Rabbi Annie Lewis
Rabbi at Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, MD
We left the embrace of the sukkah
for the shelter of Shabbat
Hoshana
And they blasted away the wall
Hoshana
Please reopen Your gates of salvation
Hoshana
Can anyone pick the lock?
Hoshana
For Your sake and
Hoshana
For ours
Hoshana
For fathers gunned down in front of daughters
Hoshana
For mothers shielding the bodies of sons
Hoshana
For elders with caregivers bedside
Hoshana
For Amit who bandaged wounds in the infirmary, who never made it out alive
Hoshana
For Rachel who served the terrorists coffee and cookies
Hoshana
For Avital who carried babies Eshel and Negev on her back from Gaza
Hoshana
For Adi, their mother, nowhere to be found
Hoshana
For Tamar Kedem Simon-Tov, light of Eshkol
Hoshana
For Johnny, Shachar, Arbel and Omer
Hoshana
For Chayim, his wells of knowledge, unwritten guide books for ways out of war
Hoshana
For Noa forced away on a motorcycle
Hoshana
For her father Yaakov begging it not to be so
Hoshana
For Shani who came to dance, braids swiveling in the open air
Hoshana
For Doron, little Aviv, little Raz, gone
Hoshana
For their father Yoni aching to bring them home
Hoshana
For the thousands filling city squares and sandwiches and boxes for the soldiers called
Hoshana
For the thousands giving beds, giving blood
Hoshana
For the ones who circled with Torahs in bomb shelters
Hoshana
For 260 motionless dancers
draped in white like Torahs in rows
Hoshana
Holy holy holy
Hoshana
For the earth screaming and soaked
Hoshana
For Darom Adom
Hoshana
For whole worlds swallowed back to dust
Hoshana
For the missiles tearing kriyah through the sky
Hoshana
For the fliers of the missing
Hoshana
For the fliers for the dead
Hoshana
For the words that fall flat
Hoshana
As too many souls ascend
Hoshana
Hoshana
Hoshana
When will You lie us down in peace?
When will these hakafot of violence end?
