Message From The Rabbi

Rabbi Spike Anderson

This past Thursday morning, I attended the National Day of Prayer breakfast hosted by Dunwoody Baptist Church.  It was a lovely morning, with DBC congregants, local dignitaries, and interfaith leaders in attendance.   I was the Jewish representative and was glad to be there.

The gist of the program and ceremony was elevating the place of prayer in our lives, as well as a group prayer for various constituents that included our local first responders, military serving overseas, elected officials, schoolteachers and children, and general population in Dunwoody.

When I sat down, I was handed a piece of paper with some information, and a note that informed me that a child from their pre-school named ‘Brook’ had prayed for me, by name!  They included the prayer that 9-year-old Brook said for Spike Anderson, and it was the English version of the Priestly benediction (Numbers 6:24-25).

May God bless you and keep you.

May God’s countenance shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May God’s face turn towards you and grant you peace.

I will share with you that in that moment, when it sunk in that a child who did not know me had prayed for me by name (I had registered, so they knew I was coming), I was deeply and profoundly touched.

I’m not exactly sure why…but I think that in that moment I felt ‘seen’ and ‘known’ in a way that I was not accustomed to.   And… when I processed that someone (a child) had taken the time to pray for “God’s face to turn towards” me for my sake and those around me, I felt lifted.  The child did not know me, and likely we would never meet, yet still I felt that (somehow) her prayer for me, and it mattered.

We have something similar (but not exactly) in our Jewish traditions, of saying Mi Sheberach for people (by name) in need of a healing; and saying Kaddish for people (by name) who have died as a way of raising up their memory in our lives, but also, according to tradition, of giving them an “aliyat Hanefesh,” “an ascent of soul.”   Ideally, those folks whose names we are saying for Mi Sheberach know, or are told, that a congregation is praying for their speedy healing; and I would like to think that our beloved deceased “know” that we are saying their name.

Prayer is both intensely personal and communally oriented.   Prayer may not bring the rain, but it can water an arid soul.  Our tradition talks of prayers in the context of Jacob’s ladder, with the angels continuously moving up and down the rungs from the earth to the sky, and back down again.  Perhaps this is our way of trying to describe the many levels of prayer, the nuances to it, and the lift that we get, and that we can give, by taking the moment to put in the effort. 

May the thoughts of your heart be articulated into words that lead to action.

May your prayers for well-being, healing, and protection be 'heard’ from on high.

And may our prayers as a community fall like raindrops into a mighty stream, flowing forward into the future.