A Prayer before Candle-lighting, by Chaya Kaplan-Lester

Contributor(s):

Chaya Kaplan-Lester

Shared on:

5 January 2012 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Shavuot, Erev Pesaḥ, Erev Shabbat, Sukkot, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Yom Kippur, 7th Day of Pesaḥ

Tags:

58th century A.M., fire, כוונות kavvanot, kindling, English poetry, Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, entering, welcoming, candle lighting, Light, 21st century C.E., potential

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Please God Let me light More than flame tonight.
	More than wax and wick and sliver stick of wood. More than shallow stream of words recited from a pocket book.
	But rather with this touch of torch and spell of prayer let me light a way towards You let me dare to radiate a rapt request that with this lamp the world will rest a stilling hand on pounding heart and take a breath – a pause – to start to appreciate the state of things …just as they are
	And spill this light to stain the sheets so feverishly inscribed with what the future will bring.
	Washed away in what’s today – present, patient, allowing space.
	The ache for arrival laid to rest our wreck un-rectified…as of yet.
	Yet rest us well in humbling fact that we are made replete with lacks The future’s but an ornament on bounding limbs of present tense.
	All force and foist of fists and fights flooded out by candle-light incandescent with acceptance – allowance made for imperfections.
	We offer up our Sabbath rest Forbearance on our table set.
	A chance for us to savor food to honor all to prize, to prove that there’s matter higher than a week of labor than lofty goals and courting favor.
	For a match-box and a bit of wax can top and tumble all of that.
	So as sun sets we raise a blaze. Resplendently We offer praise.
	As light leans in and grips go lax our ache for future slips into the past.
	Arrival, a candle. Impatience, in vain. The World to Come has come and come undone by flame.

We are grateful to Chaya Kaplan-Lester for graciously sharing her prayer for candle-lighting with a CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license, along with her d’var torah for the parsha Ki Tissa.

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“A Prayer before Candle-lighting, by Chaya Kaplan-Lester” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Chaya Kaplan-Lester

Chaya Kaplan-Lester is a Jerusalem-based spiritual teacher & guide, psychotherapist, and performance artist. She offers private therapy & spiritual counseling in person or via phone and Skype as well as leads spiritual journeys in Israel. As co-director of the Shalev Center for Jewish Personal Growth, Chaya trains and facilitates ongoing women's groups and teaches regular classes in the Jerusalem area and on her annual tours world-wide.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=4265

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“Candlelight” (credit: apdk, license: CC BY)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17