to ourselves about what we do to you.

(leader)

We call you

  Porterhouse Steak

  Buffalo Wings

  Venison

  Mutton

  Camembert

  Yogurt

  Leather

  Feathers

  Down

  Sunny Side up.
  Shofar

Anything but what you really are.

We buy slabs of meat in transparent packages that don't look like you

So we don't have to think about how you were raised and slaughtered.

You are a breast or a leg or a steak,

You are a hamburger, a wing or a bucket.

We tool and dye your skin and call it leather

So we don't have to acknowledge we're wearing your skin.

We arrange your feathers artfully

And admire the beautiful colors,

Ignoring why you have them in the first place.

We put your feathers in our pillows

And we sleep well.

We give thanks for denial, without which we could not get through the day.

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

Forgive those of us who cannot give you up.

(leader)

You domestic beasts are all vegetarians, why is that?

Why don't we eat predators? 

Is it because you are docile and easy to domesticate?

Or is it because predators remind us of ourselves?

Maybe some of us here don't eat you

Maybe some of us here don't wear you.

Maybe none of us should.

But many of us do.

(optional)

I do.

I eat meat.  I love meat.

I love eggs, honey, yogurt, chicken, steak.

I wear leather.  I'm wearing it on my feet right now.

My pillow is filled with down.  I slept okay.

I know all about how you suffer and still I partake of it all.

I don't eat veal.  That's it.  Not much.

I think about helping you.
I guess I wrote this.

But really, I don't.

So I can't ask for forgiveness

because I'm not going to change.

This month, anyway.

(optional:  are there any other confessions, besides mine?  anyone?)

(together)

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Goats

Chickens

Ducks

Geese

Peacocks

Horses

            We could try to make at least small changes.

(leader)

We can eat less meat.

We can wear less leather.

We can refuse to wear real fur.

We can refuse to eat veal.

We can only buy grass fed and pasture raised poultry and meat, if we can afford it.

We can stop wearing feathers.

We can use alternative down feather pillows, though that's plastic and not so good for the environment.
(optional) What else can we do? (wait for suggestions)

Maybe we become vegetarians or vegans,

Maybe we don't.

But we can do a little.

We can start.

(together)

Baruch Atah Adonai

Brucha At Shechinah

Blessed Yah, 

Breath of Life,

Remembering us in Death,

The Fierce Mystery:

We acknowledge, celebrate, and give thanks for all the ways the animals have made our lives possible.

We confess to cruelty and hypocrisy.

We ask your forgiveness for all the wrongs we have done our domestic beasts,

We are blessed by their lives.

May we learn to be a blessing to them.

And we wish them a Happy New Year and a Hodesh Tov

And let us say, 

Amen

For more info check out:  

http://jewishinitiativeforanimals.org/  

and

http://opensiddur.org/shared/prayers-for/special-days/new-years-day/for-domesticated-animals/

My Friend, My Captive: A Ritual with Blessings and Confessions for Our Pets on Rosh Hodesh Elul / The New Year of Domesticated Beasts*

On Rosh Ḥodesh Elul, the first day of the new moon of Elul, we begin an accounting for all the souls with whom we are in a relationship.

Listen for the voice of the animals in the sound of the shofar.

(The shofar is blown once, a single tekiyah/blast.)

Cat Baby, Dog Baby, Fur Baby, My Baby, 

Baby Boo, Love Machine, Poosy, Schmushy

Pupster, Puppino, Doglet, Kittenhead, 

Fuzzy Wuzzy, Wiggly Tush, Mr. Nose, Miss Whiskers

Pearly Pink Paws, Mr. Claws, The Cuddly One, The Silly One

Belly boy, Muffin man, Old fella, Pretty boy

Fluff Meister, Wiener dog, King of Soft, Mr. Ruff

Barkmeister, Mighty Hunter, Miss Poo, Mr Vomit

Cat from Hell, Dog o' my dreams, Bark-a-roni, Flat cat

My Boy, My Girl, My Cat, My Dog

Mine

Mine

Mine

For all the love you allow me to give you,

For all the love I allow myself to believe you give me,

For all the times you have protected me from physical or emotional harm,

For all the times you warned me,

For all the furntiture you have destroyed,

And all the rugs you have peed and puked on,

For all the exercise I got walking you,

For all the sleep you got on my head,

For all the pleasure I get watching you eat,

For all the litter boxes and plastic bags I used to clean up your shit,

For all the nights I dreamt about you,

For all the work days you missed me,

For all the blood pressure lowered
For  all the depressions mitigated,

For all the tails wagged,
For all the purrs purred,

I thank you, loved pets and companions.

Specifically, I ask give thanks for the lives of (my pet's names)

Do you want to thank your loved ones?  Call their names out!  

 (they call out their pet’s names)

For all the services you render us as our pets and companions,

Anachnu Modim

we give thanks.

(The shofar is blown a second time.)

Dear Friend and Companion, I am your

Master

Owner

Trainer

Keeper

(together) My friend, my captive.

You eat when I decide to feed you, You don’t eat if I forget.

(together) My friend, my captive.

You pee where and when I tell you And I punish you if you do it in wrong place.

(together) My friend, my captive.

You only go outside if I let you.

(together) My friend, my captive.

If I want to  hit you I can hit you, If I want to caress you I caress you.

(together) My friend, my captive.

I have decided that I want you to keep me company for many years, so I force you to go for check ups and treatments at the vet, which you hate

(together) My friend, my captive.

I have cut out your reproductive organs to make you more pliable and easy to live with.

(together) My friend, my captive.

I keep you shackled in a collar and it’s up to me whether that collar is comfortable or has rhinestones that humiliate you or spikes that dig into your flesh.

(together) My friend, my captive.

I named you without asking what you call yourself.

(together) My friend, my captive.

I went to a shelter to pick you out and I told myself I was rescuing you, that when you happened to look in my direction that you chose me, but all the choosing was on my side, you had no say in the matter.

(together) My friend, my captive.

I might be a good master, or I might be a bad master, it doesn’t matter.   You can’t leave.

(together) My friend, my captive.

For your lack of freedom,

For my demands for attention and comfort,

For your lack of the company of your freely chosen fellow creatures,

For my theft of your sexuality,

For my many terms of endearment that mask your captivity,

For all the privilege I exercise over you without thought,

I ask your forgiveness.

Specifically, I ask for the forgiveness of (my pet's names)

Do you want to do the same for your beloved captives? Call them out!  Thank you…?

 (they call out their pet’s names)

For all the times we have transgressed against your dignity and agency, as our pets,

Selach Lanu

We ask forgiveness.

(The shofar is blown a third time.)

Baruch Atah Adonai

Brucha At Yah

Praising One-ness

We are so blessed by the soft and attentive animals that we are able to love with all our hearts and all our souls,

Together, let us give thanks to the One-ness

Out of which we have found our pets.

We give thanks for the simple love between us and them that teaches and mirrors the simple love for God and from God

That we return for every year

When we make Teshuvah.

Perhaps during this month of Elul,

We will pray to to show our beloved companions and captives how much we appreciate them

And wish for them a healthy and happy New Year.

Baruch atah Adonai Elohainu Melech HaOlam,

Blessed is the Fierce Mystery

Blessed are the domesticated beasts of the earth.

Amen.

Rosh Hodesh Tov. 


* With gratitude to the resources of OpenSiddur.Org 

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Thank you!

Trisha

Blessing For the Bugs on Rosh Chodesh Elul, on Rosh Hashana HaBehamot

Art by Mike Cockrill 

Blessed One-ness!

On this beautiful summer day

Under this large and welcoming tree,

Our green tallit,

We gather together to give thanks

To the animals who make all life possible:

The bugs.

Big and small

Beautiful and hideous

Helpful and hurtful

They build

They pollinate

They are the food of our food.

Most of the time we can't even see them

And for that I am deeply and profoundly grateful.

Frightened by a giant spider movie in my childhood,

When I was little I wanted nothing more than to see all bugs dead.

But I was wrong.

I have come to see

That we are not the only creatures who are B'tzelem Elohim,

We are all in God's image.

So today, on Rosh Chodesh Elul,

On the New Year of the Domesticated Beasts,

Let's give thanks to the bugs

Like the four questioning children

Wise and snarky and simple and oblivious,

Like the four worlds of the kabbala

The Earth, the sky, the heart and the spirit

We give thanks and acknowledge:

The bugs we have domesticated 

The bugs who serve us in their wild state

The bugs that hurt us or gross us out

And the bugs who live only for themselves, without any reference to us, whatsoever.

First, in the world of Assiyah,

(Touch the earth)

Let us touch this earth.

the world of Doing, of the dirt, 

the world of the body, of physical pleasure and need

And know that in every square inch of this dirt there are bugs.

Segmented, slithering, multiple legs,

Whether we walk or sit or lie down on this earth,

there are the bugs.

We give thanks for the domesticated bugs, such as the earthworms,

Who make our compost

And who make agriculture possible;

And lets us give thanks for the bugs of the earth that we have not domesticated

Who feed the birds and each other;

And let us acknowledge the creepy crawlies of the earth living under rocks and the spiders that make children scream;

And pray with the bugs of the earth who exist only for themselves,
Without any reference to us, whatsoever.

Second, in the world of Briah,

(reach into the air)

Let us reach into the air

The world of Thinking,

the world of the mind, the intellect

And give thanks for the domesticated bugs of the air, the bees

Who pollinate our flowers

And make the sweet sweet honey;

And let us give thanks for the undomesticated bugs of the air who give us pleasure with their beauty, the butterflies and the dragonflies and the ladybugs;

And let us acknowledge the bugs of the air who annoy us, the mosquitoes and the moths;

And pray with the bugs of the air who fly all around without any reference to us whatsover.

Third, in the world ofYetzirah,

(Touch the heart and the gut)

The world of Feeling, heart, the emotions.

Touch your own body, touch your heart and your gut

And give thanks for the domesticated bugs that we eat, the bacteria that give us yogurt and yeast,

That we may live and feel and react;

And give thanks for the bugs and the bacteria that live in or on our bodies

In symbiosis, helping our digestion and our immunity,

That we may love and be loved;

Let us acknowledge the bugs, the ticks and the bedbugs and the bacteria, 

That make us sick and sometimes kill us, so that we are sometimes angry or sad;

And the bugs in and on our bodies that, thank God, most of us don’t even know about because, yuck, right? 
Let us not make any reference to them, whatsoever.

-->

And last, in the world Atzilut, of Being/Soul SPIRIT,

I invite you to turn you face to the sun and close your eyes.

This is the world of the spirit, of spirituality, of God, however you approach God and even if you don't.  

And let’s imagine another kind of bug--

What are the creepy crawly things, the ear worms and the brain bugs

The spiritual insights and the annoying doubts and fears that we cannot let go, both good and bad?

And let us give thanks for the ideas that make us so creative in our holy conversations;

And thanks for the doubts and fears and sensitivities that come to us whether we want them or not, that make us empathetic and compassionate;

And let us acknowledge the obsessions with no basis in reality and the nagging regrets about things long past that keep us up at night and away from our true selves;

And pray for ourselves, amidst all the buzzing distractions of technology and entertainment that go on without any reference to ourselves whatsoever.

Blessed One-ness

Bless all these bugs and all the creatures:

The ones we have domesticated, 

The ones who serve us in their wild state,

The ones that hurt us or gross us out,

And the animals who live only for themselves, without any reference to us, whatsoever.
We are in this world together.

Amen

*With thanks to Aharon Varady and OpenSiddur.org for background info:  

http://opensiddur.org/special-days/new-years-days/la-beheimot/explanation-and-ritual-for-rosh-hashanah-labeheimot-new-years-day-for-animals/