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A Prayer for Overcoming Indifference
I watch the news, God. I observe it all from a comfortable distance. I see people suffering, and I don't lift a finger to help them. I condemn injustice, but I do nothing to fight against it. I am pained by the faces of starving innocent children, but I am not moved enough to try to save them. I step over homeless people in the street, I walk past outstretched hands, I avert my eyes, I close my heart.
Forgive me, God, for remaining aloof when others are in need of my assistance.
Wake me up, God; ignite my passion, fill me with outrage. Remind me that I am responsible for Your world. Don't allow me to stand idly by. Inspire me to act. Teach me to believe that I can repair some corner of this world.
When I despair, fill me with hope. When I doubt my strength, fill me with faith. When I am weary, renew my spirit. When I lose direction, show me the way back to meaning, back to compassion, back to You. Amen.
2002 Naomi Levy
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Finding the Words to Pray 
The prayers in our siddur (prayer book) form the framework of our faith. Yet what do we do when prayers don't contain the words we are searching for? Rabbi Naomi Levy offers a wise and practical answer in Talking to God: Personal Prayers for Times of Joy, Sadness, Struggle, and Celebration (Alfred A. Knopf, $19.95).
"Composing personal prayers is not a sin, but a blessing," writes Levy, the author of the moving To Begin Again (1998). In that book, she concluded chapters with prayers and was later surprised to learn that many readers had used them in times of crisis.
Therein lay the inspiration for Talking to God. The simple, personal prayers that Levy composed for the new book address the anxieties and roadblocks of contemporary life. There are prayers for facing a new day, realizing one's potential at work, celebrating an anniversary or birthday, and going to sleep at night. And there are prayers for life's more profound eventslove and marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, illness, loss, and death. She also includes a group of prayers for living up to the best in our souls—to help us abstain from gossip, overcome procrastination, heal troubled relationships, and find meaning in our lives.
Levy believes that prayer can transform our relationship not only with God but also with the people and the world around us. "Prayer is not a passive activity," she writes. "Prayer alters us. It awakens usOur hearts begin to feel compassion where we used to feel nothing. Our priorities shift. Soon we start to see beyond ourselves into the world that is waiting for our help."
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