Tuesday, July 8, 2014

THOUGHTS..AND PRAYERS

For the past weeks, together we have watched a series of crises within Israel escalate to, at this moment, the cusp of real war and beyond. Like so many of you, I can remember where I was when the Six Day War began -- our hopes and fears and relief and exhilaration -- when we first learned of the Yom Kippur War and the sense of dread, again followed by relief, even joy mixed with such sorrow; and, when the Scuds began to fall, I as many of you, was in Israel, rushed by friends to shelter experiencing in microcosm what our brothers and sisters, our extended mishpacha have experienced too often...way, way too often...from 1991 right through tonight. And, now, again.

 Among the members of the IDF, among the 40,000 Reservists summoned from their jobs, wrenched from their families to defend the Homeland, are so many friends, so many of that extended family. As I write this, we do not know whether once again our young men and women will soon be in combat with an implacable enemy that has demonstrated time and time again to have no respect for life, and no respect for Jewish lives in particular.

 Tonight, I with you, join in prayer for those who fight, on land, in the air and on the sea for Israel's survival and ultimate victory:
"He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May the Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighters from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you."
As our brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren go once again into the breach, may our prayers be answered and may they be answered quickly.

Rwexler 
at

2 comments:

  1. PAUL JESERJuly 8, 2014 at 8:25 PM

    PRAYER FOR THE STATE OF ISRAEL

    VIDEO - IDF CHIEF CANTOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FmG1I-f8UQ

    Our Father in Heaven, Rock and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel, the first manifestation of the approach of our redemption. Shield it with Your lovingkindness, envelop it in Your peace, and bestow Your light and truth upon its leaders, ministers, and advisors, and grace them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our holy land, grant them deliverance, and adorn them in a mantle of victory. Ordain peace in the land and grant its inhabitants eternal happiness.

    Lead them, swiftly and upright, to Your city Zion and to Jerusalem, the abode of Your Name, as is written in the Torah of Your servant Moses: “Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you. And the Lord your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers.” Draw our hearts together to revere and venerate Your name and to observe all the precepts of Your Torah, and send us quickly the Messiah son of David, agent of Your vindication, to redeem those who await Your deliverance.

    Manifest yourself in the splendor of Your boldness before the eyes of all inhabitants of Your world, and may everyone endowed with a soul affirm that the Lord, God of Israel, is king and his dominion is absolute. Amen forevermore.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 9, 2014 at 8:07 AM

    Amen selah.

    ReplyDelete