Tag Archive for "hope" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

Two Prayers to End 2020 and Start 2021

Posted on: December 24th, 2020 by Alden

This is a two-prayer liturgy to end 2020 and start 2021, combining my Rosh Hashanah 5780 prayer “Pervasive Peace” with my Rosh Hashanah 5781 prayer “Wildly Unimaginable Blessings.” They’re big, audacious prayers that we’ve earned after a year of global pandemic.

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.

Pervasive Peace
May it be Your will, G-d of our fathers and mothers,
That the year ahead brings a pervasive and complete peace
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
Beyond all the dreams of humanity.

,יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ, אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵֽינוּ
שֶׁהַשָּׁנָה הַבָּאָה תָּבִיא שָׁלוֹם מֻחְלָט וְשָׁלֵם
,עַל כָּל־יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל
.מֵעֵֽבֶר לְכָל־חֲלֹמוֹת־הָאֱנוֹשׁוּת

Y’hi ratzon mil’fanecha, Elohei avoteinu v’imoteinu,
Shehashanah haba-ah tavi shalom muchlat v’shaleim
Al kol yosh’vei teiveil,
Mei-ever l’chol chalomot ha-enoshut.

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Postscript: Thanks to Rabbi Gordon Fuller for his suggestion that I offer a prayer for the end of 2020 and the start of 2021.

You’re invited to the Zoom book launch of This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer. Register to attend here.

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Photo Source: European Southern Observatory

Meditation for the End of Hanukkah

Posted on: December 17th, 2020 by Alden

After the eight days — after the Eternal Lamp stayed alight for eight days on one day of oil — the rededicated Temple was back in service to the Israelite nation. The miracle of the oil led to a renewed ability to serve G-d. For today, that echo make Hanukkah a call to rededicate of our lives to serving the Most High. See also “The Season of Dedication.” The idea for a post-Hanukkah meditation came from my friend Cantor Evan Kent.

Meditation for the End of Hanukkah
The miracle didn’t end
After eight days.
The miracle was about hearts,
The miracle was about hands,
Rededicated to the service
Of G-d and humanity,
Rededicated to Torah and mitzvot,
Rededicated to the Soul of the Universe.

The miracle didn’t end
After eight days of consecrated oil ran out,
Eight days of consecrated oil
Burning radiant in holy testimony
To G-d’s saving power.
The miracles of love and hope
Still shine luminous
In your heart.

We are surrounded by light.
We are sources of light.
We are mirrors of G-d’s light.

And so, we are called to serve the Most High,
With prayer and song,
With chesed and g’milut chasadim,
With tikkun and tikkun olam,
With ahava and ahavat chinam.
The miracle is ours now.
We will carry it into the world.
We will be the light itself.
The light of justice,
The light of peace.

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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: My Jewish Learning

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.

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

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.

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Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Assembly

Posted on: September 3rd, 2020 by Alden

This prayer is the result of spending nearly two months studying the High Holidays machzor in preparation for teaching my “Mysteries of the Machzor” series. I’ve added references to the texts quoted from Leviticus, Numbers, and Jeremiah. I didn’t select the obvious source text for the second stanza, Exodus 19:6, because the verse from Leviticus adds another layer of meaning.

Assembly
When the children of Israel
Assemble before You
In holy convocation,
We assert the covenant,
The promises You made
To our ancestors.
We claim the right
To forgiveness.
.וַיֹּאמֶר ה’, סָלַחְתִּי כִּדְבָרֶךָ
Vayomer Adonai, selachti kidvarecha.
And Adonai said, ‘I forgive, as you have asked.’ (Num. 14:20)

When the children of Israel
Assemble before each other
In holy convocation,
We assert our kinship,
The solidarity we have
With our heritage.
We claim the responsibility
To be a nation of priests.
.וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ
V’amarta aleihem, kedoshim tihyu.
Say to them, you shall be holy. (Lev. 19:2)

When God’s love
And God’s mercy
Join our holy convocation,
In breaths,
In whispers
And in blasts of the shofar,
Holiness and forgiveness,
Repentance and love,
Become One.

:’כִּי כֹה אָמַר ה
.וִהְיִיתֶם לִי לְעָם, וְאָנֹכִי אֶהְיֶה לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים
Ki koh amar Adonnai:
V’hayitem li l’am, v’Anochi Ehyeh lechem laylohim.
For Adonai says:
And you shall be My people, and I will be your God. (Jer. 30:12,22)

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Authentic Confession: Meditation on the Vidui

Posted on: July 19th, 2020 by Alden

In preparation for the Yamim Noraim, I’ll lead a free workshop called “Authentic Confessions: Selichot that Matter,” presented by the soon to be launched ‘High Holidays at Home’ from Haggadot.com. Register here for the August 26 webinar. We’ll look at traditional and new texts of the Vidui, the confessional, and we’ll ask: What is an authentic confession? And what are the confessions that matter? Here’s one answer:

Meditation on the Vidui
For the sins I’ve committed against myself,
And for the sins I’ve committed against others,
I offer a new heart.

For the sins I’ve committed against my family,
And for the sins I’ve committed against my friends,
I offer new understanding.

For the sins I’ve committed against children,
And for the sins I’ve committed against adults,
I offer new restraint.

For the sins I’ve committed against neighbors,
And for the sins I’ve committed against strangers,
I offer new insight.

For the sins I’ve committed against the powerful,
And for the sins I’ve committed against the weak,
I offer new wisdom.

For the sins I’ve committed against nations,
And for the sins I’ve committed against peoples,
I offer a new voice.

G-d of generations,
Source of forgiveness and grace,
For the sins that I remember,
And for the sins that I’ve forgotten,
I offer myself, in humble service,
To You, Your Word and Your Holy Name.

Postscript: This was originally published on Aug. 31, 2011. Click here for my full list of prayers for the Yamim Noraim. Here’s a focused list of prayers for Elul, another one of prayers for Rosh Hashana, a list of prayers for Yom Kippur and one more for Sukkot. And here’s a link to yizkor and memorial prayers.

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Photo Source: Va-yehi Or

We Will Be Heard: Psalm of Protest 18

Posted on: June 25th, 2020 by Alden

This Psalm of Protest was first posted here as part of my three-prayer Liturgy for Inauguration Day 2017. With a few new lines and several other changes, it’s now Psalm of Protest 18. It can be read with “Strangled by Police: Psalm of Protest 17.”

We Will Be Heard: Psalm of Protest 18
Today,
I am an immigrant,
A drag queen,
A rape survivor,
An African Methodist Church set on fire,
A mosque pelted with rocks,
A synagogue painted with hate.
I am disabled,
A woman paid half of a salary,
A Black man strangled by police.
I am Asian, Latino, Hispanic,
Native American and Multi-Racial.

Yes,
We pray for wisdom and grace
To land like a miracle
On the President,
Transforming his rhetoric of hostility and violence
Into deeds of compassion and love.
But we will not stand silent in shock and fear
Waiting idly as our rights are trampled in public
And repealed in law.

We will count the lies and the slanders.
We will protest in the streets and gather in the polling places.
We haven’t forgotten the lynchings,
The darkness of the closet,
The death by back-alley abortion.

Today,
I am Roe v. Wade,
Obergefell v. Hodges,
Brown v. Board of Education,
The child of slaves,
The child of illegals,
The child of gay parents,
The child of a vision for freedom
And the yearning for inclusion
Neglected and rejected by those in power.

Today I am an American,
A citizen of the United States,
A child of democracy,
A patriot,
Dedicated to justice,
Dedicated to liberty,
Dedicated to action,
Demanding to be heard.

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Postscript: Here’s a link to all of my Psalms of Protest.

Photo Source: Buffalo News

A Prayer for Dad

Posted on: June 17th, 2020 by Alden

Here’s a prayer for Father’s Day, celebrating Dad’s passion for family and his role as a source of wisdom, inspiration and love. The photo is me and my father Jack z”l in Key West, where I became a father for the first time. Happy Father’s day to dads and children everywhere.

A Prayer for Dad
For our father,
A song of dignity and honor.

Guardian of mitzvot,
Keeper of truths,
Hand of protection and peace,
We are blessed with your humor and compassion,
Your zest for life
And your zeal for family.
You remind us to open our lives to G-d’s majesty and mystery
G-d’s justice and mercy.
You remind us to seek radiance and splendor,
Awe for creation and compassion for each other,
And choose joy over grief,
Laughter over tears.

G-d of fatherly patience and strength,
Bless our family with love
And our father with vision, endurance and hope.
May his devotion inspire us to righteousness and charity,
Guided by Torah.
Bless our lives with abundance
And our days with vigor,
So that we bring majesty and mystery to our lives
And into the world.

Blessed are You, G-d of our fathers,
Who provides just and righteous men
In every generation.

Postscript: I wrote this prayer more than a decade ago as “For the Patriarch,” and it appears in my book Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing with that title. Our times, sensitivity, and the meanings associated with the term “the patriarchy” call out for the title change, as well as two changes in the text. Thanks to Hila Ratzabi and Adva Chattler of Ritualwell for suggesting the revisions.

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Photo Source: Alden Solovy

One-by-One: A Prayer as the COVID Death Toll Mounts

Posted on: May 27th, 2020 by Alden

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is approaching 100,000, as the world-wide death toll surpasses 350,000. This prayer was written at the request of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in an effort to remember and mourn those lost hearts and souls as the U.S. marks this sad milestone.

ADDENDUM: As of February 17, 2021, the U.S. death toll surpassed 500,000 and total deaths world-wide are nearing 2.5 million people.

One-by-One: A Prayer as the COVID Death Toll Mounts
God of consolation,
Surely you count in heaven,
Just as we count here on earth,
In shock and in sorrow,
The souls sent back to You,
One-by-one,
The dead from the COVID pandemic,
As the ones become tens,
The tens become hundreds,
The hundreds become thousands,
The thousands become ten-thousands
And then hundred-thousands,
Each soul, a heartbreak,
Each soul, a life denied.

God of wisdom,
Surely in the halls of divine justice
You are assembling the courts,
Calling witnesses to testify,
To proclaim
The compassion of some
And the callousness of others
As we’ve struggled to cope.
The souls taken too soon,
Whose funerals were lonely,
Who didn’t need to die,
Who died alone,
Will tell their stories
When You judge
Our triumphs
And our failures
In these hours of need.

God of healing,
Put an end to this pandemic,
And all illness and disease.
Bless those who stand in service to humanity.
Bless those who grieve.
Bless the dead,
So that their souls are bound up in the bond of life eternal.
And grant those still afflicted
With disease or trauma
A completed and lasting healing,
One-by-one,
Until suffering ceases,
And we can stop counting the dead,
In heaven
And on earth.

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Postscript: My other coronavirus prayers are: “Sheltering in Place,” “On the Front Lines of the Pandemic,” “Healing from Coronavirus“, “Coronavirus: A Prayer for Medical Scientists” and “Traveler’s Prayer in a Time of Pandemic.”

Photo Source: The New York Times, May 24, 2020

Orchid, Cedar and Date Palm

Posted on: May 10th, 2020 by Alden

A simple meditation inspired by nature. Israel is home to roughly 30 varieties of wild orchids. I took this photo of a pyramidal orchid — בן-סחלב צריפי — on Friday on a hike from Tel Socho to Givat Yishaiyahu, about 40 minutes from Jerusalem. Every Shabbat we sing: “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, growing tall like a cedar in Lebanon.” (Psalm 92:13)

Orchid, Cedar and Date Palm
If only I could see
Your love as an orchid blossom,
I would smell the secret scent of holiness
From the heavens.

If only I could see
Your love as a cedar in Lebanon
I would stand tall in the strength
Of Your glory.

If only I could see
Your love as a date palm,
I would become the sweet fruit
Of divine plenty.

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Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Posts Tagged ‘hope’

Two Prayers to End 2020 and Start 2021

Meditation for the End of Hanukkah

These Vows – A Covid Kol Nidre

Wildly Unimaginable Blessings: A Prayer for 5781

Assembly

Authentic Confession: Meditation on the Vidui

A Prayer for Dad

One-by-One: A Prayer as the COVID Death Toll Mounts

Orchid, Cedar and Date Palm

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