HEALING SERVICE

Leader Reads:

This service has no "leader" -- it will be led by all of us together. A few passages will be read responsively by the congregation. Some passages will be read by a single person. Some will be read by all of us together. Please read aloud the sections that are italicized in your service. Your readiness to become a genuine part of our community worship will give this service its continuity and its meaning.

As we immerse ourselves in this service, it will be a new experience for Bs all... it doesn't have to be done "right"... as the Shulkan Arukh (‘The Set Table’, Jospeh Caro’s classic guide to Jewish practice) told those who asked him what was necessary for a prayer to be done right - "The person who says ‘Amen’ sincerely is counted as if the entire prayer has been said."

Take a moment now to quieten the noise from outside - as you do, relax yourself - allow the words, music and spirit of this service to bring peace, nourishment and healing to your physical self, to your open heart and to the perfect soul that God has given you. May you find what you seek! Shalom!

Angels blessing.

Mi yemini, Miha’el

Umi smoli, Gavri’el

Umi l’fanai, Uri’el

Umi – aharai, R’fael

V’al roshi, Sh’hina (4x)

May our right hand bring us closer

to our Godliness

May our left hand give us strength

to face each day

Before us may God’s vision light

the path ahead

And behind us may well being heal our way

All around us is Sh’hina (4x)

Followed by meditation:

Intro: we are now going to do a guided meditation on accessing the sources of energy that we can use for our healing.

Sit in a comfortable position, legs uncrossed, put down your papers and books, hands on your lap, eyes gently closed.

Be aware of your breath in and your breath out. Trace your in breath with your mind as it comes into your lungs; then trace your out breath with your mind as it goes out your nostrils. Do this a few times.

PAUSE

Now let your awareness sink deep into your body. In your imagination become aware of your blood going around your body; become aware of the living cells operating in your body; become aware of the strength of the energy inside you that you can use to help your healing.

PAUSE

Now let your awareness alight on the other people in this room; become aware of them as energetic beings like you; let yourself re-experience how you can be strengthened by your contact with others through love, emotions and friendship and how this can help your healing.

PAUSE

Now let your awareness focus on this planet. See it in all its beauty and variety. Feel the capacity of the planet to renew itself and provide food and clothing for us. Feel the energy of living matter, and of rocks, plants, and animals. Become aware of the earth as an interwoven system that has the power to sustain our life and how contact with this energy can help your healing.

PAUSE

Now try to become aware of the source of the universe, the natural intelligence that allows the universe to be the way it is, a source of enormous power and energy, and how this source promotes your healing.

PAUSE

Now bring that awareness of the source of the universe back to this planet. Feel how the planet is one with the source of the universe, and cannot be without it.

PAUSE

Now bring that awareness of the planet empowered by the source of the universe back into this room. Feel how the others in this room are part of the living planet and the source of the universe.

PAUSE

Now see how you in turn are a living and vital part of the humanity which surrounds you and how that humanity and you are linked in your energetic flow to the planet and are also sustained by the source of the universe.

PAUSE

Know that when you need to you can access these sources of energy in yourself, in others, in the planet and in the universe through your knowledge of your self, your contact with others, your place on this planet and your relationship to the source of the universe. Know that you can access these sources of energy both when you are well and when you are in need of healing.

PAUSE

Prayer

Please close your eyes whilst I read this.

Strength, hope and patience can come from understanding and awareness. Understanding of human behaviour and awareness of how we and others are. This needs to be coupled with a sense of direction: that we want to go on, to improve ourselves and to experience life. Sometimes admitting we can’t cope actually helps us cope. Our strength may be found in our admission of potential failure. Dealing with illness, whether it be our own or others’, can be a test of what we are, an opportunity to reassess things and an opportunity to find and deepen our roots and to grow.

We may find the resources of strength, hope and courage in prayer, mediation, self-understanding, love and action. We all need to know and develop our own techniques and abilities for finding these resources within ourselves and for helping others find them for themselves. Sometimes our approach may be negative or possibly harmful to us. We need discrimination and strength to find positive ways of coping and growing.

Spiritual experience from prayer, meditation and life-awareness can help us. We know that daily attention to these matters and a daily practice to enhance our spiritual awareness and strengthen our inner resources are worth the effort.

After: keep your eyes closed. Let your mind gently flow with the experience of this prayer for a minute or so, without trying to actively think about it.

PAUSE

Now let us go on.

Address: Who needs healing?

Call out names of those who are in need of healing.

Prayer

We read together and pause after each sentence.

We need one another.

We need one another when we mourn and would be comforted.

We need one another when we are in trouble and crave help, or when we are in deep waters of temptation and a strong hand might pull us out.

We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose and cannot do this alone.

We need one another in our defeats, when with encouragement we might try again; and the hour of success, when we look for someone to share our bliss.

And we need one another when we come to die, and would have gentle hands prepare us for the journey.

All our life we are in need, and others are in need of us.

We best live when we bring to one another our understanding and our solace.

NAFSHI HOLAT

Nafshi holat ahavateha; ana El-na refana la

My soul pines for your love; please God heal it.

Each of us enter the act of praying from a different path. This afternoon we want to be together on the same path – perhaps a new path. In the course of this service, we will explore and experience liturgy, searching for its power to heal, to comfort, to nourish, and to sustain us. Some of us have prayed a thousand times and yet never felt the power of these words to heal. Some of us have prayed in our hearts, never knowing that they were a part of Jewish prayer. But the Rabbis in their wisdom would have us ask to pray anew every day, not because the words change, but because we change and each time, bring the language into a new focus. In our tradition we begin the daily morning service in gratitude for our bodies and the intricate functions they perform, and with the awareness of how hard it becomes for us when our bodies fail us. We begin the afternoon service with an awareness of the complexity of the lived-out day, when we missed the mark, missed the point, missed one another, missed listening to our own heart. May we join together in prayer and song, and as Rabbi Nachman suggests, reach out in three directions: inward to self, outward to people, and upward to God.

“Unending Love.” Cantor and congregation

We are loved by an unending love.

We are embraced by arms that find us, even when we are hidden from ourselves.

We are touched by fingers that soothe us, even when we are too proud for soothing.

We are counselled by voices that guide us, even when we are too embittered to hear.

We are loved by an unending love.

We are supported by hands that lift us, even in the midst of a fall.

We are urged on by eyes that meet us, even when we are too weak for meeting.

We are touched by an unending love.

Embraced, touched, soothed and counselled, ours are the arms, the fingers, the voices.

Ours are the eyes, the smiles.

We are loved by an unending love.

“Sharing our stories.”

When Miriam was sick, her brother Moses prayed: "God, heal her please!"

Heal them

We pray for those who are now ill. Source of Life, we pray:

We pray for all to be whole in body and spirit,

Heal them

Grant courage to those whose bodies, holy proof of your creative goodness, are violated by illness or pain

Encourage them

Grant strength and compassion to families and friends who give their loving care and support to help to overcome despair

Strengthen them

Grant wisdom to them who probe the deepest complexities of Your World as they labour in search of treatments and cures

Inspire them

Grant clarity of vision and strength of purpose to the leaders of our institutions and our government. May they be moved to act with justice and compassion and find the courage to overcome fear and hatred

Guide them

Grant insight to us, that we may understand that whenever death comes, we must accept it - but before it comes, we

must resist it, by cherishing life and by making our life worthy as long as we live.

Bless and heal us all.

Eili Eili (written by Hanah Senesh), accompanied by flute

O God, O my God,

I pray that these things never end:

The sand and the sea,

the rush of the waters,

the crash of the heavens,

the prayer of the heart.

When/What healed us. Invite congregation to talk to the group about this.

Guided meditation.

Close your eyes and sit in a comfortable position.

Become aware of your breathing and follow the path of the breath as it enters the nose, travels down the throat to fill the lungs. And as you breathe out, again follow the breath as it returns finally through the nose. Repeat 3x

This time listen to the sound of the breath. Some say this is the sound of God’s name. Repeat 3x

We now say the word “Receiving” as we breathe in, and as we breathe out the words “Returning to the Source.” Repeat 3x

Finally, with the breath in, ask God to bless a person you know or it can be yourself, who needs healing. Breathe in and say the word, “Heal” and when you breathe out say the name you have chosen. Repeat 3x

Keep your eyes closed for a few minutes in silence. Now open your eyes as we continue the service.

Prayer

God give us strength to transcend setbacks and pain, to put our difficulties into perspective.

God give us strength to take the path less travelled and more disturbing.

God give us strength to persevere, to reach out to those in need – may we abandon none of your creations.

May we never become callous or apathetic because of our own disappointments.

May our pain never be used as an excuse to stop heeding our call.

God, give us the strength to strive to do more, as well as the wisdom to allow ourselves time to do less.

Let us always try to give, even if we ourselves may feel alone or impoverished.

For we must always strive to reach beyond ourselves.

As we sing the Mi-she’berah prayer think of a person you

know, not in this room in need of healing and well being, or

sing for yourself.

Mi-she’berah a-vo-tei-nu

M’kor ha-b’ra-ha l’-imo-tei-nu

May the Source of Strength, who blessed the ones before us

Help us find the courage, to make our lives a blessing

And let us say: Amen.

Mi-she’berah imo-tei-nu

M’kor ha-b’ra-ha l’-a-vo-tei-nu

Bless those in need of healing with r’-fu-a sh’-lei-ma

The renewal of body, the renewal of spirit

And let us say: Amen.

Kaddish is not a prayer that commemorates the dead, but a prayer that praises God. It reminds us to confirm our faith in God at all times; in times of sorrow as well as in times of joy. As we recite the mourner’s Kaddish, as Jews do all over the world, we remember that death is an inevitable part of life - we mourn all those who have died, whether easily or in suffering and pain; those who seem to have left little impact and those whose lives enriched the world. We remember the living, and ask God’s blessings for strength and healing for all who suffer, in body or in spirit, so that they can continue

Our thoughts turn especially to those who have touched our lives; we rise to remember relatives and friends, those who our friends and neighbours have lost, the martyrs of our people whose graves are unmarked, and those of every race and nations whose lives have been a blessing to humanity. We recall all those who are near to us, and give thanks for the memories and the times we have shared. As we remember them, let us meditate on the meaning of love and loss, of life and death.

Kaddish

Yit-ga-dal ve-yit-ka-dash sh-mei raba, b’-al-ma di-v’-ra hi-r-u-tei,

V’-yam-lih mal-hu-tei, b’-ha-yei-hon u-v’-yo-mei-hon u-v’-ha-yei d’-hol-beit

Yis-ra-eil, ba-a-ga-la u-viz-man ka-riv, v’-i-m’-ru: a-mein,

Ye-hei sh’-mei ra-ba m’-va-rah l’-a-lam u-l’-al-mei al-ma-ya.

Yit-ba-rah v’-yish-ta-bah, v’-yit-pa-ar v’-yit-ro-mam v’-yit-na-sei, v’-yit-ha-dar, v’-yit-aleh v’-yit-ha-lal sh’-mei d’-kood-sha, b’-rih hu, l’-ei-la min-kol bir-ha-ta v’-shi-ra-ta, tush-b’-ha-ta v’-ne-he-ma-ta, da-a-mi-ran b’-al-ma, v’-i-m’-ru: a-mein.

Y’-hei sh’-la-ma ra-ba min sh’-ma-ya v’-ha-yim a-lei-nu v’-al kol Yis-ra-eil, v’-i-m’-ru: a-mein.

O-se sha-lom bim-ro-mav, hu ya-a-se sha-lom a-lei-nu, v’-al-kol Yis-ra-eil, v’-i-m’-ru: a-mein.

Prayer for Healing

O God, in our hearts we name those men, women, and children who are now suffering from physical, emotional, or spiritual illness and pain. We join our prayers with the prayers of all who love them. Give them renewed comfort and courage.

Strengthen in them the healing powers You have placed within us all. Guide the hands and hearts of those who are entrusted with their care.

May the knowledge of Your Love, O God, as well as our love, give added hope to them and to their dear ones. May they find even greater strength in the assurance that our prayers are linked with theirs.

May the One who blessed our ancestors, Sarah and Abraham, Rebecca and Isaac, Leah, Rachel and Jacob bless all those among us who are sick. Grant insight to those who bring healing, courage and faith to those who are unwell, and love and strength to all of us. God, let your spirit rest among all who are ill and among all of us, and comfort us. May we soon know a time of complete healing, a healing of body and a healing of the spirit, and let us say, Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Last updated by Webmaster Fred Tropp v.1 19/9/04 \healing service