This is meditation on personal freedom, recognizing that we must first forgive ourselves for our own mistakes and misdeeds before we can fully express love and care for ourselves and for others. It appears inThis Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.
Redeeming My Life
A part of me
Refuses to forgive
Myself
For my errors, my mistakes,
My oversights and misdeeds.
How can I redeem my life from within
This place of judgment,
Of harsh words and
Somber requirement?
G-d of Old,
G-d of Justice and Truth,
Teach me to restore my life
Through acts of love and kindness,
Thoughtfulness and care,
In support of my
Family and community.
Teach me to surrender my days
To the joy of service to others,
The joy of concern for this world
And generations to come.
Heavenly Guide,
Revive me with Your light,
Restore me with Your truth,
Refresh me with deeds
Of righteousness and charity.
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There’s a special kind of a hope, a kind of hope that opens the heart to our deepest yearning for a world of wholeness and love ushered in by G-d’s hand. For me, it’s captured singularly a song that we sing every year at the Pesach Seder and each week after Havdalah, a song about Elijah the Prophet. Elijah, our legend teaches, will announce the coming of the messianic age.
This is an expansion and revision of a prayer by the same name for use in my new book, Haggadah Companion: Meditations and Readings. The original was a short and simple six-line acrostic spelling Elijah with the first letter of each line. This version deepens the image of a messianic age and, in the third stanza, makes reference to I Kings 18:37 and I Kings 19:11-13.
Elijah
Eternal One,
Hear our cause!
Love and gladness,
Hope and salvation,
Israel restored,
The world redeemed,
Righteousness and mercy in an age of peace.
We are ready for healing.
Nations dream of justice,
While communities yearn for wisdom.
Leaders search for guidance,
While people seek hope and comfort,
Solace and rest.
Answer us, O God, answer us.
For You are not in the wind,
Nor in the shattering rocks.
You are not in the earthquake,
Nor the raging fire.
You are the still, small voice.
Ancient One,
God of our fathers and mothers,
Let us hear Your voice
Resound from Your holy mountain
As in the days of old.
Send us Your messenger,
Elijah, prophet among prophets,
To announce the time of blessing and wisdom,
To herald the return of holiness,
To proclaim Your world to come.
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This is a meditation on counting. Counting as a spiritual practice is a reminder to stay present in the current moment, the task at hand and that we are on a journey. Beginning the second night of Passover we count the days until Shavuot. By Counting the Omer we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. This piece appears in my bookThis Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.
The Season of Counting
This is the season of counting:
Of counting days and nights,
Of counting the space between slavery of the body
And freedom of the soul.
This is a season of seeing:
Of seeing earth and sky,
Of seeing renewal in the land
And renewal in our hearts.
This is a season of journey:
Of inner journeys and outer journeys
Taking us places that need us,
Places that we need.
This is the season of counting,
The season of joyous anticipation,
Of wondrous waiting,
In devotion and awe,
For our most precious gift,
The gift that binds our hearts to each other across the millennia,
The gift that binds our souls to G-d’s Holy Word.
There’s a special kind of a hope, a kind of hope that opens the heart to our deepest yearning for a world of wholeness and love ushered in by G-d’s hand. For me, it’s captured singularly a song that we sing at the Pesach Seder and after Havdalah, a song for “Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite. Let him come quickly in our day with the messiah, the son of David.”
Elijah
Eternal One, hear our cause!
Love and gladness, hope and salvation,
Israel restored, the world redeemed,
Justice and mercy in an age of peace.
Announce the time of blessing and wisdom.
Herald the return of holiness, Your world to come.
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Postscript: This is my first acrostic. I subsequently wrote an expanded version of this prayer that is not an acrostic. I’ve been working on two alphabetical acrostics for far too long and have been stumped by certain unforgiving letters near the end of the alphabet. Here’s a link to another Passover meditation, “The Season of Freedom.” Click for a full annotated list of meditations and readings for Pesach.
Here’s a new prayer for Passover, which echoes the theme of two of my other Pesach offerings, “Egypt Inside” and “Breaking Bonds.” It’s about yearning for freedom from the emotions and experiences that hold me back, as well as the hope to see myself through G-d’s eyes.
Release Me
Holy One,
Release me from judgment.
Release me from doubt.
Release me from hunger.
Release me from want.
Release me from loneliness.
Release me from despair.
Release me from disappointment.
Release me from anger and shame.
Release me with Your gentle hand
And a song of hope.
Release me with the light of Your Word
And the echo of Your voice.
G-d of Old,
Guide me to wisdom and strength.
Teach me to break free of the chains
That I have wrapped around my own heart.
Teach me to live a life of service to others,
A life in celebration of Your gifts.
Teach me to see myself through Your loving eyes,
So that I may return, rejoicing,
To You
And Your people.
Postscript: Here’s a link to another Passover meditation, “The Season of Freedom.” Click here for a full annotated list of meditations and readings for Pesach.
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I am fresh off of a Call of the Shofar Seasons of Transformation workshop. One of the men told a story about the mitzrayim that we carry inside ourselves, the mitzrayim I carry in me. Mitzrayim, Egypt, the place of my physical bondage, is also the place of my spiritual bondage. This prayer, written two years ago, echoes that theme.
Today I repost this prayer in honor and tribute to the men and women who’ve taken the brave step of facing their personal mitzrayim in Call of the Shofar, the participants of this past weekend in Israel, the staff men and Shofar leadership. To listen while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.
Egypt Inside
This I confess to myself:
I have taken Egypt with me.
I’ve kept myself a slave to grief and loss,
Fear and anger and shame.
I have set myself up as task master,
Driving my own work beyond the limits
Of reasonable time and common sense.
I’ve seen miracles from heaven,
Signs and wonders in my own life,
And still wait for the heavens to speak.
G-d of redemption,
With Your love and guiding hand leaving Egypt is easy.
Leaving Egypt behind is a struggle.
In Your wisdom You have given me this choice:
To live in a tyranny of my own making,
Or to set my heart free to love You,
To love Your people,
And to love myself.
G-d of Freedom, help me to leave Egypt behind,
To hear Your voice,
To accept Your guidance,
And to see the miracles in each new day.
Blessed are You, G-d of wonder,
You set Your people on the road to redemption.
Postscript: I also thank my brothers in The Mankind Project who encouraged me to participate in Call of the Shofar. Click here to read my prayers for and about men. Here’s what I wrote when I first posted this prayer on March 29, 2010: “Leaving Egypt is the quintessential Jewish metaphor for the road to freedom. Leaving is only the beginning of that road. Leaving Egypt behind, leaving slavery behind, is much more difficult.”
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This is a Passover appeal for each of us to work for social justice. It’s written in the voice of the admonishing prophet, exhorting us to leave the shelter of prayer and study to go to the streets in service of healing the world. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.
To the Streets
Have you been to the streets of our cities?
Have you seen the toothless madness
Of the poor, the homeless, the wretched and infirm?
Have you heard the broken voices
Of loneliness and loss, addiction and despair?
Of children abused in their homes.
Of youths who starve their bodies.
Of teens who cut their limbs.
Of adults who degrade each other.
Have you been to the battlefields and bomb shelters?
Have you witnessed the terror
Of the innocent and the gunman?
Have you heard the cries of fear and dread,
Of shock, alarm and panic?
Of soldiers blinded by war.
Of refugees abandoned to hate.
Of civilians shelled in the night.
Of prisoners tortured in the darkness.
Have you been to our factories and fields?
Have you seen the crushing labor
Of the illegals, the abused, the forgotten and the misused?
Have you heard the silent resignation
Of the indentured and the enslaved?
Of children forced to toil in sweat.
Of youth maimed by machines.
Of women raped in the mills.
Of men dead in the mines.
Come down,
You the wise and the righteous,
The learned and the wealthy.
Come down
From the temples of your wisdom,
From the sanctuaries of your prayer,
From the shelter of holiness and grace.
Our people have
Tasted the ashes of grief
The dust of loss,
The parching thirst of loneliness.
Our mothers and fathers
Have felt the whip, have been
Forced into labor, have been
Abused and condemned
To violation and violence.
Show me the words that will rescue the captive,
That will free the slave and heal the broken.
Show me the passages that will cure the sick
Feed the hungry and build them homes.
G-d calls us to service in the name of healing.
G-d calls us to action in the name of justice.
G-d calls us to repair the world in the name of holiness.
Only your hands and your strength can bless the world.
Bring your energy and dedication,
Your perseverance and action.
Come down!
Come down!
Bring your Midrash to the darkest allies,
And your Aggadah to the neglected countryside.
Bring your Musar to the clinics and the infirmaries,
And your Shulchan Aruch to the shelters and encampments.
Bring your love and devotion to building a better world.
G-d of Old,
Let Your Torah and Mitzvot
Guide us in loving service
To lives of action,
Heeding Your holy call to tikun olam.
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Here’s a list of my prayers for social justice divided into three categories: the forgotten, global village and personal responsibility. These prayers would make meaningful additions to a Passover seder, to special events such as Global Hunger Shabbat or to honor the memory of civil rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To read a prayer, click on the title:
The Forgotten
Prayers for those who need our dedication and our voices:
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During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, the period from the exodus to revelation on Sinai, Jews count the days and the weeks. And so we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. According to mystical practice, each week has a theme (and each day a sub-theme) that leads us to revelation. Here are links to prayers and meditations for each week of Counting the Omer:
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Here’s a list of prayers for the themes of week seven of Counting the Omer: Malchut– Nobility, sovereignty, leadership. They’re listed in my suggested order, from day 43 at the top of the list to day 49 at the bottom. To read them, click on the name of the prayer.
“Invitations” – Lovingkindness as the source of humility
During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot, the period from the exodus to revelation on Sinai, Jews count the days and the weeks. And so we remember the journey from the depths of slavery to the heights of G-d’s Holy Presence. According to mystical practice, each week has a theme (and each day a sub-theme) that leads us toward revelation. Here are links to prayers and meditations for each week of counting the Omer and Shavuot:
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 onFacebookandTwitter.
“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
This is meditation on personal freedom, recognizing that we must first forgive ourselves for our own mistakes and misdeeds before we can fully express love and care for ourselves and for others. It appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.
