Thursday 19 June 2014

Prayer & reflection thread

This week has of course been one of great anguish for the Jewish community across the word, with the kidnap of 3 boys from a Yeshiva in Israel (I refuse to use the term 'occupied territory' as no part of Eretz Yisrael is occupied by anything other than the legitimate rulers). When I learned about this, I could help but not hug my husband, my boys & my girl, how could any human being use another human being in this way ? I shuddered to think of them being held captive in some hell hole whilst Arabs gleefully celebrated this criminal act. Furthermore there has been more bloodshed in our ancestor's homeland of Iraq. A terrible situation, where it seems dogmatism, tribal strife and bloodletting is going to occur on a greater scale than anything yet seen as a result of Islamic Jihadist terrorism (and if I may have a dig, which is why Israel cannot afford to lay down her arms). This is the world.

There is also matters closer to home. We know that there are people who are poor, who will be struggling to feed themselves. This is true of some in the Jewish community, especially the Haredi, and outside the community, with the ever rising increase in food banks and social dislocation. Then there is your own personal circumstances ; has it been a good week? A bad one? Is there any issues that you need to deal with before the weekend? Relationships to mend, people to praise, that last bit of work to be done? Are you struggling? These are all difficult challenges, we all live in the real world. So as we enter Shabbos this week, let us do so with joy, but also remember. Our Rabbis asked that we recite (in Judaism we 'chant' the Bible) Psalms 121 and 130, when the news broke about those lads being kidnapped. Perhaps they are a good place to start as we begin our Shabbat reflections


Shir hamaalot mima amakim keraticha Adonai
Adonai shima bekoli tihyena oznecha kashubot le'kol tanhanuai
Im avonot tishmor Yah Adonai mi ya'amod
Ki imcha haslicha lemaan tivare
kiviti adonai kivta nafshi velidvaro hochalti
Nafshi ladonai mishomrim laboker shomrim laboker
Yachel yisrael el adonai ki im adonai hachesed veharbeh imo fedut
Vehu yifdeh et yisrael mikol avonotav.


From the depths I have cried out to you, O L-rd;
L-rd, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication.
If you, L-rd, were to mark iniquities, who, O L-rd, shall stand?
But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered. I trust in the L-rd;
My soul trusts in his word.
My soul waits for the L-rd,
more than watchmen wait for the dawn.
More than watchmen wait for the dawn, let Israel hope in the L-rd.
For with the L-rd there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.



Esa einai el heharim,
me'ayin me'ayin yavo ezri
Esa einai el heharim,
me'ayin me'ayin yavo ezri

Ezri me'im Hashem,
Oseh shamayim va'aretz
Ezri me'im Hashem,
Oseh shamayim va'aretz


I will lift up my eyes to the mountains.
From where does my help come? 
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains.
From where does my help come?

My help comes from the L-rd,
who made heaven and earth.
My help comes from the L-rd,
who made heaven and earth.



And the following prayer, being recited across Israel and the Diaspora community   -

"May He who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, bless, protect and guard the captives –

Yaakov Naftali Ben Rachel Devorah (Frenkel)
Gilad Michael Ben Bat-Galim (Shaar)
Eyal Ben Iris Teshurah (Yifrach)

among our brethren, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress or captivity, as we, the members of his holy congregation, pray on their behalf. May the Holy One, blessed be He, have compassion on them and bring them out from darkness and the shadow of death; may He break their bonds, deliver them from their distress, and bring them swiftly back to their families’ embrace. May there be fulfilled through them the verse: “Those redeemed by the L-rd will return; they will enter Zion with singing and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will be removed”. And let us say Amen"

In Britain, The Chief Rabbi, gave a passionate sermon at a special prayer service, attended by over 1,000 of our Jewish community  -


23 comments:

  1. Hi Esther,

    Thanks for this post (:

    I can only say Amen to the Psalms, the prayer and the sermon of Ephraim Mirvis.

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  2. Esther,


    Appreciate the flow of the posts, the Psalms, the prayers and the video link. We are all worried, we pray as a people


    # Bring the boys back. Amen.

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  3. Dominique Vasilkovsky20 June 2014 at 13:46

    Esther


    Thank you for putting up this post. I've been reciting the prayers and psalms all week.


    #Bring back our boys!

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  4. "May He who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, bless, protect and guard the captives –


    Yaakov Naftali Ben Rachel Devorah (Frenkel)
    Gilad Michael Ben Bat-Galim (Shaar)
    Eyal Ben Iris Teshurah (Yifrach)


    among our brethren, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress or captivity, as we, the members of his holy congregation, pray on their behalf. May the Holy One, blessed be He, have compassion on them and bring them out from darkness and the shadow of death; may He break their bonds, deliver them from their distress, and bring them swiftly back to their families’ embrace. May there be fulfilled through them the verse: “Those redeemed by the L-rd will return; they will enter Zion with singing and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will be removed”. And let us say Amen".

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  5. Amen to the prayer

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  6. Amen. When I read posts like this and know that we have the support of the Chief Rabbi in England, I feel less alone and more of the wider Jewish community. The diaspora Jews supporting those of us in Israel means a great deal. Don't let the self Jew haters and the anit -semites get you down!

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  7. Thanks Esther,


    Amen to the prayers and wot everything else people have said on this thread.

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  8. Gillian Kowalski20 June 2014 at 15:13

    Amen. I'd to share this video as well.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWnEjwLGh6k

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  9. Let's pray and hope that Hashem hears and acts on our prayers and together with all of Am Yisrael's prayers and our soldiers that they will be home sooner than later !

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  10. Great Video, moved me to tears .

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  11. Thanks for sharing this Gillian.

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  12. A powerful song. Thanks for uploading.

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  13. Thanks Gill, for putting on this video. Really appreciated it, made me cry! (:

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  14. Thanks for this song. Lovely, moving. Hashem hear our prayers .
    #Bring back our boys

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  15. Mancurian Womble20 June 2014 at 15:57

    Deliver GILAD, FRENKEL AND EYAL, according to your word. (Ps.119:170)
    Command deliverance for their lives. (Ps.44:4) Deliver them from those who hate.(Ps.69:14).Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver these boys (Ps. 40:13). Make haste O God, and deliver them (Ps.70:1).

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  16. Mancurian Womble20 June 2014 at 15:58

    We look after our own, because no one else will.

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  17. I cry much
    bring back our boys after israel
    god bless you all
    shalom

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  18. Gill

    Thanks. Amen to the video .

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  19. Atheist Shrugged20 June 2014 at 16:31

    What I find disgusting is that thousands of Palestinians are suffering all the time - 2 boys were shot by the occupying forces earlier on last week. No one gives a fuck about them here. of course Israel is an Apartheid regime and if they did not have arabs to beat upon and demean as we in our guit trips are like pay to view supporters of tha Apartheid and its brutal nature they would turn upon themselves as in all their history was their want.
    Can't judge to far beyond that as then US christans are gonaninvade with Jesus in the lead-sad but true - the zionists and their ilk have jockeyed themselves into every position of political power across the globe for at least the last 100 yrs. Is it really a wonder why we're not allowed to talk about it? Because people are finally waking up and seeing it with their own eyes regardless of what, or how many, trolls they pay to try to conceal the truth or sway public opinion. For the morons that keep gagging everyone with the lie of "oh poor isreal isn't doing anything but protecting itself" I ask you from whom? Palestine doesn't have a military!
    If your response is Hamas then you might want to research who created Hamas... if there is no enemy then just create one - it's what they do.

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  20. As a Catholic I also agree that Israel needs to dismantle and return the land to the Palestinians. I believe this is the real Catholic position.

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  21. The Vatican has always supported the Palestinian cause, and made that clear as early as 1949. Before 1947 they opposed the Balfour Declaration and the whole idea of turning Palestine into a Jewish state.

    The Vatican refused to even recognise the state of Israel until as recently as 1993 .The reasons for this one-sided approach to the Arab/Israeli conflict are obvious

    1. A proportion of Palestinians were (and are) Christian, so naturally the Papacy favoured them over Jews
    2. The Vatican wanted to make Jerusalem an International zone (with access to the Holy Places uppermost in their mind) and rejected Israel's claim to the city.
    3. There is a very long tradition of AntiSemitism in the Vatican.

    The reason the Church opposed the Jewish state is because Catholic theology at the time saw Jews as the 'damned' for their rejection of the Churches god. This, and the fact that Christianity was supposed to replace Judaism meant it to be theologically impossible for a Jewish state to be reconstructed. The creation of something calling itself the Jewish state, and allowing the return of the Jews to their homeland was thus a direct contradiction to Catholicism. This was of course one of the drivers for the church to ditch that piece of anti-semitic dogma, as its retention was a self-disproving inconvenience. Now there is no dogmatic reason to be against the state of Israel, but two thousands years of history are hard to wipe out. So far from being "fearless", any pro-Palestinian statement by the Pope will simplyrepeat what has been their policy ever since Israel was established.

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  22. Lovely song. Thanks for putting this on the thread.

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  23. Not going to happen, though.

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