The Woman's Prayer

O Lord!

Woman on earth lifts her prayers up to You in the new year — and woman, O God, has never prayed except for good; never, on any day, has she been a butcher pronouncing Your name over the victim.

Nor has she ever once raised her heart to You, O God, but that in her heart were springs of goodness, wishing they might pour forth upon all mankind.

O Lord! Woman on earth lifts her prayers up to You — so hear her prayer, O God!!

Restore to mankind their faith in goodness!! And to broken 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, so that no mother may again be stricken in her only son, no wife in her husband, no beloved in her lover!

To the houses of men restore health and well-being 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 grows small.

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

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

To the sick, health.. to the outcast, return.. to the stranger, kin and homeland...

O God... woman on earth has never prayed except for good, nor has her voice ever risen except in tenderness — and woman raises her prayers to You tonight; so answer the prayer of woman, O God..