This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, the health and well-being of others by or for caregivers. If you have composed a prayer for overcoming illness, for well-being, or for the success of caregivers, healers, and physicians, please share it here. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Rosh Ḥodesh Adar (אַדָר) Alef & Bet | Addenda | After the Aliyot | During the Aliyot | Weekday Amidah | Asher Yatsar | Bedtime Shema | Bnei (Bar/Bat) Mitsvah & Other Birthday Prayers | Tehilim Book 1 (Psalms 1–41) | Child care | Congregation & Community | Dreaming | the Dry Season (Spring & Summer) | Epidemics & Pandemics | Homes & Community Centers | Incantations, Adjurations, & Amulets | 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st) | Mixed Dancing | Old Age | Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth | Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation | Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty | Theurgy | 🌐 Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31st) | Travel | Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah | Yotser Or Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
Tags: אדם קדמון Adam Ḳadmon, Amoraic prayers, אשר יצר Asher Yatsar, Asiyah, Bathroom etiquette, Bathroom Prayer, Body as Cosmos, Body as Earth, Body as Society, Body as Temple, devotional interpretation, English Translation, excretion, four worlds, internal plumbing, interpretive translation, Late Antiquity, plumbing as metaphor, Prayers in the Babylonian Talmud, Prayers of Pumbedita If one has had a terribly disturbing and potentially auspicious dream, this ritual recorded in the Talmud Bavli (Berakhot 55b) provides a remedy in the form of a means by which the dream itself is judged positively by a small court of one’s peers. . . . Healing prayers written on a pair of amulets for the recovery of a woman named Arsinoë . . . A ritual for changing a name of a sick person. This text is recorded in abridged form in Rabbeinu Yeruḥam’s 14th-century work “Sefer Toldot Adam v-Ḥava,” but is almost certainly substantially older than that considering he credits it to the Geonim. Rabbeinu Yeruḥam doesn’t include the text in its entirety, assuming familiarity with the “מְצָלְאִין אֲנַֽחְנָא” opening to prayers. This text is not, to my knowledge, commonly used in any modern rites, but I found a 15th-century Italian siddur here with a prayer that begins with the same formula in full. . . . The physician’s prayer of Rabbi Dr. Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi in the 12th century CE. . . . A prayer of a physician from Markus Herz in German with its Hebrew and English translations. . . . The piyyut, Refa Tsiri, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . . A prayer for protection against noxious gases and people. . . . “Prayer in behalf of one celebrating a birthday,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 494-497 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) . . . “Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 433-4 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . . Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Amits Koaḥ, apotropaic prayers of protection, ayin hara, English vernacular prayer, lashon hara, loneliness, lonely man of faith, Psalms 4, social anxiety, יצר הרע yetser hara A blessing by Reb Zalman for Peace, Health, Joy, Prosperity, and Kindness which he wrote in spray paint on a municipal water tank behind his house in Colorado. . . . A contemporary Jewish prayer for healng, used at congregation Tzedek Chicago. . . . Traditional Judaism offers a confessional prayer, or vidui, to be recited during a time of serious illness or near death. If the patient is unable to recite the prayer, others may do so on his or her behalf. This modern adaptation [of vidui] places less emphasis on atonement for sins, and more on the bonds connecting the patient to his or her loved ones. It can be recited by a friend, family member, or chaplain on behalf of a person who is very ill, especially when life and death are hanging in the balance. . . . [In Parshat Vayigash] we read of the members of Jacob’s family who went down to Egypt. There were 53 grandsons listed, but only a single granddaughter – Seraḥ, the daughter of Asher. The commentators wonder, what was so exceptional about this girl that her name was recorded? The Midrash spills forth with stories portraying an image of a unique and endearing Biblical heroine. Seraḥ stands as a trusted, beloved sage of the people. She possessed an uncommon gift of healing through poetry and music. Somewhat as Orpheus is to Greek myth, so is Seraḥ to the Biblical myth – the archetypal poet and bard. . . . A prayer-poem for healing by Trisha Arlin. . . . A prayer to be recited upon donating blood. In Israel, there are major blood drives around the times of Rosh Hashana and Pesaḥ, so the prayer borrows themes from both of those holidays. It emphasizes both the tzedaka aspect of blood donation and the ancient symbolic resonances of blood sacrifice. . . . Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., blood, English Translation, giving blood, כוונות kavvanot, life giving, matanat dam, self-sacrifice, תחינות teḥinot, ישראל Yisrael A disproportionate amount of the alarming gun violence in Chicago takes place on the South Side, yet the South Side lacks even a single level one adult trauma center. Consequently, gunshot victims sometimes minutes from death must be transported miles away to Downtown or North Side hospitals. In 2010, after Damien Turner, an 18-year-old resident of the South Side Woodlawn neighborhood, died waiting for an ambulance to drive him ten miles to a downtown hospital instead of two blocks to the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), a grassroots collaboration of community organizations, faith leaders, and University of Chicago student groups began organizing the Trauma Center Coalition, dedicated to reopening a Level 1 adult trauma center at UCMC, the most well-resourced hospital on the South Side. So far, the university has refused. As part of the coalition’s ongoing campaign, last week [April 23, 2015], dozens of activists gathered on the university’s historic Midway field, for a vigil of prayer and song from different faith traditions. At dusk, participants lit candles to spell out “Trauma Center Now”, right across from the home of U. Chicago President Robert Zimmer, and then camped out for the night. As a representative of coalition partner Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, I was invited to offer a Jewish prayer, which is reproduced here; I read it in both the English and Hebrew. . . . Asher Yatzar (the “bathroom blessing”, traditionally said every morning and after every time one goes to relieve oneself) has always rung hollow to me, at best, and at worst has been a prayer not celebrating beauty but highlighting pain. The original version praises bodies whose nekavim nekavim ḥalulim ḥalulim (“all manner of ducts and tubes”) are properly opened and closed—yes, in a digestive/excretory sense, but it is quite easy to read a reproductive sense into it as well. What do you do if the “ducts and tubes” in your body are not properly opened and closed, what if one is open that should be closed, or vice versa? . . . This prayer was originally published April 13th, 2013 on Dafna Meir’s blog, Derekh Nashim (Women’s Ways), here, writing “את התפילה זכיתי לחבר תוך כדי למידה למבחן תרופות במחלקה הנוירוכירורגית בסורוקה, בה אני עובדת.” (The prayer I composed for a friend while studying for a test at the Neurosurgery department at Soroka Hospital, which I work.) English translation by Moshe F. via Israellycool. More about Dafna Meir, here and here. . . . A paraliturgical reflection on the prayer following urination and defecation, Asher Yatsar, for a shame resilience practice. . . . If it is a mitsvah to guard our lives and strengthen our bodies in service of our holy mission, then there should be a brakhah (blessing) before we start a session of vigorous activity; any excuse to add blessings to our day is a wonderful opportunity for personal growth! . . . A prayer in Hebrew to be said before a vaccination, with Yiddish and English translation. . . . A kavvanah before a vaccination offered by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried of Ḳ.Ḳ. Beit Tefilah Yisraeli in Tel Aviv. . . . A prayer for those receiving vaccinations. . . . A prayer for the medical workers and researchers on the front lines of treating the afflicted and finding a cure for the COVID19 coronavirus pandemic. . . . A prayer for those administering vaccinations. . . . A short prayer of gratitude in the midst of a global pandemic and civil unrest. . . . This prayer for a parent (or primary caregiver) on the vaccination of their children by Cantor Hinda Labovitz was first shared via their Facebook page on 5 November 2021, . . . We believe Jewish prayers and rituals can help to strengthen our mental well-being, resilience and recovery in the same way middot, or Jewish values, can promote them. Faith is an important part of healing for many, and Jewish thinkers and leaders historically have brought the two together. When someone is ill or recovering from illness or an accident, we often recite a mi sheberakh to wish them a refuah sheleimah, or a “full recovery.” We have expanded this prayer for those who are struggling with mental health with this Mi Sheberakh for Mental Health. –the Blue Dove Foundation . . . “Blessings for Gender Transitioning” was written by Rabbi Elliot Kukla and first published on Ritualwell in 2013. . . . This is a blessing written by myself and my father, Moshe Razieli in 2021. We wrote it foremost with my brother in mind. It is also informed by my experience of working with people who have experienced trauma, loss and disability. . . . A prayer of protection for those in the process of gender transitioning, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, inspired by the Tefilat haDerekh (Traveler’s Prayer). . . . An ecstatic psalm envisioning the eventual victory of Humanity over Death itself – the ultimate Victory Day. Although the primary focus is on our ending of the process of biological death, it also touches on the Resurrection of those who have fallen, as well as the defeat of the ultimate Death – that of the Universe itself. . . . Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., death, ecstatic, Grief, Medicine, מזמור Mizmor, משיח Moshiaḥ, resurrection, technology, thanksgiving, transhumanism A prayer for healing in Hebrew with English translation by the author. . . . A prayer for commencing testosterone therapy. . . . This “Prayer Before Seeking Healing in a Psychedelic Journey” by Zac Kamenetz was first published by the author to the Jewish Entheogenic Society group on Facebook, 1 December 2024. . . . |
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