To be inserted in the AmidahLit. Standing One of the central prayers of the Jewish prayer service, recited silently while standing. on Shemini AtzeretThe holiday at the end of Sukkot, during which are recited prayers for rain. Rain figures prominently as God's blessing in the arid land of Israel. in memory of the fallen during the Yom KippurThe holiest day of the Jewish year and the culmination of a season of self-reflection. Jews fast, abstain from other worldly pleasures, and gather in prayers that last throughout the day. Following Ne'ilah, the final prayers, during which Jews envision the Gates of Repentance closing, the shofar is sounded in one long blast to conclude the holy day. It is customary to begin building one's sukkah as soon as the day ends. War. The former generally coincides with the last day or two of the latter.
Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha’olam… G-d, let us remember the moment of this cease-fire and pray that the downpour of your tears and ours softens the hearts of all warring human beings.
In the holy month of Ramadan
on the holiest day of the Jewish year
some 2,000 tanks, 500 armoured vehicles, and 300 aircrafts rained down on the earth and leeched into it the iniquity that machines should surpass human beings; that metal and chromium steel are worth more than the flowers and mountains; and the storied history of a land, unto which Arab farmers and Jewish ones moulded their “swords into ploughshares,” nursed babes under common skies and stars, finding within themselves and each other the courage to trust, to till and true, to heal.
And then, the ancient bondage of AbrahamAbraham is the first patriarch and the father of the Jewish people. He is the husband of Sarah and the father of Isaac and Ishmael. God's covenant - that we will be a great people and inherit the land of Israel - begins with Abraham and is marked by his circumcision, the first in Jewish history. His Hebrew name is Avraham., SarahThe first matriarch, wife of Abraham, and mother of Isaac, whom she birthed at the age of 90. Sarah, in Rabbinic tradition, is considered holy, beautiful, and hospitable. Many prayers, particularly the Amidah (the central silent prayer), refer to God as Magen Avraham – protector of Abraham. Many Jews now add: pokehd or ezrat Sarah – guardian or helper of Sarah., and HagarAbraham's concubine and the mother of Ishmael, the patriarch of Islam. In the book of Genesis, when Sarah cannot conceive, she suggests that Abraham takeher servant Hagar as a concubine in order to conceive a child, which she promptly does. Feeling threatened by Hagar and her child, Sarah convinces Abraham to banish them from their home. God saves Hagar and Ishmael from dying in the desert. stretched through time to pull us to our baser nature. Our blood and theirs. Firstborns and concubine’s sons. And so, as we selectively looked through our past, we watched our shared work slip through our fingers and the earth grow dead with despair.
Yizkor.
But cannot the dead rise again? Can the earth not be watered with the departed’s tears?
Let us among the living remember the fallen of ages past. Let us drink of the well that quenched Hagar and Ishmael’s thirst. Let us pray for our friends and our enemies, that the better angels of our nature grant us a full and enduring peace. And when the better angels are lost to us, let us look beyond fallow ground to the mighty heavens, to the Maker of Rain and Winds.
Shake us, unsettle us, O Maker. Pour unto us the tears of those afflicted by war, so we may finally know the opposing side and the most important blessing: To live, O Maker! We pray that we all shall live.
