252 - A Song for Courageous Women

The month between Purim and Pesach should be a month to celebrate women’s courage. It begins with Esther and continues with the Hebrew women who smuggled food and offered comfort to their husbands as they toiled in Egyptian fields. We meet the midwives Puah and Shifra who defied Pharaoh’s order to kill the newborn Hebrew sons. Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses’ mother and his sister, Miriam all displayed strength and courage. This month we should celebrate our women who work at repairing the world, who survive illness to raise money for research, women who teach and learn and create and build, women who are the inheritors of ancient courage.

Two Hundred Fifty-Two

A Song for Courageous Women

We reflect You, Holy One.
Our mirrors see not only beauty
Though we are beautiful.
They show as well our inner courage.

You summon us to our tasks.
We darn the raveled parts of the world,
We fashion cloaks of harmony and kindness,
We survive to do Your work.

Help us to be dreamers.
Coax us to emerge from challenges
Renamed in strength, invigorated.
Let us fulfill our people’s dreams.

As our mothers were called, You call us:
Rise to do My sacred work.
Fortify us with visions of a peaceful world,
Our purpose and our prayer.