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Archive for the ‘Israel’ Category

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.

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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.”

Please use these prayers. See “Share the Prayer!” in the right hand column. For notices of new prayers posted here, please subscribe. To read four to six mini-prayers each week, as well as notices of new prayers posted to the site, please join the To Bend Light fan page on Facebook.

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

For Jerusalem

Posted on: March 23rd, 2011 by tobendlight

Please pray for the City of Peace. To listen while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below (website only). The text follows.

Jerusalem: A Meditation
Jerusalem,
You are mystery and wonder,
Secrets hidden and secrets revealed.
You are beauty in the hills
And holiness in stone.

City of Peace,
Why are you still besieged by nations?
Why are you held hostage from within?
What errant flight has the white dove taken?
What mission of love and mercy
Has drawn her away
Leaving us to weep, broken-hearted?

Jerusalem,
You are prayers and echoes,
Questions without answer,
Yearning and hope,
Radiance and splendor.

Jerusalem,
You are my journey and my destination.
You are my longing.
You are my sorrow.
Will you be my consolation?

Postscript: I’ve reposted this prayer after today’s bus bombing in our sacred city. This meditation was first posted December 20, 2010.

Please use these prayers. See “Share the Prayer!” in the right hand column.

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Jerusalem: A Meditation

Posted on: December 20th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a meditation on the beauty and heartbreak of the City of Gold. A lovely reflection on the City of Peace, it can be used in private prayer, in communal worship or as an additional reading during your Passover Seder. This meditation appears in my new book, Haggadah Companion: Meditations and Readings. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The prayer text follows.

Jerusalem: A Meditation
Jerusalem,
You are mystery and wonder,
Secrets hidden and secrets revealed.
You are beauty in the hills
And holiness in stone.

Jerusalem,
You are prayers and echoes,
Questions without answer,
Yearning and hope,
Radiance and splendor.

Jerusalem,
You are my journey and my destination.
You are my longing.
You are my sorrow.
Will you be my consolation?

Postscript: Here are links to “Israel: A Meditation” and “For Peace in the Middle East.” Here are more prayers for and about Israel.

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 Credit: Alden Solovy

Israel: A Meditation

Posted on: June 7th, 2010 by tobendlight

The nation of Israel lives! This is my anthem to Israel, to the land, to our history and to our people. This meditation appears in my “Haggadah Companion: Meditations and Readings.” עם ישראל חי

Israel: A Meditation
Israel,
You are my people.
You are my heart and you are my hope.
We waited together at the mountain
When G-d revealed the Holy Word.
We wandered together through the desert
On the path to sacred soil.
We watched the sea part.
We heard the heavens roar.
We stood at the doorway to freedom,
At the border of a Promised Land.

Israel,
You are my destiny.
You are my joy and you are my truth.
We were victorious at Jericho,
Unyielding at Masada.
We defied empires
For Torah.
We defied kings
For justice and freedom.
We’ve traveled the earth,
Wandered the millennia,
Refugees of the ages,
Homeless and hopeful,
Waiting to return
To native ground.

Israel,
You are my brother in history,
My sister in fortune,
The mother of my courage,
The father of my heart,
The child of my longing,
And the light of generations.
To you I pledge my right arm
And my voice in song.
To you I pledge my soul.
To you I pledge my spirit.

Israel,
You are my nation.
You are my inheritance.
You are my home.

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

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