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. in Berlin
Standing in the courtyardÂ
of the once great New Synagogue
at dusk
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As the sun sinks low, setting the golden minaret aflame
birdsong all around
the air fresh and cool
after an unbearable heatwave
unlike any before experienced here
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Voices ring out from within
The joyful tunes of ShabbatÂ
mixed with moments of profoundÂ
bittersweetnessÂ
Empty seats filled with ghostsÂ
and choirs of spirits from the beyondÂ
There is a weight, unspeakable
A knowledge of what happened here
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It is tragically holy ground
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Berlin – complex, beautiful in spite of itself, gritty, full of passion and pain, like weeds growing up through cracks in the sidewalk
like a flower that blooms in the desert, surviving in brutal conditions
pulsing with life
haunted by its past
determined to forge aheadÂ
somehow
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Energy, resilience, hope, fortitude
covering over layers upon layers of despair, horror,Â
mass extermination, communism, fear
barbed wire and walls
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The past and the present are one here
There is no pulling them apart
Nothing makes sense in this wilderness
It is both free and caged
It is both now and yesterday
It is both ashamed
and determinedÂ
to rewrite itself
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So many empty seats in the synagogues
So many echoes of the voices once there
The children who ran and played
just like anywhere else
The ancient prayers and scrolls and melodies
the doctors, the scientists, the musicians
the mothers, the fathers, the teachers, the grandparents, the ordinary people
just living their lives
saying “Gut Shabbes” and going for a stroll after lunch
eating too many sweets,Â
taking a Shabbes schulffÂ
Flames snuffed out, leaving only a flicker
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Church bells can be heard in the distance
lights switch off and on in modern hotels and cafes
cobblestones and memorial markers hidden by trees and graffitiÂ
Reminders everywhere
if you’re looking for them
and nowhereÂ
if you simply want to go about your life
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You have to look for them
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But something is always there, lurking in the shadows
reaching out from beyond unmarked graves
leaving behind only the poetry of memory
