“To whom life is everlasting” a prayer in the face of mortality by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy (1927)

Contributor(s): Clifton Harby Levy and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shared on: 19 April 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories: Dying

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Science movement, memento mori, mortality, teḥinot in English, תחינות teḥinot

FACING ETERNITY
Every day we live we face Eternity. No one can know when the last day on earth may come. But that should not make us afraid. With God working within us and about us we cannot fear. We know that this casting aside of the body, is part of the great law of life, only an incident, and whenever it occurs is right, according to the will and the laws of God.
Because life is to us a continuous whole, we have no fear of turning the corner which leads to Spiritual existence. All the days of thought and effort are leading the way towards that Infinity which is true of the Spirit alone. Because we too are Divine, we feel the touch of Eternity and go to meet it, fearlessly and confidently, in harmony with all existence.
It has no terrors for the soul which knows itself as part of the Divine Source. We voice our aspiration for Infinity through the Spirit within.

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	O Thou, to Whom life is everlasting and with Whom time is swallowed up in Eternity, unto Thee do I commit my Spirit. Grant me the power of knowing more surely every day I live that this stream of life flows on to Infinity.
	Help me to the higher courage which shall prepare me for any event, and make me ever ready to face Eternity at Thy will.
	Deepen the consciousness of Thy love and mercy that I may be made more certain of Thy boundless kindness, and that all Thou doest is for the benefit of Thy creatures here on earth.
	Teach me the way to accept Thy will, even when it parts me from one I love, for a time, sure that the Spirit lives always and that in Spiritual communion we are ever together.
	Out of my weakness give me strength, out of my blindness light, that I may be ever ready to share that Eternal life, reserved for all who come to Thee through the Spirit. Amen.

This untitled prayer by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy accompanied his short reflection, “Facing Eternity” found in The Helpful Manual (Centre of Jewish Science, 1927), p. 25.

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““To whom life is everlasting” a prayer in the face of mortality by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy (1927)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Clifton Harby Levy

Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy (1867–1962), was a Reform rabbi in the United States. Born in New Orleans, he was ordained at Hebrew Union College (1890), served as rabbi of Congregation Gates of Hope, New York City (1890–91), and as superintendent of classes for immigrant children established by the Baron de Hirsch Fund. Levy later served congregations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1892–94) and Baltimore, Maryland (1894–96), where he organized a Jewish kindergarten in a religious school and the first United Hebrew Charities. He founded Tremont Temple, Bronx, New York, and was its rabbi from 1906 to 1921. He left the pulpit rabbinate in 1921 and in 1924 organized the Centre of Jewish Science, New York City. As part of the Jewish Science movement, it sought to counter the influence of Christian Science among acculturated American Jews and to inject spirituality into the Reform Jewish synagogue. He was a founding member of the American Council for Judaism, which consisted primarily of anti-Zionist Reform rabbis and laymen. While still a student, Levy published a five-act Purim play, Haman and Mordecai (1886). During his stay in Baltimore he edited Jewish Comment. He edited The Bible in Art (1936) and The Bible in Pictures (1942), and served as art editor of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

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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

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