תחנון לימים קשים | Taḥanun [Plea for Mercy] on Hard Days by Noa Mazor (trans. by Jonah Rank)

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21 July 2014 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., בצלם אלהים btselem Elohim, Da Lifnei Mi Ata Omeid, דע לפני מי אתה עומד Know Before Whom You Stand, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, فلسطين Filasṭīn Palestine, תחינות teḥinot, ישראל Yisrael

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
אלֹהינו ואלֹהי אבותינו ואימותינו, בזמנים קשים אלה פונים אנו אליך. שכינה מקור חיינו, אשר אלייך עיננו בימים רעים כבימים טובים. תני בנו הכוח לאזור את הכוחות הדרושים לעמוד בעומס הרגשות.	Our God and God of our forefathers and foremothers– in these hard times, we turn to You. Shekhinah [Presence], source of our life, our eyes seek You on bad days, just as on good days. Grant us the power to gather the inner strength necessary to be able to stand in the face of our emotional load.
תני בנו את היכולת לראות את קשיי האדם העומד מולנו. אדם יסודו בעפר וסופו לעפר, וימיו כצל עובר.	Grant us the capability to see the struggles of the person standing before us.^[1] c.f., Talmud Bavli Brakhot 28b, “Know before whom you stand.” A mortal is formed of dust, and is destined to return to dust;^[2] Genesis 3:19 a human’s days pass as a shadow.^[3] Psalms 144:4
העבר ה’ אלֹהינו את ימינו בטובה, רחמים חיים ושלום. תן במנהיגנו את היכולת לראות את נזר הבריאה הטמון בכל אדם. תני לנו את היכולת לתת אמון בבני האדם, הנלחמים על דרכם, על חייהם – על חיינו.	Lord, our God, bring us days of good, of mercy, of life and of peace. Give our leaders the capability to see the natural sanctity embedded in every person. Give us the ability to trust human beings fighting for their way, for their lives–for our lives.
הנחנו ה’ בדרכך – דרך אהבת האדם באשר הוא אדם, ודרך השכנת השלום בין אדם לחברו, בין אדם לצרו. בימים קשים אלה, תן בנו הכוח להאמין כי בו יבוא היום ונשב איש תחת גפנו ותחת תאנתו ואין מחריד. אמן.	Lord, lay us down along Your path–a path for loving humanity as humanity, a path for welcoming peace between neighbors: between humanity and pain. In these hard days, give us the strength to believe that today may be the day of the prophecy: when all shall sit beneath their vine, underneath their fig-tree; and none shall fear.^[4] Micah 4:4 Amen.

Notes

Notes
1	c.f., Talmud Bavli Brakhot 28b, “Know before whom you stand.”
2	Genesis 3:19
3	Psalms 144:4
4	Micah 4:4

Jonah Rank (translation)

Rabbi Jonah Rank is President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary: A Rabbinical School for the Deaf and Hearing. An award-winning Jewish songwriter, Rabbi Rank earned an MA in Jewish Thought and was ordained in 2015 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Rabbi Rank has been involved in Jewish education for many years and served as the Maskil (“Teacher-of-Tradition”) at the Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his spouse, Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss, served as Senior Rabbi. While living in Canada, Rabbi Rank initiated the annual Halifax Communal Beit Midrash, and collaborated with the community’s Education Committee in rebooting the Halifax Joint Hebrew School. Following his family’s return to the U.S, he became the Director of the Shul School at Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, Pennsylvania. While managing the supplementary school, Rabbi Rank co-led a Virtual Youth Arts Beit Midrash serving youth across five states, designed a virtual reality Purim carnival, and created curricular materials for young Jews to engage with Jewish notions of responsibility towards marginalized communities and to the planet. Rabbi Rank has authored several academic articles, served as the Managing Editor of Zeramim: An Online Journal of Applied Jewish Studies, and is currently editing Siddur Kanfey HaShekhinah, a forthcoming traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew prayer book, where the language referring to God is with feminine grammar. An advocate for civic causes, Rabbi Rank was appointed in 2021 to the Environmental Advisory Council in the Township of Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania. Rabbi Rank’s recently moved with his family to Natick, Massachusetts.

Noa Mazor

Rabbi Noa Mazor (HUC Jer '16) Educator, inter-religious and peace activist.

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“Dust storm (haboob) on west side of Twin Falls, Idaho on July 4, 2013” (credit: Famartin, license: CC-BY-SA)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

תחנון לימים קשים | Taḥanun [Plea for Mercy] on Hard Days by Noa Mazor (trans. by Jonah Rank)

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