God’s Love, a prayer for divine mercy (CCAR 1923)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

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19 February 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Aseret Yemei Tshuvah, Compassion, divine mercy, English vernacular prayer, Forgiveness, חסד Ḥesed, self-forgiveness, teḥinot in English

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	For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father hath compassion upon his children, so hath the Lord compassion upon them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. (Psalms 108:11-14)
	But the Lord thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the Lord thy God loved thee. (Deuteronomy 23:6)
	For the Lord is righteous, He loveth righteousness. (Psalms 11:7)
	O ye that love the Lord, hate evil. (Psalms 97:10)
	And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
	When all within is dark, And former friends misprise; From them I turn to Thee, And find love in Thine eyes. When all within is dark, And I my soul despise; From me I turn to Thee, And find love in Thine eyes. When all Thy face is dark, And Thy just angers rise; From Thee I turn to Thee, And find love in Thine eyes. (Adapted by Israel Abrahams^[1] As found in Festival Studies (1906), chapter 14, “God and Man,” page 100. from “Keter Malkhut” by Shlomo ibn Gabirol)
	Only an infinite love, lavishly generous and ever-true, can melt away the barriers dividing human hearts. Our blindness and our selfishness drive us far apart. How isolated we really are! How pitiful is our caution in our relations to one another! “The proud waters of wrath overwhelm our souls.”^[2] Cf. Psalms 124-5 We mock and scorn each other. We are attacked and we bitterly retaliate. We are so hopelessly enmeshed in the net of personal interests, that we well may wonder, whence can come our help? We cannot rely upon the policies of worldly wisdom to bring us peace.
	We need a deliverance, a new vision, a glimpse of God’s love, merciful and endless, patient and of infinite lovingkindness. When once we grow aware of the boundless love we are daily receiving, our rancor will vanish, and we will learn to bestow generously the love which we abundantly receive. God’s love is shining through the world, conquering the hearts of men.
	God’s love brings us His mercy; He is just, but He is more than just. His justice establishes the world; His love blesses it continually. When we ask that God reward our toil, and crown our uncompleted lives with immortality, we are invoking His justice; and yet we tremble at its coming when we realize the extent of our sin and wilful rebellion. Then, pleading like erring children, we turn to His love, knowing that He is our Father as well as our King.
	From the quarrels of men, from our own dark impulses which give them birth, and even from the just decrees of God’s own judgment, we turn to God’s love, in the hope that it will awaken in us a response, our love for Him. In our souls, once they are awakened unto love, hatred cannot abide, and we learn to come from the fields of discord unto the Tabernacle of Peace.
	Father, gracious and compassionate, who sendest Thy love unto thousands of generations, be Thou our help! We do not rely upon our merits, for then, in justice, Thou couldst reject us utterly. Let Thy blessings come unto us as an unearned gift from Thee, our Father. Let Thy compassion be manifest, so that when we err, we may receive mercy, and when we are misjudged, we may forgive.
	Draw us nigh unto Thee that we may love Thee, and from love of Thee rejoice in Thy service. Make Thou our hearts the channel for the stream of Thy love, so that, having been sustained by Thy patience, we may be patient; having received Thy bounty, we may be bountiful; and having been blessed by Thy love, we may obey Thy behest to love our neighbor as ourselves. May we walk in the paths of Thy lovingkindness, bearing no illwill, forgiving hatred, and growing like Thee, gracious and compassionate. Amen.

“God‘s Love” is the twelfth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 44-46. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.

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Notes

Notes
1	As found in Festival Studies (1906), chapter 14, “God and Man,” page 100.
2	Cf. Psalms 124-5

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.)

Unknown

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada.

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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)

God’s Love, a prayer for divine mercy (CCAR 1923)

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