A Prayer for October 7, Three Years Later

A Prayer for October 7, Three Years Later

Rabbi Menachem Creditor


Healer of Shattered Souls,
we ask that You notice us
and all those who have promised
to bear testimony
to unspeakable horrors.

The indelible marks with which
these images and sounds
have scarred us to our cores
are permanent.
We will never
unsee nor unhear
any of what we saw, felt, experienced.
We accept this terrible imperative.

We bear witness
to honor the dead

Women
Men
Boys
Girls
Grandmothers
Grandfathers
Whole families
Babies

whose bodies were violated
whose very humanity was denied.

We affirm,
through this sacred witnessing,
that they were in fact
human beings,
created in Your Image,
worthy of infinite dignity.

We affirm,
through the three years
since That Day,
the weight of it all
upon Survivors
upon bereft families
upon kibbutzim and towns
upon Medinat Yisrael and Am Yisrael
upon us all.

Yes, we have proven our capacities
for healing
for rebuilding
for loving.
But today we call out
against the terrible reality that tested us in the first place.

God,
Who has Witnessed
all of this for all time,
we beg You send Divine Warmth
to reanimate us
when our eyes
are full of this darkness,
to somehow reinflate our souls
when breathing feels labored, or even wrong.

Remind us to fight for joy,
for that is what the souls
we remember today deserved,
what those who were trapped underground
we tenderly hold today always deserved,
what the Jewish People deserves,
what every human being deserves.

May the memories of our martyrs be forever blessed.
May Am Yisrael, the Jewish People,
heal and rebuild and find heart once again.