This prayer/poem [‘Call of the Shema’] came out of Rabbi Greene’s (Rabbi of Cong. Har Hashem in Boulder, Colarado) sermon this past Friday and our Torah Study discussion Saturday morning on Parashat Eikev. . . .

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. . . .

While we focus on the Temple’s destruction and all that is related to the ninth of Av I believe that our internal work reflects how we see and perceive the external. . . .