Saturday, November 05, 2005

A poem and a thought

For this past Shabbat, I prepared a sonnet and a reading. Feel free to use or quote if you find them inspiring / interesting!
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The Sabbath Bride
A Sonnet for Erev Shabbat by David Segal

The Bride arrives, our long-awaited guest,
And wakes Her Bridegroom from His lonely sleep.
From seeds of promise sown of old they reap;
In refuge from their exile, Lovers rest.
From this belated union Blessing flows:
A storm – once threat’ning – smiles and rains down love.
For when divine completeness reigns above,
We children share in heavenly repose.
Yet let us not in reverie neglect
The Source of Blessing worthy of our praise,
But utter words of gratitude and raise
Our souls to God and humbly genuflect.
Our Sabbath Bride will linger but a day:
Awake, O
Israel! Hear, Arise, and Pray!

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A Sabbath
Ark

As the floodwaters of another week’s storms subside, we, like Noah, gaze out over a world ready to be reborn.

An echo of the first Creation can be heard in the Great Flood: one, a leveling by water; the other, a shattering by light. In each Shabbat, too, we can feel the vibrations – better yet, the reverberations – of the first Shabbat, a weekly commemoration of Creation.

The rainbow serves as a stunning reminder of God’s covenant with us never to send another great flood to destroy humanity, but it commemorates something else, too. Each new rainbow recalls the last and foreshadows the next – a symbol of eternal recurrence. The sky is clear today, but rain will fall again.

Before we can enjoy Sabbath rest, before we can find shelter from the storm, we must each build an ark for our soul. On Shabbat, we set aside the work of the world and take up the work of the spirit.

What did we leave behind in last week’s cleansing rain?
What did we destroy in storms of the spirit?

What will we take with us in next week’s ark?
Will we build it strong enough to weather another week?

As Noah’s Ark was seaworthy, may your Sabbath ark be soulworthy. And may we all find smooth sailing on whatever waters come our way in the days and weeks ahead.

Shabbat shalom.

Holy Limerick #3

And now the third installment in what I hope will eventually be a cycle of 18 limericks. This one was inspired by my realization of the absurdity of the imagery of L'cha Dodi, which welcomes the Sabbath Bride, juxtaposed with the mechitza, which separates men from women in a traditional synagogue.

We welcome Shabbat as a bride
And rejoice as we call her inside.
But - wait - a mechitza?
The first thing that greets 'er?
Guess she'll sit on the opposite side...