Topic Tags: Israel

A meditation on safety

“May the power of the many outweigh the hubris of the few…”

Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael wrote this prayer of comfort after Oct. 7, 2023.

“my memory reaches back / to the Galilee hills and carob trees…”

“limbs and tangled hair and soft center / walking ropy curls around herself in a fog…”

“The wilderness ahead blurs into an unknowable future…”

“An old olive tree stands in a grove, verdant, stately and strong…”

“May there never be another October 7th because men in high places, with loud voices, did not hear, did not listen…”

“And on another side, / children whose names the world never learned, / mothers who died calling for their babies, / fathers buried beneath silence.”

“Hoshiah na, / please save me from my hardened heart…”