The Woman's Prayer

O Lord!

Woman on earth raises her supplications to You in the new year, and woman, O God, has never prayed for anything but good; never, on any day, was she a butcher pronouncing Your name over the victim.

Nor has she ever lifted her heart to You, O God, but that in her heart were springs of goodness she wished might pour out over all mankind.

O Lord! Woman on earth raises her supplications to You — hear her prayer, O God!!

Restore to mankind their faith in goodness!! And to the great hearts, consolation! For the downtrodden orphans, make in every heart a father and a mother.

To the mothers, O God, restore their children to their bosoms, from the unknown wastes of the earth, the horizons of the sky, and the far reaches of the seas!!

To the lost woman, restore, O God, her faith in life and her nobility!!

And shatter the savage fangs of man, that no mother may again be bereaved of her only son, no wife of her husband, no sweetheart of her beloved!!

To the houses of men restore well-being and health and the joy of life!

And to our barren fields, the bounty that once flowed among us: oil and wine and honey!!

To the ruler, O God, an enlightened conscience by which to govern God's servants!

And grant, O God:

To the poor man, a richness of soul and heart beside which the dust of gold dwindles.

To the naked, covering! To the hungry, food!!

To the broken, consolation! To the refugee, shelter!!

To the sick, health... to the outcast, a homecoming...

To the stranger, kin and a homeland...

O God... woman on earth has never prayed for anything but good, nor has her voice ever been raised except in tenderness; and woman raises her supplications to You tonight — answer the prayer of woman, O God...