Barukh ata adonai elohenu melekh ha’olam, shehecheyanu, v’kiyimanu, v’higiyanu la’z’man ha’zeh
Blessed are You Lord our God, Sovereign of the Universe who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this moment.
I repeat this often recited Jewish blessing “The shehechiyanu” at the beginning of my daily prayer routine.
This helps remind me of the Jewish foundation of my Christianity. As a lifelong Episcopalian, old testament readings represent an integral aspect of the liturgy. In addition, through bible study I have read the Old Testament twice, and have studied the Jewish Kabbalah. Nevertheless, I find it easy to ignore and forget that Yahweh God chose the Jewish Jesus to become our Messiah. And the first recorded language between man and God is Hebrew, while Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. So it seems intimate, respectful and historic to begin this way, and to follow it with the Lord’s Prayer. It’s taken me quite a while to learn to say the Hebrew words, but there is no impelling reason to always quote these Yiddish or Hebraic words. The freshness and directness of the English translation is enough to honor my faiths’ old Testament connection.
Jim Bickford
Blessed are You Lord our God, Sovereign of the Universe who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this moment.
I repeat this often recited Jewish blessing “The shehechiyanu” at the beginning of my daily prayer routine.
This helps remind me of the Jewish foundation of my Christianity. As a lifelong Episcopalian, old testament readings represent an integral aspect of the liturgy. In addition, through bible study I have read the Old Testament twice, and have studied the Jewish Kabbalah. Nevertheless, I find it easy to ignore and forget that Yahweh God chose the Jewish Jesus to become our Messiah. And the first recorded language between man and God is Hebrew, while Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. So it seems intimate, respectful and historic to begin this way, and to follow it with the Lord’s Prayer. It’s taken me quite a while to learn to say the Hebrew words, but there is no impelling reason to always quote these Yiddish or Hebraic words. The freshness and directness of the English translation is enough to honor my faiths’ old Testament connection.
Jim Bickford
No comments:
Post a Comment