A Prayer for Ukraine, by Chaya Kaplan Lester (2022)

Contributor(s):

Chaya Kaplan-Lester

Shared on:

24 February 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

War

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, Chess, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Dear God of chess games turned long-range missiles, fateful tanks and heavy metals
	Let our prayers be likewise geared for long-range impact and great precision to protect the innocent from invasion and division
	For suddenly the game has changed… Another match just like we played last season and the last… in fierce competition, yes, but a theoretical game of chess none the less…
	Until today when these wooden figures turned flesh and bone and tender When suddenly the tactics are tactile made of real fire, no fiction in shrapnel
	For these chess pieces bleed… the rooks buckle under pressure and bishops bend break shatter pawns blasted asunder by another monster and another
	And the bloodied board has begun to drip onto the carpet that keeps getting pulled out from beneath our feet and we can’t seem to stop it…
	The fabric of an entire continent stained sprayed afraid as we pray our way through this somber day.
	We are wildly untethered weathered by winter and pandemic we are deep in it dismay, dismal and may we finish the game somehow saved somehow civil
	May Justice be the victor and may the chess master master his own inward glance and retreat from disaster
	Unseat the monsters who make chess pieces bleed onto the carpet the kings and queens are just mothers and fathers protect the pawns God of chess games please stop this…

“A Prayer for Ukraine” was first published by Chaya Kaplan Lester on her Facebook page.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“A Prayer for Ukraine, by Chaya Kaplan Lester (2022)” 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.

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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