Posts Tagged ‘truth’

 

Cry, No More

Posted on: September 26th, 2012 by tobendlight

4give yoselfThis prayer is about having compassion for ourselves while repairing the damage we’ve done to self and others. I wrote it after my first Yom Kippur in Jerusalem, my first in Israel as an oleh chadash. I use it on Yom Kippur and during the Counting the Omer, day 10, “compassion in discipline.” It appears in my book This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

Cry, No More
Cry no more for the sins of the past.
Rejoice in your repentance and your return.
For this is the day that G-d made
To lift you up from your sorrow and shame,
To deliver you to the gates of righteousness.

Remember this:
Love is the crown of your life
And wisdom the rock on which you stand.
Charity is your staff
And justice your shield.
Your deeds declare your kindness
And your works declare your devotion.

Cry no more for your fears and your dread.
Rejoice in your blessings and your healing.
For this is the day that G-d made
To raise your countenance and hope,
To deliver you to the gates of holiness.

© 2017 CCAR Press from This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day

Postscript: “This is the day that G-d made” (Psalms 118:24) is used in our liturgy, including the service of praises, Hallel. Here are links to prayers for Elul, prayers for Rosh Hashana, prayers for Yom Kippur and prayers for Sukkot. Here’s a link to yizkor and memorial prayers.

Please check out my Meet the Author video 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: Gospel Newsroom

Awake You Slumberers!

Posted on: September 22nd, 2012 by tobendlight

“Awake, ye sleepers from your slumber, and rouse you from you from your lethargy. Scrutinize your deeds and return in repentance.” – רמב”ם

Are you awake? Are you listening? Are you fully present in this moment? Are you fully present in your life? Are you fully present in G-d’s world? When you hear the call of the Shofar on Yom Kippur, when the great Tekiah sounds, will you be ready to rise up and live a life in service to G-d’s holy word?

Here are links to five meditations about waking up to some of G-d’s gifts – truth, joy, holiness, love and Torah – posted now in anticipation of Yom Kippur. They follow the same rhythm and structure: an introduction of three short stanzas; the assertion that G-d’s gifts are present in the universe; a call to reengage with purpose (“Awake you slumberers!”); a reminder of what we may have forgotten; and a call to action.

Here is a taste of “Let Joy:”

“…joy is in the dawn and the dusk,
The silence and the great expanse,
The flow of light from G-d’s grace,
Divine wonder and awe,
Calling out to you dear sisters and brothers:
‘Awake you slumberers!
Awake you who sleepwalk through…”

Are you ready to “Let Truth,” “Let Joy,” “Let Holiness,” “Let Love” and “Let Torah” guide your life? Each of these meditations is aimed at helping us back to G-d’s gifts. And each of these links also includes audio of the meditation.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and www.tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

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Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)

Posted on: October 26th, 2011 by tobendlight

bechol lashon logo_blThis prayer celebrates diversity in Jewish life. It honors the work of Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) by envisioning a time when we look beyond our differences – gender, skin color, age, sexuality, conversion, observance – to see one House of Israel in service to G-d, our people, and tikkun olam. I wrote it at the suggestion of Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, Be’chol Lashon’s rabbi-in-residence. The organization used it at their family camp and posted it to their website. It appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)
We sing praises
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, in every voice,
In joy and sadness,
With music and with love.

We seek truth
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, with every breath,
In study and prayer,
With faith and with purpose.

We pursue justice
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, in every land,
In word and deed,
With strength and with courage.

We study Torah
Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue, in every generation,
In wonder and awe,
With zest and with zeal.

We are one people,
Present on Sinai,
Where G-d spoke Be’chol lashon,
In every tongue,
To every soul,
To every heart,
The whole House of Israel.

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

Postscript: Thanks again to Rabbi Ruth for suggesting this prayer and for her earlier invitation for me to write “A Liturgy for 9-11.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, 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. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

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Photo Source: Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue)

Omer, Week Three: Tiferet

Posted on: May 3rd, 2011 by tobendlight

tiferethPrayers for week three of Counting the Omer: Tiferet– Beauty, harmony, compassion, truth. They’re listed in my suggested order, from day 15 at the top of the list to day 21 at the bottom. To read them, please click on the name of the prayer.

  • And a prayer about Counting the Omer: “The Season of Counting.”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:
    • Week One: Chesed (Lovingkindness, Love, Benevolence)
    • Week Two: Gevurah (Discipline, Justice, Restraint, Awe)
    • Week Three: Tiferet (Beauty, Harmony, Compassion, Truth)
    • Week Four: Netzach (Eternity, Endurance, Fortitude, Ambition)
    • Week Five: Hod (Humility, Splendor)
    • Week Six: Yesod  (Foundation, Bonding)
    • Week Seven: Malchut (Nobility, Sovereignty, Leadership)
    • Shavuot

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Photo Credit: Kabbalah Names

Let Truth

Posted on: January 16th, 2011 by tobendlight

MLKIn memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, assassinated April 4, 1968, here’s a prayer about truth. It’s from a series including “Let Joy,” “Let Holiness,” “Let Love” and “Let Torah.” Each of them invokes a prophetic voice and ends with a call to action. This prayer appears in This Grateful Heart, from CCAR Press, along with “The Preacher Said,” another prayer honoring MLK.

“I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again’.” ― Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Our God Is Marching On!, 3/25/65, Montgomery, Ala.

Let Truth
Let truth shine from your face,
Spark from your eyes,
Overflow from your lips.

Let truth protect your heart,
Shield your lungs,
Exude from your chest.

Let truth strengthen your bones,
Engage your nerves,
Capture your being.

For truth is in each moment and each question,
The earth’s hot core and the cold edge of the universe,
The flow of wisdom from G-d’s holy word,
Divine mysteries and secrets,
Calling out to you dear sisters and brothers:
‘Awake you slumberers!
Awake you who sit idle and hapless against the tide of dishonesty and deceit.
Have you forgotten My promises?
Have you forsaken our covenant, our pact to care for Creation?
Have you turned away from your hopes and ideals?’

This, then, is G-d’s command:
Let truth envelop you,
Protect you,
Flow through you.
Let truth carry you into honest days
And righteous seasons.
Speak and teach,
Listen and hear,
Lifting your life with dignity and understanding.
Let truth be your signature and your legacy.

Blessed are You, G-d of truth.

Reprinted with permission from This Grateful Heart, © 2017 CCAR Press. All rights reserved.

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.

Photo credit: The Seattle Times

“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