Monday, September 24, 2012

Erev Erev Yom Kippur

Kel Melech yosheiv al kisei rachamim...

The name "Kel" represents G-d as all powerful and dominant. Neverteless, this is a unique King of all kings who chooses to judge with mercy. 

The weekdays of saying Selichot are winding down.  

Soon it will be Yom HaKadosh.

Two poems for the day:

Yom Kippur
By Phillip Schultz

You are asked to stand and bow your head,
consider the harm you've caused,
the respect you've withheld,
the anger misspent, the fear spread,
the earnestness displayed
in the service of prestige and sensibility,
all the callous, cruel, stubborn, joyless sins
in your alphabet of woe
so that you might be forgiven.
You are asked to believe in the spark
of your divinity, in the purity
of the words of your mouth
and the memories of your heart.
You are asked for this one day and one night
to starve your body so your soul can feast
on faith and adoration.
You are asked to forgive the past
and remember the dead, to gaze
across the desert in your heart
toward Jerusalem. To separate
the sacred from the profane
and be as numerous as the sands
and the stars of heaven.
To believe that no matter what
you have done to yourself and others
morning will come and the mountain
of night will fade. To believe,
for these few precious moments,
in the utter sweetness of your life.
You are asked to bow your head
and remain standing,
and say Amen.

Neilah 
By Samuel Adelman

Day softly tiptoes
Out through the western horizon.

Soon night
Will encompass my heart –
To bring the shadows
Of fear
And uncertainty.

Words become blurred,
They cease to
Touch my reason –
Sound alone now
Moves me –
Carries me aloft
Before the Golden Gate.

Faster –faster
I hear the
Chorus of the Hosts on High.

Not words
But G-d’s soft unspoken plea is heard –
“Keep open your gate!
Keep open your gate!
Close not
The last remaining
Hope
Of man –.”

The stars wink down
Above me –
The gate is closed
As I turn to
Walk the lonely path
Of another year.

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