Posts Tagged ‘October 7’

 

Our Story

Posted on: April 8th, 2025 by Alden

At the end of the Passover Seder, people around the world say that we have told the tale followed by ‘Next Year in Jerusalem.’ Few, if any, actually act on that aspiration. In one sense, it is the impossible dream. We all — even those of us who actually reside here — aspire to live in the heavenly Jerusalem, the fantastic, archetypical dream of Messianic wholeness and peace, with the word of God radiating into all of existence. And our story is far, far from completed. I offer this, then, as a new aspiration to add to the end of our Seders. It is, in part a response to October 7, in part a call to remember the long arc of our history. My suggestion: say this prayer-poem followed by ‘Next Year in Jerusalem.’

Our Story
Our story is not complete.
Oh no.
There will be more highs
And lows,
But the ending,
Oh my,
Will be tremendous.
This is faith.
Faith knows
That our story is not complete,
And the ending
Is beyond
All our hopes
For joy and wonder.

© 2025 Alden Solovy

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Postscript: The research on the word that inspired this poem can be found in the book itself.

Please check out Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe and These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah and my other CCAR Press volumes: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life, which can also be purchased as the Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

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Yom HaShoah, תשפ’ד

Posted on: May 4th, 2024 by Alden

A Yom HaShoah prayer-poem for 5784, in the form of a vision, imagining how the souls of murdered in the Holocaust might respond to the souls of the murdered in the Hamas shock assault of October 7, 2023. The Holocaust victims in heaven purposefully misquote verses from four Psalms–Psalms 121 and 129-131–reframing them as questions, rather than asserting them as statements of faith.

Yom HaShoah, תשפ’ד
In the precincts of heaven,
The Six Million assemble,
Guiding the newly murdered
To the sacred courtyards,
While the defenders of Israel stand guard
On the ramparts and at the gates.
As they approach the inner courtyard,
The multitudes sing psalms,
Not as praise, as questions:

Does the Guardian of Israel
Slumber and sleep? (Ps 121)
Will You cut the bonds of the wicked? (Ps 129)
From the depths I call out;
Do You hear my voice? (Ps 130)
Shall we put our hope in You? (Ps 131)

In the courtyards of heaven
The Six Million assemble,
Bringing with them the
Newly murdered.
With their blood and tears
They entreat the Holy of Holies:
Free the hostages.
Protect Your people.
Save our land.
To the living they declare:
Remember.

© 2024 Alden Solovy and ToBendLight

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Postscript: See also “O Auschwitz, O Birkenau.”

Please check out These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah and my other CCAR Press volumes: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life, which can also be purchased as the Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing.

Posters, Necklaces and Graffiti

Posted on: March 10th, 2024 by Alden

A prayer poem for the hostages held in Gaza, abducted by Hamas on October 7. We pray for their health, safety, and immediate return to Israel and the arms of their families.

Posters, Necklaces, and Graffiti
When evil took you hostage,
We made you into a poster,
A tee shirt,
And a necklace.
A hoodie, a hat, and an empty chair.
Slogans and graffiti
Painted on walls and carved into our hearts.
A yellow ribbon,
A feast without guests,
A timer counting the days,
The hours,
The minutes,
And the seconds
Of your captivity.
Rallies, marches, and protests,
To keep your absence,
Your kidnapping and captivity,
Alive in evert moment of our days,
And every action of our lives.
To take your cause
To the seats of power around the globe.
So that when you return
You know how we yearned for you,
Prayed for you,
And fought for you
Throughout your ordeal.

© 2024 Alden Solovy

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

Postscript: Here are some of my other prayer poems coming out of October 7 and the war: “Nothing Left but Tears,” “The Court of the Captives,” “Tears and Rain,” and “To Hope Again.”

Please check out These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah and my other CCAR Press volumes: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life, which can also be purchased as the Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing.

Photo by Alden Solovy

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