Had you asked me a few months ago about new Jewish rituals, I would have told you that those “touchy feely” ceremonies were just for hippies and people left of radical liberalism.
But my perspective has changed drastically as I have encountered traditional ceremonies that have disturbed me. At the same time, in editing this site, I have encountered a vast amount of material on adapting Jewish rituals and customs. Quite a good bit of it has been appealing, convincing, and eye-opening.
So it is with that in mind that I share Rabbi David Seidenberg’s voting prayer for 2008. However you vote, may you do it with intention:
With my vote today I am prepared and intending to seek peace for this country, as it is written:
“Seek out the peace of the city where I cause you to roam and pray for her sake to God YHVH, for in her peace you all will have peace.� (Jer. 29:7)
May it be Your will that votes will be counted faithfully and may You account my vote as if I had fulfilled this verse with all my power.
May it be good in Your eyes to give a wise heart to whomever we elect today and may You raise for us a government whose rule is for good and blessing to bring justice and peace to all the inhabitants of the world and to Jerusalem, for rulership is Yours!
Just as I participated in elections today so may I merit to do good deeds and repair the world with all my actions, and with the act of…[fill in your pledge] which I pledge to do today on behalf of all living creatures and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah’s waters to protect and to not destroy the earth and her plenitude.
May You give to all the peoples of this country, the strength and will to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as unified force in order to cause to flourish, throughout the world, good life and peace and may You fulfill for us the verse:
“May the pleasure of Adonai our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us, may the work of our hands endure.� (Ps. 90:17)
Adonai
Pronounced: ah-doe-NYE, Origin: Hebrew, a name for God.
