It can be argued that the only thing more heretical than atheism, at least from an eagle-eyed Maimonidean perspective, is actually existing theism. When the self-proclaimed prophets of "God" are selling indulgences in the White House or promoting God-based hate, it's hard to sustain the idea that the word "God" actually denotes goodness. And while this is most loudly true at the present moment in American English, those of us fluent in Hebrew for prayers and news know that the situation is no less dire for the loudest, and most powerful, promoters of the traditional Jewish names of the Deity.
And yet: Even if the name of God has been sullied, there is still a value in calling out in prayer. As Abraham Joshua Heschel taught, “To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings." Life continues to hold miracles, even if the holiest of books have been trampled upon by rampaging believers and even if we are too Maimonidean to believe in an interventionist god who will rescue us if the proper magic words are recited at the proper time. The fact remains that of all the lumps of congealed stardust in all the world, we've had the rare, unlikely luck to be able to experience wonder — and to respond to it.
Or in the words of Herbert J. Levine:
I thank you, living and enduring universe,
That I am aware of my breath.
How great are your wonders!
That's the opening prayer, "Awakening to Gratitude," in Blessed Are You, Wondrous Universe: A Siddur for Seekers. It's an adaptation of Modeh Ani, the traditional Jewish prayer on awaking the morning, as is particularly clear when you see the Hebrew version:
Odeh l’cha olam chai v’kayam
she-ani eir lin’shimati.
mah nifla-im maasecha!
אוֹדֶה לְךָ עוֹלָם חַי וְקַיָּם
.שֶאֲנִי עֵר לִנְּשִׁימָתִי
!מָּה נִפְלָאִים מַעֲשֶֹיךָ
The adaptation ditches the original's "living, existing king" who "kindly" returned our breath upon waking.
To which I say: Good riddance. We Americans ditched kings 250 years ago, and that's worked out pretty well. And while liberal Jews have tried to repurpose "king" as a metaphor, it's become clear that even apparently dead metaphors can return, zombie-like, to wreak damage. Much better to cut out the imaginary, potentially noxious, middleman, and directly pray: "Blessed are you, Wondrous Universe" — בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, עוֹלָם נִפְלָא.
Herb Levine's prayers follow the traditional template that dates backs to the Mishna nearly 2000 years ago. There are blessings on arising, yes, and also blessings before and after the Sh'ma, the central creed of Jewish unitarian belief, here rendered as:
Listen, O Jewish People,
Our world is our home,
Our world is one.
Sh’ma Yisrael:
olameinu beiteinu,
olameinu echad.
And this brings me to Herb Levine's most urgent intervention: He calls on us to praise not only the miracles of our (natural) existence, but also the miracles of our cultural existence: the wisdom that can be found in community and our heritage.
From his Amidah:
Blessed are you, life-giving world,
Keeping us alive to learn from our ancestors
From his Torah service:
Blessed is our tradition
For envisioning Torah as a refining fire.
And his concluding Aleinu prayer:
It’s on us to praise our Torah for saying,
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s on us to praise our prophets
For foreseeing a day
when those who dwell on earth
Shall beat their swords into plows
And learn war no more.
On that day, the world will be one.
One critique of previous generations of Jewish atheists and reformers was that they "threw the baby out with the bathwater." Looking around our dystopic world [caused in part] by those who claimed to restore the glory of religious tradition but in the misuse of their power highlight all of its [ ] and tarnish, one can only admire the "holy chutzpah" (in the words of Dr. Shaul Magid's introduction) to drain the bathwater, ditch the dross, and create a new Jewish text which correctly, and boldly claims:
We are the love that shines through darkness,
Our origins in the far-off stars,
So grateful for our existence:
Humbly, we honor the power that gave us life.
All the gratitude. None of the God attitude. Available in a Comprehensive edition, with full Hebrew text facing the English, and a Compact edition with selected Hebrew accompanied by transliteration.
