Master of the Universe, fill my heart with love for my people, and rest for the soul.
Let me see the Creator in each and every creature, its mercy for each thing it creates.
There’s not a single drop of water or particle of dust in which your light is lacking, or that is outside your domain.
There is no creature without its creator.
Those who know this live always in joy.
Their parents are but bodies that are here today, and are tomorrow in their graves.
All their friends, all their possessions and honors, are like a passing shadow.
They are themselves like passing clouds, like Jonah’s tree.
But you – you have always existed and will always exist.
You are the only true being, the essence of all things.
Only for you are all problems solved, all challenges effortless.
There is nothing devious in you – no retribution, injustice, or fault.
Evil lives in all things temporary, not in what exists eternally.
You know why you created evil – and who are we to question your integrity?
We
have only one comfort in this world – that you are our maker and that
we have the power to serve you with joy, awe, and love, all our lives –
and that you have given us the ability to understand such things.
Though
we may not know the purpose of life, or why you sent us into this world
to suffer, we understand that it is our duty to build and not to
destroy, to comfort and not to torment, to bring joy rather than sorrow
to your creatures.
There is only one joy: to increase and not to lessen the world’s joy.
Seek
happiness, but not on account of your neighbors or family, for you are
they and they are you, you are bonded, children of God.
God, guard my tongue from evil, my lips from deceit, my mind from sin.
Open my heart to your commands, let my heart seek your teaching, and let all my actions serve a higher purpose.
Those who fear God are the only ones who do not hurt each other, neither in fact nor in principle. They
will never wage war against each other, and for this reason they are
the symbol of peace, as it is written: “and your children’s peace shall
grow.”
Untitled (Prayer, c. 1952)
Translation by David Stromberg
