Infinite Love/אַהֲבַת הָעוֹלָם

A revision of the Ahavat Olam prayer, written and translated by Efrat Rotem

אַהֲבַת הָעוֹלָם אָהַבְתָּ, אוֹתָנוּ לִמַּדְתְּ, עַל כֵּן, יָהּ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, בְּשָׁכְבֵנוּ עַל אַדְמָתֵךְ, וּבְקוֹמֵנוּ לֶאֱכֹל מִפְּרִי אַדְמָתֵךְ, נָשִׂיחַ בִּגְבוּל יְכָלְתֵּנוּ לְהָבִין אֶת עוֹלָמְךָ שֶׁבָּרָאתָ, הַמֻּרְכָּב מִנִּי־עַד, וְנִשְׂמַח בְּעָצְמָתוֹ וּבְיוֹפָיו הַנִּמְצָא בַּכֹּל. מִצְוֹתֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲבֹד, לְהִזָּהֵר, לְהָגֵן וְלִלְמֹד הֵן בָּנוּ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד. כִּי הָאֲדָמָה וְהַמַּיִם, הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאֲוִיר הֵם חַיֵּינוּ וְאֹרֶךְ יָמֵינוּ, וְקִיּוּמֵנוּ כָּרוּךְ בְּזֶה שֶׁלָּהֶם, יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה. וְאַהֲבָתֵךְ אַל תָּסִירִי מֵהֶם וּמִמֶּנּוּ לְעוֹלָמִים. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אוֹהֵב הָעוֹלָם וְכָל אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ.

With infinite love You have loved the planet. Therefore, You taught us, Yah our God, that when we lie down on Your earth and when we rise up to eat of the produce of Your land, we should meditate on the limits of our capacity to understand the world that You created, in its incalculable complexity. We will rejoice in its potency and beauty found in everything. You have commanded us to cultivate and preserve, be mindful, protect and inculcate these responsibilities deep in our hearts forever. For the soil and the water, the sky and the air - they are our life and they lengthen our days, and our very existence is intertwined with theirs, day and night. May Your love never leave them and us. Blessed are You Adonai, who loves the planet teeming with life. 

Commentary from Efrat Rotem

The Jewish prayer called Infinite Love is part of the Jewish evening prayer. The literal translation of its title is “World Love” which means Infinite Love. the word “forever” in Hebrew is also the word “world”. My good friend and the visionary rabbi Gila Cain told me once that we should read it during our prayers not as “world love” but as “love for the world” in order to create an opening for a conversation on our much needed commitment for climate change action. 

I loved her idea, and said that I take the “original” prayer as an inspiration and inject into it a new meaning.

Here’s the “original” prayer. It’s taken from the English translation of the Reform Israeli prayer book “Tefilat Ha-Adam”, translated by rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman and myself:

With infinite love You have loved Your people Yisrael, teaching us Torah and mitzvot, laws and precepts. Therefore, Adonai our God, when we lie down and when we rise up, we will meditate on Your laws and Your mitzvot. We will rejoice in Your Torah forever. For they are our life and they lengthen our days, day and night we will reflect on them. May Your love never leave us. Praise to You, Ever-loving Yah who loves Your people Yisrael.

As you can see love is used here in the context of the relationship between God and the people of Israel. I wanted to broaden the spectrum of the relationship to that of people with the world, or Earth, or Gaia, and as I personally see it, with God which is all the above and much more. 

Unlike English, Hebrew is a gendered language and I chose to refer to God in a variety of ways in order to convey that God is beyond gender.