Tag Archive for "faith" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘faith’

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.

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 credit: Save Our Woods

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

Regarding Old Wounds

Posted on: April 18th, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer is about the spiritual path, recognizing that it requires a sense of purpose and joy, of love and humility. Why? Because healing can be painful. Much like surgery, it’s often necessary for me to receive my wounds in order to grow. Then I have a profound choice, to live wounded or to let these wounds heal and live from a place of wonder and awe. I use this prayer in week four of Counting the Omer, chesed b’netzach.

Regarding Old Wounds
Daughter of man,
Son of woman,
Children of compassion and sacred secrets:
Your wounds are deep,
Your losses crushing,
Knife on flesh,
Hammer on bone,
Burning your heart and searing your eyes.
Why do you invite them back
To chastise your days
And torture your nights?
Why do you love these old wounds,
Holding them so dear?

Son of celebration,
Daughter of ecstasy:
Cast off your doubts,
Banish your fears,
Exile the pain of time beyond your reach.
There is beauty in your past,
Wonder in your future,
And holiness in each new moment of life.

Come you children of G-d,
You witnesses of suffering and grace,
Lift your heads from your hands,
Raise your voices in song,
Lift your lives in service,
And rekindle the light of compassion and love.
Then, your lives will become a blessing,
A well of hope,
A river of consolation,
A fountain of peace.

Blessed are You, G-d of forgiveness,
You renew our lives with purpose.

Postscript: This piece was part of a collaboration with Lin Batsheva Kahn of the Tikvah Company of Artists and Desiree Miller of the Chicago Civic Orchestra called “Three Prayers,” using my words, original choreography and dance by Lin and original cello music by Desiree. “Three Prayers” premiered in Jerusalem in June 2014 as part of an evening of dance and poetry by Miriam Engel’s Angela Dance Company. This prayer appears 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 Credit: Neshama נשמה Nicole Raisin Stern

Tears of Crystal, Tears of Broken Glass

Posted on: April 7th, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer is about the power of tears, both to hurt and to heal, and is appropriate for use commemorating Kristallnacht, Yom HaShoah and Tisha b’Av. Click here for a six-prayer Yom HaShoah liturgy.

To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Tears of Crystal, Tears of Broken Glass
My tears are crystal and broken glass.
They sparkle, they cut.
They heal, they wound.
They are daybreak and midnight,
Hymn and dirge,
Joyous celebration and lonely mourning.
My tears catch Your Divine Light,
Prisms casting colors across my days
And on my hands.
I pray to hold them gently,
With dignity,
With honor.

I am one of Your children,
One of those You love,
Comforted knowing that I, too,
Am one for whom You cry
Tears of crystal,
Tears of broken glass.

Postscript: Please see the related prayer, “After the Horror.”

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: Highland Park Conservative Temple

To Hear Your Voice

Posted on: April 1st, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer starts with yearning hear G-d’s message, the desire to understand G-d’s will and the humility to seek G-d’s counsel. It ends with the affirmation that G-d’s voice is available to all who listen. This prayer is from a series of prayers that includes: “To Seek Your Glory” and “To Know Your Word.” I use this prayer on the 31st day of the counting of the Omer, Compassion in Humility. This prayer poem appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

To Hear Your Voice
Divine Voice of reason and love,
Of compassion and understanding:
Speak gently and clearly so that I may know Your will.
Give me the patience to listen and the desire to seek
Your counsel and instruction.
Grant me the understanding to hear Your teachings in every voice,
From all people,
In every moment of need.
Open my heart to others,
To their suffering,
To their call for help.
Open my heart to love and laughter,
Song and dance,
Beauty and grace,
So that I remember to celebrate Your gifts day by day.

Divine Creator of spirit and light,
Teach me to hold my joys and sorrows gently in my hands
And to honor them both.
Teach me to be present to all that I see and all that I feel,
In truth, without fear.
Teach me to be present for others,
In humble service.

Blessed are You,
Teacher and Guide,
You make Your wisdom known to those who ask
And those who listen, willingly and patiently,
To the voices of Your creation.

Blessed are You, Your Voice resounds throughout creation.

Postscript: Here are three related prayers: “Prayers of My Heart,” “Whispered Prayer” and “Prayer for You, Prayer for Me.” Please check out my book, This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings.

Photo Credit: Nemoy Fine Arts

For Bereaved Children

Posted on: March 25th, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer is dear to me. I wrote it on behalf of my daughters. It’s a father’s yearning for his children, my yearning for my daughters as I witness them struggling to cope with the loss of their mother. My wife Ami z”l died after a tragic fall. As a prayer for healing, it echos the themes in the Mourner’s Kaddish, recalling G-d’s majesty and holiness. This prayer appears in my book, Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

For Bereaved Children
Father of Jacob,
Mother of Rachel,
Source of Awe and Wonder,
Cradle and Shelter,
Our children are lost in tears,
Crushed in sorrow,
Erased in loneliness,
Bent and broken,
Their hopes, dust…
Their joys, cinders…
Their dreams, shadows.

You who comfort Zion and Israel,
Comfort our children in this moment of grievous loss,
And show them the path from darkness to light.
Renew their hope,
Rekindle their joy,
Spark their dreams,
So that they, too, will know Your healing Power,
Your salvation and grace,
Your loving kindness.
Hold them,
Lift them,
Carry them,
Until, refreshed by Your spirit,
They walk upright once again,
Toward holiness and love,
With charity and thanksgiving,
Humility and strength,
In awe and righteousness,
To sing Your praise.

Postscript: Here are links to two mourner’s prayers: “After Shiva” and “For the Bereaved.” Please consider purchasing Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe.

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: Alden Solovy

For Healing the Spirit

Posted on: March 22nd, 2010 by tobendlight

This prayer opens by summoning the prophetic voice, asking that we examine our lives, that we examine why we waste our days in grief and despair. Then the prayer turns to the power we have to make our lives holy, asking us to walk toward holiness. This is one of a set of three related prayers, including “Regarding Old Wounds” and “For Sharing Divine Gifts.” All three appear in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. To listen while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

For Healing the Spirit
Daughter of man,
Son of woman,
Children of love and divine union:
Why do you stay buried in your losses,
Crushed by your burdens,
Drowned by your fears?
Why do you look down to the dust
When the morning sky
Bursts with daybreak?
When the night
Shimmers with starlight?
Why do you shuffle your feet
When the earth calls out
To feel your dance?

Daughter of majestic gifts,
Son of glorious secrets:
Cast off your sorrows.
Banish your pain.
Exile your grief.
There is joy in every breath,
Mystery in every sky.

Come you children of G-d,
You witnesses of life and loss:
Walk with dignity toward holiness
And with grace toward healing.
Walk with confidence into each moment
And with passion into each new day.
Then your lives will become a blessing,
A divine teacher,
An instrument of heaven,
A messenger of hope.

Blessed are You, Creator of life,
You heal the broken spirit with love.

Hello! New here? Want more? Subscribe here to receive my newest prayers by email.

Postscript: Although all three of the prayers in this series have particular relevance during the Hebrew month of Elul. I’ve selected this prayer for using during week four of Counting the Omer. Here are more prayers for healing: “For a Critically-Ill Child,” “For Surgery” and “Upon Recovery from Surgery.”

Photo Credit: Neshama Life

Posts Tagged ‘faith’

Yaakov Shraga: A Short, Short Story

On Making a Mistake

Regarding Old Wounds

Tears of Crystal, Tears of Broken Glass

To Hear Your Voice

For Bereaved Children

For Healing the Spirit

“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

Your contribution helps support the creation of new prayers available to all on this site.