Prayer for Staying Safe and at Peace with our Loved Ones During Stressful Quarantine

Parashat Noach

Prayer for Staying Safe and at Peace with our Loved Ones

During Stressful Quarantine

Hashem, allow the purifying waters to wash me clean, 

 so I can emerge healthy from this lengthy quarantine.

Please provide my family and me with Your light,

to keep together while distinguishing wrong from right.

Keeping apart causes much tension and stress,

strengthen me to be able to clean up all this mess!

When sterilizing and pouring boiling water on every fork and spoon,

we need Your blessing to overcome masked tension and stay in tune.

When separated from the entire world together with those we love,

we need more than ever to learn how to be at peace like the dove.

Please Hashem remove the bickering and the irritable heart.

Let us get out of the vicious circle of tearing each other apart.

Please do not let the lion hurt or maim me in any way.

Let us just show respect and keep the rules of the day.

Please allow the cleansing waters to enter my innards and remove the pain,

so we can support each other through this hurdle and unify once again.

Give me strength to serve You and those dependent on my loving care.

Let me help them, cook, rinse and chop, even if they are unable to share.

Keep me safe from any droplets, cough, and sneeze.

Let’s open the window and bring in a little breeze.

Thank You for Your grace, allowing me this window,

through which I can connect with the world when I’m low.

By communicating from the window, I can come out of my shell.

Still, Hashem, let me feel Your love, please raise me up to stay well.

Thanks for the means to shine Your words from afar,

without having to go out anywhere or drive a car.

I have found protected safety in the sealed ark of my room,

whether by reciting Tehillim, learning Torah, or teaching on Zoom.

Based On Bereishit (Genesis) Chapter six and seven: 

ספר בראשית פרק ו פסוק טז

:צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה וְאֶל אַמָּה תְּכַלֶּנָּה מִלְמַעְלָה וּפֶתַח הַתֵּבָה בְּצִדָּהּ תָּשִׂים תַּחְתִּיִּם שְׁנִיִּם וּשְׁלִשִׁים תַּעֲשֶׂהָ

“You shall make a skylight for the ark, and to a cubit you shall finish it to the top, and the entrance of the ark you shall place in its side; you shall make it with bottom [compartments], second story [compartments], and third story [compartments]” (Bereishit 6:16).

Rashi: A skylight: Heb. צֹהַר/tzohar, lit. light. Some say [that it was] a window, and some say [that it was] a precious stone, which gave them light  [Bereishit Rabbah 31:11]. 

A window allows light in from the outside whereas the light of a gem comes from within, from the very essence of the stone.

We can have different approaches to our daily tasks and our role in the world. Undoubtedly, we often need external help to educate, to further our development, and to energize ourselves. This is the ‘making a window,’ getting some light from outside. It also entails looking out, ‘through the window,’ acknowledging what is going on around us and realizing that nothing is arbitrary, that everything is part of the greater scheme of things.

Once we begin this process, we should not satisfy ourselves with merely letting in some light from the outside, like a window. Our goal should be to reveal the essence, to make the gem shine on its own, without relying on assistance.

:ספר בראשית פרק ז פסוק ז וַיָּבֹא נֹחַ וּבָנָיו וְאִשְׁתּוֹ וּנְשֵׁי בָנָיו אִתּוֹ אֶל הַתֵּבָה מִפְּנֵי מֵי הַמַּבּוּל

“Then Noach went in and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him into the ark because of the floodwaters” (Bereishit 7:7).

Rashi: And Noach…and his sons: The men separately and the women separately, because they were prohibited from engaging in marital relations since the world was steeped in pain [Tan. Noach 11].

ספר בראשית פרק ז פסוק כג וַיִּמַח אֶת כָּל הַיְקוּם אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה מֵאָדָם עַד בְּהֵמָה עַד רֶמֶשׂ וְעַד עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וַיִּמָּחוּ מִן הָאָרֶץ וַיִּשָּׁאֶר אַךְ נֹחַ וַאֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ בַּתֵּבָה:ה

“It [the Flood] blotted out all beings that were upon the face of the earth, from man to animal to creeping thing and to the fowl of the heavens, and they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noach and those with him in the ark survived” (Bereishit 7:23).

Rashi: אַךְ/ach – “and only Noach,” This is its simple meaning, but the Midrash Aggadah (Tan. Noach 9) [states]: He was groaning and spitting blood because of the burden [of caring for] the cattle and the beasts, and some say that he delayed feeding the lion, and it struck him, and concerning him, it is said (Mishlei 11:31): “Behold a righteous man is requited [for his sins] in this world” - [Tan. Noach 9].