Prayer for Social Activists

I just learned that the new Reform prayerbook, Mishkan Tefilah, includes the following as an alternative to the strict translation of Mah Tovu:

May the One whose spirit is with us in every righteous deed,
be with all who work for the good of humanity
and bear the burdens of others,
and who give bread to the hungry,
who clothe the naked,
and take the friendless into their homes.
May the work of their hands endure,
and may the seed they sow bring abundant harvest.

It seems like a really good invocation for SFOP meetings and for activists and helpers of every stripe.

The Season of Birds and Bees

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods, and birdsong has blossomed forth along with the cherry trees. The increased hours of sun improve my mood immensely. And I'm learning to chant the festival melodies for a few verses of the Song of Songs for services this Shabbat.

In case you're not familiar with it, the Song of Songs is a book of the Bible (Jewish and Christian) that is leaping with erotic poetry and imagery from the natural world. It's assigned to be read in synagogues during the week of Passover, which is itself a springtime festival.

The eroticism of the season is not confined to the Bible. Yesterday, on my way home, I saw two blackbirds engaged in copulation. And this noon, on my way to lunch, I saw two pigeons similarly occupied. The emerging blossoms and increased light appear to be an avian aphrodisiac.

Ah, to be young and feathered!

And Another Blessing

That I wrote in a Kavvanot Class that the rabbi led maybe a year ago. We were asked to write a blessing for what we wanted for ourselves, now:

In the Divine image You created us, Adonai. We strive to measure up to that image, and fail, and get up, and strive again. Please teach us that we grow closer to Your image every time we get up, and give us joy in that knowledge. Blessed are You, Adonai, who lifts up the fallen.

Leftover Prayer

For some strange reason, I left out one of the prayers that I wrote at the last session. It didn't get posted here, it didn't get sent to the prayerbook editors, and it will probably get left out.

But I've been thinking about it the last several days, and finally located it. So, here it is, and I might as well send it on to the prayerbook people too. It's a second pre-Shema kavvanah, and they've already selected one of mine for rather prominent featuring, so I may be competing with myself here.

Help us, Creator of Unity, to pull together our scattered selves into one, to collect our thoughts and bring them here, and to be fully present now, with ourselves, with each other, and with You.

Viva Esther!

Happy Purim and Chag Sameach, All,

I went to the synagogue's Purim party last night for the first time in a decade or so. One of the major attractions of Purim is the commandment to get drunk, and since I don't drink, I lack that incentive to attend. This year, I was asked to chant some of the Megillah, the Hebrew book of Esther. Since I want to keep up my chanting abilities, I agreed to do so, but was a bit taken back on learining that I'd have to chant from a Hebrew scroll without vowels or punctuation, like the Torah.

I had another chant in the queue first, and didn't start learning the portion until after the gay Jewish retreat at which I chanted a bit of Torah. I was talking to one of the rabbis in attendance about the Megillah chant, and she mentioned that she had heard someone chant Megillah to the tune of "Don't cry for me, Argentina," and it brought the house down. Lightbulb time.

I had been planning to attend the party (which is a costume event) as Carmen Miranda. So, I thought I'd chant my portion to a melody from the opera Carmen, the Habanera. I had to do serious surgery on the music to make it fit the Hebrew words of the chant instead of the original French text. And then memorize what I'd figured out so I could chant it with only the Hebrew consonants on the Megillah scroll to remind me.

It went almost as well as I'd hoped. I wore dark lipstick and my mother's chunky jewelry and a sarong/toga wrap of glittery silver/purple/green fabric, and a matching head wrap with plastic fruit attached using sticky-backed velcro tabs. The look was so NOT me. I'm more a tailored, L.L. Bean/preppy kind of gal.)

I was a little worried about deviating so far from the prescribed chant melody, but the first chanter also left it in the dust, doing a wonderful hillbilly rabbi sort of thing in coveralls with a southern hill accent. Intervening chanters who had followed the rules were nearly ignored. When I got up there and belted my high first note in a trained operatic soprano, people sat up and took notice, and when they figured out what I was singing and got the musical joke, some started to clap along in rhythm. Cries of 'Bravo' and 'Encore' greeted me on the way back to my seat.

I'm already thinking of what to do for next year. ...

The Last Prayer Writing Session?

We're getting pretty close to finalizing the text of the new prayerbook, so we had what was billed as the last writing session a few weeks ago to fill in some of the gaps. Here's what I wrote:

Wrestling with Torah

Creator who spoke the world into being, we are about to read Your words. Some words are hard, and we bruise ourselves trying to batter them into a shape we can hear. Some words are so bright they make our eyes water and we cannot read them clearly. Some words we have read again and again until they seem leached of meaning. Source of meaning, please help all Your words to speak to us once more.

B'nai Mitzvah prayer

Today I take on the commandments, I enter the covenant, I join the community. This is not the end of my journey, but the beginning. I ask the Eternal and you to help me fulfill the commandments, keep the covenant, and become a full member of the community. Let us journey on together in peace and love and joy.

Caring for the Human Temple

Rabbi Hillel once said that taking a bath was a mitzvah. Since we are made in the Divine image, caring for ourselves is a holy act. It can be hard to be consistent in taking good care of our bodies and our spirits. Source of life and Indwelling Presence, please help us to care for ourselves with wisdom and discipline and love, that we may have the health and strength we need to be fully ourselves and fully Yours.

Let a Smile be ...

Today's bit of wisdom from the Jewish quarter of Beliefnet is as follows:

To smile at your neighbor is more important than to treat him to a drink.- Johanan b. Nappaha, Talmud: Ketubot

As I'm in a particularly smily mood today, it resonated with me. Although I find myself smiling more when the sun is shining, there are other stimuli that work. And receiving good news is one of them.

In that regard, though, one's mindset helps determine what will be deemed to be good news and just how good it will strike one. Another piece of today's wisdom, Buddhist flavored, addresses that point:

Before, this mind went wandering however it pleased, wherever it wanted, by whatever way that it liked. Today I will hold it aptly in check--as one wielding a goad, an elephant in rut.-Dhammapada, 23, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

I've been following a piece of advice I received in a mini-session of spiritual direction at last weekend's retreat on Jewish Spirituality - which is to constantly pray a 'metta' prayer for myself when I don't need to be focusing on something else. I worked up my version of this prayer some years ago and use it on occasion to wellwish someone who happens to pop into my mind:

May ___ be kind and loving; may ___ be peaceful and at ease; may ___ be well; may ___ be happy.

So I've been praying this for myself the past week when walking to the bus stop, to the office, towards home, etc. And I think it really helps my mood, as well as encouraging me to act kindly and lovingly, and to relax, etc.

It's a lovely sunny day today, and I have social plans for this weekend and synagogue work of interest to do. And I'm trying to keep my mind running in peaceful, positive channels. It's a good day. Zeh hayom asah Adonai, nagila v'nis m'cha vo. This is the day God has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.