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Friday, September 12, 2014

A Prayer for the Journey

The Tefilat HaDerech is the Traveler's Prayer.  It is said before a person sets out on a journey - especially a journey that will take us away from home.  The traditional blessing asks for God's protection as we travel.  The words beseech God to keep us safe each step of the way until we make our return.

Making our return ... that is what all of us are attempting to do during these days of Elul.  
Some us are trying to return from harmful habits and careless words we directed at others and ourselves.  Some of us are trying to return from pursuits we thought would satisfy us, but only left us feeling emptier than when we began.  Some of us are trying to make a return from anger.  Or from depression.  Or from any place we know is not the place where we can hearken to our better angels and become the people we long to be.

For all of us on the journey, I offer this interpretation of the Traveler's Prayer, written by Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg, my beloved teacher.


Traveler's Prayer

A prayer for the journey
We could say it every day
When we first leave the soft warmth of our beds
And don't know for sure if we'll return at night.
When we get in the trains, planes and automobiles
And put our lives in the hands of many strangers
Or when we leave our homes for a day, a week, a month or more -
Will we return to a peaceful home? Untouched by fire, flood or crime?
How will our travels change us?
What gives us the courage to go through the door?

A prayer for the journey
For the journey we take in this fragile vessel of flesh.
A finite number of years and we will reach
The unknown where it all began.
Every life, every day, every hour is a journey.
In the travel is the discovery,
The wisdom, the joy.
Every life, every day, every hour is a journey.
In the travel is the reward,
The peace, the blessing.


May we be blessed in all our journeys, and may our journeys lead us home.
L'shalom,
Rabbi Andrea Goldstein

PS - I hope you will join me in welcome Rabbi Weinberg next weekend, September 19-21, when she will be our Deutch Scholar-in-Residence.  Check out our website - www.shaare-emeth.org -
for all the details.

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