The year of the pen

5779
The year of the pen

Mightier than the sword
Yet love
is stronger than both

In the name of love
and new beginnings
and the end of Elul

I am sorry for the ways I have hurt
Both consciously and unconsciously

Are you willing to lay down your sword?

Perhaps you’ve beaten it into a plowshare
Because the harvest is coming

But my fields are barren
I cannot even sow in tears anymore

Perhaps you can find the key
to open the door of
Willingness
to create an instrument
of music, and peace, and love?

Or maybe that was just the wishful thinking
of an old man who lived through wars
and love

And no one beats swords into instruments
And it doesn’t need to get turned into a plowshare first

Because the world we live in is littered
with weapons of mass destruction
The red button is too easy to push
I made it even easier to justify
the pushing of the scapegoat off that cliff

Love
and connection
Parents
and children
New years
and poetry
are all laid to waste.

And the only music
is the sound of the bombs
And the crackling of the fires
And the severing of heartstrings
The breaking of glass
leading to the

Shattering

Because no one caught it
Because no one could
Because the nature of things
is change
And all
in the end
is harvest.

-Rabbi Nehama Benmosche, Rosh Hashanah 2018