Tag Archive for "redemption" | To Bend Light

Posts Tagged ‘redemption’

Vayechi 5773: Near the End, A Meditation

Posted on: December 28th, 2012 by tobendlight

“And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred forty and seven years. And the time drew near that Israel must die…”
– Genesis 47:28-29

Here’s a meditation on the journey home. Listen along by clicking on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows. This prayer appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Near the End: A Meditation
When my days fade,
When my eyes dim,
When darkness settles,
And the veil is lifted,
Remove my fear
My doubt,
My shame.
Remove my hesitation and longings,
So I may go gracefully into
The unknown,
The unknowable,
The secret tomorrow of my soul.

Ancient One,
Foundation and Shelter,
Companion and Guide,
Cradle of life,
Guardian of spirit,
I confess my weaknesses and mistakes,
My errors of judgment and
My lapses of conscience,
So that I may return to You in joyous surrender.

Source of my life
Holy and exalted
You have called me to service on this earth.
You will call me back to You
As You call all Your children
To return from this life,
This journey,
This place of sea and sky,
Of happiness and heartbreak.
Let me go in peace.
Let me go in peace.

Postscript: Here are other prayers about transitions and transformations: “Leaving,” “River” “Rhythms” and “Transitions.” For an annotated list of Memorial and Yizkor prayers, click here. This prayer was first posted on February 20, 2011.

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Photo Credit: WikiMedia Commons

Mikeitz 5773: Against Hunger

Posted on: December 12th, 2012 by tobendlight

“And the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said; and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.” – Genesis 41:54

In a world of plenty, we still face hunger in wealthy nations and famine in impoverished lands. This is from my series of prayers for social justice including: “Against Poverty,” “Against Human Trafficking” and “A gainst Tyranny.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Against Hunger
G-d of the poor,
G-d of the starving and the malnourished,
The voice of grief echoes across the land.
Dismayed and abandoned in a world of abundance,
Our children,
Our brothers
And our sisters
Struggle to feed their families,
Struggle to put food on the table,
As they watch emptiness and longing
Consume their kin,
As they watch disease and death,
Encircle their homes and their lives.

Source of bounty and plenty,
Rock of compassion and mercy,
You call upon us to stand in the name of justice and healing,
To witness against indifference and neglect,
To solve issues of scarcity and distribution,
To create a world of agricultural success in every land,
And among every people.

Bless those who dedicate their lives to the hungry and the forgotten.
Bless those who take to the cities and the countryside to offer food and sustenance.
Bless those who teach others to feed themselves.
Bless those whose ideas and research will lead to new solutions for ending this plague.
Bless those who plead on behalf of the needy and the poor before the seats of power.
Give them courage and determination.
Give them wisdom and skill.
May the work of their hands never falter
Nor despair deter them from this holy calling.

Bless the hungry with resources.
Release them from want.
Hasten the day of their self-sufficiency and bounty.

Blessed are You, G-d of All Being,
Who summons us to oppose the tyranny of hunger.

Postscript: Click here for more prayers about social justice. This prayer would also make a lovely addition to your Pesach seder. It was first posted on November 2, 2011, for Global Hunger Shabbat of the American Jewish World Service.

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Photo Credit: Chabad World.

Every Beginning

Posted on: December 9th, 2012 by tobendlight

Here’s prayer/poem that celebrates both love and loss as essential elements of our lives. This piece appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Every Beginning
Every beginning brings an ending.
Every ending brings a beginning.

Ancient One,
This is the joy and the grief,
The plenty and the famine,
The dance and the dirge
Of life
Alive and awake
In Your world.

How wonderful is this living?
How glorious the light from heaven?
How stunning the radiance that surrounds you
My beloved,
Holy and new, luminous with wonder?
How marvelous this place where earth and sky touch?

How strange is this dying?
How melancholy that one day we will
No longer hear sweet voices,
See sweet faces,
Share whispers and secrets,
Laughter and heartbreak?
How much more, my darlings,
Should we love today?
How much more, my children,
Should we savor and rejoice?

Every beginning brings an ending.
Every ending brings a beginning.
Blessed is G-d’s Holy Name.

Postscript: Here are two of my favorite prayers about the spiritual journey: “Messengers” and “On the Trail.” Click here for more meditations in the voice of the Spiritual Traveler.

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Photo Credit: Hasseblad

Lamps Within

Posted on: December 6th, 2012 by tobendlight

This is a new meditation for Hanukkah about bringing the light we carry inside of ourselves into the world and lighting the lamps of awe and wonder in our children. This meditation appears in my CCAR Press book, “This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day.” My friend Rabbi Karol wrote this beautiful melody for this prayer.

Lamps Within
A lamp glows inside your heart,
With eight ways to light it,
Eight ways to keep it shining,
Eight ways to keep its glow.

Light it with your joy.
Light it with your tears.
Light it with this song.
Light it with the works of your hands.
Light it with hope.
Light it with service.
Light it with this prayer.
Light it with praise to G-d’s Holy Name.

Bring the lamp of your soul out into the street
So that all who have forgotten
The miracles around us
Will remember the beauty within,
So that all who have forgotten
The miracles of old
Will remember to rejoice.

A lamp glows inside your children.
Keep it shining.
Watch it glow.

Light it with your joy.
Light it with your tears.
Light it with song.
Light it with the works of your hands.
Light it with hope.
Light it with service.
Light it with prayer.
Light it with praise to G-d’s Holy Name.

Postscript: Here’s a link to another Hanukkah meditation, “The Season of Dedication.”

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 Source: Garden Delights Arts and Crafts

The Season of Dedication

Posted on: December 4th, 2012 by tobendlight

Hanukkah Menorah 1 When I was a boy the central miracle of Hanukkah didn’t impress me. One day’s worth of oil burned for eight days. A miracle, sure, but after everything G-d did for us in the desert, it didn’t seem so big of a miracle. I was more impressed with the desire of the Maccabees to preserve our faith, to rededicate the Temple, to restore it as a place of holiness. This prayer appears in my CCAR Press book, This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day.

The Season of Dedication
This is the season of dedication:
Of dedicating our moments and our lives,
Of dedicating our hope and our strength,
To live by G-d’s Word.

This is the season of cleansing:
Of cleansing our hearts and our sanctuaries,
Of cleansing our deeds and our ways,
Creating sacred time and space.

This is the season of service:
Of service to our neighbors and community,
Of service to K’lal Yisrael,
In the name of justice and peace.

This is the season of dedication:
Of dedication to strength and honor,
Righteousness and duty.
This is the season that calls forth miracles,
That summons the light of holiness,
The season the reminds us to rebuild and restore
Our commitment to mitzvot and avodah
In G-d’s holy name.

Postscript: Now that I am older, I am not so impressed with the Maccabees, either. They seem to be historic role models of sinat chinam. This prayer was first posted on Dec. 1, 2010. It is part of a series of prayers tied to various holidays and seasonal themes in the Jewish calendar, including: “The Season of Counting,” “The Season of Building” and “The Season of Healing.”

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Photo Credit: Jerusalem Baskets

Vayishlach: The Descent

Posted on: November 28th, 2012 by tobendlight

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” – Genesis 32:25

Sooner or later every man faces the trial of his life. This meditation is a metaphor for the inner journey, the inner struggle, the battle to find holiness and a new name. It’s another in my series of prayers and meditations for men.

The Descent
When your time comes
And you hear the call
To become a man of power and wisdom,
A warrior and a king,
You will descend beyond the shadows
Into the black cliffs of your soul,
Where fear stalks the hours,
And rage laughs at the abyss,
Where shame waltzes with pride,
And grief howls, unrestrained, with pleasure.

You will reach a narrow ridge
Above the hollows where other men were lost.
You will crawl on scree,
Cutting your hands and knees,
As you press hard
Against the trail,
Against the wind.

You will enter a cavern of darkness,
The unseen color of nothingness,
Where your voice echoes with dread,
And your heart beats with longing,
Where your breath smells of remorse
And your ears ring with lies and deceit.

When you reach bottom
Your enemy will attack,
With skill and cunning,
For you have set free the torment within,
The power of your anguish and your guilt.
The night will last beyond the rhythm of natural time
Until you forget if you are the holiness or the profane.
Only then the grip of unrighteous fury will weaken
And succumb to your strength.
Wounded but victorious,
You will be blessed by fire from the torch of heaven.
Its light will blend with the coming dawn.
In that moment you will finally see
The face of the man you fought.
You will know in your bones
That you must take him back with you into the light,
For it was you who invited him on the journey.

Postscript: Here are three more prayers and meditations for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs,” as well as a link to a list of all of my prayers for and about men.

Photo Credit: Artable

Vayetze 5773: A Moment of Love

Posted on: November 25th, 2012 by tobendlight

“…Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she tended them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.” – Genesis 29:9-11

After he sees Rachel, Jacob opens the well for her flock, a feat of great strength, and he opens his heart fully: a lesson in love from the third generation of our fathers and mothers.

A Moment of Love
Love is a well of strength,
A river of hope,
A fountain of holiness,
A moment for tears.

Love is in our arms,
In our hearts,
In our voices,
And in our eyes.

G-d of our mothers,
Let me be like she
Who tends the flocks,
Bringing them safely
To the waters.

G-d of our fathers,
Let me be like he
Who opens the source
Of blessing
To our lives together.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
Creator of life and love.

Postscript: My other prayers about love include: “Let Love,” “The Cut That Heals,” “For New Love,” “To Seek Your Love” and “A Heart of Love.”

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: Chabad Jewish Center of Massachusetts.

Noach: The Flood

Posted on: October 14th, 2012 by tobendlight

What flood — what flood of emotion, of grief, of tragedy, of fire or water — tore through your life? Was there a lifeboat? A meditation inspired by the parasha.

The Flood
The flood that tore
Through our lives
Rushed in without remorse
Churning indiscriminate,
Random with wreckage.

We who survived
Gasped naked in the waters
Cold and alone.
We fought the raging sea.
We wrestled the torrent,
The wind,
The darkness
And our aching hearts.

When the rain ceased
And calm eased in
We drifted on the water
Numb to radiant sunrises
And luminous skies.
Until, one day,
We began to swim east
Toward holiness
And the new day.
Weary, faint,
Nearly too tired to press on,
We looked up,
Exhausted,
And saw an Ark
Floating gently on the horizon.

Photo Credit: PoundsGate

Choices

Posted on: October 11th, 2012 by tobendlight

This prayer-poem honors the difficult choices that we make as our lives move through the seasons, through joy and sorrow, hope and fear. As a result, I have selected this prayer for day 16 of the Omer, discipline in compassion.

Choices
The choice to heal is brave
To awaken is beauty
To live, courage
To love, heroic

The choice to breathe is hope
To pray is grace
To sit, quiet
To be, tranquility

The choice to listen is joy
To hear is mystery
To journey, strength
To adventure, power

The choice to see is truth
To accept is compassion
To learn, wisdom
To teach, eternity

The choice of today is now
The choice of stillness is peace

G-d of Old,
Guide me in my choices,
Carry me through my days,
Show me through the years,
Lead me back to You
Lead me back to myself.

Postscript: Here are more prayers on the theme of choices: “The Path of Righteousness,” “Another Year: An Introspection,” “Egypt Inside,” “My Battle” and “For Grace.”

Please check out my ELItalk “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: Wednesdays With Wendy

Quick Prayer for Healing

Posted on: October 3rd, 2012 by tobendlight

Once in a while I need a simple prayer to say on the spot. This one can be used when hearing about a sudden illness, thinking about someone who is injured or chronically ill or when you hear the sound of an ambulance. It’s another in my series of “Quick Prayers.” Because this is a general prayer, I have also created two adaptations: “Quick Prayer for My Healing” and “Quick Prayer for Healing (Specific).” This prayer appears in my book, “Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.”

Quick Prayer for Healing
G-d of love,
Cast the light of health and well-being
On the injured, the infirm and the insecure,
All who yearn for Your healing hand.
Bless them with healing of body
Healing of soul
And healing of spirit.
Grant all in need a full and complete recovery.
Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d, Source of Life.

Postscript: Other prayers in this series include: “Quick Meditation for Today,” “Quick Meditation at Noon,” “Your Name: Quick Prayer at Dusk” and “Quick Meditation at Night.”

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. Please take a moment to explore my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Posts Tagged ‘redemption’

Vayechi 5773: Near the End, A Meditation

Every Beginning

Lamps Within

The Season of Dedication

Vayishlach: The Descent

Vayetze 5773: A Moment of Love

Noach: The Flood

Choices

Quick Prayer for Healing

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