This is a prayer / poem for the shloshim of the massacred on Oct. 7, the traditional marker of thirty days after the death of of a loved one. The poem makes the assertion that thirty days of mourning cannot be enough for 1,400 murdered, and that thirty days of prayer is not enough for 240 captives. Use this along with the song “Nothing Left but Tears.”

Thirty Days
Thirty days of hell.
Thirty days without you.
Murdered. Kidnapped.
Assaulted. Decapitated.
Violated. Violated again.

Thirty days of tears
Cannot bring back
The souls of the massacred.
Thirty days of tears
Cannot restore the captives
To their families.

Woe unto the land
That has soaked up
So much blood.
Woe unto the land
That yearns for her children
To return home.

Thirty days. And thirty days.
And thirty days. And thirty days…

Thirty days
One thousand
Four hundred times.
Thirty days
Of tears
For each of the lost.

Thirty days. And thirty days.
And thirty days. And thirty days…

Thirty days
Two hundred
Forty times.
Thirty days
Of repentance
For each of the captives.

Thirty days of grief.
Thirty days of mourning.
Thirty days of anguish.
Again and again and again.

So we become
Thirty thousand days of resolve.
Again and again and again.
For never again.
Forever, to eternity.

© 2023 Alden Solovy and ToBendLight

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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.”

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