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WE ARE THE PEOPLE
We are the people, Who heard the glass breakingthat night as we huddled at home, Who inhaled the smokeof the Holy books as they burned, Who tried to flee but hadnowhere to go, always turned away, Who visited cosmetic doctorsto reshape our noses to look like the others Who adopted names to helperase a potentially…
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TODAY
Today we want very much to praybut words fail us yet again, and we doubtGod would hear our entreaty anyway,since this is a disaster of our own making. This is the problem of free will, as so manydiscovered across Europe during the secondof the wars to end all wars, as did the peopleof Hiroshima and…
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SNAKE, PRAY FOR US
In a time set aside for mourningwe easily remember those, lovedor despised, taken by age, disease,war or poverty and neglect. But trapped in our isolationwe should also pause and recallthe snake, condemned for offeringknowledge for which we were ill-equipped. Let us not forget the ram,whose only sin was to bein the wrong place at the…
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APSE SOLUTION
One downside of growing upJewish is that you never meetan angel or a church mouse I have met angels, although theywere in the guise of Bodhisattvas,and there are a surprising numberif you look carefully enough. As to church mice, I do haveto wonder why they are symbolic,for they have vast homes,direct access to God, orthe…
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A PRAYER UNANSWERED
When I was a child, a Rabbi told methat I did have the ability,to be used sparingly always,to petition God for some good. I filed this away with other storiesfrom the Torah, pillars of salt,stone tablets, a flood worse thanthe one that filled our basement. At some point I needed something,recollections are fortunately vaguenow, and…
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TODAY’S PRAYER
Today’s prayershall be recited in silence,total, not even the breathindicating a longing for action.Nor will it invokea holy spirit without usfor it is we whowe must inveighto attain the desiredactions for which we seekholy intervention, casting offfree will, an accreditingpoor decisions, a goatwhere we seek escapeand atonementfor the sins of all the others.Today’s prayershall not…
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TOO MANY COOKS
I can still recallthe day my motherwas ecstatic on learningthat everything grewout of a primordial soup.It was proof, shewas certain, of a JewishGod, even if he didn’tdo it all with his own hands.And, with a broad smileshe said, I’m fairly certainat the soupwas chicken, maybewith kreplach on the side.
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QUESTION POSED, AWAITING A RESPONSE
I stooped and spoketo a stone, asking the question.I was here before you arrivedand I will be her long after you leave.I held the sand in my handwarm from the sun, asking the question.I came after your arrivedand I will leave long before you are gone.I held the winter wind on the tipof a finger,…
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THREE MORE TRANSCRIPTS OF ENTRIES FROM THE TAPE RECORDED JOURNALS OF YETTA GOLDSTEIN
ENTRY: March 27, 1971 So, finally he’s here. Nine months, what God, another joke? Okay, she ate the damned apple, so stick it to the snake. But what would you know, another man. For six hours I’m lying there, dying from pain before the shmendrick walks in like some king, smiles at all the cutesy…
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IN HIS IMAGE
He said the assignment isan easy one for this class,write a piece, poem or story,your choice, but focused on a single metaphor. Oh,and to make it interesting,that metaphor should bethe last pet you owned orcurrently own, and if you’venever been blessed with a pet,use an ocelot or a lynx. How hard could it be, I thought,I…
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an old writer and his words 