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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

So My Soul May Sing

Posted on: September 15th, 2018 by Alden

Repentance frees the soul. Then, we can sing to G-d with complete joy. This music debuted at S’lichot Services at Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, in 2017 and was released this week as a music video for this year’s Yamim Nora’im. The Hebrew is from Psalm 30. “So that my soul may sing hymns to you endlessly, Adonai my God, I will thank you forever (Psalm 30:13).” The video features the composers, Cantor Erin Frankel and AJ Luca.

So My Soul May Sing
Lyrics: Alden Solovy
Music: Cantor Erin Frankel, AJ Luca

What we hope
What we dream,
Our dearest prayers,
Can’t be broken.

What we deny,
What we discard,
Our deepest fears,
Can’t be spoken.

But our love,
And our joy,
With our hearts,
Can be woken…

To You, to You, to You.

,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
.יהוה אֱלֹהַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ

L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
Adonai Elohai L’o-lam O-de-ka.

Let Your love,
And Your joy,
From Your heart,
Be my emotion

So my soul
And my voice
Will rise up
To be spoken.

To You, to You, to You.

L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
Adonai Elohai L’o-lam O-de-ka.

So the weight
Of these wrongs
That I’ve done
Won’t define me.

While the pain
Of these sins
That I recall
Won’t confine me.

L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
Adonai Elohai L’o-lam O-de-ka.

What we hope,
What we dream,
Our dearest prayers,
Can’t be broken.

Postscript: With my deep love and affection for Erin and AJ. In friendship with the clergy team at Congregation Rodeph Shalom — Erin, Rabbi Jill Maderer and Rabbi Eli Freedman — and gratitude for their ongoing support of my work. In appreciation of the Lee Stanley Music Fund for making the music and the video possible.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Congregation Rodeph Shalom

Creation Sings

Posted on: September 7th, 2018 by Alden

Legend says that God created the world on Rosh Hashanah. So, Rosh Hashanah is not only the first day of the New Year and the Day of Judgement, it’s also marks the creation of all. For this new year, Cantor Erin Frankel of Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, enlisted me and her musical collaborator AJ Luca write a new song celebrating creation using words from the High Holiday prayer, HaYom Harat Olam. Here’s a music video of the song, performed by Erin and AJ.

Creation Sings
Lyrics: Alden Solovy
Music: Cantor Erin Frankel, AJ Luca

Then the sun rose,
For the first time,
To warm the land,
To warm our hearts,
To warm our hands.

Tides shifting,
Birds winging,
Flowers bursting,
Clouds drifting,
Eden singing.

And light sparkled,
The heavens shimmered,
While love echoed,
The future glimmered.

היום הרת עולם
היום הרת עולם
Hayom Harat Olam.
Hayom Harat Olam.
Today the birthday of the world.
Today is the birthday of our world.

Let the sun rise,
On a new day,
To warm the land,
To warm our hearts,
To warm our hands.

Light still sparkles,
From creation,
Love still echoes,
The world’s foundation.

היום הרת עולם
היום הרת עולם
Hayom Harat Olam.
Hayom Harat Olam.
Today the birthday of the world.
Today is the birthday of our world.

So these hours
Of introspection,
And these moments
Of deep reflection,
Will bring us back
To G-d’s creation,
And lift our hearts,
With jubilation.

היום הרת עולם
היום הרת עולם
Hayom Harat Olam.
Hayom Harat Olam.
Today the birthday of the world.
Today is the birthday of the world.

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Photo Source: Congregation Rodeph Shalom

Meditation before Taking down a Sukkah

Posted on: October 12th, 2017 by Alden

Before taking down your Sukkah, take a moment to remember that it represents hope and peace. As you take apart the physical structure, draw the meaning into your heart. This meditation appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Meditation before Taking down a Sukkah
Source of blessings,
I’ve/we’ve served meals,
Hosted guests,
Laughed,
And sung with joy,
Here in this temporary structure,
Creating sacred space with hope and love.
This dwelling represents
My/our hope(s) for comfort and shelter,
For wholeness and healing,
A life/lives full of song and dance,
Joy and laughter,
Kindness and goodwill.
As I/we dismantle the physical structure,
I/we strengthen my/our resolve
To build a world of justice and peace,
Taking these aspirations in my/our heart(s).

Postscript: Click here to read my other prayers for Sukkot. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Sin Offering

Posted on: September 28th, 2017 by Alden

This short confessional prayer is meant for personal use, either in communal or private prayer. My other High Holiday prayers can be found here. Here’s a link to my essay of the same name on the strangest, most perplexing confessional prayer of all.

Sin Offering
I stand before You this day
G-d of Old,
To offer my sins
As tribute to my humanity,
To offer my repentance
As tribute to my holiness.
Teach me to cast off these sins,
To make space for Your radiance and light,
To make space for my humanity and this holiness
To meet in the core of my being,
So that my soul may shine brighter.
So that the works of my hands
Will praise Your creation.
So that my life will be a blessing
In heaven and on earth.

Postscript: Read my essay entitled “Sin Offering” here. My other High Holiday prayers can be found here.

Photo Source: Guilt-Free Christianity

Take Us to the Mountain

Posted on: September 4th, 2017 by Alden

This Rosh Hashanah prayer — written at the request of the Central Conference of American Rabbis — appeared in their High Holy Day Resources 2017. The request: create an apolitical High Holiday prayer responding to the rising tide of antisemitism. Given the challenge, I drafted principles to guide the writing; afterward, I annotated the prayer. Links to the guidelines and the annotated version are in the postscript. I’m honored to have been asked to produce new liturgy for the Movement.

Take Us to the Mountain
Lead us to the river,
To cast our sins upon the waters.
The world may go mad.
We must stay sane.

Take us to the mountain,
To cast our eyes toward the heavens,
The world may go mad.
We must have hope.

?יהוה, אוֹרִי וְיִשְׁעִי, מִמִּי אִירָא
Adonai ori v’yishi, mimi ira?
God is my light and my refuge secure,
Whom shall I fear?

Hate has come calling,
To consume the heart of justice,
To consume the heart of mercy,
To challenge our lives and our ideals.

.יהוה מָעוֹז-חַיַּי, מִמִּי אֶפְחָד
Adonai maoz-chayai, mimi efchad?
God is the stronghold of my life,
Of whom shall I be afraid?

Love, too, has come calling,
To enliven the heart of righteousness,
To enliven the heart of rejoicing,
To fulfill our hopes and our dreams.

We need not be prophets of doom,
To see that anger stalks the night
And threatens our days.

Arise, awaken,
Let us be prophets of blessing,
Bringing kindness as our message,
And tikkun olam as the work of our hands.

Let us repent our own offenses.
Let us repair our own wrongs.
Let us be upright in thought and deed.

Fountain of Life,
Bring us to the river of Your blessings.
Lead us to the mountain of your salvation.
Bring Your light to the nations.
Bring Your healing to the world.

?אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי, אֶל-הֶהָרִים, מֵאַיִן יָבֹא עֶזְרִי
.עֶזְרִי, מֵעִם יהוה, עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶ
Esa einai el-heharim, mei-ayin yavo ezri?
Ezri mei-im Adonai, oseih shamayim vaaretz.
I lift my eyes to the mountains,
For where will my help come?
My help comes from the Eternal,
Maker of heaven and earth.

God of All,
Let Your sukkat shalom,
Your shelter of peace,
Descend from the highest heavens
To bless us and all creation
On this New Year.

Postscript: Here’s a link to the annotated version and a link to the liturgical guidelines used to craft this prayer. “We Will Not Yield” is a political approach to some of the same themes. This year, a prayer “For Houston” night also be appropriate. My other High Holiday prayers — many of which can be found in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day — can also be found by clicking here.

Photo Source: Israel Tours/Shmuel Browns

The Temple

Posted on: July 11th, 2017 by Alden

Today is the 17^th of Tammuz, a minor fast day commemorating the breach in the outer walls of Jerusalem prior to the destruction of the Second Temple on Tisha b’Av. Today, the breach is not in the physical walls of the city, but in the spiritual hearts of our people. The Kotel isn’t a place where Jews can pray freely, according to our own diverse customs and practices. The Kotel is a hostage to ultra-Orthodox control. This prayer turns the tables: the Temple mourns our inability to hear God’s voice, the priests mourn a divided House of Israel and the sacrifices mourn those who’ve forgotten G-d’s sacred call.

The Temple
Do not mourn
For the Temple Mount.
The stones mourn for you.
They mourn for you who have forgotten
That God’s Voice
Can still be heard in the hills.
The stones mourn for you
Who have forgotten
That God’s Voice can still be heard in the valleys,
In the forests and deserts,
In the waters and skies.

Do not mourn
For the lost priests.
The tribes mourn for you.
They mourn for you who have forgotten
That God’s people are one.
Ephraim and Judah,
The Levites and the daughters of Zelophehad,
Ask why we still divide the House of Israel,
Why we still cast judgment,
Why we spurn each other with anger.
The tribes mourn for you who have
Forsaken your brothers
And rejected your sisters,
Closing your minds and hardening your hearts.

Do not mourn
For the lost sacrifices.
The yearling without blemish,
The ephah of fine flour and the hin of oil,
Mourn for you.
They mourn for you who have forgotten
That God requires your love and your power,
Your hope and your deeds.
The yearling, the flour and the oil mourn for you
Who have forgotten
That God wants the blood that flows through you,
The strength of your days,
Your song and your laughter,
Your wisdom and healing.

Tear your clothes
And sit in ashes
If you must.
Then, rise up!
Rise up and listen to God’s call:

Love My People Israel,
Love all of My People Israel.
Then, you will know the depth of My righteousness
And will drink from the well of My compassion.
Give them your heart.
Give them your days in service,
With joy and thanksgiving,
So that My Glory will dwell among you,
And that your days are long on this earth.

Postscript: Instead of the phrase “Do not mourn for…,” I considered using “When you mourn for…” I ultimately decided to leave the introductory lines to each stanza as originally written, choosing to challenge our relationship to the Temple and to each other head on, without pulling the punch. Here’s a link to another prayer/metaphor that uses preparing to say the Shema as a dream/vision of the in-gathering of Jews to our land.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Another Year: An Introspection

Posted on: December 29th, 2016 by Alden

For the New Year: a meditation on the passage and the use of time. Have I spent this time wisely? And what have I learned? This prayer appears in my CCAR Press book, This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. This prayer is about living with integrity.

Another Year: An Introspection
Another year slips away,
As do they all,
Day by day,
Hour by hour,
Moment by moment.
Many used wisely,
Many wasted.

Another year opens,
As do they all,
With anticipation,
With wonder and amazement,
With excitement.
With consolation.

Was last year so different from the one before?
What will the New Year bring?
What will I bring to the New Year?

This I pledge to myself:
Love is my answer to grief,
Hope is my answer to loss,
Strength is my answer to fear,
Honor is my answer to slander,
Action is my answer to injustice.

This I pledge to you
My sisters and brothers:
To see you as you are,
To respect your journey,
To hear your truth,
To stand with you in dignity,
To walk with you as a companion and friend.

This I pledge to You
G-d of my ancestors:
To seek Your wisdom,
To follow Your command,
To obey Your Law,
To observe Your Sabbath,
To rejoice in Your works,
To do Your will.

G-d of time and space,
Another year slips away,
As do they all.
Another year opens before me,
As they all do:
With one hundred choices,
One thousand possibilities
And one sacred duty.
Life. This life. My life.

Postscript: Here’s another prayer “For the New Year” and a meditation called “In This Turning.”

Photo Credit: jansenphoto

Who, Still Broken

Posted on: October 9th, 2016 by Alden

One of the ways my wife Ami z”l attempted her own life was with gasoline. She poured gas onto a grassy midway, ignited it and stepped into the fire. Thankfully, when her clothing caught fire, she dropped and rolled. In the decade since, I’ve struggled with the High Holiday prayer Un’taneh Tokef; in particular, the famous couplet: “Who by fire. Who by water.” Today, after an angry sea pulled back from Haiti, more than 800 are dead. Today, a boy lays in an induced coma after he was set on fire. Today, I wrote this meditation. It includes direct and indirect references to the Un’taneh Tokef, as well as allusions to the Kedusha and to the tradition of prostration during a special Alienu added for the High Holidays. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Who, Still Broken
Who by fire,
Screaming with seared flesh?
Who by water,
Gasping for one more breath?

Rock of Life,
Tell me that these are not
Your tools of justice.
Tell me that these are not
Your verdicts or Your punishments.
How do You bear the cries
Of Your children?
The starving,
The battered,
Buried in rubble
Or washed to sea?

No, this is not my God.
Neither Judge nor Witness,
Prosecutor nor Executioner,
Issuing severe decrees
In a kangaroo court
Of intimidations
And forced confessions.

.כִּי כְּשִׁמְךָ כֵּן תְּהִלָתֶֽךָ
Ki k’Shimcha cain t’hilatecha.
For according to Your name,
So is Your praise.
Your name is Righteousness. Forgiveness. Love.
Your names are Mother, Father and Teacher.
Your names are Source and Shelter.

.קָשֶׁה לִכְעֹס וְנֽוֹחַ לִרְצוֹת
Kasheh lichos v’noach lirtzot.
You are slow to anger
And ready to forgive.
But I,
I am slow to change,
Slow to amend my ways.
I can be consumed by the fire
Of my own anger.
I can drown in the sea
Of my own sorrow.
I need Your guidance,
Your gentle hand.

.וְאַתָּה הוּא מֶלֶֽךְ, אֵל חַי וְקַיָּם
V’atah hu Melech El Chai v’kayam!
For You are forever our Living G-d and Sovereign!

Yes, I will fall to my knees
Before You.
For you are Holy,
Your Majesty fills the universe.
My origin is dust
And I will return to dust.
Until then,
God of Mercy,
תְּשׁוּבָה, תְּפִילָּה, וּצְדָקָה
T’shuva, tefillah u’tzdakah —
Repentance, prayer and righteousness —
Will allow me to rise,
To stand before You
Human,
Humble,
Fallible,
Still broken,
And still whole.

Postscript: This meditation reflects a certain anger, redemptive by asserting a gentler conception of G-d, as well as G-d’s justice, mercy and redemption. See also “Cry No More” and “At the Gates.” Please consider donating to support my daughter Dana’s participation in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness Greater Los Angeles Walk to raise funds aimed at reducing the suicide rate 20 percent by 2025.

Photo Source: Abq Jew

Sweet Cake

Posted on: September 27th, 2016 by Alden

For Rosh Hashanah, my secret recipe for sweet cake is this song of the spiritual traveler, an extended metaphor that shimmers with hope and prayer. It’s more of a yearning than a classic prayer, a love poem about life. And yet, aren’t all yearnings simply silent prayers of the heart? “Sweet Cake” appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day.

Sweet Cake
Give me a drop of honey,
And I will give you the harvest moon.
Give me a silent tear,
And I will give you the roaring sea.
Give me a cup of milk,
And I will give you the rising sun.
Give me your secret prayer,
And I will give you my broken heart.

Give me a drop of honey and we will
Make a feast of this life.
Sweet cake,
To feed ourselves with joy and love.
Sweet cake,
To feed the world with awe and wonder.
Sweet cake,
Of milk and honey.
Sweet cake,
Of prayers and tears.

Postscript: One of my favorite pieces that’s written in the voice of the spiritual traveler is called “Come Walk.” Other prayers in the voice of the spiritual traveler include: “All is Well,” “River,” “Bird is Bird,” “Leaving,” “Remember” and “About the Rainbow.” This meditation first appeared on this site on December 12, 2013.

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Photo Sources: The Monday Box

Meditation before the Vidui

Posted on: September 15th, 2016 by Alden

This meditation is to help prepare for a thorough and honest self-assessment before the confession litany, the Vidui, traditionally recited five times on Yom Kippur. It’s recited on Rosh Hashanah and is used in Selichot services. Originally posted as a “Meditation before the Yom Kippur Vidui,” a friend suggested using a title that makes clear this can be used throughout Elul in preparation for the High Holy Days.

Meditation before the Vidui
G-d of Old,
Judge and Sovereign,
Healer and Guide:

Today I recount my deeds,
The sins I’ve committed,
The blessings I’ve bestowed.

Today I recall my year,
The challenges I’ve faced,
The decisions I’ve made.

Today I reach into my heart,
The moments of anger,
The moments of love.

By Your command
G-d of Mercy,
I lay bare the secrets within me,
Light and darkness,
My gentle hand and my clenched fist,
My strength and conceit,
Anger and fear.

By Your command
G-d of Wisdom,
I open myself to see truth,
Beauty and degradation,
The holy and the profane,
The victorious and the guilty.

By Your command
G-d of Salvation,
I reclaim all that I am
And all that I’ve done,
My pride and my shame,
Returning to You
So that I may redeem my days
With awe and righteousness.

Postscript: Note that the traditional Siddur includes a Vidui in Tachanun, but only in Israel. This prayer wasn’t conceived with regular use in mind. Thanks to Rabbi Joseph Meszler for the suggestion. This was originally published on Aug. 30, 2011. Click here for the full list of prayers for the Yamim Noraim. Here’s a focused list of prayers for Elul, another one of prayers for Rosh Hashana, a list of prayers for Yom Kippur and one more for Sukkot. And here’s a link to yizkor and memorial prayers.

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Photo Source: Kedem Auction House

Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

So My Soul May Sing

Creation Sings

Meditation before Taking down a Sukkah

Sin Offering

Take Us to the Mountain

The Temple

Another Year: An Introspection

Who, Still Broken

Sweet Cake

Meditation before the Vidui

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