A Prayer for Our Time

"Woe to one who takes issue with his Creator ... Does a piece of clay say to his fashioner 'What are you doing?' ... Woe to one who says to his father, 'For what reason have you begotten?' or to his mother, 'For what reason did you go into labor?' (Isaiah 45:9-11)

Dearest Sweet Beloved Divine Parent, in light of so much going on in the world I don't know what to say. On one hand, You truly do everything for the very best ! There's no being, including ourselves, who loves us like You do. There's no being that's even the tiniest dimming spark compared to Your vast light of knowledge. You created the whole creation, spiritual and physical. You keep creation going. As the Designer of creation, You maintain it's parts in perfectly designed interaction. To say that You know how it all works and integrates is a far vaster understatement than to point out how effortless it is for a grown healthy man to take a slight breath of fresh country air.

Yet, on the other hand You ask us to pray for the suffering. The problem with such prayer is that it questions Your judgment - or at least seems to. Unless prayer is just like any other co-creative behavior that You placed in human hands. There were people years ago who refused umbrellas on the basis of a belief that it interfered with Divine will for rain. Of course You made Your world "perfectly imperfect" so humanity has room, tiny room, to finish off creation. It's in this spirit that people design umbrellas. This is closely tied with the Kabbalistic notion of tikkun olam - mending the world.

One of the central areas where the masters of Kabbalah teach specific meditations to bring about this tikkun / mending is in the context of prayer. Here they teach Divine names to be visualized or at least identified with, accompanying certain specific words of the daily ritual prayer.

Prayer plays a role in this tikkun / mending. In some sense, it's no different than a carpenter banging in a nail to complete a cabinet. Sometimes a prayer is the missing nail. The problem was just awaiting a prayer. Once the prayer is recited, the problem no longer serves a purpose and can disappear. Other times, the problem awaits prayer plus action and so on ...

In this sense I am addressing You in prayer. Not to interfere with what You know is best, but, rather as part of the co-creative role You assigned to me, as a human - lacking true understanding as I am.

Sweet Divine Parent, there's tremendous suffering in Your world. There's suffering in Israel. My heart returns to this past Sabbath when as the whole Jewish world read in the Torah scroll about the sacrifices from the portion of Vayikra - You took a sacrifice of Your own - almost an entire family in the settlement of Itamar. Those conducting the sacrifices were not priests from the holy line of Aaron. They were very far from being an image of consecrated people. They were not motivatd by love for You. Rather, they behaved cruel and heartless.  

The whole Jewish nation mourns our loss of a loving Jewish family who tried very hard to live the most beautiful possible Jewish life available today. Please bring healing and let what this family stood for grow, blossom, and flourish for the whole world to see and appreciate.

Sweet Divine Parent  there's unspeakable suffering today in Japan. In many ways even harsher than the actual tsunami, which was the worst in Japan's recorded history, is the occurring and  pending nuclear hazards. There are thousands, maybe even millions of humans whose life, health and property hang in the balance over these tragedies. Please have compassion and play the role of Divine Parent, Supernal Father and Mother, and help all these people. They are in need of Your sweet nurturing. You had compassion on the city of Nineveh on the basis that it was a large inhabited city populated by people who didn't know any better. Please also take compassion on Japan.

All over the Middle East there are Arabic countries where people suffer from grinding poverty despite being bright and educated. Besides this, to add to the pain, many of these countries are dictatorships that oppress their own citizens. Please take compassion on these countries inhabited by people who worship You, to the best of their understanding, and please send them the prosperity they need to calm down, feel good, and focus on truly healthy and productive achievements - the way it was for them under Caliph Abdul Rahman of Al Andalus.

Please help the economy of the United States and the neighboring countries. These are countries that stand for human rights, freedom of religion and in short, being nice and fair to others. As nations they are strong in the area of "between human and fellow human". Please have compassion on the so many people who are unemployed, underemployed, underpaid, etc. So many of these people would love to work if only the opportunity is presented. Please have compassion on this great region of basically good people and return the jobs, even in greater abundance then they used to be when times were considered "good".

Most importantly, I beg You to please bring the Messiah. No resolution to any problem is ever complete without the Messiah. Please send him ! However, I'm not just begging of You to send him to solve the world's problems. I'm begging for him, so that we humans can learn how to have a deeper and more open relationship with You.

Thank You for the words of prayer. May they be sweetly accepted before You in love. Thank You for my health. Thank You for giving me the co-creative role of being a human in prayer. Thank You so much for being You. Love and kisses ...