Was•Is•Will Be,
The fruit fly lives a lifetime in a day and says its Shabbat prayers every half hour.Â
We get our three score and ten and we say those prayers once a week.Â
The sun goes on for billions of years and we say a Birkat Ha-Hammah on its behalf once every 28 years.
So when does the earth pray?
Once a year is the Summer Solstice, Tekufat Tammuz.
The Earth it tilts and bends its planetary knees,
It leans and shuckles toward the sun
And says an Earthly brakhah.
And it’s a good one, a prayer of yearning and gratitude for light and warmth,
For the pleasures of summer and the magnificence of that tilt.
And as the planet davens, I will, too:
Was•Is•Will Be,
Before, Now and After,
This solstice morning I also gratefully bend to the sun
Precisely because it is not eternal.Â
It just looks that way to us fruit flies,
Whenever the Earth prays. Amen.
2 Responses
How lovely! Thanks for sharing this.
I’ve been looking for something summer Solstice specific, but with a very Jewish voice. This is exactly what I wanted! Thank you, Trisha!