Dear Friends,
Over the course of the past week and a half, so many of you have told stories, posted images, sent articles and music, and more, in an effort to process and share what this time feels like to you -- as a Jew, as an American, as a DC resident, and, for many of us, people for whom the Hill is home and the Capitol is where we go to work, to play, to reflect, and even to dance with our Torahs. There is so much pain, so much worry, and so much of a sense of violation in our community now, and it mounts as we anticipate the coming week.
While last week’s events were unprecedented in many ways, it also seems to be the case that our tradition’s ancient texts have a way of speaking to feelings and circumstances in which we’d come to find ourselves years into the future. In this case, I’m referring to the book of Eicha, or Lamentations, which we traditionally read on Tisha b’Av. It tells the story of our people’s grief as we mourned the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, and fear for what that violation would mean for life as we knew it. The dread and the sadness is almost overwhelming -- and yet, we find hope at the end. Hope measured by devastation; but still, hope.
Rabbi Stephanie Crawley of Temple Micah, a neighbor of ours here in DC, composed an incredibly powerful poem last week, invoking Eicha but responding to the events of January 6th. I’ll be thinking on it throughout this Shabbat, and also into the coming week; and I hope it will be a useful resource for you as well. Here it is, below.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Hannah
Lady Liberty is Weeping:
A Prayer for Our Country (on January 6th, 2021)
Lady Liberty is weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted
She cries –
Looking out at the city on the hill
overtaken by narrowness and violence by those who seek to mock her
She has been breached
the sacred steps of democracy trampled
the hallowed halls defiled, looted.
Lady Liberty is weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted
Her flag waved by the very people who seek to destroy everything it represents
Her marble cracks and crumbles as the flames of hatred and injustice are fanned
Our house is divided –
We pray it stands –
stands for what we hope it can be
what it has never been but always tried reach toward
and what it has to be if it is to stand at all
We weep and cry out our impassioned prayer
God who is the shield of justice
who implores us to spread peace
We pray we are able to help our democracy stand
to represent more fully one more person
to right one more injustice
to spread one more truth
to establish one more hour of peace
We cry and we are not comforted but we are together
We are not comforted.
But we are re-dedicated.
We will re-dedicate our country and its hallowed halls once again –
This time through the steadfast commitment to every ideal we dream of
We will continue to bend our arc
toward justice – toward honesty – toward truth.
When the fire is out –
We will raise the flag,
Clean the steps.
Repair the breach.
And see our house stand, one house, one nation, in peace.
