Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
A Prayer for Israel's Sixtieth Birthday
For so many years, as warmly as I felt toward Israel, I was more critical than appreciative. This year though, as Israel prepared to celebrate its sixtieth birthday, it finally hit me: A tiny land and only sixty years old -- and look what it has managed to achieve: the settlement of Jewish refugees, many of them traumatized and poverty-stricken -- from countries as disparate as Yemen, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Morocco, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, Ethiopia, South Africa, Argentina, Greece, Turkey, Romania, and all the "stans" -- as in Kazakhstan; the building of towns and cities; brilliantlyinternational leadership in so many fields, from medicine to computers; astoundingly creative art, drama, music, film of the finest caliber....the list goes on and on.
And so...I hope you'll join me this year in this prayerI felt moved to write for Israel's 60th birthday:
A Prayer for Israel on her Sixtieth Birthday
Adonai our God,
Bless the skies over our beloved state of Israel,
that sunlight will pour from them in its season,
and rain will pour from them in its season.
Bless the hills, where wildflowers flourish
among ancient rocks, pillars, and relics of thousands-of-year-old
memories of civilizations past.
Bless the springs of water, whose underground
streams nourish the oases of the Negev.
Bless the marshy valleys, where birds from all over the world
flock as they journey every year
from one continent to another, pausing like pilgrims
when they arrive in our land. Bless the rivers, the canyons, the beaches, the coastline
of our new-old land of Israel. But above all, our loving God,
bless the people who dwell in our precious homeland,
bless their villages and towns, their farms and their cities.
Let life be good for them, and let life be safe for them, O God,
let it be bountiful and infused with joy.
May the ancient wisdom of our people
dance with the most amazing visions of today
and on this, our state’s sixtieth birthday
dear God, let the nation of Israel glow
with peace and lovingkindness,
compassion and understanding,
courage, health, glory and truth.
Amen.
--Rabbi Miriyam Glazer
And so...I hope you'll join me this year in this prayerI felt moved to write for Israel's 60th birthday:
A Prayer for Israel on her Sixtieth Birthday
Adonai our God,
Bless the skies over our beloved state of Israel,
that sunlight will pour from them in its season,
and rain will pour from them in its season.
Bless the hills, where wildflowers flourish
among ancient rocks, pillars, and relics of thousands-of-year-old
memories of civilizations past.
Bless the springs of water, whose underground
streams nourish the oases of the Negev.
Bless the marshy valleys, where birds from all over the world
flock as they journey every year
from one continent to another, pausing like pilgrims
when they arrive in our land. Bless the rivers, the canyons, the beaches, the coastline
of our new-old land of Israel. But above all, our loving God,
bless the people who dwell in our precious homeland,
bless their villages and towns, their farms and their cities.
Let life be good for them, and let life be safe for them, O God,
let it be bountiful and infused with joy.
May the ancient wisdom of our people
dance with the most amazing visions of today
and on this, our state’s sixtieth birthday
dear God, let the nation of Israel glow
with peace and lovingkindness,
compassion and understanding,
courage, health, glory and truth.
Amen.
--Rabbi Miriyam Glazer
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