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Dec 22, 2016

Hallelujah

Hallelujah
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor

For the love of God,
for the love of People,
for Love itself...

please,
please,
please...

don't wait.
Live fully.
Live now.
Love emphatically.
Love freely.

And, dear friends,
where Love is challenged by hate,
love harder by being softer.
This is the way.

Hallelujah.

#loveistheway #love #heart #soul #life #inspiration #god #humanrace #Hope #hallelujah

Dec 19, 2016

Rest Will Come Later: A Faithful American Intention

Rest Will Come Later: A Faithful American Intention
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor

this new reality threatens
a great undoing
abandonment
descent

but

our faiths
our country
our families
our values
our neighbors
they all call

so

no time
for hopelessness

so

instead
we will
          stand
                    choose
                               commit
                                           hope

we will choose to hope,
as did those before us:

We will remember
that “the sovereign power
of all civil authority
is founded in the consent
of the people. 
(Roger Williams)”

We will “hold
God and people
in one thought at one time,
at all times,
suffer harm done to others,
make compassion our greatest passion,
and make our greatest strengths
love and defiance of despair.
(Abraham Joshua Heschel, adapted)”

We will be “a nation
that extends care, compassion, and concern
to those who are locked up and locked out
or headed for prison 
before they are old enough to vote.
(Michelle Alexander) ”

We will be “dedicated 
to the great task remaining before us
…that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom –
and that government 
of the people,
by the people,
for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
(Abraham Lincoln, adapted)”

We will choose to hope.
We will be with each other.
We will not be silent.
We will not be resigned.
We will call out hate.
We will do more than endure.
We will resist.
We will overcome.
We will build this world from love.

(And, yes, child,
when this brutal test is done,
there will be time for crying.
But, for now, no more weeping and wailing.
We must get to work,
building up a Beloved Community
faster than it can be torn down.
Rest will come later.)

May God and each of us bless the United States of America, and all who look to her for hope, until every person "shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree. (Micah 4:4)"

May the Source of Life grant sufficient wisdom and strength for the work ahead.

Amen.

............................
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Rabbi, Congregation Netivot Shalom
Chair, Rabbis Against Gun Violence (#RAGV)

Scheduling Inquiries: ra@netivotshalom.org or (510) 549-9447 x103

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Dec 11, 2016

Rain

Rain
(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Thank You for the Rain,
for a gift that can't be held.

Precious Life slips through
trembling open closed clenched caressing hands
but its flow, its flow,
the joy of its touch...

it always slips through, 
but o' the rapture of its holy touch...

lingering droplets of life
on the ground,
in the trees,
in my hair, 
in my eyes...

Thank You for the Rain
for a sound that brings 
instant memory
of a force beyond ourselves.

purifying, drenching, pounding, carrying away,
burrowing deep into
the forgotten depths
an earth that can feel so barren,
into a world thirsty for Love...

thank You for the Rain.

Please, please, please...
please
let it rain some more.

Dec 5, 2016

Despite it All

Despite it All
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor

no matter what
despite it all
even as we break
we breathe

no matter what
despite it all
even when breathing is harder
we hope

no matter what
despite it all
even when hope falters
we love

so
no matter what
despite it all
we breathe
we hope
we love