Friday night prayer

On Friday night, I usually put bless my children with my hands on their heads.

I say “May God make you like Lily” or “May God make you like Jacob” or “May God make you like Lena” because those are their names, and I want them to know that the best that they can do is to be themselves.

Once a week for years and years now, I have reminded my kids that they are part of a tradition that glorifies life and that they are authentic expressions of that intact, undivided living glory.  

I can’t bless my oldest children tonight because they've gone to the Paris Climate Summit this weekend. I'm amazed that they hear the world-wide call to protect creation, because really I do diddly squat. I drive too much.  I leave the lights on too often. I don’t grow my own vegetables.  My children are far more committed to the well-being of the planet than me.  I just worry about everything.

I worry about global warming. I worry about polar bears. I worry about whales. I worry about seed diversity.  I worry about  the safety of friends and family in Israel. And now I'm worried about my children’s safety in Paris.   

They want to protect the planet and I just want to protect them.  

Although I can’t put my hands on their heads, I will say the rest of the blessing to my children tonight in a whisper, and hope that the silent ripples through the air reach them somehow in Paris…

 “ May God bless you and protect you, shine his face towards you and be gracious to you, may God turn his face towards you and give you peace”

but what difference can words make really? 

Ma’amadot project – a call to protect creation

God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts of every kind.” And it was so. God made wild beasts of every kind and cattle of every kind, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. And God saw that this was good. And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.” And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.” God said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, [I give] all the green plants for food.” And it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Gen. 1:24–31)