A prayer for a country poised between demise and rebirth, by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein (Applied Jewish Spirituality 2023) • the Open Siddur Project

Categories: Congregation & Community, Barekh, Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel)

Tags: 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., democracy, democratic process, English vernacular prayer, Religious Zionism, זכירות zekhirot, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, עם ישראל Am Yisrael

Excerpt: Written on 6 Nisan 5783, 27 March 2023 (after nightfall), in response to the Israeli people's spontaneous demonstrations against the government's attempts to amass virtually unchecked power. . . .

Content:

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	(Please read out loud if you’re able and willing…)
	May we remember that our faces are mirrors of each other, our fears are mirrors of each other’s, our hopes are mirrors of each other’s, and all of our children will all inherit everything we are.
	May we remember our shared past, our shared ancestors, our shared heritage, our shared grief at the destruction of our home twice before, our shared journeys through millennia of exile, our shared pride in who we are and all that we have achieved, wherever we found ourselves, and now here.
	May we remember that our being here is something no human can explain or understand.
	May we remember that we are responsible to those who came before us, and those who come after us.
	May we remember that it is very, very easy to destroy, but infinitely harder to build.
	May we remember that there is no future for any of us, without all of us.

Written on 6 Nisan 5783, 27 March 2023 (after nightfall), in response to the Israeli people’s spontaneous demonstrations against the government’s attempts to amass virtually unchecked power. Previously published on Facebook, Instagram, Times of Israel blogs.

Featured Image:

Title: New life springing up in the Jerusalem hills
Caption: New life springing up in the Jerusalem hills (credit: Daniel Raphael Silverstein, CC BY-SA 2023)