Prayer After the Bombing in Boston, by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (2013) • the Open Siddur Project

Tags: 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Boston, elegy, English vernacular prayer, Massachusetts, Prayers as poems, United States, קינות Ḳinōt

Excerpt: I wrote this a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing. It arose out of a meditation service which I led at my synagogue. The doors to our sanctuary were open, so we had the sounds of the nearby wetland in our ears, and I invited the meditators to join me in cultivating compassion and sending it toward Boston. The line "My heart is in the east and I am in the west" is adapted from the medieval Spanish poet Judah haLevi. . . .

Content:

Contribute a translation	English
	Plant your feet firmly on the ground, your head held high as though by a string.
	Listen to the red-winged blackbirds, the spring frogs. There is an aquifer in your heart: send a dipper down.
	What have you drawn forth? Send it out of this room like waves of song.
	Float it around the Hairpin Turn, along the old Mohawk Trail. Direct it toward the rising sun.
	Our hearts are in the east though we are in the west. Blanket the wounded city with melody.
	Sing to the runners with aching hamstrings to the bewildered families who lined the marathon route
	to the children who are trying to make sense to the adults who are trying to make sense
	to the EMTs and policemen who ran not away from the suffering, but into the fire
	sing to the grieving families, here and everywhere. Inhale again, reach into your well:
	is there light even for the twisted soul of the bomber? Now sing to yourself, sluice your own wounds.
	We are loved by an unending love. Listen to the birds again, and remember.

I wrote this a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing. It arose out of a meditation service which I led at my synagogue. The doors to our sanctuary were open, so we had the sounds of the nearby wetland in our ears, and I invited the meditators to join me in cultivating compassion and sending it toward Boston.

The line “My heart is in the east and I am in the west” is adapted from the medieval Spanish poet Judah haLevi.

Alternating stanzas of the poem are italicized to facilitate reading the poem as a responsive reading. Please feel free to use this however is meaningful to you, and to share it with others.

To those for whom it is meaningful, I wish a Shabbat shalom, a Shabbat of peace and healing.

[This prayer was first published on Rabbi Barenblat’s blog, Velveteen Rabbi, here.]

Featured Image:

Title: “Ask a Runner – 62” by lululemon athletica (CC-BY 2.0)
Caption: "Ask a Runner - 62" (credit: lululemon athletica, license: CC-BY 2.0)