Jewish Prayers for Gaza

Now is the time to break our silence
to let go of our fear
to face up to the truths
we’ve known to be true all along.

Now is the time to face down
the cynical uproar of those
who justify the unjustifiable
who explain away the massacre of innocents,
the destruction of families
the abject dehumanization
of an entire people.

Now is the time to say out loud
and without apology
that our place is with the oppressed
and not the oppressor
to call out those who worship
the false gods of vengeance and cruelty.

Now is the time to call out
those who wield this terrible power
who profit from the blood of others
to proclaim our unabashed solidarity
with those who dwell in tents that offer no shelter
who travel to safe zones that offer no safety
from the incessant rain of fire from above.

Now is the time
it’s still not too late
to find the words we are willing to say
to determine who we truly are
and where we truly belong.

How can you stand aside at such a time,
as a nation commits atrocities
so openly and unabashedly,
for all the world to see?

As they pursue and destroy
with such chilling impunity,
stating their intentions
of total and utter annihilation
for all the world to hear?

See how they mock and gloat
over the carnage they unleash,
the atrocities they commit
with such casual sacrilege,
knowing full well that no leader,
no government or nation
will hold them back.

When will the world demand
accountability for these crimes?
When will we finally awaken and act
to end this genocide
without hesitation or apology? 

There will be a reckoning,
and it cannot come soon enough –
for all those who had power
and failed to wield it,
for all those who had voices
and refused to speak out.

May this vision remain
long after brutal regimes
have vanished from the earth:
may this pitiless nation
be held to account at long last,
may there be justice for the oppressed,
may they live out the length of their days
without fear, yes
may it be so.

Hear our voices when we cry out
for life, for ceasefire,
for an end to this endless night
of terror.

Keep us from those who equivocate
with their apologetics, those
who would calmly rationalize away
horrors that can never be justified.

Let us pay no heed to the ones
who arm themselves in impunity,
openly advocating the slaughter of innocents
in the bright light of day.

One day soon their words
will fall back upon them
like guided missiles,
yes, the world will see them
for who they truly are.

One day the world
will hang its head in shame
for looking away
from such cruelty as this.

Until then we will continue
to cry out for justice,
unleashing our song of liberation
throughout the land,
resonating in exaltation
from the river to the sea.

Oh lord deliver me from my people
who wield their weapons with impunity
whose armies rain bombs on the imprisoned
whose apologists equate oppressor and oppressed
who punish resistance without mercy.

Keep me from those who speak so easily of two sides
of dual narratives of complexities and coexistence
those who call submission peace and lawless laws justice
who never tire of intoning never again
even as they commit crimes again and again
who have forsaken every lesson they’ve learned
from their own history and their
own sacred heritage.

Like Jacob I have dreamed fearful dreams
I have struggled in the night
I have limped pitifully across the river
and now like Jacob in my last dying breath
I have nothing left but to curse my own
whose tools are tools of lawlessness
who maim refugees who dare dream of return
and send bombs upon the desperate
for the crime of fighting back.

So send me away from this people
this tortured fallen assembly
keep me far from their council
count me not among their ranks
I can abide them no longer.