Source (Hebrew and Yiddish) | Paraliturgical Interpretation (English) |
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(Before ברכו:) God is the “the grandeur of reason made manifest in existence.”[1] A phrase adapted from Albert Einstein’s Science and Religion (1939): “By way of the understanding, [humanity] achieves a far-reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes and desires—and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man.” God is the Creative Force behind and within the universe that manifests itself as energy, as life, as order, as beauty, as thought, as conscience and as love. Let us now rise to acknowledge God’s presence in our midst. | |
(Paraphrase of יוצר המאורות and אהבה רבה:) | |
We give thanks to God for the light of day. | |
ברוך אתה ה׳ יוצר המאורות׃ | |
And we also give thanks to God for the light of conscience and for the moral laws discovered by our people and people of goodwill everywhere and by which we live. | |
ברוך אתה ה׳ אוהב עמו ישראל׃ | |
(Before each phrase of ברכת שלום:) | |
גאָט זאָל דיק בענטשן און דיך היטן! |
May the Eternal God bless you with whatever enables you to be a source of blessing, and protect you from whatever prevents you from growing in loyalty, integrity, and ethical responsibility. |
גאָט זאָל דערלײַכטן זײַן פָּנִים צו דיר און דיך לײטזעליקן! |
May the Eternal One illumine your life through Torah and wisdom, so that you may be loving and lovable. |
גאָט זאָל אױפֿהײגן זײַן פָּנִים צו דיר און דיר באַשערן שָׁלוֹם. |
May the Eternal’s kindness and love pervade your awareness, bestowing fulfillment, contentment and peace. |
These are a series of kavvanot prepared by Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith (1935-2024), z”l, for a Shaḥarit service containing the call to prayer (Barkhu), the blessings preceding the Shema, and the conclusion of the Amidah. Rabbi Ben Newman, who shared these kavvanot in eulogy for Rabbi Goldsmith in a Facebook post, writes, “My dear teacher, friend, and mentor Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Goldsmith died on Friday. He was an amazing man who taught me a lot about how to be a rabbi, a Reconstructionist, a liturgist, philosopher of religion, and Yiddishist. He also was the “head rabbi” who officiated at my wedding to Rabbi Shoshana Leis….I had him write out for me [these kavvanot] when I substituted for him leading at Congregation Mvakshe Derekh in Scarsdale, NY, 20 years ago as a student rabbi.”
Source(s)
Notes
1 | A phrase adapted from Albert Einstein’s Science and Religion (1939): “By way of the understanding, [humanity] achieves a far-reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes and desires—and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man.” |
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“Kavvanot for Barkhu, Birkat Ahavah, and the Priestly Blessing (in Yiddish) for a Shaḥarit Service, by Rabbi Emanuel S. Goldsmith ca. 2003)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Wonderful. Thank you so much for transcribing this!– Ben Newman