Torah Archives - Page 6 of 8 - To Bend Light Archive | To Bend Light

Archive for the ‘Torah’ Category

Toldot 5775: Bless Me

Posted on: November 20th, 2014 by Alden

In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob receives Isaac’s blessing, usurping his brother Esau with subterfuge. Afterward, Esau says: “Bless me, even me also, O my father.” Then Esau weeps. (Gen. 27:38) This is a prayer for the blessings of our parents. It includes an optional stanza in [brackets] for those who, like me, also yearn for the blessings of our children.

Bless Me
Bless me,
Dear father,
With wisdom and wonder,
So that I enter my life
With poise and with pride.

Bless me,
Dear mother,
With insight and industry,
So that I enter my years
With confidence and competence.

[Bless me,
Dear children,
With laughter and joy
So that I enter my days
With kindness and grace.]

For your blessings are without match,
Your consecration without equal,
A rejoicing of your heart,
Resounding with love,
Echoing from generations past,
Echoing from the hopes and dreams of our ancestors.

Bless me,
And I will be blessed.
Bless me,
And I will bless others
With my heart and my faith,
My hope and my love.

Let blessings from you,
Pass through me,
To heal the world.

Bless me,
And let us all be blessed.

Postscript: Here are more blessings for people in our lives: “Blessing for a Spouse / Partner” and “Shabbat Blessing for Children Who Have Left Home.” Here are related prayers called “Receiving Blessings,” “Umbrella of Blessings” and “Garden of Blessings.”

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

Photo Source: Jerusalem Pottery

Chayei Sarah 5775: Who Walks So Near

Posted on: November 12th, 2014 by Alden

This is a prayer of gratitude for love, inspired by this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, which includes the meeting and the union of Isaac and Rebekah. “And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted for his mother.” (Gen. 24:67) This is a love that heals. Here’s a link to “Gather Me,” posted for Chayei Sarah 5773.

Who Walks So Near
G-d of mystery,
Who is this
Approaching my life
With radiance,
With beauty,
With joy and thanksgiving?

G-d of majesty,
Who is this
Who walks so near
To my yearning hand,
My tired eyes,
My beating heart?

Creator of redemption,
I give thanks for this woman/man,
This gift,
Whom You’ve directed
With Your secret ways
To enter my life.

Let us build a tent of compassion and love.
Let us build a tent of kindness and service.
Let us build a tent of radiance and hope.
Let the generations gather in the shelter of our lives.
Let celebration resound throughout our days.
Let our lives become a blessing
To each other, our families and our people.

Blessed are You,
Soul of the universe,
Source of blessings
Source of love.

Postscript: Here, again, is a link to “Gather Me,” posted for Chayei Sarah 5773. My other prayers about love include: “Let Love,” “The Cut That Heals,” “To Seek Your Love” and “A Heart of Love.”

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: Public domain images from “The Story of the Bible” by Charles Foster (Illustrations by F.B. Schell and others)

Lech Lecha 5775: Let Go

Posted on: October 29th, 2014 by Alden

Lecha Lecha. Leave it all for an unknown future. G-d’s call: faith in the journey to discover a promised land. Before Avraham Aveinu and Sarah Emeinu left on the journey that defined their lives and ours, they had to let go of their most intimate, known world. I wrote this at Shabbat Shira, an annual weekend of creativity, focused on Jewish music at OSRUI. Here’s a link to “The Journey” posted for Lech Lecha 5773 and “For Service” posted for Lech Lecha 5774.

Let Go
Let it go.
Let it all go.
Let go of the darkness
That ties you to empty ideas.
Let go of the fear
That binds you to false gods.
Let go of the chains
That imprison you in foreign lands.
Follow G-d’s voice
To an unseen horizon.
Follow G-d’s command
To an unknown destination.
Surrender to the truth
That G-d summons you
To a sacred calling,
To Torah,
To mitzvot,
To healing the world.
Surrender to the wisdom
Of letting go,
Letting it all go,
So that glorious mystery
Will open before you,
So that your life will become an adventure
In the palm of G-d’s hand.

Postscript: Shabbat Shira is a labor of love from the education team of OSRUI. It’s a unique and powerful source of creative inspiration and collaboration. “Let Go” is one of five prayer/poems I began and finished over the weekend, along with a sixth performance piece and two more “starts,” one of which I’ve since completed. Here’s a link to Rabbi Larry Karol’s blog describing our collaboration on a new song we wrote together over the weekend, as well as a link to his rendition of our song “Only Now” and the lyrics. Here’s another link to “The Journey” posted for Lech Lecha 5773 and “For Service” posted for Lech Lecha 5774.

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: Imgfav

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

Breisheit: About the Rainbow

Posted on: October 17th, 2014 by Alden

Seeing a rainbow brings an immediate sense of beauty and awe, a sense of the wonder of creation, which is why I’ve selected it for Breisheit. This is from series of prayers in the voice of the one who has a question that doesn’t need an answer. Other prayers in this series include “About the Heavens” and “About Shabbat.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

About the Rainbow
Majestic Sovereign,
Source of beauty,
When did You decide
To create the rainbow?
Was this Your design?
Or perhaps it was a
Fantastic discovery
The moment Your Divine Light
Burst through the firmament of heaven?
Did You know that
Your Glory
Could be refracted
Through a simple lens of water?
Or were awe and wonder created
When You first saw
Your own colors,
When You gasped
At Your own brilliant light
Arching across a deep blue sky?

Postscript: Here are links to “For Creation,” the prayer I posted for Breisheit 5773, and “This is the Place,” the prayer I posted for Breisheit 5774. This prayer first appeared on this site on October 5, 2010.

Photo Credit: ScienceBlogs.com

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.”

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. Connect with To Bend Light on Facebook and on Twitter.

Photo Source: Rebecca Gottesman – Fine Art

[subscribe2]

Bind and Wrap

Posted on: October 2nd, 2013 by tobendlight

Wearing talit and teffilin—Jewish sacred garments—has been described as a metaphor for the love between G-d and Israel. This prayer/poem reflects that metaphor. The first stanza represents Israel’s acceptance of G-d’s love. The second represents the acceptance of G-d’s word. This is my personal meditation to prepare for putting on talit and tefillin. I recently rediscovered joy in the mitzvah of tefillin, a joy I reclaimed while praying at the Kotel in support of the Women of the Wall. I wrote an essay about it, which I posted on my Times of Israel blog.

Addendum, January 11, 2015: I’ve gone from putting on tefillin once a month in solidarity with WOW to praying with tefillin most days of the week. I’ll write an essay about that soon.

Bind and Wrap
We wrap ourselves
In the unreachable
With a sheet of broad cloth.
Fringes tied with turns and knots.
We wrap ourselves
In G-d’s holy shelter.

We bind ourselves
To the unknowable
With each turn of the strap.
Black leather strung from a box.
We bind ourselves
To G-d’s holy word.

How do we hold onto the gifts around us?
How do we see the mysteries near to us?

Bind and wrap.
Bind and wrap.
Throughout our lives,
Bind and wrap.

Postscript: Here’s a link to another prayer using the tallit as a metaphor, called “Gathering: A Dream of Reunion.”

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. Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing.

Photo Source: Judaica 3000

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

Beshalach 5773: Dance Hallelujah

Posted on: January 24th, 2013 by tobendlight

“Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women came out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam called out to them, ‘Sing to the Lord, for G-d is very exalted; horse and rider G-d cast into the sea.’ ” – Exodus 15:20-21

For Jews, dancing is an expression of our love for G-d, our joy in G-d’s love for us and in gratitude for G-d’s gifts. Dancing is in our DNA. It’s what we do. It’s what we have always done. It’s what we will continue to do. This prayer appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Dance Hallelujah
Hallelujah
A dance of wonder,
A dance of joy and thanksgiving.
Arms raised, hands to the sky.
Feet solid, connected to earth.
A step, a bend, a twirl, a leap.
A breath of light,
A stream of color,
Spinning toward radiance and splendor.

Let my feet lead me toward Your holy realm.
Let my legs carry me toward Your divine word.
Let my arms lift praises toward Your marvelous works.
Let my body exclaim the power of Your awesome ways.

Hallelujah
A dance of light and love,
A dance of energy and endurance,
A dance of humility and grace.

G-d of Miriam,
Prophet who danced by the sea,
Teach me the dance of awe and mystery,
Of devotion and ecstasy,
Of passion and praise.
Teach me to dance my Hallelujah.
Teach me to live my Hallelujah.
A dance of radiance,
A dance of splendor,
A dance of peace.

Postscript: Here are links to related prayers: “Sing Hallelujah,” “For the Gift of Song,” “For the Gift of Dance” and “For the Gift of Music.” This prayer first appeared on this site on November 21, 2010.

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 Credit: Anna Kocherovsky Tapestry Studio

Va’eira: Your Name, Meditation at Dusk

Posted on: January 11th, 2013 by tobendlight

“And God spoke unto Moses, and said unto him: ‘I am the LORD, and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as G-d Almighty, but by My name Adonai I made Me not known to them.’” – Exodus 6:2-3

From Torah we learn that we can begin to know and understand G-d through the revelation G-d’s Holy Names. This prayer is about naming G-d according to the blessings we receive. It appears in my book, This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers For a New Day.

Your Name: Meditation at Dusk
G-d of Old,
Your name is Peace.
Your name is Justice.
Your name is Mercy.

G-d of Life,
Your name is Compassion.
Your name is Love.
Your name is Hope.

G-d of Blessing,
Your name is Truth.
Your name is Wisdom.
Your name is Righteousness.

G-d of our fathers,
G-d of our mothers,
Your Name is in my heart
And before my eyes.

Blessed are You Adonai,
Your name shines throughout creation.

Postscript: Here’s a prayer “For Prayer” that evokes G-d’s Name. My other prayers of praise include: “Dance Hallelujah,” “Sing Hallelujah” and “In Praise.” This prayer was first posted on July 14, 2011, as “Your Name: Quick Prayer at Dusk.”

Please check out my Meet the Author video and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers For a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!”

Photo Credit: TheTorah.com

Archive for the ‘Torah’ Category

Toldot 5775: Bless Me

Chayei Sarah 5775: Who Walks So Near

Lech Lecha 5775: Let Go

Noach: Always this Wonder

Breisheit: About the Rainbow

Lech Lecha 5774: For Service

Bind and Wrap

Breisheit: This is the Place

Beshalach 5773: Dance Hallelujah

Va’eira: Your Name, Meditation at Dusk

“Alden has become one of Reform Judaism’s master poet-liturgists…" - Religion News Service, Dec. 23, 2020

“Mesmerizing, spiritual, provocative, and thoughtful, Alden was everything you would want in a guest scholar and teacher.” – Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami, Los Angeles, and Past President, CCAR

**"Alden Solovy has become one of the most revered liturgists of the last decade…" - Jewish Post & Opinion, March 29, 2023**

“Alden left everyone feeling inspired.” – Cantor Jeri Robins, Shabbat Chair, NewCAJE6

Your contribution helps support the creation of new prayers available to all on this site.