Posts Tagged ‘10 Days of Return’

 

These Vows – A Covid Kol Nidre

Posted on: September 27th, 2020 by Alden

Finished in the hours before Yom Kippur, 5781…
And a year has come and gone…
Now, Yom Kippur 5782…

These Vows – A Covid Kol Nidre
You have been summoned
To wander,
In search of God,
In a Yom Kippur wilderness
Of heartbreak and isolation,
Of fire and ash,
Of lurking plague,
Of fears unknown,
Of fears too real,
Where the shofar blast
Is a faint echo,
And the still small voice
Waits in stillness.

This vow, this oath,
This pledge, this duty,
This commitment, this honor,
To love and seek G-d,
To love and support our people,
We will never
Rescind or revoke,
Revise or renege,
Abandon or discard,
Not last year,
Not this year,
Not next year,
Never.

אוֹר זרע לצדיק, ולישרי-לב שמחה.
Or zarua latzadik. ul’yishrei leiv simchah.
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

Return to us, Holy One,
As we return to You.
How I wish to sing in the key of Lamentations.
How I wish to demand an accounting from You.
Without an answer,
We will still sing tonight in the key of El Rachum,
The key of the God of Mercy,
When we defiantly declare…

ברוך אתה ה’ אלקינו מלך העולם
שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה.
Baruch ata adonai elohenu melech ha olam,
shehecheyanu, v’kiyimanu, v’higiyanu laz’man hazeh.
Blessed are You Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe
Who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this day.

© 2020 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

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Postscript: My other prayers for Yom Kippur can be found here.

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: Wikipedia

Wildly Unimaginable Blessings: A Prayer for 5781

Posted on: September 17th, 2020 by Alden

This new Rosh Hashanah prayer — written this morning — is a response to Covid-19. Since March, since the reality of pandemic and plague struck our worlds, wildly unimaginable shifts have occurred in the way we live and, perhaps, the way we see life. One lesson of these unimaginable losses and changes is the possibility that there might also be wildly unimaginable blessings. The idea for this prayer came as I signed an email to musician Josh Nelson. I concluded: “For a year of wildly unimaginable blessings. Your friend, Alden.” So the idea for this prayer was born. This prayer, followed by my 5780 prayer “Pervasive Peace,” would make a lovely kavanah for the New Year.

Wildly Unimaginable Blessings
Let us dream
Wildly unimaginable blessings…
Blessings so unexpected,
Blessings so beyond our hopes for this world,
Blessings so unbelievable in this era,
That their very existence
Uplifts our vision of creation,
Our relationships to each other,
And our yearning for life itself.

Let us dream
Wildly unimaginable blessings…
A complete healing of mind, body, and spirit,
A complete healing for all,
The end of suffering and strife,
The end of plague and disease,
When kindness flows from the river of love,
When goodness flows from the river of grace,
Awakened in the spirit of all beings,
When G-d’s light,
Radiating holiness,
Is seen by everyone.

Let us pray —
With all our hearts —
For wildly unimaginable blessings,
So that G-d will hear the call
To open the gates of the Garden,
Seeing that we haven’t waited,
That we’ve already begun to repair the world,
In testimony to our faith in life,
Our faith in each other,
And our faith in the Holy One,
Blessed be G-d’s Name.

© 2020 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com.

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: WikiMedia Commons

So My Soul May Sing

Posted on: September 15th, 2018 by Alden

Repentance frees the soul. Then, we can sing to G-d with complete joy. This music debuted at S’lichot Services at Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, in 2017 and was released this week as a music video for this year’s Yamim Nora’im. The Hebrew is from Psalm 30. “So that my soul may sing hymns to you endlessly, Adonai my God, I will thank you forever (Psalm 30:13).” The video features the composers, Cantor Erin Frankel and AJ Luca.

So My Soul May Sing
Lyrics: Alden Solovy
Music: Cantor Erin Frankel, AJ Luca

What we hope
What we dream,
Our dearest prayers,
Can’t be broken.

What we deny,
What we discard,
Our deepest fears,
Can’t be spoken.

But our love,
And our joy,
With our hearts,
Can be woken…

To You, to You, to You.

,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
.יהוה אֱלֹהַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ

L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
Adonai Elohai L’o-lam O-de-ka.

Let Your love,
And Your joy,
From Your heart,
Be my emotion

So my soul
And my voice
Will rise up
To be spoken.

To You, to You, to You.

,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
.יהוה אֱלֹהַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ

L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
Adonai Elohai L’o-lam O-de-ka.

So the weight
Of these wrongs
That I’ve done
Won’t define me.

While the pain
Of these sins
That I recall
Won’t confine me.

,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
,לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם
.יהוה אֱלֹהַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ

L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
L’ma’an y’za-mer-cha cha-vod v’lo yi-dom
Adonai Elohai L’o-lam O-de-ka.

What we hope,
What we dream,
Our dearest prayers,
Can’t be broken.

Lyrics © 2017 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.
Music © 2017 Erin Frankel and AJ Luca. All rights reserved.

Postscript: With my deep love and affection for Erin and AJ. In friendship with the clergy team at Congregation Rodeph Shalom — Erin, Rabbi Jill Maderer and Rabbi Eli Freedman — and gratitude for their ongoing support of my work. In appreciation of the Lee Stanley Music Fund for making the music and the video possible.

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: Congregation Rodeph Shalom

“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