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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Mar 27, 2020

Thrilled to share a blessing and some Torah this Friday morning!

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Mar 26, 2020

Thrilled to share a blessing and some Torah this Thursday morning!

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Mar 25, 2020

A blessing and some Torah this Wednesday morning!

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Mar 24, 2020

Rabbi Creditor's Testimony as Part of the 2020 Census

What an honor to represent UJA-Federation of New York and the American Jewish Community at the U.S. Census Bureau's Interfaith Census Launch last month at Washington National Cathedral! This is my testimony, offered in the name of my ancestors to all Americans. In short, the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" has two parts: love yourself enough to be counted; love your neighbor enough to remember they count too. #BeCounted #WeAreOne #Census2020



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