TBZ Prayers

Why Are We Here?

Some of us are here because we are searching for a way to be fully human.
Some of us are here to sit quietly and reflect.
Some of us are here to feel the rhythm of life flowing in our veins.
Some of us are here to dance.
Some of us are here to sing.
Some of us are here to study Torah.
Some of us are here to study ourselves.
Some of us are here to become awakened.
Some of us are here to peacefully dream.
Some of us are here to listen.
Some of us are here to breathe deeply.
Some of us are here to argue.
Some of us are here to say Amen.
Some of us are here to laugh.
Some of us are here to cry.
Some of us are here because we have said no to despair.
Some of us are here because we are filled with passion.
Some of us are here today because we still stand at Sinai and feel the warm breath of the still small voice emerging from the mist.

All of us are here to celebrate the passing of time.
All of us are here to examine our lives.
All of us are here to become fully alive.

And you who achieve devekut — the cleaving, the one-ness, the repair of the breach, the spanning of the chasm, the bridging of the gap with Yah —
all of you are alive today.

Ve-Atem ha Devakim ba-Ya Eloheychem Hayyim Kool-chem HaYom.

— Reb Moshe Waldoks

The following readings, from our Kabbalat Shabbat Prayer Book: Your Presence Fills Creation, was written by Rabbi Rami Shapiro, as were many of the Prayer Book’s English language passages. They are not direct translations, but rather interpretive readings that capture the essence of the Hebrew. We look forward to keeping the spirit of our Friday night services alive with expanded consciousness and renewed vigor.

“The Enternal G!d is not. . .”

The Eternal God is not the
God of Abraham is not the
God of Isaac is not the God of Jacob is not the
God of Sarah is not the God of Rebecca is not the
God of Leah is not the God of Rachel is not the
God of my childhood is not the God of my youth is not the
God of my adulthood is not the God of my old age is not the
God of my dying is not the God of my imagining.
The Eternal God is not my creation.
The Eternal God is not the
God who chooses is not the God who commands is not the God who punishes is not the
God who creates is not the God who destroys is not the
God who makes me win is not the God who sees that my enemies lose.
The Eternal God is not my creation.
The Eternal God is the God who alone exists and who exists alone.
When I am free from ancestors, free from traditions, free from truths,
free from words, free from thoughts, free from even the need to be free,
there is God, and there I am not.
Blessed is the One at the heart of my emptiness.
Hashkiveynu — Prayer for Peace

May I live each day with fullness of mind,
attending to Life and all she places before me.
Thus will I live without hesitation.
Only then can I lie down in peace,
having given Life my all.
Only then can I rise up in anticipation of a new day,
knowing I have so much more to give.
Let mercy refine my actions and justice shield me from enemies.
Let my life be a vehicle for grace and mercy,
bringing peace and comfort to all in need.
May the Source of Life spread a tallit of peace
over me,
over Israel,
over Jerusalem,
and over all the world.

Hatikvah — literally, “the hope” — is the national anthem of Medinat Yisrael, or the State of Israel. Its lyrics were written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, a poet originally from Galicia. The melody was written by Samuel Cohen, an immigrant from Moldavia and one of the pioneer settlers in Rishon Le Zion, or Palestine. The melody is based on a Czechoslovakian folk song by Bedrich Smetanas. The song was taken up by the Palestine Colonists and became the anthem of the Zionist movement after it was organized in 1897.

The following are the song’s lyrics in Hebrew, English transliteration, and translation:

Kol ode balevav P’nimah

Nefesh Yehudi homiyah

Ulfa’atey mizrach kadimah

Ayin l’tzion tzofiyah.

Ode lo avdah tikvatenu

Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim:

L’hiyot am chofshi b’artzenu

Eretz Tzion v’Yerushalayim.

As long as within our hearts
The Jewish soul sings,
As long as forward to the East
To Zion, looks the eye -
Our hope is not yet lost,
It is two thousand years old,
To be a free people in our land
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.