This document is the introduction to the 4th edition of a contemporary High Holiday prayer book used by the Marlboro Jewish Center in New Jersey. It explains that the contemporary service was created in 1985 as an alternative for those who felt unfulfilled by or uncomfortable with traditional High Holiday services, which use large amounts of Hebrew. Over 800 people attend the contemporary service each year, finding a spiritual experience through its use of different techniques than a linear prayer book, including English readings and photos. The introduction expresses the importance of inclusiveness in Conservative Judaism and allowing different prayer approaches for all.
3. THE REASONS FOR THIS PRAYER BOOK
I have had the pleasure of creating and officiating at this unique service since its
inception which has been offered at the synagogue every year since 1985. For 21
consecutive years, this service has given our members the opportunity to attain a
spiritual experience that they could not find in a traditional High Holiday service.
Our contemporary service has never been viewed as a replacement for the traditional
service. Instead, this service offers an alternative to that large segment of our
membership that either has felt unfulfilled by the traditional services offered at most
Conservative synagogues or have been made uncomfortable by the overwhelming
amount of Hebrew that is used in the traditional High Holiday services.
In this day and age, we should use all available techniques in our prayer services to
generate strong spiritual feelings. Our prayer books should not be strictly linear, with
word following word, line after line and page after page. Many people gain most of
their information from non-linear media. Many synagogue members don’t read
Hebrew; certainly they don’t benefit from pages filled with letters they cannot
decipher. If most of us get most of the information we need in our daily lives through
more than one medium, why shouldn’t our prayer books acknowledge that truth?
This the fourth edition of the machzor offered by the Marlboro Jewish Center. It
includes, along with new contemporary readings and photos, material on such events
as the tragedy of 9/11 as part of the Martyrology service on Yom Kippur.
Conservative Judaism is a pluralistic movement. People who attend alternative
Conservative prayer services should not be ostracized because they want an
approach to prayer unlike the one they are expected to want. In his seminal work,
Tradition and Change, Rabbi Mordecai Waxman describes the Conservative
movement as a tent large enough to include people who hold a range of different
perspectives. The early Chavurah movement of the late 60s, of which I was a
member, also saw itself as offering one more authentic Jewish choice.
Once again, the Marlboro Jewish Center will be packed with nearly 3,000 people. Of
them, as every year, at least 800 of them will pray at the contemporary service; the
other 2,000 will be at the traditional services. At 1 p.m. all the services will end and all
the shul’s members will gather in the lobby of our synagogue or on its front lawn,
wishing each other a “Shanah Tova.”All that matters is our community will come
together under the roof of our synagogue, and we will all pray together. We’ll be in
different rooms, using different books, singing different melodies – but we’ll all be
together.
Special thanks must be given to the following members of the committee who worked
on this latest edition. Robin Farber, Eric Miller, Natalie Loeb, Babette Mallow, Judy
Olesh, Nancy Rheingold, Phylis Schnall, Leonard Zimmerman, Pierre and Natalie
Olesinski, Joyce Sugarman, David and Helaine Cantos, Cris Gansman, Joanne
Kirschner, Vera Gordon, Roberta Newman, Alan Solomon, Zelda Liebowitz, and
Sheryl Metzger. But one shines brighter than all others, Ira Kirschner whose
dedication, creativity and love of Judaism will guarantee him and his family, blessings
that knows no bounds.
I would also like to thank Rabbi Jules Harlowe and the Rabbinical Assembly for
permission to reprint selections from the Mahzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
and Mahzor Chadash, edited by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg and Rabbi Jonathan
Levine. May we grow and prosper in our souls and our bodies as we experience the
wonderful world of T’fillah.
Allan Sugarman
June 2006
4. Table of Contents
Rosh Hashanah
Morning Service 1
Torah Service 38
Shofar Service 59
Musaf 65
Yom Kippur
Kol Nidre 86
Confessional 111
Yom Kippur 128
Yizkor 148
Neilah 155
Editor Allan Sugarman
Layout Editor Ira Kirschner
1st Edition, Sept. 1985
2nd Edition, Sept. 1996
3rd Edition, Sept. 2002
4th Edition (a), Sept. 2006
9. May the door of this synagogue be wide enough to receive
all who hunger for love, all who are lonely for fellowship.
May it welcome all who have cares to unburden, thanks to
express, hopes to nurture.
May the door of this synagogue be narrow enough to shut
out the pettiness and pride, envy and enmity.
May its threshold be no stumbling block to young or straying
feet.
May it be too high to admit complacency, selfishness, and
harshness.
May this synagogue be, for all who enter, the doorway to a
richer and more meaningful life.
TEACH ME TO PRAISE
Teach me, my God, to praise and to pray
For the mystery of the withered leaf,
For the glow of the ripened fruit;
For the freedom to see, to feel,
To breathe, to know, to hope, to stumble.
Teach my lips a blessing, a hymn of praise,
As you renew each morning and each night;
Lest this day appear as yesterday
And the day before-
Lest my day become routine.
Leah Goldberg
Photo by Bill Aron
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11. Translation of ASHREI
And let us be joyful that we are here together,
Because we seek honestly the path of our prayer
Constantly I seek the right way though it may take a lifetime.
Daily I look for clues. The search is an arduous one.
Existence of man itself is a testimony to the majesty of Man's
Creator.
Forward my mind will go seek, perhaps to find.
Great are the sights, my goals, my reaching out.
Heavenward do I stretch; to grasp the richness of our heritage.
In loving kindness and consideration shall I pledge my days.
Judaism teaches me to be human.
Kind is the great man; just is the honest man.
Loving is the universal man; I strive to be better.
My vision is as high as the best that man can achieve.
Never will I forget the roots of my past.
Onward does good deeds go, from words to action.
Piety is the action of giving one to the other.
Reaching out is the essence of giving to each other.
So many miles to go before I sleep...
To rest...Under God....
Wake up and be joyful, for we are here together.
Photo by Bill Aron
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12. Courage
You dare to call us partners;
We will live, one day at a time,
performing signs and wonders for the benefit of others.
This we promise You.
You dare to call us little lower than the angels;
We will use our face and hands to be Your messengers.
To this we commit ourselves this day.
You dare to tell us we are fashioned in Your image;
We will be this Image, live our lives
by the most Divine in us,
and in this Image listen to Your words and do Your will.
So we solemnly declare this day.
Your Mitzvah opportunities await.
Give us strength: we vow to do Your will
as, by Your light and guidance,
our hearts and souls so move us.
Danny Siegel
Connections
The traditions of my father are in the synagogue
They embrace me like the tallit he wore on Saturday mornings
They stand with the voices of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The traditions of my mother are in the synagogue
I feel them when I pray with my husband, my children,
mygrandchildren,
my friends, my neighbors, my community
The traditions of my family are in the synagogue
We named our children here
We celebrated their B'nai Mitzvot here
We brought our children to the marriage canopy
My past and my present fuse in the traditions of the synagogue
I hear my father's voice and feel my mother's presence
They remind me of the privilege and responsibility of being a Jew
My past is in the synagogue
My present is in the synagogue
My identity is in the synagogue
The future for my children and grandchildren is in the synagogue
Helaine Cantos
Congregant, Marlboro Jewish Center
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13. Psalm 17, You Are a Consolation(Adapted)
O God,
You are a consolation to Your creatures,
for in moments of forgetting
we but call to mind Your care,
and we are comforted.
When we hope no more,
a pattern in the snow
reminds us of Your lovingkindness.
Your dawns give us confidence,
and sleep is a friend.
Our sorrows dissipate
in the presence of an infant’s smile,
and our Elders’wise words
revive our will-to-wish.
Your hints are everywhere,
Your signals in the most remote of places.
You are here,
and we fail words to say,
“Mah Tov!”—
How good our breath,
our rushing energies,
our silences of love.
by Danny Siegel
Psalm 121 — a song of ascent: (Adapted)
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
What is the source of my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Maker of the heavens and the earth.
God will not allow you to stumble,
Your Guardian will not slumber.
Indeed, the Guardian of Israel
neither slumbers nor sleeps.
The Lord is your Guardian,
your shelter at your side.
The sun will not smite you by day
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will guard you against all evil;
God will guard you, body and soul.
The Lord will guard your going out
and your coming home, now and forever.
by Danny Siegel
Photo by Bill Aron
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15. For these we give thanks
O God, to whom we come so often with needs to be satisfied, we
come to You now in gratitude for what we already have and are.
For gifts beyond deserving or counting, we give thanks.
You have given us the ability to become more than we have
been, the urge to be more than we are, and a gnawing hunger to
attain heights only dimly imagined.
For the power to grow, we give thanks.
You have endowed us with the capacity to discern the difference
between right and wrong; and You have enabled us to follow the
right, to avoid the wrong.
For the power to choose, we give thanks.
You have blessed us with the ability to fashion things of beauty, to
sing new songs, to spin new tales, to add to the treasure-house of
humancivilization.
For the power to create, we give thanks.
You have equipped us with the yearning to commune with You, to
bring You our fears and our dreams, our hurts and our joys, our guilt
and our gratitude; to share hopes and concerns with You and with
others.
For the power to pray, we give thanks.
You have fortified us with the ability to rise above disappointment
and failure, to go on after we have been bruised and bereaved, to
refuse to submit to defeat and despair.
For the power to hope, we give thanks.
You have enlarged us with the ability to cherish others, to make
their lives as dear to us as our very own, to share their hopes, to feel
their hurts, to know their hearts.
For the power to love, we give thanks.
You have ennobled us with the strength to overcome our faults, to
mend our ways, and to answer the summons “to turn to You with
all our heart and soul.”
For the possibilities of renewal, we give thanks!
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18. Why should I wish to see God better than this day?
I see something of God each hour of the twenty four,
and each moment then;
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in
my own face in the glass;
I find letters from God dropped in the street,
and everyone is signed by God's name;
And I leave them where they are,
for I know that wheresoe'er I go
Others will punctually come forever and ever.
Walt Whitman
I see You in the starry field,
I see You in the harvest's yield,
In every breath, in every sound,
An echo of Your name is found.
The blade of grass, the simple flower,
Bear witness to Your matchless power.
In wonder-workings, or some bush aflame,
Men looking for God and fancy Him concealed;
But in earth's common things He stands revealed
While grass and flowers and stars spell out His name.
Ibn Ezra
God, where shall I find Thee,
whose glory fills the universe?
Behold I find Thee wharever the mind
is free to follow its own bent,
Wharever words come out
from the depths of truth,
Wharever tireless striving
stretches its arms towards perfection,
Wharever men and women
struggle for freedom and right,
Wharever the scientist toils to unbare
the secrets of nature,
Wharever the poet strings pearls of beauty
in lyric lines,
Wharever glorious deeds are done.
Mordecai M. Kaplan
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19. BEFORE THE BEGINNING
WHAT IS THE MOMENT OF OUR BIRTH?
WE KNOW THE BIRTHDAY OF OUR BODY.
YET WE CAN NEVER KNOW THE MOMENT OF BIRTH OF OUR
CHARACTER.
IT HAS NO DATE.
THE BIRTH OF OUR CHARACTER HAS MANY BEGINNINGS
AND IS WITHOUT END IN THE DAYS AND YEARS OF OUR LIFE.
AT EVERY MOMENT
WE FACE AN INFINITE NUMBER OF OPPORTUNITIES
TO CREATE A GREATER MEANING IN OUR LIFE.
ALWAYS WE FIND
OURSELVES BEFORE
ANOTHER BEGINNING.
IN THIS WE DISCOVER
THE MOST CREATIVE
POWER OF PEOPLE:
THE POWER AND
DELIGHT OF
THE SELF CREATION OF
OUR CHARACTER.
WE CREATE OUR
CHARACTER
WHEN WE ARE ALONE
WITH OURSELVES
AND IN THE
RELATIONSHIPS
WE ALSO EVOLVE WITH OTHERS
AND MOST OF ALL,
OUR VALUES WILL BE DETERMINED
BY THE DIRECTION IN WHICH WE CHOOSE TO GROW
WITH OTHERS AND WITHIN OURSELVES.
TO ALL OF US
THERE ARE GIVEN MANY OPPORTUNITIES
TO FIND THE DIRECTION AND MEANING OF OUR LIVES.
BUT WE KNOW THAT IT IS ONLY WHEN WORDS
MOVE PEOPLE TO ACT.
THAT THEY REVEAL THEIR STRENGTH.
IN WHAT WE DO WE FIND
THE CONTINUING BIRTH OF OUR CHARACTER.
IN WHAT WE DO ... WE ARE ALWAYS BEFORE ANOTHER BEGINNING
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22. NO RELIGION IS AN ISLAND
No religion is an island;
There is no monopoly on holiness.
We are companions of all who revere God
We all rejoice when we walk in God’s way.
No religion is an island;
We share the kinship of humanity,
The capacity for compassion.
god’s spirit rests upon all, Jew and non-Jew
Man or woman,
in consonance with their deeds.
The creation of the first humans, Adam and Eve,
promotes peace.
No one can claim:
My ancestry is nobler than yours.
Have we not all one Creator?
Are we not all god’s children?
Then let us help one another overcome
hardness of hearts,
Opening minds to the challenges of faith.
Let mutual concern replace remnants of
mutual contempt,
As we share the precarious position
of being human.
There is no monopoly on holiness;
There is no truth without humility.
Let those who revere the Lord
speak one to the other.
Let all human beings reflect
the image of God in their deeds.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
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26. PRAISE TO YOU, O LORD
Let us imagine a world without color, without regal red or leafy green,
A world that bores the eye with gray.
Praise to You, O Lord, for all the colors in the rainbow,
For eyes that are made for seeing, and for beauty
That “is its own excuse for being.”
Let us imagine a world without sound, a world where
Deathly silence covers the world like a shroud.
Praise to You, O Lord, for words that speak to our
Minds, for songs that lift our spirits, and for all those
Souls who know how to listen.
Let us imagine a world without order, where no one can
Predict the length of the day or the flow of the tide.
Imagine a universe where planets leave their orbits and
Sour like meteors through the heavens and where the law
Of gravity is repealed at random.
Praise to You, O Lord, for the marvelous order of
Nature, from stars in the sky to particles in the atom.
Let us imagine a world without love, a world in which
The human spirit incapable of caring is locked in the prison
Of the self.
Praise to You, O Lord, for the capacity to feel happiness
In another’s happiness and pain in another’s pain.
As the universe whispers of a oneness behind all that is, so
The love in our hearts calls on people everywhere to unite
In pursuit of those ideals that make us human. As we sing of
One God, we rejoice in the wonder of the universe and
We pray for that day when all humanity will be one.
HEAR O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
Praise be His name; His glorious kingdom is for ever and ever.
Henry Cohen
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29. Treat your child kindly and he will be kind.
Show your child love every minute of the day and she will
show love back.
Treat your child gently and he will be gentle.
Show your child truth and she will be truthful.
Show your child goodness and he will be good.
Show your child thoughtfulness and she will be thoughtful.
Show your child strength and he will be strong.
Show your child courage and she will be courageous.
Show your child beauty and he will be beautiful.
Show your child freedom and she will be free.
Encourage your child’s creativity and
he will be creative.
Encourage your child’s sensitivity and
she will be sensitive.
Treat your children special and
they will be very special people.
Adapted from: Love, Live and Share by Susan Polis Schutz
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39. AMIDAH - AN ALTERNATIVE VERSION
Help me, O God, to pray.
Our ancestors worshipped You. Abraham and Sarah, Rebecca and Isaac,
Jacob, Rachel, and Leah stood in awe before You. We too reach for You,
infinite, awesome, transcendent God, source of all being whose truth shines
through our ancestors’lives. We, their distant descendants, draw strength
from their lives and from Your redeeming love. Be our help and our shield, as
You were theirs. We praise You, God, Friend of Abraham.
Your power sustains the universe. You breathe life into dead matter. With
compassion You care for those who live. Your limitless love lets life triumph
over death, heals the sick, upholds the exhausted, frees the enslaved, keeps
faith even with the dead. Who is like You, God of splendor and power
incomparable? You govern both life and death, Your Presence brings our
souls to blossom. We praise You, God who wrests like from death.
Sacred are You, sacred Your mystery. Seekers of holiness worship You all
their lives. We praise You, God, ultimate sacred mystery.
The mind is Your gift, wisdom a spark from You. May we grow in knowledge,
insight, and understanding. We praise You, God, Gracious giver of
awareness.
Help us to find our way to Your truth again, to obey You with trusting faith, to
attain wholeness in Your Presence. We praise You, God who is always ready
to help us start anew.
Forgive our failures with a parent’s love, overlook our shortcomings with
regal generosity, for You are gentle and gracious. We praise You, God of
mercy and forgiveness.
See our suffering, sustain us in our struggles, save us soon. We praise You,
God, our people’s hope of redemption.
Heal us, O God, and keep us in health. Help us, that we might help
ourselves, praising You always. Send true healing for all our pains, for You
are the source of healing and compassion. We praise You, God from whom
all healing comes.
Bless this year for us with prosperity. May the wealth of the earth and the
rhythms of the seasons yield us a good harvest in abundance. We praise
You, God whose blessings are as certain as the seasons.
Let freedom resound like a mighty ram’s horn. Let our spirits soar, sustained
by Your promise. May the scattered Jewish people find wholeness and
renewal. We praise You, God who brings home the lost Jew.
May our ancient sense of justice be renewed, our classic sources of wisdom
rediscovered. May sorrow and sighing vanish from our midst. May Your
tenderness and pity, justice and compassion govern our lives always. We
praise You, God of kindness and justice.
- 35 -
40. May malice abate and ill will perish, may hatred cease and arrogance quickly
wither in our lifetime. We praise You, god whose awesome power helps good
to triumph over evil.
For the loving and the righteous, for the learned and the wise, for the
stranger and for our own selves as well, may Your mercy appear and Your
justice be made manifest. May we be counted among the good, may we
never regret having trusted in You. We praise You, God, strength of the just,
root of our confidence.
Let Your love once more shine from Jerusalem. Let Your Presence abide
there as in days of David. Let Zion rebuilt soon stand firm, the hub of Jewish
hope forever. We praise You, God, builder of Jerusalem.
May our people flourish, all of them and soon. Help us to hold our heads
high, celebrating Your deliverance and ours. Every day and all day long we
yearn for Your deliverance. We praise You, God by whose will we survive
and flourish.
When we cry out, hear us with compassion; take our prayers gently and
lovingly. Listen to Your people when we reach toward You with love. Let us
not turn away from You empty. We praise You, God who cherishes prayer.
Would that Your people at prayer gained delight in You. Would that we were
aflame with the passionate piety of our ancestors’worship. Would that You
found our worship acceptable and forever cherished Your people. If only our
eyes could see Your glory perennially renewed in Jerusalem. We praise You,
God whose Presence forever radiates from Zion.
You are our God today as You were our ancestors’God throughout the ages;
firm foundation of our lives, we are Yours in gratitude and love. Our lives are
safe in Your hand, our souls entrusted to Your care. Our sense of wonder
and our praise of Your miracles and kindnesses, greet You daily at dawn,
dusk, and noon. O Gentle One, Your caring is endless; O Compassionate
One, Your love is eternal. You are forever our hope. Let all life confront You
with thankfulness, delight, and truth. Help us, O God; sustain us. We praise
You God whose touchstone is goodness. To pray to You is joy.
O God, from whom all peace flows, grant serenity to Your Jewish people,
with love and mercy, life and goodness for all. Consider us kindly, bless us
with tranquility at all times and all seasons. We praise You, God whose
blessing is peace.
May my tongue be innocent of malice and my lips free from lies. When
confronted by enemies may my soul stay calm, truly humble to all. Open my
heart with Your teachings, that I may be guided by You. May all who plan evil
against me abandon their schemes. Hear my words and help me, God,
because You are compassionate, because You are almighty, because You
are holy, because You are loving, because You reveal Your Torah. May You
find delight in the words of my mouth and in the emotions of my heart, God,
my strength and my salvation. As You maintain harmony in the heavens, give
peace to us and to the whole Jewish people. Amen.
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41. And I tell you
And I tell you the good in man will win
Over all his wickedness, over all the wrongs he has done.
He will look at the pages of written history and be amazed, and then
he will laugh and sing.
And the good that is in man, children in their cradles, will have won.
Here I stand, the Jew, marked by history, for who can count how long?
Wrapped in compassion as in a Tallit, staring every storm in the face.
Write songs of pain, sing prayers of torment, refresh yourself with
suffering.
Too much for one people, small and weak - it is enough to share our
among the whole human race.
But God has planted in me goodness, compassion, as a father loves
his children.
So I writhe with pain, weep and sing, sing and weep,
For the blood knows the heart of the world is not made of stone;
The wonderful light of God’s face is for all eternity stamped on it firm
and deep;
And the heart feels that there is a day and an hour, and a mountain
called Zion;
And then all the sufferings will gather there and will all become song.
Ringing out into every corner of the earth, from end to end,
And the nations will hear it, and like caravans in the desert will all to
that mountain throng.
Yad Vashem, Israel, photo by Joyce Sugarman
- 37 -
43. MEDITATION FOR THE NEW YEAR
The solemn advent of the New Year calls me, to the quiet of
Your sanctuary to commune with You in fellowship with my brothers
and sisters. Here, under the inspiration of our sacred tradition, I would
open my innermost self to those deeper thoughts and feelings which I
have only, too often, shut from mind and heart in my day by day
preoccupation with worldly pursuits and pleasures. May a real
responsiveness of spirit be stirred within me and may I be enabled to
consecrate my mood of the moment by influences and sentiments that
will outlast the moment.
Please God, help me to this end. Quicken my memory that I
may draw lessons from the past before the old year is wholly gone.
Give me Your light that I may see my varied experiences in their true
meaning. As I look backward, may there be revealed to me how much
richer, how much more abundant were my blessings than my
privations, and how even my losses, my trials, my sorrows have within
themselves the possibilities of higher good. And even more, I pray,
teach me how small and insignificant were many of the things which at
the time seemed all important, and how needlessly I permitted my
soul to be troubled sorely and my heart to be fretted by cares which
proved to be of no moment. Bring home to me the folly and futility of
all this, and the need of ever holding before myself the standard of
true values. Let no self deception hide from me the record of sin and
shortcoming, of opportunities neglected, of time misspent, of abilities
and powers perverted to lower purposes against my own better
impulses and knowledge.
And O that I may also be enabled by Your divine grace to turn
into blessing the possibilities of the New Year which stretches out
before me in solemn mystery. Let its message of time and eternity
make me indeed mindful of the uncertainty of human life and the
passing nature of all things earthly.... but let not the thought of my
frailty awaken unwholesome fear of death or unworthy thoughts of life.
Trustfully I confide myself and those dear to me to Your keeping for
the year upon which we are now entering. We are strangers to it and
know not the way which we should go. We need Your light and
leading. Please guide us in paths of safety for Your name's sake.
Bless us in our home and in all our wider relationships, sanctifying our
affections, strengthening our loyalties and enlarging our power of
helpfulness.
As I implore You to inscribe me in the Book of Life, help me to
understand that life is to be measured in terms of character and
usefulness, and that more than mere length of days are breadth of
sympathies, loftiness of ideals and greatness of service. Aid me to
utilize rightly whatever added span of time You, in Your grace and
goodness, shall accord to me ... Amen
- 39 -
44. Ellis Island, 1904
Almighty God, reverently we stand before the Torah,
Your most precious gift to us - the sacred Scriptures
which our ancestors learned and taught, preserved for
us, a heritage unto all generations. May we, their
children's children, ponder its every word; may we
find, as did they, new evidence of You in its precepts,
enriching wisdom in its teachings.
As we begin a New Year, may the Torah be our tree of
life, our shield and guide; may we take its teachings to
our hearts, and thus draw nearer to You in loyalty, in
truth and in love. Amen
Jonathan D. Levine
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47. Book of Genesis - Chapter 21
TORAH READING FOR THE FIRST DAY OF ROSH HASHANAH
1. And ADONAI visited Sarah as he had said, and ADONAI did unto Sarah
as he had spoken.
2. For Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set
time of which ADONAI had spoken to him.
3. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom
Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
4. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as ADONAI
had commanded him.
5. And Abraham was a hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto
him.
6. And Sarah said, ADONAI hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will
laugh with me.
7. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should
nurse children for I have born him a son in his old age.
8. And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast
the same day that Isaac was weaned.
9. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto
Abraham, mocking.
10. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son:
for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with
Isaac.
11. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
12. And ADONAI said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight
because of the lad, and because of your bondwoman; in all that Sarah
hath said to you, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be
called.
13. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is
thy seed.
14. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of
water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child,
and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of
Beersheba.
15. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of
the shrubs.
16. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it
were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And
she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
17. And ADONAI heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of ADONAI called
Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What ails you, Hagar? fear not;
for ADONAI has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great
nation.
19. And ADONAI opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she
went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
20. And ADONAI was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness,
and became an archer.
21. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife
out of the land of Egypt.
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49. Book of Genesis - Chapter 22
SECOND DAY OF ROSH HASHANAH
1. And it came to pass after these things, that ADONAI did tempt Abraham, and
said to him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2. And he said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and
get you into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains which I will tell you of.
3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took
two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for
the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which ADONAI
had told him.
4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5. And Abraham said unto his young men, Stay here with the ass; and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac
his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of
them together.
7. And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said,
Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is
the lamb for a burnt offering?
8. And Abraham said, My son, ADONAI will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9. And they came to the place which ADONAI had told him of; and Abraham
built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son,
and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11. And the angel of ADONAI called unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12. And he said, Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do any thing unto
him: for now I know that you fear ADONAI, seeing you has not withheld
your son, your only son from me.
13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14. And Abraham called the name of that place ADONAI-YIREH: as it is said
to this day, In the mount of ADONAI it shall be seen.
15. And the angel of ADONAI called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16. And said, By myself have I sworn, said ADONAI, for because you have
done this thing, and has not withheld your son, your only son:
17. That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed
as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore;
and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you
have obeyed my voice.
19. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went
together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
20. And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying,
Behold, Milcah, she has also born children unto your brother Nahor;
21. Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
22. And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
23. And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor,
Abraham's brother.
24. And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and
Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.
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