Categories

Mar 10, 2021

A Vaccine Prayer

A Vaccine Prayer

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Dear God,
after all the loss,
the distance, the sadness, the aloneness,
Give me life. Grant me back Your world. Please.
Give my children reason for hope. Please. Please.

Holy Healing One,
May the vaccine I'm about to receive be a sign that healing is arriving once again in our world, for all Your worried children.
May my body's temporary discomfort sensitize me to the needs of this fragile world that remain invisible to the eye.
May my body's pent-up tension, held back during an unfathomable year of constriction and stress, be channeled in a healthy way for those around me.
May the scientists and doctors and nurses who have served as your angels and saved our world be granted restoration of soul and healing of mind.

I pledge before You, Source of All, to do as much good as I can as long as my soul is within me.

May I be granted a life filled by the honor of serving You by serving others.

Thank You. Goodness.
Thank You. Healing.
Thank You. Life.

Amen.


#vaccine #COVID19 #prayer

Today we began learning Torah again, celebrating a #Siyyum, a completion of the entire Torah last Friday. #ChazakChazakVenitchazek #SiyyumHaTorah #HafochBah #BeginAgain #MorningTorah #BuildOnLove

Today we began learning Torah again, celebrating a #Siyyum, a completion of the entire Torah last Friday. We began broadcasting March 18, 2020, and didn't miss a weekday morning since. To all of you for sharing in the building of this sacred community, as far away as Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, France, Holland, England, Israel, and Yonkers, bless you.
 
I dedicate our year of Torah to my precious parents, who blessed me with Torah from even before I was born, to my holy wife, for holding my heart with such love and wisdom, and to my UJA-Federation of New York colleague Mark Medin, for championing this online experiment a year ago. Thank you, friends, for sharing the journey.
 

Mar 5, 2021

On Finishing a Year of Torah

In the midst of these strange times, a growing community of friends have joined together every weekday morning at 9am on the UJA-Federation of New York Facebook page to learn Torah, to keep each other company, to strengthen each other. I know this has been a positive thing for others, but it has been a vital thing for me, not only as a teacher, but as a Jew. This came up just a few days ago in conversation with my mentor, Rabbi Craig Scheff of the Orangetown Jewish Center (OJC). I was his first rabbinic intern. It has come up in conversation with my father, Rabbi Gary Creditor, who has always been my rabbi. I have become increasingly aware of what a privilege it is to be a rabbi, to be part of the lineage of Torah teachers that stretches back in time for thousands of years and will, please God, continue forever. I will be forever grateful for the blessing of being part of a Torah community, and this morning felt like no other. Monday morning we will celebrate a siyyum, a completion of a cycle of learning, and we will launch immediately into the cycle to come. Torah is always moving forward, and we with Torah. "All her ways are pleasant, and all her paths are peace. (Prov. 3:17)"

*SPECIAL MOMENT* Today marked the end of an entire Torah cycle of 9am broadcasts on the UJA-Federation of New York Facebook page. There we've gathered with thousands of good, kind souls, every morning since March 18, 2020 to learn Torah, to strengthen each other, to engage in our world, and to build community. Monday morning at 9am, we will celebrate a #siyyum of the entire Torah, beginning again where the strange and winding sacred path launched one year ago. May we be blessed to experience love for each other and our world through Torah morning and night. #MorningTorah #ShabbatShalom

 *SPECIAL MOMENT* Today marked the end of an entire Torah cycle of 9am broadcasts on the UJA-Federation of New York Facebook page. There we've gathered with thousands of good, kind souls, every morning since March 18, 2020 to learn Torah, to strengthen each other, to engage in our world, and to build community. Monday morning at 9am, we will celebrate a #siyyum of the entire Torah, beginning again where the strange and winding sacred path launched one year ago. May we be blessed to experience love for each other and our world through Torah morning and night. #MorningTorah #ShabbatShalom