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IJN Staff Prayers 5782

Shana Goldberg:

My prayer for 5782:

May we be able to meet, celebrate and pray together in person, fully.

May our children receive the education they need and deserve.

May our health care system and health care professionals not be overwhelmed.

May our mental health be preserved.

May we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel — but not the white light!

Above all, may we all merit to have a happy, healthy and successful new year.

Larry Hankin:

President John F. Kennedy’s famous Inauguration Day charge — “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” — served as an inspiration for a new generation. It defined the relationship between Americans and our government as a partnership.

So, too, is humanity’s relationship with G-d. It’s a partnership. It is a two-way street.

This Rosh Hashanah, when we pray for peace, for a clean environment, for honesty and integrity in the world and even for good health, remember it goes both ways. We are asking G-d for these needs and desires, but what are we going to do to hold up our end of the partnership to make them happen?

May we all achieve these ideals in 5782. Le-shana tova to all.

Jill Altman:

This year I have compiled a short collection of sayings to help give you hope and open your thoughts to the beauty of life.

• “Write on your hearts that every day is the best day of the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Repent one day before your death.” Pirkei Avot

• “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” Marie Curie

• “I discovered the secret of the sea in meditation upon a dewdrop.” Kahlil Gibran

• “What is beautiful is a joy for all seasons and a possession for all eternity.” Oscar Wilde

• “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-Tse

• “The blue of heaven is larger than the clouds.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• “I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are good at heart.” Anne Frank

• “Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but a little happy, if I could say how much.” William Shakespeare

• “If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.” Chinese Proverb

• “No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.” William Blake

• “Anyone whose good deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure; but anyone whose wisdom exceeds his good deeds, his wisdom will not endure.” Pirkei Avot

• “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” Sir James Barrie

Tehilla Goldberg:

I wish us all a year of life. In these uncertain times, I hope you and your loved ones will all be well and healthy. May you celebrate much joy with one another. And may we live in gratitude for the abudant blessings we have been given.

I hope the world somewhow becomes more stable, more just and more kind. May we be strengthened and each do our little part in bringing about this better world. Shana tovah u-metukah. Let the sweetness begin.

Lori Aron:

I wish that this coming year 5782 will have peace, prosperity and good health for all mankind.

I can’t remember ever having a year with so many issues.

The first thing we need to pray for is good health and that the COVID-19 will have numbers that decrease.

Prosperity will get better when people aren’t living in the streets in tents and in their cars. This is the worst I have ever seen the world going through — such tough times, such high living costs.

Good health for our friends and family is always something we pray for but may not take the time to realize just how lucky we are when we don’t lose anyone in our family when these tragic diseases happen.

I hope and pray this new year will be strong, healthy and full of happiness.

Lucy Sullivan:

I want to thank G-d for the greatest gift that has been given to me in order to sustain this life — BREATH. Prayers to all the souls in this world who are yearning for peace!

Wishing you health and happiness in the year 5782.

Mark Fearer:

Some cultures believe that a person dies twice, once physically, and finally when their name is no longer spoken nor remembered.

May the coming year bring your ancestors back to living memory. Their joys, sacrifices and accomplishments — even their names — were meant to be remembered.

We often say of the departed, “May his or her memory be a blessing,” but within a few generations, there is often no memory to be blessed. Can you name all eight of your great-grandparents? Or even two? Learn how to find those names and lives.

Do this for yourself. Imagine what legacy you want to leave behind and help your descendants or cousins know what your stories, values, beliefs, sorrows and accomplishments have been. Do not rely on someone else to tell your story; write it yourself.

Honor your ancestors and descendants this Rosh Hashanah by telling their stories and yours.

Amy Lederman:

May this year be a year of healing — within and without — and may our local, national and global communities rededicate efforts toward building awareness and understanding that we are stronger and better when we work together to make our world a better, safer place.

Wishing all of you a sweet and healthy new year!

Shmuel Reichman:

I want to wish you the most wonderful and extraordinary upcoming year and share an inspiring thought on this essential and root time of the year. Free will — choice — is the root of teshuva.

Teshuva is about reengineering our will, recreating our desire, rewiring our wants. It’s about the decision to be better, to be great, to become our best and truest selves. If you change what you want (akiras ha’ratzon), you change who you are (Mesillas Yesharim). When you make a new decision, you create a new reality for yourself.

There are always two levels of reality: the surface level and the deeper, spiritual level. The surface is meant to reflect the spiritual, to reveal it, to emanate its truth and beauty. But often we get caught up in the deception that the surface is all there is. But even when we fail, when we fall, there is always a path back to our true selves.

This is the message of Elul, of Rosh Hashanah; this is the message of life. To strive to see more, feel more, learn more, become more. May we all be inspired to live holistic lives of truth, spiritual beauty and true oneness.

Wishing you a kesivah va-chasimah tovah!

Hillel Goldberg:

I pray for the safety of this country, which seems to have turned inward so radically that it has lost its sense of both self-preservation and common sense. One does not fight a terrorist group for 20 years and then turn on a dime and extend to it not only respect but critical military and intelligence assets. America is not the world’s policeman, but neither is America the world’s mortician. For our own safety and that of others, I pray that we regain our sense of the interdependence of our safety and others’; as it’s put in the prayers of this, the most universal of Jewish holidays, the prayers of Rosh Hashanah, “united into one brotherhood.”

Karen Galatz:

Even as a child, I viewed the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with awe. The notion of a self-imposed “time out” to consider one’s actions and think about doing better wowed me. And the idea that a person’s life hung in the balance terrified — and motivated — me to behave.

Today I still approach the High Holy Days with a deep sense of awe. I welcome this “timeout” to critically consider my behavior and think about the world-at-large and my responsibilities in it. It is the penultimate time to consider tikkun olam.

This year, amid continued political strife, pandemic, and pessimism, I’m also pausing to re-boot my sense of optimism and gratitude. I’m giving thanks for all I have — good health, a loving family, jolly and interesting friends, and work that challenges and delights me.

To all, shanah tovah u-metukah.

Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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