{"id":80273,"date":"2020-09-22T18:48:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=80273"},"modified":"2020-09-22T18:48:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:48:01","slug":"a-poetic-meditation-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-poetic-meditation-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poetic Meditation (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"80273","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":80223,"related_cahpter":"575","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"By: Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

From the mouths of infants and sucklings <\/span>
\n<\/span>You have founded strength on account of Your foes, to put an end to enemy and avenger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wait.<\/span>
\n<\/span>If we are going to<\/span>
\n<\/span>speak of my children<\/span>
\n<\/span>and Your enemies<\/span>
\n<\/span>in one breath<\/span>
\n<\/span>I must tell You:<\/span>
\n<\/span>Please don’t ask me to choose between my child and You.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I will always choose my child.<\/span><\/p>\n

After more than two decades<\/span>
\n<\/span>(I know that is nothing to You)<\/span>
\n<\/span>I can still remember <\/span>
\n<\/span>holding each of them close <\/span>
\n<\/span>for a time<\/span>
\n<\/span>looking down <\/span>
\n<\/span>at the little fingers<\/span>
\n<\/span>on my breast<\/span>
\n<\/span>and the mouth born knowing<\/span>
\n<\/span>what to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

I need to know what You mean.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I think I heard You say<\/span>
\n<\/span>There is strength<\/span>
\n<\/span>from the mouth of the suckling infant<\/span>
\n<\/span>that protects You<\/span>
\n<\/span>from Your enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n

My heart is pounding.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Which is how I know<\/span>
\n<\/span>I have been told <\/span>
\n<\/span>a beautiful <\/span>
\n<\/span>or terrible <\/span>
\n<\/span>truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

I ache for the children<\/span>
\n<\/span>for all of us<\/span>
\n<\/span>sucking, seeking comfort<\/span>
\n<\/span>carrying the burden of protecting You<\/span>
\n<\/span>whether we know it or not.<\/span><\/p>\n

God help us.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

What is man that You have been mindful of him, mortal man that You have taken note of him<\/span>
\n<\/span>that You have made him little less than divine and adorned him with glory and majesty;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A teacher once told me<\/span>
\n<\/span>that to bend the knee<\/span>
\n<\/span>to feel small<\/span>
\n<\/span>is to know how blessed <\/span>
\n<\/span>we really are.<\/span>
\n<\/span>And I wept.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was angry, if you must know.<\/span>
\n<\/span>You talk about feeling small, I thought.<\/span>
\n<\/span>No.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Feeling small is one thing I know more about than you.<\/span>
\n<\/span>If anything, it keeps me from knowing<\/span>
\n<\/span>How blessed I really am.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day<\/span>
\n<\/span>I went into the desert.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I stood on a hilltop<\/span>
\n<\/span>I felt very small<\/span>
\n<\/span>and I thought<\/span>
\n<\/span>oh I see<\/span>
\n<\/span>Here I am.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I laughed.<\/span><\/p>\n

I felt blessed, if you must know.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I thought about each of us<\/span>
\n<\/span>On our own hilltop<\/span>
\n<\/span>Foolishly imagining<\/span>
\n<\/span>ourselves<\/span>
\n<\/span>bigger or smaller<\/span>
\n<\/span>than anyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here we are.<\/span>
\n<\/span>All of us<\/span>
\n<\/span>Knees bent<\/span>
\n<\/span>Beloved<\/span>
\n<\/span>Little less than divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

You have made him master over Your handiwork, laying the world at his feet,<\/span>
\n<\/span>sheep and oxen, all of them, and wild beasts, too;<\/span>
\n<\/span>the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea, whatever travels the paths of the seas.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But!<\/span>
\n<\/span>I wanted to protest.<\/span>
\n<\/span>I have never felt master<\/span>
\n<\/span>Over any living thing.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Is that so<\/span>
\n<\/span>I heard You say.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Be careful of the power you pretend not to have.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth!<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A teacher once sent me into the forest<\/span>
\n<\/span>and said build an altar<\/span>
\n<\/span>with what you find there.<\/span>
\n<\/span>But first, he said<\/span>
\n<\/span>you must ask permission.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Ask permission of every leaf every flower every branch every stone<\/span>
\n<\/span>From every yes and every no<\/span>
\n<\/span>I made my offering to You.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Amen.
\n***<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld is President of Hebrew College since 2018. She served previously as Dean of the College\u2019s Rabbinical School from 2006-2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more on the PsalmSeason project see here.<\/span><\/a> For the full poem, from which this was taken – here.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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