Prayer for Music Service, by Rabbi Morrison David Bial (1962)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Morrison David Bial

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7 September 2022 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Music

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English vernacular prayer, Nature, נגון niggun, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M.

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	The prophet spoke: Sing, O heaven, be joyful, O earth, and break into singing, O mountains! (Isaiah 49:13)
	Nature is saturated with melody; heaven and earth are full of song. (Naḥman of Bratzlav^[1] The quote, offered in Leaders of Hasidism by Samuel Aba Horodezky (translated from Yiddish to English by Maria Horodezky-Magasanik, 1928), may be paraphrasing Likutei Moharan II:63. Thanks to Isaac Gantwerk Mayer for his suggestion of LM II:63. )
	O Lord, we would turn our lives into paeans of praise unto Thee. We would unite in harmony with every other human being, to join with them in passionate chorus before Thee. Rank upon rank of singers, seized with the rhythm of life, suffused with the poetry of existence, partners in the composition of creation, we lift our hearts with our voices to express our thanksgiving. We are not just creatures of flesh and blood: we are the notes of a celestial symphony rendered through the ages; we are the instruments upon which the notes are played; we are the choristers and the musicians responding to the direction of the composer and conductor of the world, of Thee.
	“All true melodies come from the source of sanctity.”^[2] Possibly a paraphrase of Likutei Moharan I:64.5. A Treasury of Jewish Quotations (ed. Joseph L. Baron 1996) suggests Likutei Moharan page 54a (1874 ed.), but I haven’t been able to verify where this page reference points to in Likutei Moharan. Every happy deed, every expression of love, every act of selfless sacrifice, of giving and sharing is a response to the chords of humanity and religion intermingled.
	Teach us, O Lord, truly to respond with our whole being, to open ourselves to Thee and to Thy children so that we may be bearers of Thy melodies in a world that cries for Thy songs.

“Prayer for Music Service” by Rabbi Morrison David Bial was first published in his anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 61, from where this prayer was transcribed.

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	The quote, offered in Leaders of Hasidism by Samuel Aba Horodezky (translated from Yiddish to English by Maria Horodezky-Magasanik, 1928), may be paraphrasing Likutei Moharan II:63. Thanks to Isaac Gantwerk Mayer for his suggestion of LM II:63.
2	Possibly a paraphrase of Likutei Moharan I:64.5. A Treasury of Jewish Quotations (ed. Joseph L. Baron 1996) suggests Likutei Moharan page 54a (1874 ed.), but I haven’t been able to verify where this page reference points to in Likutei Moharan.

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“Prayer for Music Service, by Rabbi Morrison David Bial (1962)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/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.)

Morrison David Bial

Born in New York in 1917, Morrison David Bial studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, served as a chaplain at Mitchell Field during World War II, and was ordained from the Jewish Institute of Religion in 1945. Rabbi Bial spoke from pulpits in the United States as well as in Dublin, Glasgow, and London. He led a number of tours to Israel, and published thirteen books, including The Rabbi’s Bible: Torah and The Rabbi’s Bible: Prophets (began in 1966, co-authored with Solomon Simon), Liberal Judaism at Home: the Practices of Modern Reform Judaism (1971), and Your Jewish Child (1978). Rabbi Bial spent over thirty years serving Temple Sinai in Summit, New Jersey, from 1953 until he became Rabbi Emeritus in 1985. From 1985–1995, Rabbi Bial joined Temple Beth Shalom in Ocala, Florida, revitalizing its interfaith movement, and served as Rabbi Emeritus until his death in 2004.

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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