I write these words
Six days after Colleyville
When a man was invited
Into a synagogue for warmth
And a cup of tea.
When during the silence of prayer,
The click of a gun was heard.
On the New Year of the Trees,
With nourishment being drawn up,
Grounded, on this earth,
Deep within the potential
Of what ultimate fruits
Will be harvested,
Comes a cry,
All cries, undifferentiated.
The shofarA ram's horn that is blown on the High Holidays to "wake us up" and call Jews to repentance. It is also said that its blast will herald the coming of the messiah. cracked open creation
For all of 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.
At the foot of the mountain
And across the expanse of Olam.
The people,
Held for a moment,
Suspended in the silence of Aleph,
With all barriers broken,
Physical restraints
Of body and of blood and of bone
Set aside through shock
And because of fear.
Take that fear, Israel,
And what threatens to shatter;
Choose to use it as a Blessing,
As an Opening,
An Opening into the awareness
That we are all ever held
Within the Matrix of the Holy Blessed One.
A Midianite Priest,
A “stranger” named Yitro,
Came to teach MosheThe quintessential Jewish leader who spoke face to face with God, unlike any other prophet, and who freed the people from Egypt, led them through the desert for forty years, and received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. His Hebrew name is Moshe.
That Moshe could not,
That we cannot,
Do this life
On our own.
