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This prayer was written on Friday, November 24th 2023, 11th of Kislev 5784, early afternoon (Israel Time), when we were all waiting to witness the first group of hostages come back home from captivity in the hands of Hamas. Having close friends who have relatives kidnapped who do not fit into the criteria of being released now, I was looking for words to pray at this moment. Referring to the words of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai z”l, and his “remarks” on Ḳohelet’s “For everything there is a season,” I tried to describe how all feelings are mixed in these awful hours, and in the days since. I am thankful to Rabbi Ayelet Cohen for her translation of this prayer into English. –Rabbi Oded Mazor
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| Source (Hebrew) | Translation (English) |
|---|---|
קֹהֶלֶת לֹא צָדַק |
Ḳohelet wasn’t right.[1] Cf. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. |
בְּיָמִים בָּהֶם כָּל הָעִתִּים קוֹרְסוֹת אַחַת אֶל תּוֹךְ רְעוּתָהּ, וְאֵין בְּרֵרָה אֶלָּא לִבְכּוֹת וְלִשְׂחוֹק בְּאוֹתָן עֵינַיִם, לִסְפֹּד וְלִרְקוֹד גַּם יַחַד, וְהִיסְטוֹרְיָה אֲרֻכָּה נִדְחֶסֶת אֶל יוֹם וְשָׁעָה אַחַת, נְבַקֵּשׁ אֶת הַכּוֹחַ לְהָכִיל אֶת עָצְמַת הַלְּבָבוֹת הַמִּתְפַּקְּעִים. לִשְׂמֹחַ עִם הַזּוֹכִים לַחֲבֹק כְּבָר הַיּוֹם, לַעֲטֹף אֶת הַמִּתְכַּנְּסִים בִּכְמִיהָתָם וְנַפְשָׁם נִרְעֶדֶת, לֶאֱחֹז בַּתִּקְוָה בְּלִי לְהַרְפּוֹת, וּלְהוֹתִיר מֶרְחָב שֶׁל שֶׁקֶט לַזְּעָקָה שֶׁאֵין לָהּ קוֹל. |
In the days when each hour collides with the next We have no choice but to cry and to laugh with the same eyes To mourn and to dance at the same time And the long arc of history is compressed into one day and one hour We ask for the strength to contain The intensity of our bursting hearts. To rejoice with those who will be able to embrace today, To enfold all of those leaning into their longing, souls trembling, To hold on to hope without letting go, And to leave some quiet space for a silent scream. |
אָנָּא, תֵּן לָנוּ מָקוֹם לְהִשָּׁבֵר בּוֹ לִרְסִיסִים, וְרוּחַ לְהִבָּנוֹת שׁוּב, מֵחָדָשׁ. |
Please, grant us the room to shatter into pieces, And the spirit to be rebuilt, anew. |
This prayer was written by Rabbi Oded Mazor and disseminated widely by social media in its original Hebrew and in its translation by Rabbi Ayelet Cohen. Here we have set both the prayer and its translation side-by-side.
The title of the prayer and its petiḥah (“קהלת לא צדק“) both point to a line near the beginning of Yehudah Amichai’s poem, אדם בחייו (“A Man in His Life”). The theme of Amichai’s poem is that a human being’s life isn’t long enough to experience every season established for every purpose under heaven. –Aharon Varady
Notes
| 1 | Cf. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. |
|---|
“קֹהֶלֶת לֹא צָדַק | Qohelet Lo Tsadaq (“Ḳohelet Wasn’t Right”) — a prayer by Rabbi Oded Mazor (24 November 2023)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
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Associated Image:
A rally calling for the release of the Israeli abductees in the Gaza Strip, Gedera (credit: Nizzan Cohen, license: CC BY-SA)
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The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.
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
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