I was in a session with a psychotherapy client and she told me something that is feeling good to her lately. She had been working with a 3 sentence mantra for the past month and it was having a positive impact on her life. I cannot tell you the mantra because that belongs to her.
Her story got me thinking about Rosh Hashanah. I find it hard to spiritually and psychologically connect to the Rosh Hashanah prayers. It can feel hard to turn the act of reading words into a spiritual experience. Added to this, the words in the prayers can feel distant depending on how much the prayer book resonates with your personal sensibilities. After the holiday, it is easy to feel that you completed a lot of reading but missed the spiritual experience of the holiday.
To help myself connect to the prayers this year, I collected a few sentences from the Rosh Hashanah prayers that I feel are particularly meaningful. I made “Rosh Hashanah prayer cards” that I could print and read during the high holidays.
Good to be clear: I am not turning the prayers into mantras. I am planning to focus on specific sentences during the Rosh Hashanah prayers when I find myself drifting. Perhaps this focus on meaningful words will make the holiday more spiritually and psychologically powerful.
Good to know:
- I substitute the first person female or gender neutral pronouns when I read the prayers. I am praying as myself and since I am female changing the pronoun makes me feel included. I do not do this when the prayers are communal (as in “we”).
- I am not instructing/suggesting/advising you to read these instead of the prayers on Rosh Hashanah.
- Below on my prayer sentence cards, I indicate the source for the prayer and where you can find the complete prayer.
Let me proclaim the mighty holiness of this day.
- Based on Unetanneh Tokef, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
The Book of Remembrance; my signature is in it.
- Based on Unetanneh Tokef, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
Repentance, Prayer and Charity.
- Based on Unetanneh Tokef, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
What I do this day can change my life.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
Perfection is not G-d’s demand.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
My noblest dreams are not absurd.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
I need not solve life’s every problem.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
I believe in the constancy of G-d’s compassion.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
The life of every person is important.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
My actions contain their own reward.
- Based on Vechol Maaminim, Repetition of Musaf Prayer
Here I stand painfully aware of my flaws.
- Based on Cantor’s Personal Prayer before Musaf
Each woman is responsible for her own teshuvah.
- Based on Cantor’s Personal Prayer before Musaf
Accept my prayer as though my voice never faltered.
- Based on Cantor’s Personal Prayer before Musaf
Free me from my own baggage that might get in the way.
- Based on Cantor’s Personal Prayer before Musaf
Transform my suffering into gladness.
- Based on Cantor’s Personal Prayer before Musaf
Your turn: What Rosh Hashanah prayer do you add to this list?
One Response