Posts Tagged ‘מקץ’

 

Mikeitz 5775: For Our Brothers

Posted on: December 18th, 2014 by Alden

keep-calm-and-respect-your-brother-2This is a prayer for our brothers. In this week’s Torah reading Mikeitz, Joseph begins the process of testing his brothers to see if they have changed. They appear to have learned some lessons about honor, trustworthiness and family. This prayer is from a series of prayers about rejoicing in family relationships. It appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows. For Mikeitz 5773, I posted a social justice prayer called “Against Hunger.”

 

For Our Brothers
For our brothers,
A chant of honor.

Brother, to have you is a blessing,
A gift of endurance and strength.
Your courage is my shield,
Your humor, my cloak,
Your humility, my guide,
Your vigor, my hope.
Your victories witness your confidence,
Your devotion
And your zeal.

You are my brother by birth
My brother by choice,
My brother through pain
And my brother in thanksgiving.

G-d of brotherly dignity and grace,
Bless our family with gratitude
And our brothers with enthusiasm, vitality and wonder.
May their devotion inspire us to justice and mercy.
Bless our lives with energy and prosperity
So that we become a source of healing in our lives
And in the world.

Blessed are You, G-d of brothers,
Who delights in brotherly love.

© 2010 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also: “For Our Sisters,” “For the Patriarch,” “For the Matriarch” and “For the Family Historian.” Note that this prayer is written to be used by both men and women to honor their brothers. “For Our Brothers” first appeared on this site on Oct. 2, 2010.

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Photo Source: KeepCalm-O-Matic

Mikeitz 5773: Against Hunger

Posted on: December 12th, 2012 by tobendlight

Miketz“And the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said; and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.” – Genesis 41:54

In a world of plenty, we still face hunger in wealthy nations and famine in impoverished lands. This is from my series of prayers for social justice including: “Against Poverty,” “Against Human Trafficking” and “Against Tyranny.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

Against Hunger
G-d of the poor,
G-d of the starving and the malnourished,
The voice of grief echoes across the land.
Dismayed and abandoned in a world of abundance,
Our children,
Our brothers
And our sisters
Struggle to feed their families,
Struggle to put food on the table,
As they watch emptiness and longing
Consume their kin,
As they watch disease and death,
Encircle their homes and their lives.

Source of bounty and plenty,
Rock of compassion and mercy,
You call upon us to stand in the name of justice and healing,
To witness against indifference and neglect,
To solve issues of scarcity and distribution,
To create a world of agricultural success in every land,
And among every people.

Bless those who dedicate their lives to the hungry and the forgotten.
Bless those who take to the cities and the countryside to offer food and sustenance.
Bless those who teach others to feed themselves.
Bless those whose ideas and research will lead to new solutions for ending this plague.
Bless those who plead on behalf of the needy and the poor before the seats of power.
Give them courage and determination.
Give them wisdom and skill.
May the work of their hands never falter
Nor despair deter them from this holy calling.

Bless the hungry with resources.
Release them from want.
Hasten the day of their self-sufficiency and bounty.

Blessed are You, G-d of All Being,
Who summons us to oppose the tyranny of hunger.

© 2011 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Click here for more prayers about social justice. This prayer would also make a lovely addition to your Pesach seder. It was first posted on November 2, 2011, for Global Hunger Shabbat of the American Jewish World Service.

If you use this prayer, please click “like” on this page and subscribe. Please take a moment to post a link to your Facebook page, your blog or mention it in a tweet. Thanks. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!”

Photo Credit: Chabad World.

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