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We are beyond humiliation beyond shame we incarcerate children without pity we deport parents without a thought and build systems that destroy families indiscriminately now we truly know what it means to be dishonored our so-called glorious past is now seen for the sham that it was the way of life we celebrate is but a privilege for the few and the powerful we can’t see that our own might will be our downfall. | |
We venerate leaders who should be tried for their crimes we never dared imagine a power greater than our own like so many before us we conquered the land then drew borders as a testament to our fear and dread now we build higher walls to keep out those who seek shelter we built massive checkpoints we lined up human beings like cattle in cages now children cry out for parents who will never answer their calls their voices echo endlessly through the camps but there is no one left to hear. | |
We ask one another with bewilderment have we ever seen such cruel violations yet in truth we ourselves have inflicted such cruelties on children here and around the world we sentence minors to life in prison without parole we remain silent as a cruel occupation abducts and imprisons children in military prisons convicts them in military courts and yet we dare to act surprised when we hear news of children thrown into cages at our southern border. | |
Our silence betrays us these walls will soon encircle us all soon there will be no one left only a single mass of mourners whispering broken hymns of lament grieving what was lost and what might have been one day we will know the sorrow of the dispossessed. | |
We who never heard the cries of migrants and their children will know what it means to be uprooted detained and discarded those who we scorned and abandoned will bitterly welcome us to the world of the dispossessed the enemies we created through our own fearful actions will surely come back for us all. | |
Let us hope and pray there is still time let the cries of our children pour into our hearts like water the cries of any who have been forced from their homes pursued taken locked away sent away anyone whose very lives are forbidden forgotten forsaken let their cries compel us to take down oppressive systems built by the powerful to maintain the power of the powerful. | |
Let their cries remind us that there is a power yet greater that comes from a place that knows no borders no deportations no barrier walls no prisons no guards no soldiers no ICE no police a place where we no longer need to struggle because justice gushes forth like a mighty stream flowing freely. | |
From the sovereign beyond all sovereigns we beseech you ḥadeish yameniu renew our days that we may build the world that somehow still might be kein yehi ratson – may it be your will and may it be ours. |
This prayer by Rabbi Brant Rosen was delivered as a response to the issue of domestic militarization at a Tishah b’Av vigil, co-sponsored by Tzedek Chicago, at the Jerome Combs immigrant detention center in Kankakee, Illinois, on 11 August 2019 . The text is an adaptation from the book of Lamentations (Eikhah), traditionally read on the festival of Tishah b’Av. It was first published on his blog on 3 June 2021 in a post, “Judaism Beyond Zionism: Toward a New Jewish Liturgy.”
“How Desolate Lie Our Borders, a prayer adaptated from Eikhah for a Tishah b’Av vigil at an immigrant detention center by Rabbi Brant Rosen (2019)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
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