We have learned about hope. We can’t help it, yet until Gilad Shalit is back in Israel – alive and in the arms of his family – we worry, wait and hold our breath. We want this hope. We remember, too, that our hopes for Gilad, for our people, for peace, have been dashed so many times. My answer, of course, is prayer.

Addendum, 10/18/2011: With Gilad home, also see a new prayer “Gilad, Home at Last.”

Prayer for Gilad’s Homecoming
When you set foot on the soil of our ancestors
The land will sing.
When you return to the home of our people
The nation will exalt.
When you enter the house of your parents
Your kin will weep.
When you heal from the wounds of captivity
Am Yisroel will rejoice.

G-d who frees the slave and liberates the captive,
Grant Gilad Shalit this promised homecoming,
So that our hopes are fulfilled and that his recovery can begin.
Grant him a complete restoration from his years in solitude and isolation,
Away from his land and his nation, his family and his people,
So that he knows joy and celebration.
Ease his burdens.
Release him from suffering.
Return him in wholeness to life.

G-d of Old,
Return this son of Israel to our people.
Bless us with this reunion.
Bless him with all of Your gifts:
Vitality, energy, happiness and peace.

© 2011 Alden Solovy and www.tobendlight.com. All rights reserved

Postscript: In many ways, it seems to me, a prayer for Gilad is a prayer for us all. Here are two prayers for Israel: “Israel: A Meditation” and “For Peace in the Middle East.” Here are additional prayers about Israel.

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Tags: Gilad Shalit, hope, Israel, peace