Apr 3, 2020

Honored to share a blessing and some Torah this Friday morning! And you're all invited to the UJA-Federation of New York pre-Shabbat event on our FB page at 2pm Eastern today! https://www.facebook.com/ujafedny Shabbat Shalom!

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Apr 2, 2020

from an inside place: a poem



from an inside place: a poem  
rabbi menachem creditor

Oh, that moment
when sunlight intensifies
and i rush to open my window
to just let it in

Oh, cover me!
suffuse my being
pervade my cells!
please!

But then,
through the open window,
comes a rush of very cold air
accompanying the blessed light

So, for now
I'll just sit here
and enjoy the light
from my warm
inside place.
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Happy to share a blessing and some Torah this Thursday morning!

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Apr 1, 2020

What a treat to share a blessing and some Torah this Wednesday morning!

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Mar 31, 2020

Please God, More Light: A Prayer

Please God, More Light: A Prayer
Rabbi Menachem Creditor

To the One whose Heavens
just erupted with Divine Light:

Shine down healing upon Your wearied children.
Give us illumination that we might
see each other well in this dark moment.

Guide with luminous clarity
and renewed spirit
the hands of our healthcare providers.

Please God, more light.
Now. Tomorrow.
Until the darkness
is limited to its right time
once more.

Amen.

#sun #Prayer #healing #light
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Mar 30, 2020

Grateful to share a blessing and some Torah this Monday morning!

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Mar 29, 2020

A Poem and Opportunities to Connect Online - For my friends on the screen

Dearest Friends,

In the midst of a world turned inside-out and upside-down, I'm so very grateful for the many opportunities we are creating to connect. Some feel incredibly intimate, and some feel like shadows of what we need. But, in aggregate, one could make the claim that this is the most creative moment in Jewish history, with leaders and artists of all kinds generating content and contexts for all of us around the world. Given technology's flat-hierarchy, there is no limit to the beauty we might unleash in this troubled moment. The platforms of zoom, facebook, google, becoming universally accessible makes each one of us a leader who can touch the lives of others. Let us be brave and offer our faces to each other, knowing that in our eyes lives the greatest of all mysteries. Screens can be portals to the Divine, and we need that now more than ever. 

I imagine I'm not alone in feeling overwhelmed by all that's being offered online, and so I'm sharing a few resources with you that I hope can support you right where you are:

In addition to these amazing global Jewish resources, here are some online experiences I'm involved in:
We dare not look away from the world around us. We must stay home to save the lives of our neighbors, perhaps the most counter-intuitive Jewish action ever. But friends, we are bound together by invisible strings that defy the distance. I share here a poem that powered out while participating in an online poetry conversation convened by friends from the Bay Area, suddenly "in the same room" with sweet familiar faces I haven't seen in a very long time. 

May we be blessed to truly embrace each other very soon. 
May we not forget the lessons tomorrow we are learning at such costs today. 
May our world soon regain itself.  

Love,
Menachem

A Poem for my Friend on the Screen
Rabbi Menachem Creditor

as I sit here
in my bedroom
which has become my office
and also Sinai
and that coffee shop on Shattuck

distance is an illusion
so is time

these tears are a gift
of coming home.

(I thought I was done, but another one poured out...)

attuned hearts
need not speak
to know

There is no such thing
as alone

____
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Scholar in Residence, UJA-Federation NY
tinyurl.com/MCreditorBooks
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