Rebuilding Your Home: A Prayer for Charleston

Rebuilding Your Home: A Prayer for Charleston

(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Dear God,

A church was built 

by former slaves

who would have revolted

hundreds of years ago today,[1]

their liberation thwarted

by those with power.

Today bullets tore through

Your House, Your Images,

ravaging the nobility 

of lives reclaimed.

Violence is not Your Way, Dear God.
And one of Your Servants,
nine of Your Images
are needlessly gone.

In anguish,

we protest in Your Holy Name,

remembering the command to choose life

is not a given in Your broken world

but rather a demand

upon us all.

Today we cry again

for "Mother Emanuel," [2]

(Mother-God-is-with-Us),

one of Your many homes

in Charleston.

Tonight we sing louder than weapons:

Those who sow in tears,

will reap, will reap in joy.[3]

God, give us the endurance

to end the insanity

ripping through thousands of bodies

and millions of souls.

May we merit to see You 

in each other's eyes

and sanctify Your Name

by standing together

by rising up again,

this time rebuilding Your Home

by saving each other's.

Amen.

_______
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_Vesey#Failed_Uprising
[2] http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/
[3] Psalm 126:5

............................
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
▶menachemcreditor.org ▶netivotshalom.org

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