Yotzer Or
by Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel
for Trans Day of Visibility, March 31, 2024
with gratitude to Rabbi Ariel Tovlev
One Sunday in January I asked our minyan members for the words and phrases and ideas and feelings on their hearts as we turned to praying for the hostages held in Gaza, the people of Gaza, Israelis, Jews, Palestinians, and everyone in the Land. Within moments words began to populate the chat - words that held pain and hope and despair and questions. So many questions. I asked, and I told them I asked, with the intention of taking the words and thoughts and adding my own and crafting a prayer. I wrote Anu Korim.
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When I come in contact with something, touch something, or someone, it’s my skin-and-bone self touching and it’s also that deep, personal Self. When someone touches me, the me they are touching is also both my skin-and-bone self and that deep, personal Self. I am a whole being: Skin and bone and soul.
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A few years ago, I wanted a prayer, a reflection, for before the Amidah.
So I wrote one.
I would love to know what you’d add.
Or better yet, I’d love to know what prayer or reflection you would write.
Happy Juneteenth.
This Tent, Our Tent
A Prayer for Minyan