Following The Ancient Paths

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Prayers and Blessings

Posted in Working Out My Salvation With Fear and Trembling

A bit ago someone asked me what blessings we use to bless the children on Shabbat. And another person recently askes me what prayers we use at meal time. I thought it might be fun to post them and see what others do.

Upon rising in the morning and laying back down in the evening, most of us say the Shema. Here is what we have printed above our doors and what we say as we lug ourselves out of bed most morinings and fall back into it most evenings: (I have to admit that sometimes I fall asleep while meditating on these words so I often don't finish the Shema in full...)

"Hear and obey, O Israel,the LORD (YHVH) is our G-d. The LORD (YHVH) is Unity. And you shall love the LORD (YHVH) your G-d with all your heart, all your soul, and with all of your resources."
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead. Write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.”

Or an alternate rendering for some:

Sh'ma Yisrael ADONAI (YHVH) Elohaynu ADONAI (YHVH) Echad.
Hear and obey, Israel, the LORD (YHVH) is our God, the LORD (YHVH) is Unity.

Barukh Shem k'vod malkhuto l'olam va-ed
Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever

V-ahavta et ADONAI (YHVH) Elohecha b-chol l'vavcha u-v-chol naf'sh'cha
u-v-chol m'odecha.
And you shall love the LORD (YHVH) your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

At meal time we pray this before eating together:

Blessing God for our Bread
Baruch atta ADONAI Eloheynu melech ha-olam ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz.
Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.

(side note - did you notice lechem - bread? As in beit lechem - the house of bread. You may recognize this as Bethlehem. Who was brought forth from the house of bread? Who was brought forth from the earth by His resurrection? Who called Himself the Bread?)

Blessing God for our Fruit
Baruch atta ADONAI, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, borei p'ri ha-gafen.
Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the universe, who brings forth fruit from the vine.

(side note - I read the other day that wine is most often used in Scripture to refer to joy and gladness. We have used this prayer even when we have no fruit or juice at our meal because we take them together to refer to all our food in general.)

Our family prays "HaMazon", the traditional prayer after a meal, after we eat. It is from this passage that the command to thank the Almighty after eating comes.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, Who nourishes the whole world with His goodness, with favor, loving-kindness and compassion. He gives food to all flesh because His loving-kindness endures forever. And through His great goodness we have never wanted for food, nor shall we ever want for it, for His great Name's sake. For He feeds and sustains all beings, does good to all and prepares food for all His creatures which He has created. Blessed are You, LORD our God, Who gives food to all.

For all this, O LORD our God, we thank You and bless You; blessed be your Name by the mouth of all living things constantly and forever, even as it is written, "When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless God, your God, for the good land which He has given you." Blessed are You, LORD our God, for the land and for the food.

Then there's the Sabbath blessings for the children every Friday evening. DH blesses the children with this:

May the LORD protect and defend you. May He always keep you from harm. May the spirit of G-d rest upon you with a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and heroism, a spirit of knowledge and fear of G-d.

My Boys:
May you be like Efrayim and Manassah: Fruitful for Y’shua’s kingdom, and forgetful of the hard things of life. May He make you good husbands and fathers with wives and children who love and respect you. May you teach your children the Word of the LORD that they may teach their children. May you be devoted leaders like Daniel and Joshua, and devoted followers like Peter and Paul.

My Girls:
May you be like Abigail and Esther. May you bring joy to the Father and shining stars for Y’shua’s kingdom. May He make you good wives and mothers with husbands and children who love and bless you. May you be the keepers of your homes and the teachers of the Word of the LORD to your children that they may teach their children. May you be devoted like Sarah and Ruth, Martha and Mary.

May YHVH bless you and keep you. May YHVH make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May YHVH lift up His countenance upon you and give you His shalom.

Amen

DH has been working on a regular blessing for me but it is different each week as he works out the kinks and gets it to where he wants it. I am not privy to a copy of his 'work' just yet. LOL

Now it's time for me to go study Psalm 145 to 150 and begin my morining prayer routine. This has been a pivitol part of our day in recent months. I know that others are being led in the same direction, we we've talked about these things. :) I'd be interested to hear more about what you're all doing with your families.

Blessings
Lisa

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by AcceptanceWithJoy

It was interesting to read the order of your meal and note that you have a prayer after the meal. I read the Didache the day before yesterday and they had a prayer after the meal to.

The prayers were:

Concerning the cup: “We give thanks to thee, our Father, for the Holy Vine of David thy child, which, thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy child; to thee be glory for ever."

Concerning the broken bread: “We give thee thanks, our Father, for the life and knowledge which thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy Child. To thee be glory for ever.”

After the meal: “We give thanks to thee, O Holy Father, for thy Holy Name which thou didst make to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which thou didst make known to us through Jesus thy Child. To thee be glory for ever. Thou, Lord Almighty, didst create all things for thy Name's sake, and didst give food and drink to men for their enjoyment, that they might give thanks to thee, but us hast thou blessed with spiritual food and drink and eternal light through thy Child. Above all we give thanks to thee for that thou art mighty. To thee be glory for ever. Remember, Lord, thy Church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in thy love, and gather it together in its holiness from the four winds to thy kingdom which thou hast prepared for it. For thine is the power and the glory for ever. Let grace come and let this world pass away. Hosannah to the God of David. If any man be holy, let him come! if any man be not, let him repent: Maranatha, Amen."

This is supposed to be one of the earliest church documents that exist. Some people even date it as early as 50 AD. It is amazing to see how much influence Jewish Christians had at that time.

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by FollowingTheAncientPaths

I had forgotten about the prayers in the Didache! Thanks for reminding me! I think we didn't pursue those because they seemed in a foreign language. LOL One of these days we'll take a closer look at them again. I liked a lot that the Didache said but some of it seemed very foreign, almost as if it'd been revised over the years for whatever purpose.

Blessings!

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Wednesday, January 31, 2007 - Lovely...

Posted by JacqueDixonSoulRestES

These are so beautiful.
I have not gotten any Hebrew or Jewish books yet, but they are on my list. I want to get the Biblical Holidays study and start there.

One of our favorite movies is Fiddler on the Roof. I love the Sabbath Blessing song he sings for his daughters. It is one of my favorite songs of the movie.

Bessings -
Jacque

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Sunday, February 4, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by underhiswings

I believe that blessing the Lord after the meal comes from the commandment found in Deuteronomy 8:10 "When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you."

We were given a wonderful book called "The Book of Blessings" by John Garr which has several traditional blessings for shabbat meals, as well as, other times and ways in which to bless people. It also talks about the Biblical basis for blessing people and about the laying on of hands when blessing someone.

We have not been using traditional blessing in our home to bless each other as of yet. However, my husband does such a wonderful job of blessing each of us and especially me. We have had the privilege of having people in our home for our shabbat meal and have been able to bless them. One woman was so moved by the experience of being with our family when we blessed each other and then when my husband blessed her family she openly wept. It was such a joy to be able to impart life to her in this way.

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