A Prayer for Rosh Hodesh Sivan, 5773

Our God and God of our ancestors,

We thank you for the cycle of life and the opportunities afforded to us by the calendar to mark the passage of time.

With the beginning of the new month of Sivan, we pray as we do daily for peace in the world and in our individual lives.

We pray that in the new month to come all of us will further develop our capacity to be better human beings who seek knowledge, sincerely want to share their love and want to make this world a better place for all. 

While we pray that we will always be deserving of greater wisdom, we more importantly always seek to be more humble in our relations with others.  Help us to be more patient and understanding of those with our fellow Jews and with Gentiles with whom we may have profound disagreements.

We pray that in spite of our faith and love for You, we will never become so presumptuous as to assume that we have a monopoly on understanding Your will and teachings.

As patient and loving as you were with our father Abraham when he pleaded for you to not destroy the good along with the wicked, may we be just as patient and tolerant with our Jewish brothers and sisters who regrettably insist that You and Torah and can only be understood through their eyes. 

Just as no two snowflakes are alike we celebrate the diversity of humanity and recognize that in spite of our differences, every person is created in the Divine Image.

May the time come soon when every Jew will be allowed to practice Judaism in the land of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah according to his or her own understanding of the Torah.  May every Jew come to recognize and celebrate that being a Jew is a lot like taking a journey for which there is no absolute path that is more correct or sanctioned by You. Regardless of what route each of us may choose may we have the emotional, spiritual and intellectual maturity to recognize that every road traveled with the hope of encountering You and building a better world, is worthy of our respect. 

Amen