A Prayer for All Eight Nights of Ḥanukkah, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org, 2024)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=59374
open_content_license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Date: 2024-12-25
Last Updated: 2025-02-19
Categories: Ḥanukkah
Tags: 2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Donald Trump, English vernacular prayer
Excerpt: Eight qualities are mentioned in the prayer: Peace, Blessing, Hope, Return, Promise, Strength, Life, Courage. You can pick one to focus on each night. (You can do them in the order they appear in if you like.) Where do you find that quality in you? Where do you find it in the world? What will a life, or a world, transformed by that quality look like? Feel like? . . .
Content:
A note for using this prayer. Eight qualities are mentioned in the prayer: Peace, Blessing, Hope, Return, Promise, Strength, Life, Courage. You can pick one to focus on each night. (You can do them in the order they appear in if you like.) Where do you find that quality in you? Where do you find it in the world? What will a life, or a world, transformed by that quality look like? Feel like?
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Source (English) |
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Just as Ḥanukkah marks the turning point in the year
from growing darkness to growing light,
may it also mark for us this year a turning point
from war and killing and curse,
toward peace and blessing and hope.
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May the hostages be returned speedily,
may the destruction of Gaza stop,
and may the way be cleared
for peace blessing and justice
throughout the land of the promise,
for all her inhabitants,
from the river to the sea.
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As the United States turns
to installing a new administration,
may we be strengthened in our resolve
to care for the stranger,
to fight for the climate
and for all living creatures,
and to live toward peace and justice.
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We ask of ourselves
that we will protect just laws and vulnerable people,
and that our resistance
to unjust laws
or unjust systems
be firm.
May our hearts be courageous.
May our hands be strong.
May our work succeed.
V’hyi no’am Adonai Eloheinu aleinu,
uma’aseh yadeinu kon’na aleinu,
uma’aseh yadeinu kon’neyhu. (Psalms 90:17)
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Rabbi David Seidenberg’s “A prayer for all 8 nights of Chanukah” was shared by the author on social media and through his neohasid email list on 25 December 2024.
Contributor: David Seidenberg
Co-authors:
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Name: David Seidenberg
Bio: Rabbi David Seidenberg, founder of NeoHasid.org, teaches text and music, Jewish thought and spirituality, in their own right and in relation to ecology and the environment. With smikhah (ordination) from the Jewish Theological Seminary and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, he has taught at over 100 synagogues, communities, retreats and conferences across North America (and a few in Europe and Israel). Rabbi Seidenberg's teaching empowers learners to become creators of Judaism through deep study and communion with texts and tradition. Areas of specialty include Kabbalah and Ḥasidut, Talmud, davenning, evolution and cosmology, sustainability, Maimonides, Buber, and more. Rabbi Seidenberg has published widely on ecology and Judaism and is the author of Kabbalah and Ecology: God's Image in the More-Than-Human World (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Website: https://neohasid.org
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/david-seidenberg
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Name: Neohasid·org
Bio: NeoHasid.org, founded October 2005, was first created by Rabbi David Seidenberg to help folks integrate ḥasidic song, learning, and nusaḥ into their davenning and communities and to explore embodied Torah. It evolved to focus on eco-Torah and to share liturgy that honors our relationship with the Earth and/or expresses gender parity.
Website: https://neohasid.org
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/neohasid-org
Featured Image:
Title: hanukkiah on windowsill
Caption: hanukkiah on windowsill (credit: n/a, license: CC 0)