Rabbi Menachem Creditor: January 2023

A Prayer After a Terror Attack in a Jerusalem Synagogue

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Today, on a day when the world too late
acknowledges the 6 million,
offers eloquent words about saving Jews,
who will cry out for the blood of 7 of us,
shot in a Jerusalem synagogue while praying?

Or will headlines mitigate murder
by pointing to politics
or which area of Jerusalem the shul was in?

Is Jewish blood only tragic
when it's in the right neighborhood
and was shed decades ago?

Today is the day the world remembers the Holocaust
because it is the day they showed up,
years into known Genocide.

Today, as Jews are slaughtered in shul
and headlines minimize the horror,
we are reminded that no one showed up for years
while Jewish blood ran like a river through
pristine shopping districts
and Jewish ashes fell on neat European homesteads.

Jews remember the Holocaust on the day we fought back.
Jews remember every day.
Because today's terrorist
first shot an elderly woman in the street.
Then shot a motorcycle rider.
Then entered the sanctuary and fired at worshippers.
All Jews. Wherever we are.

Today the world is witness to its ongoing Jewish problem.
But today, grieving, we do not wait for their solution.
Today's horror isn't truly news.
Today's horror is why the Jewish homeland matters.

Because, as we chant in the Torah this week:
Where we go, we go with "with our young and our old" (Ex. 10:9).
None of us expendable.
We are a global family
who knows today's news all too well,
deep in our bones.

We will Never Forget.
Not our 7 fallen sisters and brothers.
Not our 6 million lost sisters and brothers.
We will never forget what we must remember:
Am Yisrael Chai!
The People Israel Lives!

A Prayer to End Gun Violence

Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Dear God,
God, we stand waiting for a world,
this world,
our world
to be reborn.

It's not a statement we make lightly;
it is a statement of need.

This world needs rebirthing.
Our hearts need deep healing.
Our lives need rebuilding
after all the pointless deaths
we've endured this past year.

Dear God,
Guns and violence have destroyed
tens of thousands of lives
in America this year.
Tens of thousands.

We call to You, Adonai,
and beg that you stand
in Din, in Judgment,
of our carelessness
and our callousness at the senseless,
avoidable loss of many human lives.

We call to you, Adonai,
to infuse our souls
with Chesed, Your Love,
so that we really start to cry out
from the pain our nation has endured
for far too long.

May we be inspired by You
and act to save many, many lives this coming year.
We know that only then
will we be worthy of a world reborn.

Hayom, Today,
we remember Your command to choose life
is not a given in Your broken world
but rather a demand
upon us all.

Hayom, Today,
we sing louder than weapons:
Those who sow in tears,
will reap, will reap in joy.[Psalm 126:5]

God, 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 World
by saving each other's.

Amen.