Beginning a new job or taking on new responsibilities is a time for reflection: What are the opportunities, obligations, and responsibilities that your new position offers? What are your initial goals? How does your move to this new job connect to the bigger picture of your life? It is a time for imagination.
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Barukh she’tekhadeish alai et ha’esek hazeh l’tovah v’livrakhah
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May the new work I do be a source of goodness and blessing.
Meditation:
Just as the Jews left Egypt and entered 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. in the springtime, my own new beginning reminds me of the blessing of beginning anew, facing different challenges and growing.
As I begin anew, let me rediscover the relationship between what I do and my deep purpose. Source of Blessing, may my new work be a blessing, allowing me to discover and affirm the sacred in every day and realize my full potential.
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Ritual:
On the day you begin your new work, as you settle into your work space, look for tangible symbols of renewal that will remind you of hopefulness, purpose, vigor, and new chances that your new work may promise.
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Or you might choose to bring an object that expresses how you can link your new work to your shlikhut, your deep purpose.
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Blessing:
Barukh she’tekhadeish alai et ha’esek hazeh l’tovah v’livrakhah.
May the new work I do be a source of goodness and blessing.
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Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha’olam shehekheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higi’anu lazman hazeh.
Blessed are You who has kept us in life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.
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Teaching:
Ha’yom atem yotzim b’khodesh ha’aviv.
Today you are leaving in the month of springtime.
(Exodus 13:4)
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David was successful in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him.
(1 Samuel 18:14)
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Survey the course you take, and all your ways will prosper.
(Proverbs 4:26).
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The very concept of work defined for purposes of 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. is modeled on creation, on God’s work.
(Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, The Jewish Way)
From The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: Clal’s Guide to Everyday & Holiday Rituals & Blessings, edited by Rabbi Irwin Kula and Vanessa L. Ochs, Ph.D., Jewish Lights, 2001.
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