Oseh Shalom Ya’aseh Shalom

[PRINTABLE PDF HERE.]

Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

They davened Shemoneh Esrei

One last time,

Their last words were

Oseh shalom bimromav.

Yechidei segulah

Each one.

Bekrovai ekodeish

Each one an olah temimah.

In a flash

24 yesomim

4 almanos

Not one dry eye.

Jews everywhere in shock

Numb with grief.

Frozen hearts

Disbelief.

In the heart of Yerushalayim

A shul under attack

Unarmed mispallelim

Shot in the back

Rifle blazing

Knife stabbing

Savage hate

Gunfire roaring

People falling

Massacred.

Innocent souls

Will never daven

Speak

Or learn again.

They leave us behind

To ponder the tragedy

Of how they died.

Complacency shattered

Around the world

Jews gasped.

We are all sons

All brothers

All cousins

All friends.

The victims are our

Brothers,

Cousins,

Friends.

The yesomim and almanos

Are ours.

We need to feel

Their pain.

Can it be that shuls, too,

are no longer safe?

Our teivas Noach

In stormy waves

The teivah was breached

In tallis and tefillin

Slain,

Wounded, bleeding

Searing pain.

The Jewish heart punctured

Our souls

Grieving

United in grief.

Yerushalmi Yidden

Broke down and cried.

Mosru nafshom al kiddush Hashem.

Seforim soaked with victims’ blood,

Survivors numb

Friends and family gone forever,

To their final rest in the World of Truth.

Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers

Trying to comfort each other

Sitting shivah, hearts rent

Grief that keeps flowing without end.

Jewish pain is as vast as the ocean

The cycle returns

The waves crash,

Hate and persecution take their toll

On a nation with an eternal soul.

Down the corridors of history

From the days of Harugei Beitar

The eight crusades

Gezeiros Tach V’Tat.

Crisscrossing the globe

The pogroms in Russia

Poland… Chevron.

Auschwitz

Birkenau

TheresienstadtTreblinka.

Naharia

Kiryat Shemonah

Munich

Sderot.

The 12 bus

The 2 bus

Sbarro

Netanya

Merkaz Harav

Light rail stop.

When will it end?

Tough questions

No easy answers,

Platitudes won’t work

Neither will shirking.

Rain the first night of Sukkos

Signals Hashem’s displeasure

What about the innocents

Snatched early on a Yerushalayim morning?

Do we feel the pain in our

Deepest soul?

Do we feel the hurt

or are our hearts cold?

Look at the bloody pictures

If you can bare,

Study them. Share them.

Think about them.

There is evil in the world.

We are targets.

Lemaan yishmeu veyirou

Massacring Jews didn’t end

With the Holocaust,

We can’t close our eyes

Let’s be real.

Feel the pain,

And do what we can

To assuage it,

And do what we can

That it should never happen again.

The mizbei’ach is mechapeir

For avonos

The bais medrash became a mizbei’ach

Lechapeir al avonoseinu,

Chodesh nehefach misasson l’eivel.

But the story will soon change

In the End of Days

As love conquers hate

And comfort removes pain,

Truth will triumph over lies

Darkness will finally yield to light.

Ohr chodosh al Tzion ta’ir

The light of Moshiach will shine

Over Tzion

And Yerushalayim.

When we learn to

Love

Care

Feel the pain

Of the exile.

When at last we unite

As brothers and sisters

When love binds us close

Despite our differences

No one will defeat us

Armed with our oneness

No enemy can beat us.

Without each other,

We aren’t whole

Achdus brings us victory

Ensures our survival.

If we are united

We can triumph.

“Leich kenos es kol haYehudim.”

Only if we are together,

Can we defeat Yishmoel.

When we are One

Echad

Without friction or fighting

No power can hurt us

No force is as mighty.

Ke’ish echod beleiv echod

Under Hashem Echod.

May Hashem bring us safely

To that blessed day

Bayom hahu yihiyeh Hashem Echod

Ushemo Echod.

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