Posts Tagged ‘Deuteronomy Prayers’

 

V’Zot HaBracha: Unseen Lands

Posted on: October 23rd, 2016 by Alden

img_0715As the Torah closes, Moses goes up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo. G-d shows him the land. He sees from afar. So much remains unseen for Moses. What will the land yield? How will the people fare? What will come next? How does the land look up close? How does it feel to enter the Promised Land? It’s also an unseen land for the people: a new home that was only a vision and a promise, with a new leader and our first prophet to mourn. So, too, we can enter the future – our own an unseen land – with either fear and mourning, or we can embrace the adventure of what comes next.

Unseen Lands
So many unseen lands
Arise from the glorious earth.
So many unknown peaks
Rise from my beating heart.
This is the journey.
The place where we climb
Above the clouds,
The place where we enter
Our own wisdom and grace,
To see the sunrise,
To watch the sea shimmer
With morning light,
And to meet our holiness,
Our love
And our surrender.

G-d of Old,
Guide me through unseen lands,
The territory beneath my feet,
And the horizons that call my soul.
Let my passage be for righteousness.
Let my passage be for healing.
Let my passage be for wisdom and grace.

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

Postscript: Related prayers include: “Come Walk,” “River,” “Leaving” and “Sweet Cake.” This prayer first appeared here on January 5, 2014, where you can read about its origin.

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Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Ki Tavo: Be the Blessing

Posted on: September 2nd, 2015 by Alden

blessingsThis week’s parasha, Ki Tavo, lists blessings and curses. “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you harken to the voice of Adonai your God.” (Deut. 28:2) Blessings come from accepting God’s law; curses come from rejecting it. “…if you do not harken to the voice of Adonai your God… then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” (Deut. 28:15)  This prayer centers on the idea that we are the tools of both.

Be the Blessing
To be a blessing, to be a curse.
To speak with kindness, to speak in anger.
To act with compassion, to act with cruelty.
With a loving heart or with threatening hands.
To build. To destroy.
To lift up. To tear apart.
Mindful or thoughtless.
Careful or careless.
Openhanded. Closefisted.
Honest. Corrupt.
To strive for holiness, or to abandon God’s word.

To be a blessing, to be a curse.
You gave us this choice, God of generations.
To bless ourselves, to curse ourselves.
To bless each other, to curse each other.

Let blessings pour forth from my life.
Let blessings rain down from heaven.
God’s blessings will fill our days.
God’s blessings will surround us all.

Be the blessing.
Be the blessing.
Be the blessing.

© 2015 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also “An Amazing Life,” “A Moment of Blessing,” “Receiving Blessings,” “Umbrella of Blessings” and “Garden of Blessings.”

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Photo Source: Russham: Faith, Inspiration and Challenging Thoughts

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