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Archive for the ‘Israel’ Category

Gathering: A Dream of Reunion

Posted on: December 30th, 2011 by tobendlight

והביאנו לשלום מארבע כנפות הארץ, ותוליכנו קוממיות לארצנו

Bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth and lead us upright to our land…

On reciting this line, worshipers traditionally gather the four tzitzit that are draped around them on their talitot. The act reflects the historic longing for reunification as a people in our homeland. After my visit to Israel in June 2011, I began to see myself as the first tzitzit, thinking of my own return to the land as I held that first fringe. Then, each fringe took on a new meaning. The result is a meditation with a dreamlike quality, beginning with the yearning for Israel that’s in each of us. Here’s my dream, one tzitzit at a time. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Gathering: A Dream of Reunion
והביאנו לשלום מארבע כנפות הארץ
ותוליכנו קוממיות לארצנו

Bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth
And lead us upright to our land…

First Tzitzit – Gathering fringes
The first knotted string in hand,
I imagine the journey home,
Home to the land of our mothers and fathers,
Holy and full of promise, labor and love,
To build a life of wonder and awe.
This is me.
This is my pilgrimage to sacred soil.
This is my dream of holiness and redemption.
I am the first tzitzit.
I am returning home.

Second Tzitzit – Gathering hearts
The second fraying string in hand,
I imagine my children, my family, my household
Returning with me to our homeland
To build and to renew our ancestral blood.
This is my family.
This is our journey to hallowed ground.
This is our wholeness and rebirth.
We are the second tzitzit.
We are returning home.

Third Tzitzit – Gathering moments
The third worn string in hand,
I imagine you, my community, my kahal,
Returning together to our Source and Shelter,
To consecrate the ancient land and our holy vow.
This is my village.
This is our journey to mystery and majesty.
This is our bond of ages.
We are the third tzitzit.
We are returning home.

Final Tzitzit – Gathering millennia
The final woolen string in hand,
I imagine all of us, from all corners of the Earth,
Returning with songs of praise and rejoicing,
To claim our place among the nation of Israel.
This is my people.
This is our journey of destiny.
This is our covenant.
We are the final tzitzit, separate no more.
We are returning home.

Postscript: I have since settled in Jerusalem. My children do not see themselves following. Still, this remains my wildest hope for them. And it will remain my deepest yearning for all of the people Israel. We will each arrive when the time is right. Click here for more prayers and meditations about Israel. Thanks to Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder for challenging me to think about how this meditation might be heard by those who are not on a path to aliyah.

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Photo Source: Old Shoe Woman (On Flickr)

Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)

Posted on: October 26th, 2011 by tobendlight

This prayer celebrates diversity in Jewish life. It honors the work of Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) by envisioning a time when we look beyond our differences – gender, skin color, age, sexuality, conversion, observance – to see one House of Israel in service to G-d, our people, and tikkun olam. I wrote it at the suggestion of Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, Be’chol Lashon’s rabbi-in-residence. The organization used it at their family camp and posted it to their website. It appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)
We sing praises
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, in every voice,
In joy and sadness,
With music and with love.

We seek truth
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, with every breath,
In study and prayer,
With faith and with purpose.

We pursue justice
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, in every land,
In word and deed,
With strength and with courage.

We study Torah
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, in every generation,
In wonder and awe,
With zest and with zeal.

We are one people,
Present on Sinai,
Where G-d spoke Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue,
To every soul,
To every heart,
The whole House of Israel.

Postscript: Thanks again to Rabbi Ruth for suggesting this prayer and for her earlier invitation for me to write “A Liturgy for 9-11.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, 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. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

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Photo Source: Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)

Gilad, Home at Last: A Prayer of Rejoicing and Healing

Posted on: October 18th, 2011 by tobendlight

This is a prayer of rejoicing, with a somber note that Gilad Shalit will need time to heal. It includes two stanzas to honor all the defenders of Israel and uses a line from Birkot Hashachar as the chatimah, the seal ending the prayer. The URJ has also posted this prayer to its blog.

Gilad, Home at Last
With your feet on the soil of our ancestors,
The land sings.
With your return to the home of our people,
The nation exalts.
As you enter the house of your parents,
Your kin weep.
When you build a new life
And take your place with your generation,
Am Yisroel will delight.

We will never forget the defenders of Israel.
We will never forget the guardians of Zion.
We will never forget the sentries of Am Kadosh.

G-d who frees the slave and liberates the captive,
We rejoice at this homecoming.
Grant Gilad Shalit a complete restoration from his isolation,
So that he knows joy and celebration.
Ease his burdens.
Release him from suffering.
Return him in wholeness to life.

We stand with the defenders of Israel.
We honor the guardians of Zion.
We hold dear the sentries of Am Kadosh.

G-d of Old,
You have returned this son of Israel to our people.
Now, bless him with all of Your gifts:
Vitality, energy, happiness and peace.

.ברוך אתה ה אלוקינו מלך העולם מתיר אסורים
Blessed are you, Adonai our God,
Sovereign of universe,
who releases the captive.

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 “A Song that Holds My Heart,” a prayer/song about Hatikvah. This prayer is an adaptation of one I wrote when news was annouced that he would be headed home, called “Prayer for Gilad’s Homecoming.” Here are additional prayers about Israel.

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Prayer for Gilad’s Homecoming

Posted on: October 12th, 2011 by tobendlight

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.

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.

The Road Out

Posted on: July 3rd, 2011 by tobendlight

This is a prayer/poem about leaving Israel, Jerusalem in particular. I wrote it on July 3, 2011, on the drive from Jerusalem to Ben-Gurion Airport and was able to post it before my flight boarded. Here’s a list of the other prayers and poems I wrote on that trip: “To Find Home,” “Sages,” “The Way Home” and “A Song that Holds My Heart.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

The Road Out
The road out of Jerusalem is down, always down.
Down from the steppes of beauty,
Down from the mount of glory,
Away from G-d’s voice
Still echoing through sacred ground.

The road out of Jerusalem is paved with exile,
With love,
With longing,
With tears.

G-d of our fathers and mothers,
Rachel still cries when we leave the land,
By force or by choice.
The soil still feels our exit,
One less Jewish soul,
One less Jewish heart,
One less Jewish spirit.

Holy One,
Bring us speedily back to the land of our ancestors,
Our dreams,
Our history.
Bring us speedily back to you,
G-d of ages,
In love.

Postscript: Click here for more prayers and meditations about Israel.

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 use or like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

The Way Home

Posted on: June 30th, 2011 by tobendlight

This is prayer about returning to the Land of Israel. It’s the antidote to a piece I posted two weeks ago called “To Find Home,” a difficult prayer/poem about struggling to find a sense of home. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

The Way Home
G-d of Old
The One who led our ancestors to a land of promise,
A vision of abundance,
Milk and honey from holy soil,
Grant me the strength to follow that sacred path,
Trials in the desert,
Trials of heart,
The journey home.

Ancient One,
Your Voice resounds in the hills,
Your Call echoes in the valleys,
Your Mysteries waiting
In the desert and by the seas.

Home is in my breath,
In my eyes,
In my heart.
Home is in the joy and the laughter,
In the work and the struggle,
In the toil and in the rest.

Blessed are You, G-d of our Ancestors,
You are the way home.

Postscript: Please take a moment to read “To Find Home” and compare it to this prayer. Which one resonates more for you? Which one are you more likely to use in your own prayer? Here are links to the other prayers I’ve written here in Israel: “Sages” and “A Song that Holds My Heart.”

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Prayer Moments in Israel

Posted on: June 28th, 2011 by tobendlight

Three moments from my wanderings in Israel:

Shabbat afternoon in Netanya. I’m at a lovely lunch with a group made up primarily of long-time olim who went through an absorption center together decades ago. They consider each other family. Thanks to my weekend host, the conversation turned to my writing. One of the women shared this story:

A relative passed away nearly a year ago. A man. Simple, loved, respected. The family could not settle on a quote to use as an epitaph. The time was running out. The headstone needed to be ordered. Less than a week prior to that Shabbat, with the deadline looming, she found my prayer “For the Patriarch.” She sent the closing lines, the chatimah, to the family. Within hours, they decided to use these words on his stone: “Blessed are You, G-d of our fathers, who provides just and righteous men in every generation.” Words from my prayer in honor of a beloved father. In stone. Amazing. And I got the added blessing of hearing the story.

Sunday in Be’er Sheva. I’m with the head of communications for Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. We were talking about the challenge of writing a one-line message for their Rosh Hashana card. She was looking for a line to reflect the Zionism of both the founders of the university and the current leadership. I said that she could modify and use a line from my new prayer, written here in Israel, called “A Song that Holds My Heart.” The idea: change the refrain “Sing a song of hope, the song of hope, the song that holds my heart” ever-so-slightly to “Sing the song of hope, a song of Zion, the song that holds my heart.” She threw the idea in the hopper, but it didn’t make the cut for BGU. It was nice to have the line considered. Now I’m thinking about whether or not to make that change to my piece. Which line do you prefer?

Monday night, Jerusalem. Having gone in wrong way, I landed at a bus stop an hour from my destination. I met Abebe, a 21-year-old Ethiopian yeshiva student. We talked. When he found out I was going to The Kotel he decided to come with. We walked through the Old City together at night, davened ma’ariv at The Wall and he insisted on buying dinner, schwarma with chips. As the evening ended, I asked him if there was anything I could do for him. He asked me to bless him. I did. In truth, we were blessed by each other. Here’s my prayer for the strangers that we meet on the journey called “On the Road.”

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Halfway Point

Posted on: June 23rd, 2011 by tobendlight

When I arrived in Israel, my grief came rushing in. The feeling was so close to the surface that I felt fragile like glass, glass at the edge of a mountain. In a strong wind. It took all my strength not to break into tears – and into pieces – at any moment. So I hardened my heart. For safety.

I began to have a fantasy: I’m sitting on a park bench next to the oldest Chasid in the world. He has a long white beard and soft smiling eyes. His black coat lies across his lap, his white shirt glistening with sunlight. I’m yelling at him. “What gives you the right to be so certain, so sure? How dare you? How dare you? To think you think that you know. That you think you have secrets.” My intestines boil and my bones shake. His eyes continue to smile, his hands folded across his lap. I shout and I yell and I scream and then I collapse onto his shoulder. I’m crying the tears of a thousand men who haven’t cried for a thousand years. Sobbing. Wailing. He takes his arm and lays it gently across my back.

In Tzfat, I met some dear, sweet Jews, young and old. I didn’t yell at any them, Chasid or progressive. I cried a few tears. Not many. Instead, I listened. Then I started to sing again. And to open my heart. As they would say, Baruch Hashem.

This shift is reflected in the changing emotions of the three prayers that I’ve completed so far in Israel, written in this order:

I’m now a little more than halfway through my journey. I’ve slept in six cities and 10 different beds. I’ve met, spoken to and hiked with more than 50 people: families and students, young professionals and travelers, long-time olim and olim chadashim, old friends and friends-of-friends, secular Jews and Chabadniks. More to come.

Baruch Hashem.

Postscript: Please excuse any intermittent technical problems with the header of this site. I’ll address it when I am back in the U.S.

A Song that Holds My Heart

Posted on: June 23rd, 2011 by tobendlight

This prayer/poem is as much a song as a prayer, written on the train from Acco to Tel Aviv in June, 2011. Readers will recognize the allusion to the Israeli National Anthem, Hatikvah, ‘The Hope.’ Here’s a rendition by Avivit Caspi. This is the third prayer I completed on that trip, including: “Sages” and “To Find Home.”

A Song that Holds My Heart
Tell me about your land and your spirit.
Tell me about your people and your love.
Tell me about your history and your longing.
Sing a song of hope,
The song of hope,
The song that holds my heart.

Lead me to the cypress and the wadi,
The rhythm of hills and whispers of the desert,
The music of the waters and the heartbeat of stone.
Sing a song of hope,
The song of hope,
The song that holds my heart.

This land, this people, are one.
This land, this people, are one.

Show me your strength and your passion.
Show me your joy and your fear.
Show me your pride and your yearning.
Sing a song of hope,
The song of hope,
The song that holds my heart.

Postscript: Here are links to two other prayers about Israel: “Israel: A Meditation” and “Jerusalem: A Meditation.” Click here for more prayers and meditations about Israel.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Israel Soon

Posted on: June 11th, 2011 by tobendlight

On Sunday I leave for Israel. This trip is about connecting with people and the land and healing from a raft of losses: my wife z”l, my job, my home. My joy and excitement at how the trip is shaping up are beyond my expectations. Through the power of the web – email, Facebook, my website – I will reconnect with old friends and will meet and stay with people I’ve never physically met, friends of friends, the family of friends and Internet pals who have opened their homes. Some of the trip is planned, some will simply evolve while I’m there. Thanks to the many, many people who have helped along the way.

I plan to continue to post new prayers for the three weeks that I’m gone, but I have no idea what will actually happen. To celebrate the start of my journey, here are links to three prayers about Israel:

“Israel: A Meditation” – On the love of Israel our people and our nation
“Jerusalem: A Meditation” – On the joys and sorrows of our sacred city
“For Peace in the Middle East” – A hope for the future

And here are links to three prayers about travel:

“For Travel” – A traveler’s prayer
“On the Road” – For the blessing of meeting people on the journey
“On the Trail” – The awe and wonder of physical and spiritual treks

Archive for the ‘Israel’ Category

Gathering: A Dream of Reunion

Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)

Gilad, Home at Last: A Prayer of Rejoicing and Healing

Prayer for Gilad’s Homecoming

The Road Out

The Way Home

Prayer Moments in Israel

Halfway Point

A Song that Holds My Heart

Israel Soon

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