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Blessed be the Lord, day by day he beareth our burden, even the God who is our salvation. (Psalms 68:20) | |
For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. (Isaiah 65:17-18) | |
Surely the Lord’s mercies are not consumed. Surely, His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-24) | |
Turn us unto Thee, O Lord,— renew our days as of old. (Lamentations 5:21) | |
Praised be Thou who in Thy goodness renewest each day the wonders of creation.[1] An abbreviated form of the shaḥarit blessing “yotser or” (after barkhu) as found in English translation in the Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship. The translation can be found in slightly edited versions from the 1894 edition of the prayer book for Yom Kippur, in the 1907 “provisional” revision, and in the 1918 revised edition. | |
Thou Judge of all the earth, Making the world stand firm by right I pray to Thee, give life and pity Unto this people, humble in Thy sight; And set the prayer at morning light In place of sacrifice— Even as the morning offering, the gift of every morn. Make strong your hearts, my people, | |
Toil would be purposeless if the world were unchangeable. If there is nothing new under the sun, then what profit lies in all our work? If there is nothing that we can change, what can we hope to accomplish? When in hours of dejection we review the years, we seem to see them all alike, no new achievements, no new spirit; year after year the same disappointments and failures. When the history of our experiences repeats itself too closely and life brings nothing new, then even our success loses savor. Fortunately it is only the jaded eye of pessimism which cannot discern the living change and the infinite variety of our life. In reality no two things are exactly alike. No two days, no two hours, no two minutes are exactly alike. With every passing moment, the entire world changes. God constantly creates a new heaven and a new earth. The world is incessantly different from what it has been. The world is always new. | |
When once we perceive the vision of the changing world, our spiritual mood is transformed. We are chastened and also strengthened for there is both a solemn and a cheering implication in this thought. Its solemn implication is that we may never rest from labor. We must ever be up and doing, for no achievement is final. Yesterday’s attainments may have been suited to yesterday’s world, but today the world is re-made and different. Since it is a new world, behold there is a new work to do, new temptations to resist, new problems to solve! There can be no reclining on our laurels, no folding of our hands, no luxuriating in the thought of the victory won. | |
The living variation of days and years, the endless changing of the world, has also a cheering implication. It proclaims that a new world is a world of fresh beginning and new opportunities. The world of yesterday’s discouragements is no longer the world that we are living in today. Yesterday we may have lost the battle but today we fight anew— perhaps to win. We blundered yesterday. But the blunder may be remedied; because yesterday’s world with its errors and missteps has passed. Today’s page is sufficiently clean, ready to receive the writing of a new endeavor, | |
Heavenly Father, Everpresent Power, whose creative work is endless, the ancient days of creation were but the beginning of Thy work. When Thou openest our eyes to Thy power, we behold Thee maintaining the world, dwelling within it and renewing it daily with Thy love. | |
Thy constant presence, O Lord, is our strength. Since Thou art near, we call upon Thee, and pray that Thou renew our failing hearts as Thou renewest daily Thy wondrous works. Grant us new courage with the new day. | |
O assure us that yesterday’s reverses have not broken us; that they have only given us added knowledge wherewith to grasp our problems more firmly; and that during the pause of the night, Thou hast granted us new wisdom and strength. May Thy presence in our hearts be our shield and buckler as we start the battle afresh. This day, be it of defeat or of victory— may it be Thy day, O Lord. Create in us a stronger yearning for Thy presence so that, chance what will, we shall draw closer unto Thee, learning to know Thee with a fuller knowledge and to love Thee with a deeper and deeper love. Amen. |
“Starting Anew” is found early on in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 15-18. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution to any of the prayers in this volume. The author was likely one of the members of the Committee on Book of Meditations and Prayers: Solomon B. Freehof, Israel Bettan, Abraham Cronbach, Morris S. Lazaron, and Abram Simon.
Source(s)
Notes
| 1 | An abbreviated form of the shaḥarit blessing “yotser or” (after barkhu) as found in English translation in the Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship. The translation can be found in slightly edited versions from the 1894 edition of the prayer book for Yom Kippur, in the 1907 “provisional” revision, and in the 1918 revised edition. |
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| 2 | Stanzas from “Shofet kol ha-Arets,” a piyyut by Shlomo ben Abun (late 12th c.) as translated by Nina Salaman (1904). |
“Starting Anew, a paraliturgical “yotser or” (CCAR 1923)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication.
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