The night came,
And with its sweet power opened me up to
All my judgements and anger and impatience.
The day came,
And like a mikveh, washed me clean of
All those judgements and anger and impatience.
The mikveh came,
And like the day, cleaned me and opened my heart
To all those tzedakot and loves and patience.
The day before came,
And with one vision of your words, reminded me of
That one teaching of yours.
I came to your resting place
To sweeten the judgement, to ask for the world,
For our people.
I found it already a lighter world,
Already sweetened - the pain a sweeter pain.
And once again, relearning that deep teaching.
I sit here,
On the day that connects you in this world
To you in the coming.
And I remember that first night
When I first heard you give the teaching.
"You know what it is to have it together?"
You asked, knowing that we knew
And yet still did not.
"Together means you build the Mishkan
149 times and it falls apart,
And then you build it again."
Be a together person.
Not to give up -
I read yesterday and still misunderstood.
Not to give up on myself, of course.
Not to give up on other people, on our people.
But deeper -
Not to give up on my part in you,
Or your part in me.
Rav Raz Hartman
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Rav Raz Hartman, born to Israeli parents, grew up in Southern California. He was attending U.S.C., majoring in Music Peformance, when he met Rav Natan Greenberg. That meeting eventually result in Raz's coming to the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, where he studied for six years and was given Semichah in 2003. He is married to Leah, and they live, with their three children, in Nachla'ot, Jerusalem. Raz serves as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, and founder of the v'Ani Tefillah minyan. He has produced several albums of Jewish music. |