As Ramadan ends, as Shabbat begins, in this long week of grief and despair, I offer these blessings on my own behalf.
Barukh ha’Etzev
Blessed be my sadness, born of pain and grief. May it keep my heart open to all suffering.
B’rukhah haL’hitut
Blessed be my impatience. May I lift my voice to demand an end to this – now, not waiting until more lives are lost.
B’rukhah haSavlanut
Blessed be my patience. May it make clear things that are not yet clear. May it support me in the slow study of the fears and angers, hopes and traumas that birthed this moment.
B’rukhah haT’vunah
Blessed be my intelligent discernment. May I take a hard look and careful note of who benefits from this conflict.
Barukh haZikaron
Blessed be my memory. May I perceive what is the same about this conflict and the ones before it. And may I notice what is new.
Barukh haBilbul
Blessed be my confusion. May it gift me with beginner’s mind; may it open me to new visions and new possibilities that will only come into existence in this moment.
B’rukhah ha’Ahavah
Blessed be my capacity to love. May it pour itself forth, unchecked, toward Israelis and Palestinians, all of whom are my kin, and none of whom deserve this.
Barukh haSeruv
Blessed be my refusal. My refusal to cast Arabs and Jews as enemies.
B’rukhim Osey-Hashalom
Blessed be the peacemakers – Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims and Christians, joining hands for peace, doing the hard work, insisting on it, even though their actions rarely make the news feed.
B’rukhah haTikvah
Blessed be my hope, which continues to live. May it be not fantasy but demand. A demand upon heaven and a demand upon earth. May hope be rewarded, speedily, in our time. Rewarded with peace. Rewarded with breath. Rewarded with ordinary, unremarkable coexistence. Rewarded with yet more hope.
Barukh Tzelem haElohim
Blessed be Your likeness, God, revealed in every face.
B’rukhah HaShabbat
Blessed be this sabbath and all sabbaths. Blessed be the stepping back. The waiting. The resting. May we have opportunities to unclench, to hit brakes, to de-escalate, to put down weapons, to gather around tables, to light candles, to bless our children, to drink wine and break bread. May Shabbat remind us that there is no course of action that is inevitable, no momentum that can’t be slowed, no decision that can’t be reconsidered in the glow of the candles. May Shabbat come as a ceasing and a healing. May it be Shabbat Shalom – a Sabbath of Peace.