Tag Archive for "Israel" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘Israel’

Israel: A Meditation, Revisited

Posted on: October 2nd, 2016 by Alden

A new year approaches. It will be here by nightfall. We’ve just buried the last of Israel’s founding fathers and the local news is hinting about the next war with Gaza. Let the year bring only blessings on this land, leaders with vision and an end to war. This is my anthem to Israel, to the land, to our history and to our people. “Israel, You are my people…” Our collective heartbeat begins in this land. So, this anthem is also a declaration of faith, which is why it’s included in Antia Diamant’s newly-released revised edition of Choosing a Jewish Life, her popular conversion handbook. To listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Israel: A Meditation
Israel,
You are my people.
You are my heart and you are my hope.
We waited together at the mountain
When G-d revealed the Holy Word.
We wandered together through the desert
On the path to sacred soil.
We watched the sea part.
We heard the heavens roar.
We stood at the doorway to freedom,
At the border of a Promised Land.

Israel,
You are my destiny.
You are my joy and you are my truth.
We were victorious at Jericho,
Unyielding at Masada.
We defied empires
For Torah.
We defied kings
For justice and freedom.
We’ve traveled the earth,
Wandered the millennia,
Refugees of the ages,
Homeless and hopeful,
Waiting to return
To native ground.

Israel,
You are my brother in history,
My sister in fortune,
The mother of my courage,
The father of my heart,
The child of my longing,
And the light of generations.
To you I pledge my right arm
And my voice in song.
To you I pledge my soul.
To you I pledge my spirit.

Israel,
You are my nation.
You are my inheritance.
You are my home.

Postscript: Thank you to Anita Diamant for including this meditation in Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends. This meditation first appeared on this site on July 7, 2010. Click here for more prayers and meditations about Israel.

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 use or like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Credit: Alden Solovy

For Israel’s 2016 Olympic Athletes

Posted on: August 1st, 2016 by Alden

A prayer for the safety of Israel’s athletes, including a memorial to the victims of the 1972 Munich massacre and the hope for a joyous festival of sport for all nations. The second stanza is modified from my “Munich Massacre Memorial Prayer.” Good luck to the coaches and athletes from around the world.

For Israel’s 2016 Olympic Athletes
G-d of our ancestors,
Watch over Israel’s Olympic athletes
As the 2016 Summer Games in begin in Rio.
Grant them safety and security
So that they may compete
With the fullness of their abilities and skills.
Let them exult in their accomplishments,
Finding their best selves in competition.
Shield them from hostility and venom.
Guard them from the hand of hatred and violence.
Bring them joy and gladness during this festival of international sport.
Let their dedication and dignity serve as a tribute
To the athletes slain during the 1972 Munich Games.

Grant Your protection and shelter
To all who travel under the flag of Israel
In the name of cooperation, understanding and goodwill –
Athletes, musicians, performers, artists and scholars.
May their spirit be a shining light of integrity and honor.
Watch over the defenders of Israel.
Bless them with courage and strength.
Grant the whole house of Israel
Safety throughout the earth.

May the 2016 Summer Games
Be a source of celebration and rejoicing
For spectators and athletes,
For coaches and fans,
For Israel,
For all nations
And for the world.

Postscript: See also “Munich Massacre Memorial Prayer,” “At the Hand of Anti-Semitism,” a Yizkor prayer, and “To the Terrorist,” a prayer of personal resolve to defend ourselves against terror and for healing the sick mind of the terrorist. This prayer first appeared on this site on July 24, 2012.

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Prayers for Jerusalem

Posted on: June 5th, 2016 by Alden

On Friday night in my synagogue here in Jerusalem, we expressed our love for this city by singing Lecha Dodi to the tune of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, Jerusalem of Gold. Sunday is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, commemorating Jerusalem’s reunification in 1967. Sunday marks 49 years. Here are five prayers and meditations for and about Jerusalem, as well as some essays about my life here.

Prayers and Meditations

Essays

Postscript: Here’s a link to more prayers for Israel.

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Photo Source: Alden Solovy

Pride Wins: A Prayer after Homophobic Brutality

Posted on: February 21st, 2016 by Alden

Shira Banki

The city of Jerusalem renamed Zion Square in memory of Shira Banki, murdered at 2015’s Pride Parade. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremist stabbed six participants, murdering the 16-year-old. The plaza was renamed Tolerance Square.

Addendum, June 13, 2016: In Orlando early Sunday, 50 people died in the deadliest mass shooting is U.S history, domestic hate and terror focused on a popular gay nightclub. Here’s a prayer “For Orlando, For the USA.” And Nov. 19 became another murderous moment for the community in Colorado Springs.

Pride Wins: A Prayer after Homophobic Brutality
Pride will not be crushed by violence.
Pride will not be crushed by hatred.
Pride wins. Love wins.
Beauty and joy win.

G-d of healing,
Bless the LBGTQ community
With Your comfort and care
In the anguish and pain after yet another
Senseless and vicious attack against the innocent,
An act of calculated violence against Your children.
Bless the victims with healing and strength.
Bless their families with solace and support.
Bless the community with resolve and well-being.

Let the day be near when
Gender and sexual orientation
Are no longer used an excuse for brutality or cruelty.
Let the day be near when
Justice and righteousness prevail,
Guiding us all to delight fully in each other,
Our similarities and our differences,
A tribute to the vast wonder of Your creation.

Postscript: Here’s a song written by Julie Silver in Shira’s memory. See also, “Love Wins: A Pride Prayer, Jewish.”

Photo Source: Facebook, via JTA

Love Wins: A Pride Prayer, Jewish

Posted on: January 24th, 2016 by Alden

“This week will go down in history as one of the saddest and most destructive, ever, in the lives of LGBTQ Jews,” declares an article from O-blog-dee-o-blog-da about the anti-semetic vitriol hurled at LGBTQ Jews at the Creating Change 2016 Conference. Pro-Palestinian protesters called for the death of fellow LGBTQ, Jews on their way to a Friday night Shabbat service. Here’s a Jewish response to this twisted hate: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Levit. 19:18), pronounced “ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha.” In other words, love wins.

Love Wins: A Pride Prayer, Jewish
One day, the words ‘coming out’ will sound strange,
Oppression based on gender or orientation will be a memory,
History to honor and remember,
The pain of hiding, repressing, denying,
Honoring the triumphs of those who fought to be free,
Remembering the violence and vitriol that cost lives.

When love wins,
When love wins at long last,
ואהבת לרעך כמוך,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself’
Will be as natural as breathing.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

One day, love will win every heart,
Love will win every soul,
Fear will vanish like smoke,
And tenderness for all will fill our hearts.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

Love wins. In the end,
Love wins.
Man for man,
Woman for woman,
Woman for man,
Man for women,
All genders,
All orientations,
All true expressions of heart.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

Let this come speedily,
In our day,
A tribute to the many
And the diverse
Gifts from heaven.
A tribute to love deep and true,
Each of us for one another.
ואהבת לרעך כמוך!

Postscript: Thank you to my friend and fellow proud Jerusalem resident Cantor Evan Kent for his suggestions on an earlier draft of this prayer. Creating Change is an annual conference held by the National LGBTQ Task Force. The 2016 conference is still in progress in Chicago. Its purpose: LGBTQ liberation. Its stated intention: to be all inclusive. From the article referenced above: “Ironically the only LGBTQ liberation in the Middle East is fostered by Israel, often serving as a sanctuary for Palestinian LGBT who have been expelled from their homes and hunted by Hamas and Palestinian authority members, who believe gays should die for being gay.” Honor, love and respect to my friends at A Wider Bridge, the host of the Shabbat service and target of ongoing slander.

Photo Source: Tufts Hillel, JQUEST (Jewish Queer Students at Tufts)

Sleeping Prophets

Posted on: October 18th, 2015 by Alden

Once, the prophets of Israel admonished kings – the civil leadership – against their failures and transgressions. Where are those prophets now, as the leadership of the modern State of Israel flounder and fail to make a real and lasting peace? Where are the calls for bravery and justice, the calls for honesty and righteous treatment of all? We must become the new prophets of Israel. It appears that no one else is coming to save us from our modern kings.

Sleeping Prophets
Wake,
You sleeping prophets.
Awaken your voices and your legs.
Come out among us.
Admonish callous hearts.
Admonish violence, hatred and sin.
Where is your passion?
Where is your thunder?
Where are your grievances?
Cry out against wickedness and deceit.
Cry out for wisdom and truth.
Why do you hide among the arrogant?
Why do you hide among and stiff-necked?
Why do you rest as bloodshed and slaughter
Threaten to consume us?

Wake you sleeping prophets, wake.
Unleash your vision and your voice.
Summon us to righteousness.
Summon us to heal ourselves and the world.
Once, brave men and women
Rose up to challenge the errors of our ways
And the foolishness of our kings.

Rise up, rise up.
You are the prophets of peace.
Demand strength and compassion.
Compel our leaders to a new path
And a new light,
In G-d’s Holy Name.

Postscript: This is a link to my prayer “For Political Leadership” and another to more prayers for Israel and peace.

Tweetable! Click here to tweet this: “Wake you sleeping prophets…” A call for peace and justice by @ToBendLight. https://tobendlight.com/?p=13695

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Pinchas: Mountain Prayer at Twilight

Posted on: July 7th, 2015 by Alden

The death of Moses is foretold in this week’s parasha, Pinchas. When the time comes, Moses will ascend yet another mountain, see the land that he cannot enter and die. Unlike his visits up Sinai, when his physical vision is shrouded in the cloud of G-d, Moses will see the inheritance of the people Israel. I imagine a moment near dusk, as he continues to take in the beauty of the land, knowing that he will not see the new day. This prayer uses a time-honored tradition in Jewish liturgy, incorporating relevant quotes from Psalms. It also incorporates a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. Quotes are shown in italics, with references in (parenthesis).

Mountain Prayer at Twilight
This splendor,
This yearning of cliffs and crests,
This longing of ridges and heights,
The hint of eternity,
The poetry in rock,
Stretches from horizon to horizon,
Beyond the limits of this world.
Power. Thunder. Silence.

How glorious are the peaks at dusk?
How majestic at twilight?
The heights of the mountains are G-d’s. (Psalms 95:4)

I just want to do God’s will.
And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I’ve looked over.
And I’ve seen the Promised Land. (Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.)

The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills like young sheep. (Psalms 114:4)
This beauty,
This echo of infinity,
The music of transcendence,
The steadfast power,
Summons us home.
Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of G-d. (Psalms 114:7)

This twilight,
Let it be for shelter.
The coming daybreak,
Let it be for hope, for dedication, for renewal.
Let the mountains bear peace to the people,
And the hills, through righteousness. (Psalms 72:3)

Postscript: My other prayers that use mountains as images include: “The Mountain of My Heart,” “The Soldiers on this Mountain,” “About Miracles,” “Summon My Heart” and “Come Walk.”

Tweetable! Please help share this prayer with this suggested tweet (including the link): “…the hint of eternity, the poetry in rock, stretches from horizon to horizon…” Mountain Prayer at Twilight: https://tobendlight.com/?p=13160

Photo Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library

Shelach Lecha 5775: Gathering, A Dream of Reunion

Posted on: June 9th, 2015 by Alden

This week’s Torah portion includes the commandment to wear tzitzit — fringes — on the corners of our garments (Numbers 15:37-41), which we fulfill with the tallit. The ritual use of the tallit includes gathering the four tzitzit just before saying the Shema, upon reciting this line: “Bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth and lead us upright to our land…” The act reflects our historic longing for reunification in our homeland. This meditation has dreamlike quality, beginning with the yearning for Israel that’s in each of us. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Gathering: A Dream of Reunion
והביאנו לשלום מארבע כנפות הארץ
ותוליכנו קוממיות לארצנו

Bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth
And lead us upright to our land…

First Tzitzit – Gathering fringes
The first knotted string in hand,
I imagine the journey home,
Home to the land of our mothers and fathers,
Holy and full of promise, labor and love,
To build a life of wonder and awe.
This is me.
This is my pilgrimage to sacred soil.
This is my dream of holiness and redemption.
I am the first tzitzit.
I am returning home.

Second Tzitzit – Gathering hearts
The second fraying string in hand,
I imagine my children, my family, my household
Returning with me to our homeland
To build and to renew our ancestral blood.
This is my family.
This is our journey to hallowed ground.
This is our wholeness and rebirth.
We are the second tzitzit.
We are returning home.

Third Tzitzit – Gathering moments
The third worn string in hand,
I imagine you, my community, my kahal,
Returning together to our Source and Shelter,
To consecrate the ancient land and our holy vow.
This is my village.
This is our journey to mystery and majesty.
This is our bond of ages.
We are the third tzitzit.
We are returning home.

Final Tzitzit – Gathering millennia
The final woolen string in hand,
I imagine all of us, from all corners of the Earth,
Returning with songs of praise and rejoicing,
To claim our place among the nation of Israel.
This is my people.
This is our journey of destiny.
This is our covenant.
We are the final tzitzit, separate no more.
We are returning home.

Postscript: This remains my deepest yearning for all of the people Israel. We’ll each arrive when the time is right. Thanks to Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder for challenging me to think about how this meditation might be heard by those who are not considering aliyah. Click here for more prayers and meditations about Israel. “Gathering: A Dream of Reunion” first appeared on this site on December 30, 2011.

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

Photo Source: Old Shoe Woman (On Flickr)

Jew against Jew

Posted on: April 23rd, 2015 by Alden

This is a prayer for Jews to love one another. I wrote it a year ago, but it echoes as a response to the violence perpetrated at the Kotel this week. Charlie Kalech and I were beaten after we and other men helped facilitate the use of a full-sized Torah by Women of the Wall at the Western Wall on Rosh Chodesh Iyyar, April 22, 2015. This prayer is part lament and part admonition against sinat chinam, basesless hatred of Jew against Jew. The prayer is the result of an assignment last year by master teacher Yaffa Epstein at Pardes Institude of Jewish Studies after a semester of studying the Amidah, a central prayer in Jewish liturgy. May one day soon we forget the violence, on that day the love of Torah will be shared equally, with joy, among all of our people.

Jew against Jew
Oh my people,
What has happened to your heart?
What has happened to your vision?
And what has happened to your wisdom?
And what has happened to your love for one another?
The seeds of disrespect and misunderstanding have taken root,
Yielding fear and anger,
Condemnation and recrimination,
A rising hatred of Jew against Jew
That threatens to consume us.
Sinat chinam has attacked the soul of our people.

Ancient One,
G-d of our fathers and mothers,
Grant us a new wisdom and a new vision
To see beauty and holiness
In all of the tents of Israel.
Guide us back to each other
With reverence and understanding.
Renew our days with love.
Then, G-d of Old, we will build
A temple of song to your Holy Name,
Resounding from heart to heart,
From soul to soul,
From generation to generation,
The whole House of Israel.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
You delight in Your people’s love.

Postscript: The photo is from Facebook album by top news photographer Miriam Alster. The album contains beautiful photos of women expressing love of Torah. There are also horrible photos showing what Charlie and I experienced at the hands of so-called ushers and ultra-orthodox men: he was beaten and manhandled, I was roughed up and stomped on. Those photos are important to understand the forces that oppose women’s rights at the Kotel. Yet here I choose to show the celebration, with Rabbi Susan Silverman dancing with Torah. When I was down on the ground, Susan and Charlie’s wife Sarah Halevi rushed toward us to help. Thank you, Susan and Sarah, for coming to my aid. The photos of women expressing love of Torah, those are the photos of the joyous future we desire, Torah for all, b’ezrrat Hashem.

Photo Source: WOW Facebook album by Miriam Alster

Mothers of Jerusalem

Posted on: November 19th, 2014 by Alden

This is a new prayer for peace in Jerusalem. I wrote it in a cab and finished it at O’hare Airport moments ago, as I begin my journey back to my hometown, the City of Peace, the City of Gold.

Mothers of Jerusalem
Mothers of Jerusalem,
Your wail echoes in the hills,
Your grief resounds in the valleys,
Your prayer rises up into the luminous sky.
More fathers and brothers,
More sisters and mothers,
More children and innocent,
Lost to the hand of violence,
Lost to the hand of hatred.

How long, oh my G-d,
How long before cruelty ends
And peace reigns within these borders,
Within these walls,
Within our hearts?
How long, oh my G-d,
Must we open graves for the lost?

G-d of generations,
G-d of millennia,
Spread Your tabernacle
Of safety and shelter
Over this holy city.
Guard our sons and our daughters.
Protect all who dwell within these gates.
Let courage and hope ease this fear.
Let compassion open the souls of the hard-hearted.
Let joy and gladness return,
In song and prayer,
To Your steps of holiness.

Postscript: Here is my piece called “Jerusalem: A Meditation,” as well as a link to other prayers for Israel and for peace. I took special care in writing this prayer so that any mother of Jerusalem – Jew, Christian, Moslem, Catholic, Arab, Druze, any mother – could say this prayer. Perhaps, one day, we will all pray together in peace. Today, my heart is with the victims of terror in Jerusalem.