214 - Kindling the Lights of Remembrance

A few weeks ago, I was asked to create a new psalm for the Yom HaShoah observance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, both an honor and a daunting task. I kept reading articles, trying to find words to bear witness, to bring holiness to our acts of memory. Yom HaShoah follows so quickly after Pesach, falling on the 27th of Nisan, April 19th this year. We work to reconcile all the facets of our people’s existence.

Two Hundred Fourteen

Kindling the Lights of Remembrance

How can we fathom this enormity of loss?
Our hearts try to gather in the countless faces.
You, Holy One, summon each, images burned
In Your remembrance. Help us to recall.

Help us to recall their lives and their destruction;
Bring us to Your sacred place of memory,
Not only to bear witness, but to reassemble faith,
To recover the defiled and make it holy.

These slender flames are a promise and a charge,
Calling us to honor and to imitate righteousness;
These flames illuminate truth’s horror and hope’s future,
Your searing reminder: do not forget.

Let us bless You, Holy One, touching fire to wick,
Six candles to burn in testimony;
Let us bless You, Holy One, for You dry our tears,
You comfort martyred souls, You bring us shalom.