The Baal Shem Tov, or Besht —  the founder of Chasidism — 
met the soul of the Messiah during an ascent to heaven. 
The Besht asked him, "When will the Master come?" 
The Messiah answered, "When your wellsprings break forth to the outside!" 
(from a letter written by the Besht to his brother-in-law about one of his soul ascents) 

After the Storm: A prayer to choose life

Last year was a record year for catastrophic hurricanes, and more are yet to come. This year of 2018, beginning with Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut, may be another one. After hurricanes and natural disasters, people find meaning in sharing prayers for the victims. But most of these prayers do not acknowledge that we are partly responsible for worsening storms because we are responsible for climate change (disruption is a more accurate term). After Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and New York, I wrote a brief prayer that acknowledged if we want to help future victims of hurricanes, we need to address climate disruption, not just donate to the Red Cross.

After Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the tremendous floods in Bangladesh in 2017, I reworked that prayer, with the help of opensiddur.org, to respond to natural disasters like storms and floods made worse by human actions. I don't think anyone expected the next major storm, Hurricane Irma, to come within a fortnight of Hurricane Harvey, followed in less than a week by Hurricane Maria. Now, and from now on, we are going to need strength to help not just one storm's victims, but to help storm after storm after storm. We need to pray for that strength, because praying for strength is one way to create strength. I have always wavered about whether it mattered to write a prayer or poem in response to a political or humanitarian crisis. A prayer in synagogue might make us feel better, but feeling better may not be what we need. A prayer at political rallies can feel more like politics than prayer...

[To read the rest of this article on Times of Israel, click here]

Here's the English:

Master of, Foundation of the Universe, You commanded us, Choose life, but the people of our generation cannot discern how to choose life. We are all of us responsible, whether by necessity or by our choices, for the disruption of the climate that has intensified this deadly storm, and so we are responsible for its healing.

We seek the strength to accept our responsibility now to help those harmed by the storm, and to persist in helping in the face of coming storms, to support all those engaged in rescue and relief work, and to join with them. And we pray for all the creatures who are in need and exposed with the passing of the storm: please save them.

For You are the One who reproves nations and who teaches humanity knowledge— please teach us the path forward to take responsibility for each other and for the future of this wondrous planet through vision and not through calamity. Help us choose a way of life rooted in justice, for the just establish the world, so that the promise may be upheld through us for our children and our children’s children, Blessed will you be in the city, blessed will you be in the field, so that we will not be lost quickly from off the good earth.

I've also experimented with two ways of addressing God here. The original version of the prayer begins "Ribono shel Olam" רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם. I did a newer version with "Adon Ha'olam" אָדוֹן הָעוֹלָם, which means the same thing, but I added to it an alternative name, "Eden Ha'olam" אֶדֶן הָעוֹלָם - the Foundation of the Universe.

Download the prayer:

With Adon/Eden: PDF | .Pages
With Ribono: PDF | .Pages
RTF with all versions, with the Hebrew/English/translit both interlinear and in blocks, easy to edit, cut and paste, etc.

Click here for the opensiddur page that hosts this prayer.
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Design in progress © Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg 2006