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Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly, a prayer by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)

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2018-07-15 – 3 Av 5778 via the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication
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Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly
Suggested by Psalm 4

O God,
when I strive to live
in accord with your will,
to deal honestly,
to act kindly,
to pursue justice and peace,
I find but few to hearten me.

Many are they
who deride me
and mock my ways.

Grant me, O YHVH,
the strength to resist
the swirling eddy of worldly ambition
that would suck me into the vortex
of envy,
struggle,
and hate.

Give me the courage
to withstand the derision
of those who sneer at virtue,
lest my spirit be cowed.

To those who,
in their unbridled greed,
take joy in hoarding riches
and wielding dominion
I would retort:
O, ye fools,
in vain ye seek
to slake your thirst
for wealth and power.

Your discontent must grow with each new draft.

All your scheming
and all your lying
will bring you naught but failure.

You will yearn in vain
for a moment of inner peace
and for a sign of God’s approval.

Not such is my lot;
though my means be slender,
and they who befriend me few,
yet my cup overflows with happiness.

The zest I have in life
all your wealth can never yield.

Peacefully I lay me down at night to sleep,
in calm reliance on God’s blessed love.

“Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 433-4 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). I have adapted the original text of this prayer, replacing “thy” with ‘your’ and “Lord” with ‘YHVH’. –Aharon N. Varady

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. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .
“Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly, a prayer by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)” is shared by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project, which he founded and directs. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin, Ministarot Nakeni 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. Besides his transcription work, Varady occasionally translates prayers and contributes his own original work. (Varady also serves as editor and administrator of the Open Siddur Project website, opensiddur.org, and is an outspoken advocate for open-source in Judaism more of which can be read about in this interview in the Atlantic Magazine.)

Mordecai Kaplan

Mordecai Kaplan

Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein.

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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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