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A prayer for Rosh Chodesh and the Women of the Wall

Rosh Chodesh-the New Month- is this weekend.  It begins tonight and continues through Monday -the first of Kislev..

The Women of The Wall gather monthly on Rosh Chodesh to welcome the New Moon.  This is traditionally a day associated with women.  Tradition teaches it was a reward for resisting Aaron’s command to part with jewelry to make the Golden Calf.  The women resisted sin.

How sadly ironic that the Women of the Wall in efforts to pray and welcome a holy time associated with women resisting the greatest sin of the Jewish people, men, specifically the Chief Rabbinate and the Rabbi of the Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz  continue the sin of exclusion and misogyny.

Below is a prayer for Rosh Chodesh and a prayer for the Women of the Wall at this Rosh Chodesh Kislev.

Remember the month of Kislev is the month of Chanukah; A time of light, miracles, rededication of the Temple.  It is a month of Maccabean strength.  As you pray keep these intentions in your mind and heart.

Prayer for Women of the Wall

May it be your will, our God and God of our mothers and fathers, to bless this prayer group and all who pray within it: them, their families, and all that is theirs, together with all women’s prayer groups and all the women and girls of Your people Israel. Strengthen us and turn our hearts to serve You in truth, reverence, and love.

May our prayer be as desirable and acceptable before You as the prayers of our holy foremothers Sarah, Rivkah, Rahel, and Leah.

May our song ascend to Your Glorious Throne in holiness and purity, like the song of Miriam the Prophet and Devorah the Judge, and may it be as a pleasant savor and sweet incense before You.

And for our sisters, all the women and girls of Your people Israel: let us merit to see their joy and hear their voices raised before You in song and praise. May no woman or girl of Your people Israel or anywhere else in the world be silenced ever again. God of Justice, let us merit justice and salvation soon, for the sanctity of Your name and the restoration of Your world, as it is written: Zion will hear and be joyful, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, over Your judgments, O God. And as it is written: For Zion’s sake I will not be still and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be silent, until her righteousness comes forth like great light and her salvation like a torch aflame.

For Torah shall go forth from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem. Amen, selah.

Prayer by Rahel Jaskow is from Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism’s Holy Site, copyright 2003 by Phyllis Chesler and Rivka Haut. Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock VT, www.jewishlights.com.