28 June 2019: A New Prayer for Peace

This is a new prayer for peace by Rabbi Joe Schwartz, Brooklyn, NY, posted in the Jewish Forward, 28 June 2019, courtesy of Rabbi Jennifer Lader, Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, Michigan.

The article is at https://forward.com/opinion/426422/a-new-prayer-for-the-united-states-in-a-time-of-trial/.

The prayer is at http://assets.forward.com/pdfs/prayer-2.pdf and below:

May God on High, who loves righteousness and justice, protect and keep the United States of America - its people, its ministers and its advisers - and safeguard the ideals and free institutions that are its pride and its glory. May it be a beacon of hope for the oppressed and the enslaved and a refuge for the homeless and tempest-tost, giving to bigotry no sanction, and to persecution no assistance.

May it renew its commitment to protect the vulnerable and the powerless in its midst, as it is written (Deut. 10:18): "God does justice to the orphan and the widow, and loves the migrant, feeding and clothing him." And it is written (Ex. 22:20-22): "You shall not wrong or oppress the migrant, nor abuse the widow or the orphan - and if you do abuse them, they will cry out to Me, and I shall surely hear their cry" and take up their cause.

Author of mercy and compassion, teach us the ways of compassion; pour out Your spirit upon the land, that all who dwell within it might know that we are all Your children, created as brothers and sisters to one another. May the land be filled with knowledge of You as the waters cover the sea, and let us say: Amen.