A Revised Angel Bedtime Prayer

 

There are stories about angels all through our history, and prayers about them too, from the ShabbatShabbat is the Sabbath day, the Day of Rest, and is observed from Friday night through Saturday night. Is set aside from the rest of the week both in honor of the fact that God rested on the seventh day after creating the world. On Shabbat, many Jews observe prohibitions from various activities designated as work. Shabbat is traditionally observed with festive meals, wine, challah, prayers, the reading and studying of Torah, conjugal relations, family time, and time with friends. welcoming prayer “Shalom Aleichem” to the prayer that’s part of the bedtime ShemaThe most central prayer in Jewish liturgy, the Shema states: "Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One." These words are written inside mezuzot and t'fillin. It is traditionally said during all major services and when waking and going to sleep. that welcomes in the angels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. When I was a little boy and spent the night with my father’s parents, my Orthodox grandmother Rose would say this prayer for and around me, which in English goes:

 

In the name of YHWH, the God of IsraelLit. ''the one who struggles with God.'' Israel means many things. It is first used with reference to Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel (Genesis 32:29), the one who struggles with God. Jacob's children, the Jewish people, become B'nai Israel, the children of Israel. The name also refers to the land of Israel and the State of Israel.

Michael at my right,

Gabriel at my left,

Uriel before me,

Raphael behind me,

and above my head the ShekhinahThe feminine name of God, expounded upon in the rabbinic era and then by the Kabbalists in extensive literature on the feminine attributes of the divine. of God.

 

In 1982 I was on the floor of my bedroom in Brooklyn, New York meditating, across from a black Tibetan Buddha sitting between my Turkish SephardiJews of Spanish descent; sometimes used to describe Jews of North-African and Middle-Eastern descent. The term also describes the customs and practices of these Jews, often in comparison to those of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews. ancestors’ brass Shabbat candlesticks – when an angel appeared before me and began to teach me how to connect and communicate with it. That encounter changed my life, and led to my coauthoring Ask Your Angels and my own book Angel Answers. Angels have been a part of my life ever since, and it was an angel who invited us to revise our bedtime angel prayer for living in a new era in our history.

 

The angels told me that the first era of Jewish history ended with the destruction of the second temple, and that the HolocaustThe genocide of millions of European Jews--as well as other ethnic, religious and minority groups--by the Nazis during World War II. The tragic events of the Holocaust are now commemorated each year on Yom HaShoah; established in 1952 by the Israeli government. Shoah (calamity) has become the term used to describe the systemic mass slaughter that occurred during World War II. and the foundation of the state of Israel were part of the end of the second era and the beginning of the third. With the nightmare happening in the Middle East, and with climate change increasing all around us, the angels told me that it’s time for us to shift our awareness of the angels who support and guide us.

 

In the original version of this prayer it was Michael the angel of protection who accompanied us, along with Gabriel the angel of strength, Uriel the angel of illumination, and Raphael the angel of healing. As we journey into a new era, the energies around and for us are changing, and we are invited to invoke Zadkiel, the angel of joy, as part of our work of global healing and transformation.

 

Below is the prayer, invocation, meditation that I have been invited to share with you:

 

In the name of YHWH, the God of Israel

Gabriel at my left,

Zadkiel before me,

Raphael at my right,

Uriel behind me,

and above my head the Shekhinah of God.

 

As a bedtime meditation, when you are lying in bed, the angels invite us to feel their energies circling around us, and to breathe them, into our mind and body and into all of our billions of cells, which is a different pattern than the way we invoked them in the original prayer.

 

Feel the Presence of the Eternal all around you

Feel to your left the presence of Gabriel, the angel of, the energy of, strength

Feel in front of you the presence of Zadkiel, the angel of, the energy of, joy

Feel to your right the presence of Raphael, the angel of, the energy of, healing

Feel behind you the presence of Uriel, the angel of, the energy of, illumination

And feel above you the presence of, the energy of, the Shekhinah.

 

In addition to doing this at bedtime, you can do this meditation all through the day. The angels invite us to do it standing and facing JerusalemLit. City of peace From the time of David to the Roman destruction, Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and the spiritual and governmental center of the Jewish people. During the long exile, Jews longed to return to Jerusalem and wrote poems, prayers, and songs about the beloved city. In 1967, with the capture of the Old City, Jerusalem was reunited, becoming "the eternal capital of Israel." Still, the longing for peace is unfulfilled., and to do it facing the place that we were born in.