![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
With wondrous works dost Thou answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation; Thou the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the distant seas. (Psalms 65:6) | |
Thou hast remembered the earth and watered her, greatly enriching her, with the river of God that is full of water. Watering her ridges abundantly, settling down the furrows thereof, Thou makest her soft with showers, Thou blesseth the growth thereof. Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, and Thy paths drop fatness. The pastures of the wilderness do drop; and the hills are girded with joy. The valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, yea, they sing. (Psalms 65:10-14) | |
Thy praise, O Lord, will I proclaim In hymns unto Thy glorious name. O Thou Redeemer, Lord and King, Redemption to Thy faithful bring! Before Thine altar they rejoice With branch of palm and myrtle-stem. To Thee they raise the prayerful voice— Have mercy, save, and prosper them. May’st Thou in mercy manifold, They overflow with prayer and praise | |
The victory of the harvest should be hallowed by the humility of gratitude. We have toiled and conquered the earth. The fields now pay us their tribute. Yet lest we grow boastful of our skill and vainglorious of our power, let us come before the Lord at this time of our triumph, uttering thanksgiving with the voice of joy. For if we but reflect, we will perceive, that vain is our strength unaided. God gives power to our hands. He sends the rain to bless the earth, and the light of the sun to call forth the seeds into flourishing life. | |
Thus on this feast the sons of Israel come before the Bestower of blessings, carrying the symbols of harvest into the house of prayer. They enter into the frail booths, that they may never forget that unless the Lord build the house, all the cherished plans of life are uncertain and frail, unable to withstand the gales of misfortune. | |
Though separated from the soil for centuries, Israel still assembles on this harvest feast to utter his songs of gratitude, and to call upon the peoples of the earth to join in praises: ‘Shout for joy unto the Lord, all ye lands.’ | |
Supreme and bountiful Father! The bounties and beauties of the visible world bring health to the body and cheer to the mind, sustaining and prolonging our life on earth, enabling us to work and to experience and to learn the lessons of earth. | |
But, O Thou Eternal One, our Refuge, the visible world brings us also tidings of Thee! The countless boons and charms of earth whisper of a life that is vaster than earth! The languishing glories of the harvest tide bring to the heart mystic intimations: “There in an Unchanging One behind all change.” We sit in the Succah of physical existence narrowly confined, eating and drinking in its shade; yet, through the leafy roof, steal the sunlight and starlight gleams of Thy spirit and we glimpse the boundless outdoor reaches of the soul. | |
The harvest joys, and all of life’s joys, with which Thou blessest us, are but resting places on the arduous way, booths of recuperation in the toilsome wilderness, for not through pleasure, satisfaction and ease, but through struggle, effort and pain, do we approach the promised land. | |
O Eternal, far other than the joy of bodily contentment is the joy for which our spirits yearn. We crave the gladness which Thou puttest into the heart “more than when their corn and their wine increase.” The joys of sense are imperfect joys. The inward joy of the soul is the perfected joy, with him of old,[1] the prophet, Habakkuk we pray, | |
“Though the fig tree shall not blossom Neither fruit be in the vines: Though the labor of the olive fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock be cut off from the fold And there be no herd in the stalls, Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will exult in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18) | |
Lord, we know that we must come before Thee carrying in our hands the citron and the palm of fair thoughts and noble deeds. Not words nor rites alone are harvest yielding seed. Thoughts and deeds are the planting that ripeneth into righteousness and light. Grant, then, that we may unceasingly thus plant, reaping, beneath Thy benediction at length, every mellow fruition of character, yea, the precious heavenly garnering of the soul. Amen. |
“Succoth—Feast of Tabernacles” is the eighteenth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 64-67. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.
Source(s)
Notes
| 1 | the prophet, Habakkuk |
|---|
“[A prayer for] Sukkot—Festival of Tabernacles (CCAR 1923)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license.
Leave a Reply