Rosh Hashanah Readings

Description

A powerful collection of writings about Rosh Hashanah that will add depth and holiness to your experience of the spiritual New Year.

This compelling companion to Yom Kippur Readings helps create a bridge between the words of our ancestors and the meanings, themes and ideas that are the central spiritual agenda of the life of the modern Jew.

Drawn from a variety of sources—ancient, medieval, modern, Jewish and non-Jewish—this selection of readings, prayers and insights explores the opportunities for inspiration and reflection inherent in the subjects addressed on the Jewish New Year: sin, repentance, personal and social change, societal justice, forgiveness, spiritual growth, living with joy and hope, commitment to high ideals, becoming our truest and most authentic selves, deepening our capacity to love and savoring the divine gift of life. These readings enable you to enter into the spirit of Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe in a personal and powerful way while they uplift and inform. They will add to the benefits of your High Holy Day experience year after year.

Introduction xvii
Opening Meditations and Thoughts 1
The Month of Elul: Preparing for the Days of Awe 19
Beginning Our Search for Words and Prayers 41
Words of Faith: Hear O Israel! 59
Standing before God: The Shacharit Amidah 71
Avinu Malkenu 87
Roots and Themes from the Torah 99
Inspiration from the Prophets 145
Tik'u Va-Chodesh Shofar: The Blowing of the Shofar 163
Yom Ha'zikaron: The Day of Remembrance 189
Repentance 203
U’netaneh Tokef: Repentance, Prayer, and Justice Can Annul
the Decree 223
V’khol Ma’aminim: That Which We All Believe 247
Various Aspects of the Musaf Amidah 257
Malkhuyot, Zikhronot, Shofarot 269
Today Is the Only Day That Counts 305
Rosh Hashanah Rituals and Customs 311
Acknowledgments 335
Sources 336
About the Contributors 350
Credits 361

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Rosh Hashanah
• High Holy Days
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 26 juillet 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580234818
• Langue: English

Extrait

Rosh Hashanah
Readings
Also edited by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins and published by Jewish Lights
Yom Kippur Readings: Inspiration, Information and Contemplation

For my seven precious grandchildren- Ari and Mia, Emma, Leila and Elan, Mollie and Arthur-with great love .
Rosh Hashanah Readings:
Inspiration, Information and Contemplation
2006 First Printing
2006 by Dov Peretz Elkins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Credits constitute a continuation of this copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosh Hashanah readings: inspiration, information, and contemplation / edited by Dov Peretz Elkins; with section introductions from Arthur Green s These are the words.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-239-5 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-58023-239-6
1. Rosh ha-Shanah-Meditations. I. Elkins, Dov Peretz. II. Green, Arthur, 1941- These are the words. Selections. III. Title. BM695.N5M67 2006 296.4'315-dc22
2006015173
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jacket design: Tim Holtz
Jacket art: S-29, Akedah VI, 1970 original color serigraph by Shraga Weil. Published by the Safrai Fine Art Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel. Copyright Safrai Gallery.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
Contents
Introduction
Opening Meditations and Thoughts
L Shanah Tovah
A New Year
A Fresh Start
A Clean Heart
The Future
Those Who Err Are Closest to God
Standing in Our Defense
Teshuvah -A Creative Process
A New Year-Turning Stone into Light
Three Lessons about the High Holy Days from the Musar Movement
A Blessing
Forgive Your Neighbors
Where Are You, God? (Before Ma Tovu )
Hold On to What Is Good
How We Become Wise, How We Change
Prayer for a Happy New Year
A Prayer for Life
God s Boxes
Spiritual Flutterings
Getting Rid of the Mud
What Being Jewish Means to Me
Lines to My Son
The Promise of This Day
A Meditation for the New Year
The Month of Elul: Preparing for the Days of Awe
Opening to the New Year
A Shanah Tovah
The Binding of Isaac and the Binding of You and Me
Are We Wise Enough to Change Our Minds?
The Days of Awe-or the Daze of Ah?
It Is Never Too Late
How High Are the High Holidays?
Do We Really Want to Change?
The Meaning of Elul
Elul
Moving Time
The Confessions of Elul
Psalm 27:4 Dwell in the House of the Lord All the Days of My Life
Demanding God s Presence
Meditation on Psalm
Selihot Meditation
Selihah -Forgiveness
A Selihot Ritual: Changing Our Torah Mantles as We Change Ourselves
Beginning Our Search for Words and Prayers
Prayer for Rosh Hashanah Evening
Seek Adonai When God May Be Found, Call Upon Adonai When God Is Near
Silence as Prayer
Silent Meditation
Why We Pray
Tefilah: Why We Praise God
With a Kiss
Tefilah: Will You Say a Prayer for Me?
Benediction
The Song of God s Presence
The Meaning of Mitzvah
Tefilah: Prayer Is Spiritual Ecstasy
As We Begin Our Prayers Tonight
Sacred Blessing
Spontaneity in Prayer
A Paradox: Praying for Oneself or Praying for the Shekhinah ?
Begin
Hamelekh: Prayer and Worship, Keva and Kavanah
Individual Prayer
Blessing God
Hitbodedut: Praying Separately
Words of Faith: Hear O Israel!
Praise the Lord, O My Soul: Let Every Fiber of My Being Praise God
Ahavah Rabbah: Enlighten Our Eyes in Your Torah
Enlighten Our Eyes in Your Torah: Torah as Unripe Fruit
Shema Yisrael: We Close Our Eyes for Shema because We re Blind
Shema: Those Little Whispers
Shema: Awakening a Love of God
Shema: Teach Them to Your Children, in Four Languages
Shema: With All Your Heart
Shema: Listen
Ga al Yisrael: Redemption as Social Redemption
Jewish Courage to Hope for Redemption
Footsteps of the Messiah
Standing before God: The Shacharit Amidah
Introduction to the Amidah: Praying with Kavanah
The Amidah: How Do We Find God?
Amidah: Purify Our Hearts to Serve You in Truth
Amidah: Saying Grace
Amidah: Prayer Lifts Creation
Melekh Hafetz Ba-Hayyim: God Desires Life
Zokhrenu L hayim
Choose Life That You May Live
Zokhrenu Le-Hayim: To Life!
L El Orekh Din: God Searches All Hearts on the Day of Judgment
L El Orekh Din: Justice Tempered with Mercy
The Righteous Will See and Be Glad, the Pious Will Rejoice in Song
Kadosh Atah V nora Sh mekha: You Are Holy and Awesome
Holiness and Righteousness
Ve-ten Helkenu be-Toratekha: The Lesson of Nature
Ve-Taher Leebenu: Kindness
Sim Shalom: Thoughts on War and Peace
Sim Shalom: Grant Peace, Goodness, Kindness to All Your People
Our Goal: Shalom
Oseh Shalom Bim romav
Sim Shalom: You Have Revealed to Us Your Life-Giving Torah
Avinu Malkenu
Avinu Malkenu : Become a Ruler over Yourself
Avinu Malkeynu -Our Father, Our King
Aseh Imanu Tzedakah Va-Chesed: Deal with Us Charitably and Lovingly
Avinu Malkenu , Judge Us according to Our Actions
Avinu Malkeinu , Graciously Answer Us, Even Though We Are Without Merit .
Avinu Malkeinu: Graciously Answer Us, Even Though We Are Without Merits
Avinu Malkenu: With Compassion and with Favor
Avinu Malkenu
Avinu Malkenu: God, Help Us Raise the Level of Your People s Jewish/Spiritual Consciousness
When God Answers Yes
Cleansed with Tears
Roots and Themes from the Torah
A Sacred Occasion
Sarah s Song
Memory and New Beginnings
Opening Our Eyes
The Importance of Children
Are You an Abraham or a Hannah?
Allowing the Hand of God to Work through Us
And God Remembered Sarah: Prayers and Rituals for an Infertile Couple on Rosh Hashanah
Hearing the Silent Scream: And God Heard the Voice of the Boy
Sacred Questions
Who Is Holding Whom?
God Accepts Our Newer Selves: Genesis 21:1
Genesis 21 and 22: Two Versions of the Same Story
The Akedah: Giving Freely
God Tested Abraham: Our Moral Senses Are Tested Again and Again
Yitzhak-He Laughed
Generations
The Binding of Sarah
Akedah
Hineni: Here I am!
After These Things
And the Two of Them Walked Together: A Parent s Advice to a Child
Akedah: The Two of Them Went Together
Teaching Children Jewish Ethics
The Akedah: A Test within a Test
The Akedah: Coming Down the Mountain
The Akedah from Isaac s Point of View
Consequences of Akedah
Abraham the Fundamentalist?
And Abraham Grew Big-Like God
Hineni: Send Me
Akedah
Akedah: Sinai or Moriah?
The Akedah
Inspiration from the Prophets
Prayer from the Heart Is Better than Prayer from the Lips
A Story of Consolation (1 Samuel 1:1-2:10)
Hannah s Tears
Prayer for an Expecting Couple during the Days of Awe
Debtors Are We All
God Is Merciful
Thy Children Shall Return to Their Own Border
Prayer for the Gift and Raising of Children
We Are Dear Children to God
There Is Hope for Your Future, Declares God (Jeremiah 31:17)
The Metaphor of Parenthood
God Is a Source of Comfort
The Divinity inside You
Tik u Va-Chodesh Shofar: The Blowing of the Shofar
The Lesson of Abraham
Sound the Shofar!
A Prayer for Blowing Shofar
The Trumpets of Rosh Hashanah
The Torah Was Given with the Sound of the Shofar
How Can I Sound the Shofar?
Why the Shofar?
The Call to Battle
Shofar: The Clarion Call of Hope
Shofar: Awaken Our Slumbering Hearts
Guided Imagery Meditation on the Blowing of the Shofar
Shofar Ceremony
Tik u Va-Chodesh Shofar: Linking Our Lives Below with the Unknowable Above
My Father s Shofar
The Original Shofar
Meaning of the Blasts: One, Three, Nine, Longest
Shofar: Cleaning the Earth for Those Who Come after Us
Blowing God s Breath into the Shofar
The Shofar Is Not Magic
Shofarot
Kol ha-Shofar: The Voice of the Shofar
Shofar: The Primal Scream
The Wailing of the Shofar: Feeling the Other s Pain
The Meaning of the Shofar
Shofar: Because It s Imperfect
Yom Ha zikaron: The Day of Remembrance
Yom Hazikaron: This Day of the Year
Memory
God Remembers Everything You Forget
The Kindness of Your Youth
The Day of Remembering: The Family Reunion
Naming the Day
The First Day of the Year
Not Just Today, but Every Day
Zakhor
The New Year for Years
Remember
Remembrance: The Key to Redemption
Yom Hazikaron
The Day of Remembrance
The Past Lives in Me
Fragments of Memory
Repentance
Teshuvah: Forgiveness and Exoneration Require Acknowledging Our Wrongdoing
Teshuvah: Making a U-turn
Forgiveness: A Bag of Nails
Teshuvah: I Am Still Growing
Joining in the Great Return
Change Begins with Me
Confession
Teshuvah: Lessons from a Fish
When Teshuvah Doesn t Work
Four Results of Sin
The Power of Our Most Banal Acts
Teshuvah: Taking Care of Others
It Is Not Enough to Repent
Teshuvah as Ending Self-Exile
To Be Human Is to Be Capable of Change
To Be Forgiven, Learn How to Forgive
Teshuvah: Is My Life Tuned to My Own Note?
Teshuvah: Why Should I Go Elsewhere?
Teshuvah
Forgiveness
Crime and Punishment
Teshuvah: Tilt the World to the Side of Good
Forgiving Yourself: A Guided Imagery Meditation
U netaneh Tokef: Repentance, Prayer, and Justice Can Annul the Decree
U netaneh Tokef
You Record and Seal, Count and Measure
Are Politics and Prophetic Social Justice the Same?
V kol D mama Dakah Yishama: God s Presence in the Silence
We Pass by God,