Tag Archive for "blessing" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘blessing’

Life as a Ceremony

Posted on: June 1st, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer is about living a life of wonder, reverence and awe. To live life as a cermony takes commitment and focus, a unique spiritual endurance. The prayer comes from a series of prayers that i) begin by summoning introspection as the doorway to ii) the vision of life as a glorious gift driving toward iii) a commitment to service to others and to G-d. The series includes: “Life as a Symphony,” “Life as a Garden” and “Life as a Banquet.” All of these prayers appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. To listen as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The entire text follows.

Life as a Ceremony
G-d of the past,
Source of the present,
Creator of the future,
Divine light of compassion and hope,
My time is fleeting.
My days are numbered.
The course of my life unknown.
Where I am and where I’ll be a mystery.

Heavenly hand of justice and mercy,
Keeper of secret truths,
You who give purpose and meaning to all things,
Grant me the grace and vision to live my life as a ceremony,
As a river of sacred moments that command my care,
That I honor with love and respect.
Give me the wisdom to see the spark,
The splendor and the spirit around me
And to choose the path of enthusiasm, energy, gentleness and peace.

You who know all things,
Guide me with Your wisdom,
Teach me Your laws,
Show me Your ways,
So that I live a life of joy and holiness,
Treating everyone and everything with dignity and honor,
In service to Your creation.

Blessed are You, G-d of all,
Source of life and love, abundance and peace.

Postscript: I use this prayer for the 13th day of the Omer. This series also includes: “Life as a Symphony,” “Life as a Garden” and “Life as a Banquet.” All of these prayers will appear in my forthcoming book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Please check out my ELItalk “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: I See Japan…From L.A.

For Sharing Divine Gifts

Posted on: May 30th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is the third in a series of prayers that call on us to transform suffering into beauty. The two others are: “Regarding Old Wounds” and “For Healing the Spirit.” They each: i) begin with a prophetic tone calling for self refection; ii) move to personal affirmation; iii) offer the core prayer and iv) close with a “chatimah” or “seal” to reinforce the theme, the classic ending of a Jewish prayer. This prayer appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

For Sharing Divine Gifts
Daughter of man,
Son of woman,
People of divine light:
What do you do with your gifts?
How do you use your radiance
And your might?
Your intellect and your passion?
Do you leave them buried within,
Untouched and unused?
Do you pursue justice and healing,
Charity and consolation?
Men of honor and purpose,
Women of integrity and strength:
Cast off your idle ways.
Banish your selfish pursuits.
Exile your vain hopes.
There is joy in every kindness,
Blessing and salvation in every gift of the heart.

Come you children of G-d,
You witnesses of wonder and awe,
There are miracles inside you,
Holy gifts of communion and grace
That yearn to burst forth in celebration of G-d’s holy name.
Answer the call to Divine service.
Then, your lives will become a blessing,
A well a love,
A source of splendor,
Abundant in joy and courage.

Blessed are You, Source of miraculous gifts,
You rejoice in deeds of the heart.

Postscript: Although all three of the prayers in this series can be said at any time of the year, they have particular relevance during the Hebrew month of Elul. I’ve also selected this prayer for use during week seven of Counting the Omer.

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: About.com Go Hawaii

Sarah Rivkah: A Challah Baking Story

Posted on: May 27th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is a sweet little story about the joy of baking challah and the ways we honor, love and add beauty to Shabbat. Much like the story Yaakov Shraga, it captures a moment in which one person experiences holiness in daily life. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The story follows.

Sarah Rivkah
Of all the things Sarah Rivkah does to praise her Maker’s Name, baking challah for Shabbat is her favorite. On Friday mornings she gets up early, washes her hands in cold water, and thanks
G-d for granting her another day. She stokes the stove and wonders if, like her, the Sabbath Queen gets up early to prepare for Shabbat. Somehow, Sarah’s largest bowl is already in her hands, as if someone handed it to her. The flour and sugar and salt are already on the table, the eggs beaten, the yeast bubbling.

Sarah Rivkah kneads the dough, counting as she pushes the warm ball against the floured kitchen table. One, two three… It almost seems to knead itself, as if she had an extra pair of hands. Thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven… She hears a voice, like a whisper, counting with her. Fifty-nine, sixty, sixty-one… A warm wind, subtle as a breath, blows past her neck. And Sarah Rivkah, sensing the joy of Shabbat, begins to hum, “Shalom aleichem malachei ha-shalom. Bring peace to us, ye angels of peace.” Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine…

When the dough is ready, she puts it in a bowl in a warm spot near the oven to rise. She wipes the table and washes the dirty utensils. The dough has risen beyond the recipe, beyond her expectations. She divides the ball in half, and the halves in half. And from each of the lumps she makes three long strips of dough. In hardly a blink, there are four perfectly braided challot back in the warm spot to rise again. She glides through the kitchen on wings. Something has removed her weight, removed her burdens. Sarah Rivkah’s table is set, the warm, sweet smell of baking bread filling her home. She takes two challot from her oven—she doesn’t remember putting them in—and she replaces them with two more. When the last two are golden brown, Sarah takes them from the oven. She knows that they are done, but she taps them each once just to hear their hollow sound. And Sarah Rivkah, tired and happy, sits down in a wooden chair to smell the scent a little longer, to gaze at her candle sticks and kiddush cups, and to wonder, once more, if the Sabbath Queen gets up early to prepare for Shabbat.

Postscript: Click the link to read more short, short stories of holiness and love of G-d.

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: WikiMedia Commons

Doubt

Posted on: May 22nd, 2010 by tobendlight

A friend asked me to write a prayer about doubt. I was stumped until, one morning after prayer and meditation, the notion of doubt as a Divine gift broke through. The result is a set of prayers about difficult emotions, including “Shame,” “Fear” and “Anger.” To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The entire text follows.

Doubt
G-d of ancient secrets,
G-d of unknown futures,
I’ve been on the mountain
And in the valley.
I’ve swum calm waters
And was tossed by a raging sea.
I’ve been a man / woman of perfect faith
And consumed by impenetrable doubt.
I live between moments of clarity and hours of confusion,
Between daylight and twilight.
I live between the heights and the depths,
Between the calm and the storm,
Between hesitation and trust.

Doubt is a gift.
Doubt is a journey.
Doubt is a blessing.

Holy One,
Creator of mysteries beyond my grasp,
Help me to see my doubts as teachers and guides
Leading me back to You,
Your people,
And Your word.
Let my doubt be the gateway to faith,
Just as confusion is the path to understanding,
As night is the doorway to sunlight.

Blessed are You, Redeemer of the lost,
Who created doubt so that we might discover faith.

Postscript: This is part of a series of prayers about difficult emotions, including “Fear,” “Shame” and “Anger.”

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.

Yaakov Shraga: A Short, Short Story

Posted on: May 20th, 2010 by tobendlight

Yaakov Shraga dances his prayer, his faith and his love of Hashem.

I wrote this in a hotel room one morning while on business travel, watching myself making dancing movements in a mirror so that the description would match the motion. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Yaakov Shraga
Each day, Yaakov Shraga goes to dance in the woods in secret. He stands perfectly still, his arms at his sides. He listens to the birds chirp and the wind rustle the trees. He watches the rays of morning light filter through the branches and leaves. And as he takes a deep breath of cool, fresh air, Yaakov slowly lifts his arms from the wrists. When his wrists reach his shoulders he begins to sway. First left, then right, left, then right, his arms gently flowing back and forth.

Yaakov begins a nigun. As he stretches his fingers toward heaven, his hands and wrists, elbows and shoulders lilt with the tune. And his feet, compelled by the joy of the song and the rhythm of the dance and the glory of creation, carry Yaakov step-step left then step-step right. He twirls and sways, his body becoming a prayer. And the birds listen. And the wind cools him. And the morning light bends toward Yaakov Shraga to see. He dances and sings until he falls asleep. In his dream, Yaakov continues to dance and sing and spin and pray with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might.

Each day Yaakov Shraga the Cripple goes to dance in the woods in his mind, where only G-d can see him.

Postscript: My dad’s Yiddish name was Yaakov Shraga, z”l. He lived with chronic pain and crippling rheumatoid arthritis first diagnosed when he was a boy. The story came, in part, from witnessing the power of his mind over pain. I’ve struggled with calling this character “the Cripple;” it flies in the face of social conscience — and my own — against using negative terms to describe the handicapped. As a writer, however, it’s clear that this usage drives the story’s impact. Here’s a link to my other short, short stories.

Photo credit: Save Our Woods

For Joy

Posted on: May 16th, 2010 by tobendlight

How do we find joy in the face of crushing loss…or even the minor mishaps of daily living? Perhaps the secret is to ask G-d for help. Or, perhaps, in spite of our losses, we make the nearly impossible effort to set aside our troubles anyway, to listen for the beauty that surrounds us and then by attempting to be of service to others. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

For Joy
Listen with your eyes
And hear with your heart:
In every grief, there is blessing…
In every joy, there is hope…
In every love, thanksgiving…
In every thought, wisdom…
In every breath, renewal…
In every moment, a choice,
To stay bent in sorrow,
Or to lift ourselves in songs of praise
To G-d Most High.
To dance with Miriam.
To dream with Jacob.
To laugh with Sarah.
To greet angels with Abraham.
To argue with heaven on behalf of earth.

G-d of the seen and unseen,
Creator of light and darkness
Author of justice and mercy,
Give us the courage and strength to choose a life of service,
Guided by Your loving hand.
A life of song and dance,
Gentleness and peace,
Honor and grace,
Kindness and understanding.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, You love joy and service.
.בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֱלֹקֵינוּ, אוֹהֵב שִׂמְחָה וְשָׂמֵחַ בְּתִקּוּן הָעוֹלָם
Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu, oheiv simchah v’samei’ach b’tikun ha’olam.

Postscript: Here’s a related prayer called “Let Joy.”

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

Photo Credit: Bigmouthery

For the Gift of Music

Posted on: May 12th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is another in my series of creativity prayers, a short and sweet one about music that has a different focus than my prayer “For the Gift of Song.” That post explains the common framework for these prayers. To listen while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The entire follows.

For the Gift of Music
G-d, we give thanks for the gift of music,
For horn and flute,
For strings and drums,
For crescendo and staccato,
For the gift that gives our spirits a divine voice.
Hear this prayer for those who write music, arranging sound, seeking beauty.
Hear this prayer for those who play music, creating sound, releasing beauty.
Make their music Your vessel.
Let heaven pour joy and sorrow, love and loss through them
So that they overflow with Your most secret prayers for Your people,
Drawing others to Your blessings.
So that when we hear their music
Our souls turn back to You for shelter.
Together, we offer our voices back to heaven,
And rejoice.

Postscript: Be sure to check out the other prayers in this series: “For the Gift of Song,” “For the Gift of Words,” “For the Gift of Dance,” “For the Gift of Art,” “For the Gift of Laughter,” “For the Gift of Torah Scholarship” and “For the Joy of Learning.”

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: Keep Calm and Teach English

For the Gift of Torah Scholarship

Posted on: May 5th, 2010 by tobendlight

Loving Torah is a way of life. This prayer is part of a series of prayers thanking G-d for various forms of artistry: song, dance, art. Why? Study of sacred text is an artistic endeavor, combining skill and knowledge with interpretation and insight. Here are more prayers and stories for use on Shavuot. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

For the Gift of Torah Scholarship
G-d, we give thanks for the gift of scholarship,
For wisdom, insight and understanding,
For the gift that unlocks treasures hidden in Your Holy Word.
You gave us Torah at Sinai
And righteous men and women to be Your messengers,
Revealing divine secrets stage-by-stage.
Hear this prayer for those who study Talmud and Torah,
Mishna and Gemara,
Zohar, Musar and Tanya,
The words of G-d to Israel,
The lessons of scholars of every generation.
Make their thoughts Your vessel.
Let heaven pour Your voice into them
So that they overflow with sacred fire
Drawing others to Your word.
So that when we hear Your mysteries,
Our souls turn back to You in joyous reunion.
Together, we offer the light back to heaven,
And rejoice.

Postscript: Be sure to check out the other prayers in this series: “For the Gift of Song,” “For the Gift of Words,” “For the Gift of Dance,” “For the Gift of Art,” “For the Gift of Music,” “For the Gift of Laughter” and “For the Joy of Learning.”

Photo Source: Judea Reform Congregation

For the Gift of Dance

Posted on: April 28th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is another in a series of prayers celebrating the gifts of creativity and honoring artistic expression, this one focused on dance. The introduction to “For the Gift of Song”describes the common framework that I’ve used in this series. To listen as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

For the Gift of Dance
G-d, we give thanks for the gift of dance,
For the gift of rhythm and movement,
For the gift of power, awe, wonder and thanksgiving
Expressed through our bodies
In celebration of Your Divine creation.
Hear this prayer for those who dance for love and healing,
For prayer and repentance,
Seeking wholeness and light.
Make their bodies your vessel.
Let heaven pour grace and beauty through them
So that they overflow with Your spirit,
Drawing others to Your mysteries.
So that when we see this dance
Our souls turn back to You in celebration.
Together, we offer our spirits back to heaven,
And rejoice.

Postscript: Be sure to check out the other prayers in this series: “For the Gift of Song,” “For the Gift of Words,” “For the Gift of Art,” “For the Gift of Music,” “For the Gift of Laughter,” “For the Gift of Torah Scholarship” and “For the Joy of Learning.”

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.

On Making a Mistake

Posted on: April 25th, 2010 by tobendlight

Like the Jewish prayers said upon eating bread or lighting Sabbath candles, this is to be said upon making a mistake. This isn’t just about forgiveness. It’s about finding the holiness, the healing and the beauty in the moments after making a mistake. It’s about elevating a mistake into an act of wisdom, charity and love. This prayer can be used as a meditation during the Hebrew month of Elul. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

On Making a Mistake
G-d of realms above and realms below,
Of justice and mercy,
Grant me the understanding that my mistakes
Are teachers and guides,
Pointing me in the direction of my best self,
Leading me toward a path of righteousness,
A path of charity,
A path of love.

Redeemer of Israel,
Bless my mistakes with the power to teach.
Remove the potential for harm.
Give me the strength and wisdom to amend my ways,
To seek forgiveness and live by my ideals
Guided by Your word.

Blessed are You, who reveals the path of righteousness.

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: Daily Positive Quotes

Posts Tagged ‘blessing’

Life as a Ceremony

For Sharing Divine Gifts

Sarah Rivkah: A Challah Baking Story

Doubt

Yaakov Shraga: A Short, Short Story

For Joy

For the Gift of Music

For the Gift of Torah Scholarship

For the Gift of Dance

On Making a Mistake

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