Mourning Together, Making Salaam/Shalom Together

(with correction)

Dear chevra,

I mistranslated a subtle and important aspect of Rabbi Toba Spitzer's blessing for Yom Kippur. Here’s the correct translation, in her words. Sorry for my mistake.

In teshuvah,
Arthur

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From: Rabbi Toba Spitzer

If I can just make a correction, with gratitude to Reb Arthur for sharing my blessing - it is not a blessing for settling the land, but for enacting ahavat yoshvei ha'aretz, loving all who dwell in the land.

With blessings, g'mar tov everyone,
Toba

Dear companions,

Our suggestion for Yom Kippur: Read from the Sefer Torah — perhaps for Mincha — the passage from Gen. 25: 7-11 and then read this blessing:

A blessing to help fulfill the mitzvah of love for settling the Land ahavat yoshvei ha’aretz - אהבת
יושבי הארץ:

May the One That blessed our ancestors, Source of Compassion, bless all those who dwell in the good land, Eretz Yisrael/Falestin — a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olive oil and honey.

May the descendants of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar drink from Be’er L’chai Ro’i, the wellspring of divine nourishment. May they, in their own way and according to their own traditions, know You, and realize together a collective liberation from suffering, sorrow, and torment. May they experience together your blessing: “I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; I will give the land respite from vicious beasts, and no sword shall cross your land.” May this land and its inhabitants become a blessing to all of humanity, a beacon of possibility in a time of trouble.



A blessing brought together by Rabbi Toba Spitzer, the spiritual leader of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Masssachsetts and a former president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.