yakir
The following prayer comes from the "Siddur Tehillat HaShem Yidaber Pi — Sabbath Evening Supplement" by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi, “Reb Zalman” (1924-2014), one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue. Heavily rooted in deep, Kabbalistic concepts, it is meant to be recited at the very beginning of Kabbalat Shabbat in order to set proper intentions for the rest of the service. This text was shared by The Open Siddur Project, an initiative that aims to liberate the creative content of Jewish spiritual practice as a collectively shared resource for students, scholars, artists, and educators to adopt, adapt, and redistribute.
Shabbat Affirmations
I affirm that God affirmed and sanctified the Holy Shabbat;
I raise all toil, suffering, and frustration of the past week
as my sacrifice to God and let go of it.
I affirm the model of our ancestor's rest, and sanctification of Shabbat.
I affirm the perfection of what is in the world, and I surrender all the urgings
and all the strivings on the plane of action, and I offer my body to rest.
I affirm the union of my Nefesh with the Holy Queen and Bride.
I affirm the union of my Ruach with God,
the lover of the infinitesimal and the particular with, God as the Z'ayr Anpin.
I affirm the union of my Neshama with the resting Creator,
the Revealer of Sinai and the Redeemer of the days of Mashiach.
And I affirm the union of my additional soul, my Neshama Yetera
with the Ancient of Days to whom eternity is ever present.
I affirm the blessings that come down for the coming week,
and my willingness to be mindful of the Holy Shabbat even in the midst of the week.
Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi's |Shabbat Affirmations" is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.