Saturday, February 11, 2012

On Moetzi Shabbat...............

בס''ד
From the time I was a little girl, I can always remember on Moetzi Shabbat, my mother would sit in the corner of the kitchen and recite a tefillah [prayer] in Yiddish and cry. When I would ask her why she was crying, she just answered because……….

Gott Fun Avrohom, [G-D of Avraham] in English, is a very beautiful tefillah that women say three times at the end of Shabbat and just before havdalah.

In this tefillah, the Jewish woman is asking Hashem to bless the members of the family with everything good for the coming week.

May Jewish women continue to pray for their families and may G-d always answer their prayers.

This poem is in memory of my mother a”h whose yartzeit is Erev Pesach.
 
Gott Fun Avrohom
This beautiful prayer
my Mother would say
at the end of Shabbat
so many years ago.

Composed by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev
in the Yiddish tongue
a language
many Jewish children today do not know.

Several years ago
while checking out a new prayer-book
I came upon my Mother's prayer.

Reading it’s powerful words,
immediately I knew,
these were the words I wanted to say
at the end of Shabbat
and to start the new week.

G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
protect your people Israel
is the first sentence of this prayer.

The Tefillah (prayer) continues to ask
the holy One, blessed be He,
that the coming week bring
perfect faith, love and attachment
to the Creator, friends and scholars.

We request at the end of the prayer
that the coming week should bring
kindness, good fortune, success,
good health, wealth, honor,
children, life and sustenance
for us and all Israel.

So ladies, don’t delay
when the Shabbat ends,
before we enter the week,
take a few minutes
and recite this prayer three times.

You will see,
you will feel
a special warmth
and a new meaning
to the start of a new week.


Until next time...feel free to comment and share.
Miriam