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Eternal One, Who fulfillest Thyself in many ways, we adore Thy will in that which is passing as well as in that which we still retain. “In Thy love hast Thou given us the Sabbath Day”[1] Cf. in the Shabbat Evening qiddush following the blessing over the wine. our fathers prayed. | |
Lord, we shall no less behold Thy love in these[2] Original reads, “those” (a typo). changes of times, conditions and duties whereby the fair Sabbath of our fathers can no longer be ours. The joyous attire, the festive board, the shining tapers, the sacred wine cup; the blissful greeting of the Princess, the Bride; the radiant home circle, the melodies sweet and solemn; the happy hours of repose and worship, the calm and cheer suffused near and far— ah, we shall not murmur that these are ceasing to be. | |
We would make for ourselves a new Sabbath, Lord, an inward Sabbath of devotion to those towering ideals which the Sabbath of old hath ever bodied forth: the holiness of work and the holiness of rest. | |
Upon our work we would ask Thy blessing first even as the words are written first, “six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.” (Exodus 20:9, Deuteronomy 5:13) Not only for the physical sustenance that we earn by our work, but, more than that, for the stability and the hope, the avoidance of sin, the discipline and the health, the strength and the poise that our work imparts do we thank Thee. | |
O sanctify our work. May it arouse within us our utmost consecration and zeal. | |
Deliver all who are ill-paid, overworked or placed amid unfitting or humiliating conditions of work. Help those who are unsuited, unhappy or unwilling at their work and lead into happier hours those upon whom the blight of unemployment hath fallen. | |
May ampler wisdom, growing within our economic life, soon find a way to end its many woes. | |
And may we heed the Sabbath’s clarion reminder that man liveth not by toil alone[3] C.f. Deuteronomy 8:3. but that his capacity for love and laughter, music and beauty, poetry and play, friendship and prayer, must have our earnest regard. | |
O forgive us that we have ofttimes treated our fellowmen as mere mechanisms of toil and not as beings variously endowed. | |
And then we acknowledge the holiness of rest proclaimed by the ancient Sabbath; the rest which is not indolence but timely refreshment for farther effort and leisure for the manifold other sides of our nature, among them, the seeking of Thee. | |
O blessed the moments of relief from the trenches of life’s warfare with their tumult and their din when our souls, in sweet relaxation, may lovingly commune with Him Who is our Commander in the fray. | |
Lord, it is only with us who are finite that there is a time for work and a time for rest. With Thee Who art one— being absolute and beyond all limits of time, space or power— work and rest are one, eternal work and eternal rest! | |
O Thou to Whom a thousand years are less than yesterday when it is past, yea, briefer than a watch in the night, (Psalms 90:4) not in six days of creation but in the untold eons of evolution is Thy presence visible. | |
Thou art the fiery mist unfolding into nature orderly and fair. | |
Thou art the planets’ majestic sweep. | |
Thou art the earth with its green-clad hills, its flowery dales, its heaving oceans, its countless things that grow, its myriad things that breathe. | |
Thou art the tiny worm transformed, after ages unnumbered, into high-thinkng man. | |
Thou art the fury of the primeval sea and jungle, “red in tooth and claw,”[4] From Canto 56 of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam A.H.H. Obiit MDCCCXXXIII” (1850). transmuted at last, into home and friendship and love, yea into a social order travailing to fling off its sins and to become the Kingdom of God. | |
And Thou art the perfect rest, the rest unto our souls, the Sabbath of our yearning hearts, the foretaste of the Sabbath everlasting. | |
Except in Thee we have no rest. | |
O may the rest that cometh from an approving conscience, above all, be ours. May ours, with Thy help, be that righteousness whose effect is quietness and confidence forever. | |
Though the Sabbath of old be waning, may we hold so fast to its priceless bequests that, even amid life’s burdens and distractions, we may, looking unto Thee, find in Thee, O Eternal One, our consummate rest. Amen. |
This prayer for “The Sabbath” by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is found in his, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 69-72.
Source(s)
Notes
| 1 | Cf. in the Shabbat Evening qiddush following the blessing over the wine. |
|---|---|
| 2 | Original reads, “those” (a typo). |
| 3 | C.f. Deuteronomy 8:3. |
| 4 | From Canto 56 of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam A.H.H. Obiit MDCCCXXXIII” (1850). |
“[Prayer for] the Sabbath, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1924)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
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