Refugee Blues

Jewish refugees flowing Hitler aboard the M. S. St. Louis in 1939. They were turned away in Ellisville Europe, Cuba, and the US.

    

Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you’ll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew;
Old passports can’t do that, my dear, old passports can’t do that.

The consul banged the table and said:
“If you’ve got no passport, you’re officially dead”;
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.

Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go today, my dear, but where shall we go today?

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said:
“If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread”;
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying: “They must die”;
O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.

Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren’t German Jews, my dear, but they weren’t German Jews.

Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.

Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren’t the human race, my dear, they weren’t the human race.

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

---W. H. Auden (1907- 1973) seminal British-American poet, and Pulitzer Prize winner for The Age of Anxiety. He wrote this poem in 1939 in response to the flood of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and being turned away throughout Europe and even in the United States.

You can learn more about the M.S. St. Louis here and here.

Psalm

With coals of juniper, Lord, with ripped willow clumps,
with lodge-pole pine and fir, with wind-wrack and slash,
I kindle an all-night fire to mirror You.
No longer waning, no longer falsifying chimes.
No longer smoking out rot, or eclipsing Yeshiva scholars.
No Lord I know what is within magnified.
Stars will just have to wait to eddy through gates of night.
Little swirl, mimicking nebulae, mimicking galaxies, which turns
for no apparent reason other than to cast and recast the whole
as it whirs and whirls, knocks and ticks at three am
in a snit to proclaim itself not as You but it in You.
If I can strut a note, can rack wobbly pins,
balance rocks into signposts, waves into a grass mass or two,
it will hear itself structuring time. This oddly chopped
watched dimension quarters us into early middle late.
Each day scans and wanes, some hope knowing its moaning
is mourning what it erases. The and stamped by the sea
each second. Be with it and what it erases ceases to toll.

-- Emily Warn (1953- ), poet, teacher, and Orthodox Jew, founding editor of poetry foundation.org; and former programmer at Microsoft

We Will Remember

When we are weary and in need of strength
When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember him.

When we have a joy we crave to share
When we have decisions that are difficult to make
When we have achievements that are based on his
We remember him.

At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
We remember him.

At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
We remember him.

At the rising of the sun and at its setting
We remember him.

As long as we live, he too will live
For he is now a part of us,
As we remember him.

--from the Yizkor (May God Remember) service (Jewish memorial service), explained at My Jewish Learning. Prayer originally found at Eat Pray Love Liturgy.

Prayer for Overcoming Indifference

For the sin of silence,

For the sin of indifference,
For the secret complicity of the neutral,
For the closing of borders,
For the washing of hands,
For the crime of indifference,
For the sin of silence,
For the closing of borders.
For all that was done,
For all that was not done,
Let there be no forgetfulness before the Throne of Glory;
Let there be remembrance within the human heart;
And let there at last be forgiveness
When your children, O God,
Are free and at peace.

--Chaim Stern, editor, Gates of Repentance (Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1978).

For We Are Thy People

For we are thy people, and thou art our God;
We are thy children and thou our father.
We are thy servants, and thou art our master;
We are thy congregation and thou our portion.
We are thine inheritance, thou our lot;
We are thy flock, thou our shepherd.
We are thy vineyard, and thou art our keeper;
We are thy work, and thou our creator.
We are thy faithful one: thou art our beloved;
We are thy chosen: thou art the Lord our God.
We are thy subjects, thou our King;
We are thine acknowledged people, thou our acknowledged Lord.

--anonymous, from the Liturgy of Yom Kippur eve

A Poem for S.

Because you used to leaf through the dictionary,
Casually, as someone might in a barber shop, and
Devotedly, as someone might in a sanctuary,
Each letter would still have your attention if not
For the responsibilities life has tightly fit, like
Gears around the cog of you, like so many petals
Hinged on a daisy. That’s why I’ll just use your
Initial. Do you know that in one treasured story, a
Jewish ancestor, horseback in the woods at Yom
Kippur, and stranded without a prayer book,
Looked into the darkness and realized he had
Merely to name the alphabet to ask forgiveness—
No congregation of figures needed, he could speak
One letter at a time because all of creation
Proceeded from those. He fed his horse, and then
Quietly, because it was from his heart, he
Recited them slowly, from aleph to tav. Within those
Sounds, all others were born, all manner of
Trials, actions, emotions, everything needed to
Understand who he was, had been, how flaws
Venerate the human being, how aspirations return
Without spite. Now for you, may your wife’s
X-ray return with good news, may we raise our
Zarfs to both your names in the Great Book of Life.

--Jessica Greenbaum (1957- ), Jewish American poet, writer, and teacher

The Birthday of the World

On the birthday of the world
I begin to contemplate
what I have done and left
undone, but this year
not so much rebuilding

of my perennially damaged
psyche, shoring up eroding
friendships, digging out
stumps of old resentments
that refuse to rot on their own.

No, this year I want to call
myself to task for what
I have done and not done
for peace. How much have
I dared in opposition?

How much have I put
on the line for freedom?
For mine and others?
As these freedoms are pared,
sliced and diced, where

have I spoken out? Who
have I tried to move? In
this holy season, I stand
self-convicted of sloth
in a time when lies choke

the mind and rhetoric
bends reason to slithering
choking pythons. Here
I stand before the gates
opening, the fire dazzling

my eyes, and as I approach
what judges me, I judge
myself. Give me weapons
of minute destruction. Let
my words turn into sparks.


--Marge Piercy (1936- ), Jewish American poet, author, and activist, from The Crooked Inheritance, 2006.

Posted for Rosh Hashanah, 5781.

Grant us peace

Grant us peace.
Your most precious gift, O Eternal Source of Peace,
and give us the will to proclaim its message
to all the peoples of the earth.
Bless our country,
that it may always be a stronghold of peace,
and its advocate among the nations.
May contentment reign within its borders,
health and happiness within its homes.
Strengthen the bonds of friendship
among the inhabitants of all lands.
And may the love of Your name
hallow every home and every heart.
Blessed is the Eternal God, the source of Peace.

- From The Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book, by the Central Conferences of American Rabbis

Peace Prayer

Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges,
     the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
    beyond accents, gender or skin color.
Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun be so strong
     that we will see all people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
     bring forth flowers to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts to reach upward to heaven.

- Rabbi Harold Kushner (1935- ), American Conservative rabbi and Spiritual Teacher

A RoshHaShana Prayer for Clergy

God of sacred callings,
Bless the work of our clergy,
Who carry us through our lives,
Our joys and our sorrows,
In holy service,
Our broken hearts,
Our festive moments,
And our deepest yearnings.

May their dedication serve as shining lamp of love.
May the works of their hands bring merit in heaven.
Bless them with health and long life.
Guard them from taking our traumas into themselves.
Protect them from loneliness and isolation,
Shielding them from the spiritual and emotional pain
That can come with a life of service.
May they have find peace and comfort in their own moments of need.

Blessed are You,
God of All,
Who, with love, provides the world
Dedicated leaders of faith.

-- Alden Solovy, Reform Jewish author, liturgist, prayer composer, and teacher. Found at Reform Judaism.org.


As our Jewish neighbors prepare for their first shabbat service since the massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, we offer our prayers for them, and stand in solidarity with them.

Prayer for Peace

May it be your will, Eternal One, our God, God of our ancestors, that wars and bloodshed be abolished from the world, and bring into the world a great and wonderful and lasting peace. And let no nation lift a sword against a nation—let them learn no more the ways of war!

Let all who dwell on earth simply acknowledge the truth of truths: that we have not come into this world for the sake of quarreling and war, nor for the sake of hatred, jealousy, anger, or bloodshed; rather, we have come into this world only to know You—may You be blessed eternally!

Therefore, have mercy on us, and fulfill among us what is written in your Scripture: “I shall give peace upon the earth, and you shall lie down with none to make you afraid. I shall abolish from the earth the predatory beast. The sword shall never come upon your land. Justice shall roll down like the water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of The Omnipresent, as the waters fill the seas.”

-- From Siddur Kol Haneshama, Sabbath and Festivals from Reconstructionist Press

Ma Tovu

How great are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
As for me, through Your abundant grace, I enter your house to worship with awe in Your sacred place.
O Lord, I love the House where you dwell, and the place where your glory tabernacles.
I shall prostrate myself and bow; I shall kneel before the Lord my Maker.
To You, Eternal One, goes my prayer: may this be a time of your favor. In Your abundant love, O God, answer me with the Truth of Your salvation.

-- traditional Hebrew prayer, said in the morning upon entering the synogogue. Each line is taken from:
1) Numbers 24:5
2) Psalm 5:8
3) Psalm 26:8
4) Psalm 95:6, adapted
5) Psalm 69:14


Image: A man prays in Tehran Synagogue

Mi Sheberakh

May the One who blessed our ancestors —
Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah —
bless and heal the one who is ill:
________________ daughter of ________________ .
May the Holy Blessed One
overflow with compassion upon him/her,
to restore her,
to heal her,
to strengthen her,
to enliven her.
The One will send her, speedily,
a complete healing —
healing of the soul and healing of the body —
along with all the ill,
among the people of Israel and all humankind,
soon,
speedily,
without delay,
and let us all say:
Amen!

--traditional Jewish prayer of healing

The Worship of the Universe

Whose ear has ever heard how all trees sing to God? Has our reason ever thought of calling upon the sun to praise the Lord? And yet, what the ear fails to perceive, what reason fails to conceive, our prayer makes clear to our souls. It is a higher truth, to be grasped by the spirit: ‘All Thy works praise Thee’ (Psalm 145:10). We are not alone in our acts of praise. Wherever there is life, there is silent worship. The world is always on the verge of becoming one in adoration. It is man who is the cantor of the universe, and in whose life the secret of cosmic prayer is disclosed.”

--Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man’s Quest for God, 82

How wonderful, O Lord, are the works of Your hands! (First Day of Spring)

How wonderful, O Lord, are the works of Your hands! The heavens declare your glory, the arch of the sky displays Your handiwork.
The heavens declare the glory of God.

In Your love You have given us the power to behold the beauty of Your world, robed in all its splendor. The sun and the stars, the valleys and hills, the rivers and lakes-- all disclose Your presence.
The earth reveals God's eternal presence.

The roating breakers of the sea twll of Your awesome might; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air speak Your wondrous will.
Life comes forth by God's creative will.

In Your goodness You have made us able to hear the music of the world. The raging of the winds, the whisperings of the trees in the wood, and the precious voices of loved ones reveal to us that You are in our midst.
A divine voice sings through all creation.

--Nature prayer from Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book, Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1975, p. 651.

Not By Might Nor By Power

O Lord, may we never become complacent, faltering in our effort to build a world of peace for Your children. Let the nations know and understand that justice and right are better than conquest and dominion; may they come to see that it is not by might nor by power, but by Your spirit, that life prevails.

--Shabbat prayer from Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayer Book, Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1975, p. 233.

Heschel on Prayer

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement... get up in  the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

― Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.”

― Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), from Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays