A plea to not become numb in the face of overwhelming cruelty. . . .
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Contributor(s): Menachem Creditor
Categories:  Slavery & Captivity | Tags:  teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, United States of America, United States Immigration Policy
Contributor(s): Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Unknown Author(s) and Neḥunyah ben HaQanah
Categories: Slavery & Captivity | Tags: interpretive translation, acrostic, English Translation, Jewish Renewal, piyyutim, Psalms 67, Philadelphia, Antiquity, Ana b'Koaḥ, singing translation, 42 letter name, Divine name acrostic 
To Rebbi Neḥunyah ben haQanah is generally attributed the composition of אנא בכח, the initials of which form a forty-two-lettered divine name, derived from Psalms 67. He is considered to have been a chief transmitter of an esoteric Jewish lineage in antiquity, the Yordei Merqavah (Descenders to the Chariot). The author of the Bahir and of the Sefer ha-Peli’ah has also beenn attributed to him. . . . Contributor(s): T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Categories: Seder Pesaḥ, Slavery & Captivity | Tags: slavery, human trafficking, activism, social justice, 21st century C.E., 57th century A.M., community organizing 
“The wicked child asks: What does this work mean to you? Mah ha’avodah ha’zot lachem” (Exodus 12:26). I think about this question a great deal as a rabbi whose core work involves fighting modern-day slavery. I think about it when I talk to my children about what I do every day, when I call anti-trafficking activists and say, “What can rabbis do to support you?” or when I stand before Jewish audiences and urge them to put their energy behind this critical human rights issue. The answer must go deeper than simply saying, “We were slaves in Egypt once upon a time.” The memory of bitterness does not necessarily inspire action. What inspires me is not slavery but redemption. God could part the Sea of Reeds, but the Israelites could not truly be free until they had liberated themselves, after 40 years in the desert, from slavery. . . . Contributor(s): Ephraim Mirvis and Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth
Categories: Torah Reading, Slavery & Captivity | Tags: redemption, abduction, mi sheberakh, Psalms 142 
May the one who blessed our ancestors, Avraham, Yitzḥak, and Yaakov, Yoseph, Moshe, and Aharon, David and Shlomo, Ruth, Sarah, Rivka, Miriam, Devorah, Tamar, and Raḥel, bless and safeguard and preserve the captives… . . . Contributor(s): R' Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraëli
Categories: Slavery & Captivity | Tags: women, children, abduction, kidnapping, students, 21st century C.E., 57th century A.M., Nigeria, Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping, Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapping 
God of all people’s souls: Hasten, we pray, to rescue the hundreds of Nigerian young girls, innocent students who, in horrific cruelty, were abducted from their houses and schools by inhumane criminals intending to sell them into slavery and torture them. . . . Contributor(s): Shelley Frier List and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Categories: Ta'anit Esther, Agunah Day, Slavery & Captivity | Tags: North America, agunot, get, divorce, teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer 
Creator of heaven and earth, may it be Your will to free the captive wives of Israel when love and sanctity have fled the home, but their husbands bind them in the tatters of their ketubot. Remove the bitter burden from these agunot and soften the hearts of their misguided captors. Liberate Your faithful daughters from their anguish. Enable them to establish new homes and raise up children in peace. Grant wisdom to the judges of Israel; teach them to recognize oppression and rule against it. Infuse our rabbis with the courage to use their power for good alone. Blessed are you, Creator of heaven and earth, who frees the captives. . . . Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s)
Categories: Pesaḥ, Ḥanukkah, Shavuot, Sukkot, Sefirat HaOmer, Tehilim, Shabbat, Slavery & Captivity | Tags: labyrinth, cyclical, barley, wheat, first fruits, anxiety, Psalms 67, raḥav, shalmah, a red ribbon, walled cities, captives, Ana b'Koaḥ
Psalm 67 is a priestly blessing for all the peoples of the earth to be sustained by the earth’s harvest (yevulah), and it is a petition that all humanity recognize the divine nature (Elohim) illuminating the world. Composed of seven verses, the psalm is often visually depicted as a seven branched menorah. There are 49 words in the entire psalm, and in the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l there is one word for each day of the Sefirat haOmer. Similarly, the fifth verse has 49 letters and each letter can be used as a focal point for meditating on the meaning of the day in its week in the journey to Shavuot, the festival of weeks (the culmination of the barley harvest), and the festival of oaths (shevuot) in celebration of receiving the Torah. Many of the themes of Psalm 67 are repeated in the prayer Ana b’Koaḥ, which also has 49 words, and which are also used to focus on the meaning of each day on the cyclical and labyrinthine journey towards Shavuot. . . . Contributor(s): Joshua Boettiger and T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Categories: Pesaḥ, Needing Vocalization, Torah Reading, Slavery & Captivity | Tags: slavery, North America, human trafficking, mi sheberakh, 21st century C.E., 57th century A.M. 
We are grateful to Rabbi Joshua Boettinger and Rabbis for Human Rights–North America (RHR-NA) for sharing the following petitionary prayer, A Misheberakh for Victims of Slavery. Originally published by RHR-NA on their website in 2009, the prayer attends to the desperate need to eradicate all forms of slavery that persist today, especially in advance of the holiday celebrating our Z’man Cheruteinu, the season of our freedom, every Spring, every Pesaḥ. . . . Contributor(s): Shmueli Gonzales and Aharon N. Varady (transcription & translation)
Categories: Mourning, Kaddish, Slavery & Captivity | Tags: 20th century C.E., abduction, kidnapping, 57th century A.M., Hebrew translation, Prayers in Film, Psalmsploitation, Ezekiel 25, Proverbs 4, Psalms 23 
Tired of people who can’t tell their kiddish (blessings for the Sabbath) from their kaddish (prayer for the dead)? Well, it sets Samuel L. Jackson off too! But he found a way of making a bracha (blessing) and mourning the dead at the same time. Now I can’t vouch for the origins of his nusaḥ (custom) but it sounds very effective! Most people haven’t noticed, the only real part from the Bible is that last section, the first part is actually his own spiel: . . . |
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