Rosh HaShanah this week, thinking all the time.

27 Elul

Daily we should take account and ask: what have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation? Let there be a grain of profit in every human being! Our concern must be expressed not symbolically, but literally; not only publicly, but privately; not only occasionally, but regularly. What we need is the involvement of every one of us as individuals. What we need is restlessness, a constant awareness of the monstrosity of injustice.

Written by Abraham Joshua Heschel,
included in Rosh Hashanah Readings edited by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins
Posted today by Rabbi Karyn Kedar

A beautiful prayer from the heart from Rabbi Jack Bloom

Elohai N'tzor l'shoni mei-rai...

My God, Keep My Tongue From Evil, My Lips From Lies.
Help me ignore those who slander me!
Open my heart to Your Torah, so that I may pursue Your Mitzvot!
Frustrate the designs of those who plot evil against me.
Make Nothing Of Their Schemes!

A Prayer From The Heart, For The Heart.
From The Soul, For The Soul.
The Quintessential Personal Prayer.
Here, the slanderers, the plotters of evil are not found among those who share our planet.
They are "aliens",who subsequent to psychological and/or emotional pain, have taken up residence in us.
Similar to bacteria or viruses, though we host them, they are not us!  Our psychological immune system, impaired by psychic violence, though struggling valiantly, is unable to reject them.
In moments of vulnerability,the "aliens", though not us,- denigrate, demean and alienate us.
They tell us that we are not good enough, that we are frauds, that there is no room in the world for the likes of us, that we never do anything right, and on and on.
Though masquerading in our voice, and mimicking our style they are not us!  The evidence being that their attack leaves us diminished and alienated.  Created in the image of God, nothing that is authentically us, would leave us demeaned, diminished, and alienated!
So we pray for Torah, compassion, holiness, and Torah yet again;
teaching and reminding us that we are created b’Tzelem, in the Image, and that the aliens are most assuredly not us. 
And that peace. be the sign of our HEALING.
     

Jack
JackHBloom.com
jackhbloom@aol.com