Hear Our Voice

Whether or not it is your habit, tonight

Offer a prayer

For soldiers and families at the tip of the spear

On both sides of the fight

For never has there been a battle of souls, in which either side was bereft of innocence

Here we find ourselves again, rattling sabers, and pointing fingers

Who started it? Who drew the first blood? About choices and our apparent lack of them

Doesn’t sound so much different than a kindergarten playground feud, only with tragic effects

Oh, how I wish Mrs Button, my Kindergarten teacher at Soleado School in Palos Verdes

Could pull together all the knuckleheads and rap them with her ruler

Shame! She would say, for daring, for actually resorting to violence

When you know it is no salve (she probably used different vocabulary with us!)

She wasn’t shy from using her muscle, she was surprisingly strong

Man, the way Rufus moved when she grabbed his shoulders, it looked like she could pick him up with one finger, we all knew she was the boss

I wish our leaders, all of them, the US, Iran, Syria, India, Iraq, had had Mrs Button

I wish she were in their mind’s eye, in their conscience

Always reminded that no matter what, we are all each other’s siblings

No matter our color, our beliefs, our loves, our origins

No, Adam and Eve isn’t literally true, but it’s a metaphor of the truth

That all of us are one, and there is no pain inflicted on one that doesn’t injure another

God of Oneness, God of This and Every Moment

Remind, re-member us to our people, to all people

Division is false, disconnection is temporary, death is forever

Let us dismantle the sharp and deadly weapons in our minds that insist on hurting others to get what we want.

Anyone well fed, who leaves his garage in his own automobile, who drops his children off to school where he can trust that others will be responsible, who can talk with his co-workers about vacation, who can envision a future of comfort – you’ve ALREADY won life’s lottery.

When a man asked Rabbi Hillel to teach him all of Torah while standing on one foot, Rabbi Hillel said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole Torah. All the rest is commentary, go and learn it.”

A Prayer for Peace by Rabbi Naomi Levy

Let us live in peace, God.

Let children live in peace, in homes free from brutality and abuse.

Let them go to school in peace, free from violence and fear.

Let the play in peace, God, in safe parks, in safe neighborhoods; watch over them.

Let husbands and wives love in peace, in marriages free from cruelty.

Let men and women go to work in peace, with no fears of terror or bloodshed.

Let us travel in peace; protect us, God, in the air, on the seas, along whatever road we take.

Let nations dwell together in peace, without the threat of war hovering over them.

Help us, God. Teach all people of all races and faiths, in all the countries all over the world, to believe that the peace that seems so far off is in fact within our reach.

Let us all live in peace, God. And let us say, Amen.