Posts Tagged ‘Isaiah’

 

Guest Writer: Hannah Greenberg

Posted on: January 24th, 2022 by Alden

My friend Hannah Greenberg is in her second year of studies at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Earlier this academic year, a group of students wrote their own prayers and meditations based on my prayer “In Praise,” which was handed out to the class to use as a kavannah for t’fillah. This is her stunning prayer, riffing off of Isaiah 6:3, which we recite in the Kedusah, “Holy, holy, holy, Adonai of Hosts, whose presence fills the earth!” “In Praise” appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings, from CCAR Press.

Music of the Infinite
Music of the infinite
קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ
יְ-הֹ-וָ-ה צְבָאוֹת
Our voices join an angelic choir
To praise
To call out
To yearn
For the Divine

Music of the infinite
For the Conductor of the world
Virtuosic voices
Harmonies combine
To create
To join
To revere
The Divine

Music of the infinite
To sanctify
To recognize
To laud
The Oneness

Music of the infinite
We join
To seek compassion
To find greatness
To renew faith
In the Absolute

Music of the infinite
We are finite
We are infinitesimal
We are human

Music of the infinite
On this new year
We sing
We bless
We rejoice

Music of the infinite
All we can give to You
is our voice
Our soul

Music of the infinite
We join in
קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ
יְ-הֹ-וָ-ה צְבָאוֹת
מְלֹא כָל הָאָֽרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ

© 2021 Hannah Greenberg

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Postscript: Hannah’s prayer, which has timeless resonance, was originally written for Rosh Hashanah. Because of issues with my website, and being on deadline for a new book, this took me much longer to post than I’d anticipated. For us, I believe it is worth the wait. To Hannah, my applogies for the delay. Check out other guest writers here.

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Joyous Soul , This Grateful Heart, and This Precious Life. Here’s a link to my ELItalk, “Falling in Love with Prayer..” 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.

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Photo by Alden Solovy

Tears, Too Close: A Prayer of Consolation

Posted on: August 18th, 2019 by Alden

A prayer of consolation, weaving in lines from each of the seven weeks of Haftarot of consolation from Isaiah which began the past Shabbat Nachamu. Use this prayer on Tisha B’Av, Shabbat Nachamu, and all of the seven Shabbatot of consolation. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press. For Rosh Chodesh Av, consider using “Hallel in a Minor Key.”

Tears, Too Close: A Prayer of Consolation
These tears are too close to my eyes
Ready to burst forth
For the sorrow that surrounds us.

These tears are too close to my heart
Ready to burst forth
For the pain that surrounds us.

These tears are too close to my soul
Ready to burst forth
For the heartbreak that surrounds us.

Comfort, oh comfort My people, says your God. (Isaiah 40:1)
For G-d will comfort Zion. (Isaiah 50:3)
נחמו נחמו עמי יאמר אלהיכם
כי־נחם ה’ ציון
Nachamu, nachamu ami, yomar Eloheichem,
Ki nicham Adonai Tzion.

Well of compassion,
Comfort of generations,
Let us cry together
For all that has been lost,
For all that might have been.

It is I, it is I who comforts you, (Isaiah 51:12)
And great shall be your children’s peace. (Isaiah 54:13)
אנכי אנכי הוא מנחמכם
ורב שלום בניך
Anochi anochi hu m’nachemchem
V’rav shalom baniyich.

Yearning,
Still yearning,
For solace and consolation,
Yearning,
Still yearning,
With hope and faith,
Yearning,
Still yearning,
For healing to flow more freely
Than these ripened tears.

Arise, shine, for your light has dawned, (Isaiah 60:1)
For mountains may move and hills be shaken
But My kindness shall not be removed from you. (Isaiah 54:10)
And the angel of G-d delivered them,
In love and mercy G-d redeemed them. (Isaiah 63:9)
קומי אורי כי בא אורך
כי ההרים ימושו והגבעות תמוטנה
וחסדי מאתך לא־ימוש
ומלאך פניו הושיעם
באהבתו ובחמלתו הוא גאלם
Kumi or’i ki va orech
Ki heharim yamushu v’hagvaot t’mutenah
V’chasdei m’eitecha lo yamush.
U’malach panav hoshei’am,
B’ahavto u’vchemlato hu g’alam.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

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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.

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