What the Jewish Prayer of Healing Says About Our Dreams
I have been thinking a lot about the Jewish prayer for healing, Mi Shebeirach (Me Sha-bay-rock. I don’t actually know how to do the sound-it-out spelling of words, but hopefully that gives you an idea). My son has a white noise piano lullaby soundtrack that he listens to when he has a hard time sleeping. The soundtrack promises to put you to sleep in five minutes, which has never happened to us. But when nothing else works, that seems to help at least a little.
Anyways, he had a rough time sleeping in Key West from a combination of travel, sun, and the fact that we couldn’t control the temperature in our base hotel room, so we put that music on multiple times. As I was listening (I can’t fall asleep to the music either), I kept thinking that I would hear that prayer because one set of notes matched up. And it got me thinking about that prayer as a whole. I’ve always loved this prayer because it sounded so comforting, but lately, I can’t get it out of my head because of one line. There are a few different versions, but this is the one that I grew up hearing:
Mi shebeirach avoteinu
M’kor hab’rachah l’imoteinu
May the source of strength,
Who blessed the ones before us,
Help us find the courage
To make our lives a blessing.
And let us say, Amen.
It goes on with a second verse, but the sentence, “Help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing,” has stayed at the forefront of my mind for the past few weeks. I just want us to think about that for a little bit because I believe it speaks directly to our dreams in a few ways. It doesn’t matter if you believe in a higher power or not; the statement applies to dream achievement regardless.
1. Help us
Chasing our dreams is not a journey that we can make alone. We just finished discussing the value of finding and establishing a cartel, and if you need a refresher on why community matters, go back and read the posts from May 26, 29 and 31. We can certainly make headway on our dreams just between me, myself and I, but the fruition of a dream will almost always involve the help of someone else.
2. Find
It is always going to be a discovery process in our dreams. We may have to find character traits within ourselves. We may have to find help. We may have to literally search an area for our dream. Most of us will have to do all three, and on the journey, we will always search for something new. If our dream is to be healthy, we must find character traits like discipline and restraint to help us commit to whatever diet or exercise plan will help us reach our goals. If our dream is to publish a book, we will need many people along the way. If our dream is to see the Northern Lights, then we have to find a country where they are visible, and once we arrive, we have to search the night sky to see what we desire.
3. The courage
Dream chasing is a courage-building business. We must possess the courage to even attempt to achieve our dreams. Courage is required to do anything outside our comfort zone; our dreams will always lie beyond our comfort zone. Whether they are a few steps or miles away, we will need the courage to achieve. The best part is that courage can be developed, though. Sure, some people are probably born with an innate sense of courage. In my book, the people who attempt high diving in the Olympics certainly have a lot of courage. But I also know that those high divers started on a much smaller scale. It probably took some courage to jump off the diving board at the neighborhood pool. And when that didn’t push their comfort zone anymore, they sought higher and higher boards to jump from.
4. To make our lives
We get to make our lives. I know we were all dealt a hand when we were born. Some of us were born with better cards than others. Some of us made better choices. Some of us had better choices. However, we got to where we are today; we know we don’t have to be stagnant. The next choice is still ours to make. I hope you feel like you have control of your life and that the choices in front of you are yours to make. If you don’t, though, then we must find a path forward to establish this control for yourself. We should be in control of our lives. Our dreams help us make the lives that we want to live. We get to choose what we chase and what we attempt to bring into our lives in the future.
5. A blessing
I truly believe that our dreams were placed in our hearts for a reason. They are there because we are the ones who can bring them to life in the world. And I think they are there because the world needs them just as much as we do. It doesn’t matter if you believe a higher power created you with these dreams or if you believe these dreams exist just between you and your heart. The fact remains that achieving our dreams will make our lives better in some way. That action will have a ripple effect. Maybe it shows the people around you that they can achieve their dreams too, so they decide to pursue them. Maybe your dream opens up a door for someone else’s dream. Maybe your dream is exactly what your community needs. I genuinely believe that achieving our dreams can have lasting effects that change the world around us. We get to be this blessing to ourselves, our family and our community.
I hope that wasn’t too preachy today since I pulled this from a prayer. This has been on my heart for a few weeks now, and as I’ve worked out a deeper meaning to this message, it has given me a boost on my dream journey. Maybe it was the boost you needed as well. I have incorporated this affirmation into my life. I hope that each and every one of us gets the help we need to find the courage to make our lives a blessing because I truly believe we can change the world that way.