High Holy Days

Here are prayers and stories for the Yamim Noraim, listed topically, with brief descriptions and links to each. Here’s a link to yizkor and memorial prayers. Click here to share these prayer with others on Twitter.

T’shuva (Repentance, Return)

Each of these three meditations begins with a prophetic voice, asking why we stay chained to our sorrows, then challenges us to see life as a sacred journey:

• For Healing the Spirit – Why do we waste our days in grief and despair when we have the power to make our lives holy?
• For Sharing Divine Gifts – We find compassion by using our divine gifts in service to each other in the name of G-d.
• Regarding Old Wounds – Are you ready to turn your most crushing losses into a deep well of strength and love?
• Repentance Inside – To leave my transgressions behind.
• Cry No More – This is the day G-d made to lift you from sorrow.
• Who, Still Broken – A meditation on Un’taneh Tokef.
• Let Your Heart Stir – Let the shofar echo into your life.

Living in Holiness

These prayers and meditations examine journey of a living a life of holiness, focusing on attributes (like humility) and practices (listening for G-d’s voice, doing G-d’s will):

• Is This the Fast? – An introspection based on Isaiah 58:6-7.
• Congregational Prayer at the High Holidays – For community.
• For Grace – For living a life of grace by offering grace to others.
• For Humility – For living a life of humility in service to G-d, ourselves and others.
• To Do Your Will – For guidance to humbly do G-d’s will.
• For Wonder and Awe – To put aside vain pursuits and seek G-d.
• To Hear Your Voice – G-d’s voice is available to all who listen.
• The Path of Righteousness – The path is paved with questions.
• G-d’s Plan: An Introspection – Surrendering to G-d’s will.
• On Making a Mistake – Elevating a mistake by finding wisdom.
• To Ask – For guidance to live a life of righteousness.
• Let Holiness – A prayer to embody holiness.
• For Compassion – Seeing myself in all men and women, showing compassion for others in service to G-d.

Time

Prayers about the holiness of time and the sanctity of this period in the Jewish calendar, from Elul through the end of Sukkot and Simchat Torah:

• Rhythms – On the contrasting rhythms of life, time moving in a straight line and holiness moving in circles.
• The Season of Healing – The time for healing our souls and lives.
• The Season of Return – The time of repentance and t’shuva.
• History – A celebration of the gifts of history and memory.

For Creation and the New Year

Meditations  for the New Year, which is also Yom Harat Olam, the birthday of the world:

• For the New Year – Gratitude for time and the gift of life.
• Meditation on the Eve of a New Year – Counting blessings.
• A New Year Begins – Love is the only answer.
• Another Year: An Introspection – On the passage of time.
• For Creation – On the beauty of creation.
• About the Rainbow – On the glory of creation.
• In This Turning: A New Year’s Day Meditation – Blessings from heaven.

Vidui (Confession)

Meditations on confession:

• Meditation before the Vidui – For a thorough, honest confession.
• Meditation on the Vidui – Living differently after confession.
• The Greatest Sin – Carelessly allowing the conditions for sin to root.

Neilah (Yom Kippur Closing Service)

Prayers as the day ends and our hearts yearn:

• At the Gates – At the gates of prayer, repentance and charity.
• Meditation Before Neilah – What have I left to say to G-d?
• The Entry to Our Hearts – A cry for hope and healing.

Death and Mourning

For an annotated list of Memorial and Yizkor prayers, click here. Here are prayers about preparing for one’s own death:

• Near the End: A Meditation – A meditation on preparing for the journey of my own death with grace and dignity, awe and wonder.
• Remember – A call back to our deepest sense of well-being.
• Gather Me – Comfort in the idea of being gathered to our people.
• Things Break – As we face endings and beginnings, G-d’s love remains.
• Angel of Rest – When the angel of death arrives.

Stories

Here are two short, short stories for the holidays:

• Cantor Cohen – A Yom Kippur story of a Chazzan preparing to lead his congregation in prayer, repentance and righteousness.
• Motyl the Fool – A Simchat Torah story about a man who loves Torah, a man who feels the fire of G-d’s word.

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Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day.