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Archive for the ‘Hopes’ Category

Noach: Always this Wonder

Posted on: October 23rd, 2014 by Alden

This is a prayer that our children remember pure joy of laughter and play. It’s a prayer that we remember our own innocence and love. After Noah saw the sea consume the world, he appears to have fallen into a major depression that he attempted to cure with alcohol, a post-traumatic response. The sea became a weapon. He lost sight of the ocean of beauty within. This is a prayer to hold onto enthusiasm for life. Here’s another Noach prayer called “The Flood.”

Always this Wonder
Dear children,
Go outside to play –
In the sunshine and the breeze –
And we will bless your hearts,
Your precious laughter,
Your smiles and your freedom.

Run wild…
Skip…
Twirl…
And we will pray that you remember
Always this wonder.
Then, we’ll remember our own
Care free days,
Our own discovery,
Our own amazement,
Our own joyous hearts.
And you will bless us
With the secret and the power
To discover sacred wisdom
And the sea of happiness,
The sea of joy,
The sea of love,
Waiting within.

Postscript: Here’s a link to a prayer for Parashat Breisheit, “About the Rainbow,” which could easily be used for Noach.

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: Wikimedia Commons / Michael “Mike” L. Baird

Finding My Beshert

Posted on: October 5th, 2014 by Alden

Here’s a new prayer for finding a life partner, a “beshert.” More people have asked me to write on this topic than all others combined. It’s been on my list and unaddressed for years. I can’t explain why it’s taken so long, especially since I’ve written prayers for recognizing romantic love, “For New Love,” and about maintaining that love, “For an Open Heart.” Perhaps it’s because I struggle with the idea of a divinely-ordained life-partner. Note: language choices in this piece are identified by a slash “/” and optional inserts with [brackets]. To who are looking for a beshert, blessings on your journey.

Finding My Beshert
G-d of joy and celebration,
Of generations and futures,
Bless me as I begin/continue
My search for a life partner,
A man/woman for me to love and to hold dear,
A man/woman to love me and hold me dear.
For this is Your will and Your way,
That couples should bond to serve each other in joy
And to serve You through the fullness of family,
In mourning and in rejoicing,
Marking the days with thanksgiving and grace.

[My search has taken longer than I’d imagined.
Grant me the courage to continue
And the faith that my wait will be rewarded.]

G-d of our fathers and mothers,
Lead me wisely to a man/woman
Of character and strength,
Wisdom and understanding,
Torah and mitzvot,
A man woman of ____________ [add your own hopes and dreams].
Lead him/her swiftly to me,
A gift beyond measure.
Open our hearts to each other
And help us to keep our souls
Pure in service to each other and our family/families
All the days of our lives.

Blessed are You,
Source of blessing and love.

.בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, מְקוֹר הַבְּרָכָה וְהָאַהֲבָה

Baruch atah, m’kor hab’rachah v’ha’ahavah.

Postscript: “For New Love” and for “For an Open Heart” appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: The Jewish Federation and The Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay

The Details of Beauty

Posted on: July 11th, 2014 by Alden

A gift for Shabbat. A reminder. A reminder for those in sorrow and grief, those who are tired, numb and especially to those who’ve run to bomb shelters all week. Shabbat Shalom.

The Details of Beauty
Remember
The details of beauty
With your eyes.
The autumn leaf,
A baby’s cry,
Small wonders to remind you
Of joy and wonder.

Remember
The details of love
With your breath.
The soft smile
And gentle hand,
Small wonders to remind you
Of awe and majesty.

Remember
The details of faith
With your pulse,
The quiet prayer,
The hymn of glory,
Small wonders to remind you
Of devotion and service.

G-d of Old,
The details of beauty
Surround us.
Love and faith are
Our inheritance.
Teach us to see clearly in each day
The small wonders
You set before us.
To take them in,
To feel their power
And to rejoice.

Postscript: Here are more prayers with a similar theme: “This Moment “Being Present,” “Leaving” and “Small Moments.” If you haven’t yet, please take a look at my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing, and consider ordering a copy, where some of these prayers appear.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Quiet

Posted on: June 27th, 2014 by Alden

This prayer is about the holiness of quiet. It captures an essential aspect of the Sabbath. Especially here in Jerusalem, as Shabbat approaches, there is first an intensity of motion and doing – preparations for Shabbat, social activities, parties, smachot – and then the city slows, calms and a tangible quiet settles over us all. In this quiet, so much more can be heard. This prayer appears in my second volume from CCAR Press, This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings.

Quiet
In the quiet,
My breath is the wind,
My heartbeat is thunder.

In the quiet,
My spirit settles,
And my soul rests.

In the quiet,
All that I am,
Meets everyone I might be.

G-d,
Grant me moments of gentleness,
Moments of gratitude,
Moments of calm,
Moments of peace,
So that I might hear the echoes of eternity,
And the stillness within.
So that I might live a life
Of joy and laughter,
Wisdom and dignity,
Love and honor,
In service to myself,
In service to others,
In service to Your holy name.

Blessed are the gentle
Moments of grace.

Postscript: Here’s a prayer “For the Arrival of Shabbat” and a question to G-d “About Shabbat.” You might also enjoy this “Shabbat Blessing for Children Who Have Left Home,” a Shabbat “Blessing for a Spouse / Partner” and two short, short stories – also known as flash fiction – about Shabbat: “Sarah Rivkah: A Challah Baking Story” and “Mendel Baruch: S’hema on Shabbat.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Joyous Soul, This Grateful Heart, and This Precious Life. Here’s a link to my ELItalk, “Falling in Love with Prayer..” 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: WikiMedia Commons

Let Me

Posted on: June 12th, 2014 by Alden

This is another meditation on living a life of joy and wonder, but with a twist. The core prayer is that our interactions serve to encourage and inspire one another to become our best selves. The twist: this meditation is remarkably intimate, a gentle dialogue between friends about majesty of a life together in service to G-d. As such, it may actually be a lover’s prayer, a marriage proposal or a wedding blessing.

Let Me
Let me be the one
Who reminds you
That wisdom and beauty
Shine through your eyes.

Let me be the one
Who reminds you
That power and courage
Are in your hands and in your heart.

Let me be the one
Who reminds you
That today is your day
To choose righteousness and love.

You are a gift of light.
You are a well of strength.
You are a message of hope

Let me be the one
Who reminds you
To sing, to pray,
To dance, to bless,
To feed the hungry,
To clothe the naked,
To free the captive,
To redeem the oppressed.
And you will remind me
To be the man/woman our G-d intended.
Then, together, we will be messengers
Of Torah and truth,
Bringing holiness into the world.

Blessed are You, G-d of All,
You call in us to use our gifts
To heal the world.

Postscript: Here are more prayers about love: “Let Love,” “The Cut That Heals,” “For New Love,” “To Seek Your Love,” “A Heart of Love” and “A Moment of Love.” Several of these prayers appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Photo Source: Lovely Healthy Life

All Returns to Prayer

Posted on: April 18th, 2014 by Alden

Here’s another meditation on prayer. It’s a prayer to help me to remember why I pray and how we pray: bowing, seeing, blessing, yearning, welcoming, summoning. And, no matter where we begin, each of these actions becomes a prayer. My other prayers about prayer include: “Prayer Released,” “Prayers of My Heart,” “Whispered Prayer,” “To Pray” and “Prayer for You, Prayer for Me.”

All Returns to Prayer
To pray is to bow
With my heart
In the direction of holiness.

To bow is to see
With my soul
Beauty and splendor.

To see is to bless
With my spirit
The glory of creation.

To bless is to yearn
With my breath
For the wisdom of the ages.

To yearn is to welcome
With my being
The hopes of tomorrow.

To welcome is to summon
With my sight
Awe and righteousness.

To summon is to pray
With my strength
For light to descend from heaven
And for peace to reign on earth.

Postscript: “Whispered Prayer” appears in my book Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. If you like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

The Dark Corners

Posted on: February 15th, 2014 by Alden

Fear, sorrow and doubt cannot defeat the light of holiness, unless you let them. This prayer acknowledges difficult moments and emotions, offering the classic Jewish response to facing them with strength and dignity: Torah, tefilah (prayer) and mitzvot (acts of righteousness).

This piece is part of “Three Prayers,” in which three of my prayers are set to original choreography by Lin Batsheva Kahn of the Tikvah Company of Artists and original cello music by Desiree Miller of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. “Three Prayers” premieres in Jerusalem in June 2014 as part of an evening of dance and poetry by Miriam Engel’s Angela Dance Company. To listen to the music performed by Desiree, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

The Dark Corners
Fear lurks
In the dark corners of my heart,
Waiting to convince me
That love will fail.

Sorrow lurks
In the dark corners of my soul,
Waiting to convince me
That faith will fail.

Doubt lurks
In the dark corners of my mind,
Waiting to convince me
That wisdom will fail.

Rock of Jacob,
Teach me to shine
The light of mitzvot
Into the dark corners of my mind,
So that I face my fears with courage
Redeeming them with awe and wonder.

Song of Miriam,
Teach me to shine
The light of tefilot
Into the dark corners of my soul,
So that I face my sorrows with strength
Redeeming them with righteousness.

G-d of Old,
Teach me to shine
The light of Torah
Into the dark corners of my mind,
So that I face my doubts with honor
Redeeming them with holiness.

Postscript: This prayer will appear in my forthcoming book, Prayers from the Heart of Darkness.Consider using this as a slichot meditation during the month of Elul. Here are links to prayers about specific challenging emotions, including “Doubt,” “Fear,” “Anger” and “Shame.”

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Unseen Lands

Posted on: January 5th, 2014 by Alden

Adventure. Joy. Love. Holiness. Gratitude. These are the themes tied into this short meditation on the joy and beauty of moving physically through the world and spiritually through life. You might guess that I was looking out of an airplane window when I wrote it. In fact, the morning sun was radiant over the Ionian Sea.

Unseen Lands
So many unseen lands
Arise from the glorious earth.
So many unknown peaks
Rise from my beating heart.
This is the journey.
The place where we climb
Above the clouds,
The place where we enter
Our own wisdom and grace,
To see the sunrise,
To watch the sea shimmer
With morning light,
And to meet our holiness,
Our love
And our surrender.

G-d of Old,
Guide me through unseen lands,
The territory beneath my feet,
And the horizons that call my soul.
Let my passage be for righteousness.
Let my passage be for healing.
Let my passage be for wisdom and grace.

Postscript: My other prayers for physical travel include: “On the Road,” “On the Trail” and “Being Lost.” My prayers for spiritual travel include: “Come Walk,” “River,” “Leaving” and “Sweet Cake.”

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Lech Lecha 5774: For Service

Posted on: October 12th, 2013 by tobendlight

In Lech Lecha, G-d tells Avram that he will be a blessing to humanity. “…and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2) With the change of one vowel, the Midrash relates, the Hebrew word for ‘blessing’ becomes ‘spring of water.’ And so, by blessing, we heal, we purify, we connect each other to G-d. For Lech Lecha 5774, I’ve replaced the metaphor of being a ‘lamp’ with being a ‘well’ of love. Ultimately, this is a prayer about living a life of service. The original will appear in my forthcoming book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

For Service (Lech Lecha 5774)
G-d of our fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
G-d of our mothers,
Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel,
Open my heart to serve others
With joy and thanksgiving.
Remove ego, judgment and self-will
So that I am present with kindness and understanding.
Make me a tool of Your hand,
An echo of Your voice,
A well, overflowing with Your love.
Grant me the wisdom to offer myself willingly, without fear.
Fill me with compassion and grace,
Vitality and endurance,
So that my service becomes a blessing
In heaven and on earth.

Blessed are You, G-d of Old,
You set Your people on a noble path,
To serve with love.

Postscript: Other prayers that touch on the theme of service include: “Giving Thanks,” “To Hear Your Voice” and “To Know Your Word.”

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Photo Source: Rebecca Gottesman – Fine Art

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Breisheit: This is the Place

Posted on: September 26th, 2013 by tobendlight

Beauty and holiness are everywhere. Here. Now. This prayer dreams of messianic times, while making the bold assertion that holiness is already here, that holiness is already waiting and that holiness has been here since the moment of creation, making it a prayer for Shabbat Breisheit. I’ve also selected it to represent Malchut sh’b’Malchut, the Nobility in Nobility, the last night of Counting the Omer. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

This is the Place
This is the place where the beginning and the ending meet,
Where the vast sky greets the firmament of heaven,
Where the finite and the infinite touch,
Where the breathing in becomes the breathing out.

This is the place where darkness meets the light,
Where mourning surrenders to rejoicing,
Where what we are summons what we may become,
Where all hearts beat together in joy.

Oh to see so clearly.
Oh to live so gently.
Oh to be so simply.
Oh to love so sweetly.

This is the place where holiness can be held,
Where mystery shimmers and eternity shines,
Where the core of the earth burns with the fire of starlight,
Where majesty rises like the sun
In radiant brilliant luminous wonder.

Postscript: Here’s a link to “For Creation,” another prayer for Shabbat Breisheit. Click here for more prayers of praise, many of which appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. This prayer first appeared on December 14, 2011.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Archive for the ‘Hopes’ Category

Noach: Always this Wonder

Finding My Beshert

The Details of Beauty

Quiet

Let Me

All Returns to Prayer

The Dark Corners

Unseen Lands

Lech Lecha 5774: For Service

Breisheit: This is the Place

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