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I tried to look at different aspects of what we as Jews contemplate and think about as we move towards the High Holy Days. God’s view of what we did out of fear and loneliness and perhaps why we can never see God’s face and for us to reflect on how we act in the world and what God has asked us of in this lifetime. This poem/prayer is perhaps a little rough, that was intentional. Rather than being a true historical commentary on Elul, I tried to tell a little story about it.
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| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
The Story of Elul | |
In our vulnerability we travel the wilderness, looking for the fields to sow, to cultivate, afraid to be afraid, together we missed the call our loneliness seeming to engage us to bring something, anything to worship, the hunger for something greater than ourselves we look to what we knew we took our fine goods with us lets build on that we said | |
Moses was pissed Don’t forget, God too! | |
This time I will lead, maybe they will listen, said God you can’t see me Moses, if you do all will be ruined, the seeking then would continue towards the golden calf | |
Let the bush burn, turn away Moses so you can hear me, that’s your focus, lets hope it’s the Israeli’s too the call of the Shema[1] Find Todd Greenberg’s prayer-poem, “Call of the Shema“ | |
Hear, Here, Pay Attention | |
God forgave us going into this journey of the wild knowing full well that Grace, Kindness, Truth and Compassion are not innate, our missteps there to enlighten us to show us a way | |
Reflect, Forgive, make amends, Follow the Truth, Love, Bring Joy and vulnerability as you sow and cultivate your fields | |
Not to worry, it will take a lifetime Amen! |
Notes
| 1 | Find Todd Greenberg’s prayer-poem, “Call of the Shema“ |
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“The Story of Elul, by Todd Greenberg” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17
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