The Prayer Chest – 9/23/20

In Memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933-2020
A great being is like a prayer expanding our imagination and opening us to what is possible.

“Yet what greater defeat could we suffer than to come to resemble the forces we oppose in their disrespect for human dignity?” – My Own Words, 2016

“I’m dejected, but only momentarily, when I can’t get the fifth vote for something I think is very important. But then you go on to the next challenge and you give it your all. You know that these important issues are not going to go away. They are going to come back again and again. There’ll be another time, another day.”
The Record – 2001

We Cannot Pray to You by Rabbi Jack Riemer

We cannot pray to You, O God,
to banish war,
for You have filled the world
with paths to peace,
if only we would take them.

We cannot pray to You
to end starvation,
for there is food enough for all,
if only we would share it.

We cannot merely pray
for prejudice to cease,
for we might see
the good in all
that lies before our eyes,
if only we would use them.

We cannot merely pray
Root out despair,
for the spark of hope
already waits within the human heart,
for us to fan it into flame.

We must not ask of You, O God,
to take the task that You
have given us.
We cannot shirk,
we cannot flee away,
Avoiding obligation forever.

Therefore we pray, O God,
for wisdom and will, for courage
to do and to become,
not only to look on
with helpless yearning
as though we had no strength.

For Your sake and ours
speedily and soon, let it be:
that our land may be safe,
that our lives may be blessed.

Rabbi Jack Riemer has taught rabbis at sermon seminars throughout North America. His prayers appear in the High Holy Day prayer books of the Conservative and Reform movements. He has published two collections of his favorite sermons: Finding God in Unexpected Places: Wisdom for Everyone from the Jewish Tradition and The Day I Met My Father Isaac at the Supermarket: And Other Encounters with Biblical Tales

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