Rejoice in Hashem, an entreaty to recognize happiness as an auspicious moment for prayer (CCAR 1923)

Contributor(s):

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

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18 January 2026 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, euphoria, joy

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Shout unto the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God; it is He that hath made us, and we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His court with praise; give thanks unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy endureth for ever; and His faithfulness unto all generations. (Psalms 100)
	When you arise to pray, let your heart be glad within you, for you are serving a God beyond compare. (Yalqut Shimoni on Psalms 100)
	Know thou, that whenever there rises upon the heart of men a sudden joyous thought, or a feeling of happiness, or a sense of love for God’s law and commandments, that very moment is auspicious for prayer; and a prayer then uttered will reach upward to the presence of the Holy King of kings. (Ḳav haYashar 71:8 by Tsvi Hirsch Kaidanover)
	It is natural for us to seek God in times of sorrow. When we are unhappy we feel our loneliness and long for His comfort and sympathy. Nor do we yearn in vain, for He giveth strength to the weary, and courage to the despondent. Our first religious experience often comes as we grow aware of His hovering presence consoling us in sorrow. Yet a faith based upon such experiences alone, is sombre and incomplete.
	God reveals Himself in many ways, and His nature appears different to us as the angle of our vision varies. So we should seek Him in all the changing experiences of our life. Joyous moments may just as well reveal God to us as hours of saddened loneliness.
	Deep happiness can make us peculiarly receptive to His word. Joy expands the heart, opens the doors of generosity, and arouses a sense of gratitude. Happiness can be an ideal pathway to God’s throne. In time of rejoicing, therefore, the exulting spirit should strive upward. Our lips should learn not only prayers of resignation, but words of praise and songs of gladness. We have often prayed to Him with bruised spirits. Now let the voice of joy and salvation rise up to Him from the tents of His children.
	Heavenly Father, the morning stars sing together, the heavens rejoice, the earth is glad, and the sons of men chant unto Thee a new song. Joy pervading all the earth comes as a blessed gift from Thee. Thou biddest the sun to beam over the smiling earth and Thou lightest up our hearts with gladness. Whenever our souls rejoice may we learn to feel our kinship with all Thy natural servants and to grow aware of Thy benignant grace glowing within us.
	Admit us into Thy presence in time of joy, O heavenly Father, lest our laughter become lawless, our happiness unruly and our hearts estranged from Thee. We rise to seek Thee, that our joys may be hallowed with Thee at hand to bless them, that our happiness be deepened, and that with lands and oceans, the stars and the infinite spaces, we join Thy celestial chorus of joyous adoration. Amen.

“Rejoice in the Lord” is the sixth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 26-27. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution to any of the prayers in this volume.

Source(s)

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

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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)

Rejoice in Hashem, an entreaty to recognize happiness as an auspicious moment for prayer (CCAR 1923)

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