The Day of Rest...........
For my family, Shabbos is a restful, peaceful day. It is the day when I’m not yapping on the telephone, I’m not on the computer checking my e-mail, surfing, blogging, looking at my Facebook page or finding worksheets for my students.
It is the day when I relax. I can daven, say Tehillim or just read the Hamodia [newpaper] without having to get up a hundred times. My husband and I go for a long walk almost everyday, but on Shabbos, when we are not rushed, the walk is so much more enjoyable.
The Shabbos food is all prepared. The mouth watering aroma of the cholent warming on the plata [Shabbos hotplate] permeates the entire house.
The table is set with a beautiful white tablecloth, our once a week dishes and cutlery that belonged to my mother-in-law a"h. The Kiddish cup is shining, but the most beautiful and meaningful item on the table is the little ‘yellow pepper salt shaker’ that my granddaughters, Adi and Talia bought for me.
When the Shabbos day comes to an end and before Havdalah, I say a very beautiful Tefillah [prayer] three times, that my Mother a”h and Bubby a”h use to say. “Gott Fun Avroham” [G-D of Avroham]. This Tefillah, written by Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, known as the Defender of the Jewish people, asks Hashem to grant us a good week filled with good health, children, kindness...........
Several years ago, I wrote a poem about this Tefillah.
Gott Fun Avroham
This beautiful Tefillah
my Mother a"h would say
at the end of Shabbos
so many years ago.
Composed by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev
in Mama Loshen
a language
many Jewish children today do not know.
Several years ago
while buying a new Siddur
I came upon my Mother’s Tefillah.
Reading its powerful words,
immediately I knew,
these were the words I wanted to say
at the end of Shabbos
and to start the new week.
G-D of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov
protect your people Israel……..
is the first sentence of this Tefillah.
The Tefillah continues to ask
Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu
that the coming week bring
perfect faith, love and attachment
to the Creator, friends and scholars.
We request at the end of the Tefillah
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 Shabbos ends
and just before Havdalah
take a few minutes
and recite this Tefillah three times.
You will see,
you will feel
a special warmth
and a new meaning
to the start of a new week.
This Tefillah can be found in the English / Hebrew The Complete ArtScroll Siddur both Nusach Sefard and Ashkenaz.
Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev
1740-1809, Chassidic leader, one of the foremost disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch; renowned for his all-encompassing love and compassion for the Jewish people and for every individual Jew.
For more information about Rav Levi Yitzchak:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1007604/jewish/A-Brief-Biography.htm
http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/berditchev.htm
This past October was 200 years since his passing and on the Arutz Sheva site there was a very inspiring article.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133822
Until next time......
Feel free to pass my blog around.
Miriam
