A Prayer for Praying Before Blowing The Shofar

This was written as a kavanah For the Women of the Wall on Rosh Hashana 5774

From Rabbi Arthur Waskow:  'There are three notes on the shofar-  Tekiah, “Awake!”,  Teruah ,”Open your heart!”,  Shevarim, “Sob with all who suffer!”

Let us blow the shofar

So that everyone can hear:

Awake!
Open Your Heart!
Sob with all who suffer!
We pray for all who thus pray.

However you may gather

Only with your own kind,

Only with your own gender,

Only in mixed company.

After a bowl of cholent,

After a BLT,

In a minyan,

On your own.

In your holy language whatever it may be
Hebrew, Arabic, English, Yiddish, Latin, Russian, Sanskrit, Mandarin, Farsi, Spanish...
all the languages we yearn in.

At your holy sites

In a church,

In a temple,

In a shul,
In a mosque.

In a forest,
In a foxhole,
On a mountain,
At a wall.

However you may be heard
Singing,

Speaking,

Reciting,

Whispering,

Moaning,
Silently,
Blowing a shofar.

However you may hold yourself
Eyes open,
Eyes closed,

Kneeling,

Sitting,

Standing,

Shukeling,

Spinning.

For whatever reason

With your heart, wishing for the health of a loved one,

With your mouth, reciting liturgy within community,

With your body, dancing in spiritual transcendence,

With your feet, acting for a socially just world.

Because when you pray

Whether in obligation to a commandment

Or in mindful awareness of every moment,
Whether in deepest faith or faithful doubt,
When you pray you are  holy, kadosh.

And we honor you

Even if you do not honor us.

Please remember,
You speak to God

But you do not speak FOR God

So let us blow the shofar now

So that everyone can hear

That on this holy day

We pray for all who pray
Even those who would stop us from our prayer.

We pray with a loud joyful noise

So that we may be heard
Through all the walls
Because this is a holy conversation.

Awake!

Open Your Heart!

Sob with all who suffer!

Amen.