A Short Meditation during the Yom Hashoah Siren

All those people who were lost to us, they are not gone without a trace, they leave their imprint on us when we remember that we are them and they are us.

Our families’ screams from the ovens rose up to heaven and rained down as new souls, our souls. They changed our DNA. They gave us a mandate to grasp our brief existence and focus it on connection, laughter, love, growth, and bringing our strengths to build our communities.

Those voices say: Live in joy those moments that we didn’t have a chance to experience. Love and practice getting better at loving those around you. Fight against those who would hurt us and for those who are being tortured and oppressed. When we say “Never Again” it is solemn oath to strive against evil in all forms, and to fight for ourselves. We are worth fighting for.

In the moments of the siren I find myself listening to the meditations of the souls of our people. They whisper to enjoy every morsel of food and every moment with our loves ones.  To deal with each other honestly, help our neighbors, speak our truths, read to our children, treasure our elders. To treat our souls and our time on this planet as the precious thing that it is. And to bring our gifts to the world fully and without fear.  They live on in the mandate to make our society the kind of place they would have been proud to build if they had the chance that we have.