Many rabbis, ministers, and other religious leaders have expressed strong desires of their congregants and themselves to draw on prayer to express their strain of heart and soul over the increased violence in the Middle East.

So we are resending (see three paragraphs below) our own offering of a MOURNERS' KADDISH IN TIME OF WAR. Though it is of course a Jewish prayer, we offer the interpretive English translation below, in the hope it may be spiritually helpful for many people of many other traditions as well.

In addition, the National Council of Churches is encouraging religious communities of ALL traditions to engage in prayers for peace, and to help them has launched a new website - www.seasonofprayer.org.

The website compiles prayers, litanies, scripture texts, hymns, poems and other prayer aids from many religious traditions, appropriate to the current crisis in the Middle East. Religious leaders of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities have currently signed on to this initiative. Others are welcome to join.

Please feel free to circulate this whole message to anyone or any list you think will find it helpful.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is founder and director of The Shalom Center in Philadelphia.