Founder’s Blog
The First Sprouting
The Lord has blessed me to have seen and experienced a beautiful act of His creation--renewing in me an understanding of His final redemption. This last Friday night, prior to Sabbath I was praying on our back porch and I remarked to our guest how I was concerned with that the trees were still bear this late in the season. Literally, after a nice rain and within 24 hours, the trees all spouted into full bloom. Everything is green. Everything is beautiful. It seems as if the season changed in a second.
Dear First Fruits friends: When redemption comes, it will come quickly. All of these years of struggle and hardship will be forgotten in a second as we wonder at the beauty of our salvation.
Yom Hazikaron is observed on the 4th day of the month of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar, always preceding the next day's celebrations of Israel Independence Day, Yom Ha-Atzma'ut.
Is the modern State of the physical nation of Israel the first spouting of our redemption? In this beautiful prayer, found in the traditional siddur, it links the rebirth of the nation of Israel to the promises in Deuteronomy 30. This English translation is by my colleague Aaron Eby it will be included in the First Fruits of Zion Siddur.
Pray and meditate upon the words of this beautiful prayer over these two important days in Israel. Today, remember the lives lost in the eternal struggle of redemption and celebrate with Israel in seeing the first sprouts of redemption--the modern state of the nation of Israel.
Our father who is in heaven, rock of Israel and its redeemer, bless the State of Israel, the first sprouting of our redemption. Defend her with the pinion of your devotion, spread over her the shelter of your peace, and send your light and truth to her leaders, officials, and advisors, affirming them with good counsel from you. Strengthen the hands of the defenders of our holy land, grant them salvation, and crown them with a crown of triumph. May you give peace in the land and eternal gladness to its inhabitants.
Please take note of our brothers, the entire house of Israel, in all the lands to which they have been dispersed, and quickly lead them upright to Zion, your city, and to Jerusalem, the dwelling place of your name. As it is written in the Torah of Moses your servant: "If your dispersed ones will be at the ends of the heavens, from there the LORD, your God, will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the LORD, your God, will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and cause you to possess it, and he will grant more goodness and abundance than your fathers."
Unite our hearts to love and fear your name, and to keep all of the words of your Torah. Quickly send us the son of David, your righteous Messiah, to ransom those who wait for your final salvation.
Appear in the beauty of the brilliance of your strength over all the inhabitants of your world, and let all who have breath say, "The LORD, God of Israel is king, and his kingdom rules over all." Amen, selah.
NOTE: When first posted I attributed this prayer to Rabbi Yechiel Lichtenstein zt"l. That was a mistake. While Rabbi Lichtenstein has a similar prayer that will be a part of the siddur, the prayer above is part of the traditional siddur. I apologize for the confusion.
Search in Blogs...
Browse through Blogs
Feeds
Use this RSS feed to track our blogs in your favorite reader.
The FFOZ Blogs RSS Feed
Blogs by Category
- Back Office
- Events and Administration
- Founder’s Blog
- Guest Authors
- Lessons from the Land
- Levertoff Documentary
- Mishlei Musings
- Publications
- Road Trip 09
- Shalom Tour
- Teaching Team
- The Siddur Project
- Torah Club
- Video Blogs
- Site Info Blog
Blogs by Author
- Aaron Eby
- Boaz Michael
- D. Thomas Lancaster
- FFOZ Staff
- Guest Authors
- Media Staff
- Hope Egan
- Seth Dralle
- Toby Janicki
More Recent Posts
- Asarah BeTevet: The Fast of the 10th of Tevet
- The Ninth of Tevet: Simon Peter's Yahrzeit
- Some Religious Predictions for 2012
- Is New Year's Pagan?
- Priestly Seal Discovered
- Five Reasons To Celebrate Hanukkah
- Jeremiah 10 and the Christmas Tree
- A Kosher Christmas Tree?
- This is the Torah
- Rosh Hashanah & Admonishing the Idle
