A blessing for you if you need one, from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=20792
open_content_license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Date: 2018-07-22
Last Updated: 2025-02-18
Categories: Well-being, health, and caregiving
Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, North America, personal blessings
Excerpt: On May 15th, 2018, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg tweeted this blessing. . . .
Content:
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English |
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May you grow
into your greatest,
bravest,
most loving self.
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May you stand tall
and unafraid
of the great,
exquisite,
bright light
within you
that is straining to get out.
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May you trust that light,
and may you hear
the still small voice within
that whispers to you
about what you need
and who you can be.
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May you follow the light and the voice
wherever it may take you—
even to places you hadn’t guessed,
hadn’t imagined,
that haven’t been part of the plan.
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May you remain always curious,
open,
and eager to grow.
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May you walk through your life
with wonder,
radical amazement,
and gratitude.
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May you stay kind and gentle.
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May you regard others
with compassion,
generosity,
and the benefit of the doubt.
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May you seek
always
to be of service,
to offer of yourself
to those that need help—
that need you.
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May you speak out
bravely
against injustice.
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May you make of your life a blessing.
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May your thoughts,
actions
and very being
be an offering to the transcendent,
to the great stream of life,
to… if this language resonates with you…
to the Holy One.
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On May 15th, 2018, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg tweeted this blessing, writing, “Maybe you need a blessing today? Well, here’s one.” The Jewish custom of ordinary people granting blessings is recognized in the Talmud, Megillah 15a:
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Translation with exposition (English) |
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And Rebbi Elazar further said that Rebbi Ḥanina said: One should never regard the blessing of an ordinary person [hedyot] as light in your eyes, [as two of the great men of their generations received blessings from ordinary people and those blessings were fulfilled in them]. And they were David and Daniel. David, for Araunah blessed him, as it is written: “And Araunah said to the king, May YHVH your elo’ah accept you” (II Samuel 24:23), and it was fulfilled. Daniel, for Darius blessed him, as it is written: “Your elo’ah whom you serve continually, will rescue you” (Daniel 6:17), [and this too was fulfilled when Daniel was saved from the lions’ den].
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Contributor: Danya Ruttenberg
Co-authors:
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Name: Danya Ruttenberg
Bio: Danya Ruttenberg is an American rabbi, editor, and author. She was named one of The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" in 2010 (36 most influential leaders under age 36), and the same year was named one of the top 50 most influential women rabbis by The Jewish Daily Forward. When she was in college her mother died of breast cancer, and Ruttenberg practiced Jewish mourning rituals, which she said allowed her to "make friends with Judaism, to be open to it"; in 2008 she published a memoir of her spiritual awakening titled Surprised by God: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press). This memoir was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. She was ordained in 2008 by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. In 2016, she published Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting with Flatiron Books, which was named a National Jewish Book Award finalist and a PJ Library Parents' Choice selection. Ruttenberg is the editor of the 2001 anthology Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism, and the 2009 anthology The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism. She is also a contributing editor to Lilith and Women in Judaism. She and Rabbi Elliot Dorff are co-editors of three books for the Jewish Publication Society’s Jewish Choices/Jewish Voices series: Sex and Intimacy, War and National Security, and Social Justice. She served as the Senior Jewish Educator at Tufts University Hillel, and subsequently Campus Rabbi at Northwestern Hillel and Director of Education for the campus dialogue program Ask Big Questions. She is currently serving as Rabbi-in-Residence at Avodah: Sparking Jewish Leaders, Igniting Social Change. (from her article on Wikipedia)
Website: http://danyaruttenberg.net
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/danya-ruttenberg
Featured Image:
Title: בריכת_המשושים
Caption: Brekhat HaMeshushim (credit: Oren Valdman, license: CC BY-SA)
