Posts Tagged ‘בראשית’

 

Before the Beginning

Posted on: January 12th, 2020 by Alden

A brief meditation inspired by the opening five lines of Torah, Gen. 1:1-5, the first day of creation, and, perhaps, the moments in which G-d alone imagined the world before the beginning. This appears in my new book, This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

Before the Beginning
From eternity,
From the place beyond the highest heavens,
Where stillness is motion
And motion is stillness,
Where nothing and everything meet,
Where time and timelessness are one,
G-d imagined a universe
In which existence
Could only begin
By first
Creating light.

.ויהי-ערב ויהי-בקר, יום אחד
Viyhi erev, vivhi voker, yom echad.
And there was
Evening and there was
Morning.
A first day.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and my two CCAR Press books: This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings 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: Alden Solovy

Breisheit: Evidence of Holiness

Posted on: October 6th, 2015 by Alden

600px-Sextans_B_Hubble_WikiSkyIn a patch of sky seen from the South Pole, researchers say they have glimpsed the beginning of time, a faint microwave glow of the Big Bang. Or maybe, just maybe, the scientists found something they cannot explain. The early stanzas of the prayer include lines adapted from an AP article that appeared in The Times of Israel. The prayer closes with lines from Gensis 1:1-5 as translated in the 1962 JPS volume The Torah: The Five Books of Moses. Quotes from these sources are shown in italics.

Evidence of Holiness

Suppose God
Plays hide and seek
Among the stars

Cosmic microwave radiation —
A faint microwave glow from the Big Bang —
Has been detected from Earth…

Leaving evidence of holiness
So that we might yearn
To glimpse the moment when
The divine desire to create burst forth
Into an explosion of awe and wonder.

These waves are signals of
An extremely rapid
Inflation of the universe…

Consider this, dear sister.
Answer this, dear brother.
What is it that you see
With your heart
When a faint glow
From the beginning of time
Reaches the earth?
What is it to know that
A rhythmic pattern
Of radiance is the
Foundation of everything?

Could it be,
Could it be

With darkness
Over the surface
Of the deep…

That the Painter,
The Composer,
The Sculptor,
The Author of all Being,
Signed this masterwork
Of creation

God said:
“Let there be light…”

Leaving a trace of glory
For us to find,
Using ripples in the
Fabric of the cosmos?

.ויהי-ערב ויהי-בקר, יום אחד
Viyhi erev, viyhi voker, yom echad.
And there was
Evening and there was
Morning.
A first day

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: This is a revised version of the prayer first posted here on March 19, 2014. I welcome reactions to the combination of news text, scripture and poetry. I use the technique of posing questions to the reader in a variety of meditations and prayers, including “For Healing the Spirit,” “Regarding Old Wounds” and “For Sharing Divine Gifts.” All three appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

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

“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