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Shayndel Plotkin
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Shayndel Plotkin
The Blogs
Shayndel Plotkin
Executive Director, Liumi, Inc.
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Dear Lamplighter

Dear Lamplighter,

Are you endlessly wandering around? Are you searching for Me?

Is it darker than usual? Are the lampposts more hidden, harder to find in the overcast skies filled with clouds, smoke and tears?

Don’t worry. You are a lamplighter. I am one too.

Dear Lamplighter,

Where are you heading? With your clothes torn, burnt and tattered and your eyes dim. With your hair unwashed and your skin browner from the sun you are guarding us in.

Are you diving deep into the ocean? Who is out there? Will the waves overtake you? Are you breathless and taken underneath the rough waters. The waters are rougher than usual. We have been here before.

Stay a float. Our Rescuer is heading your way.

Dear Lamplighter,

Are you wandering into the wilderness? Your body heavy with the burden of our weapons? Carrying on your back the Weapons that are handed to you in your youth. Handed to you so that you will secure our safety and freedom. So that you will keep our flames lit.

Our Flames. Our Land. Our People. Our Torah. Our Eternity.

Are you searching for a flicker, a fellow soul to light along the way? There are many more than usual. We have been here before.

Keep searching. I know you will find Him.
I too am a lamplighter.

Dear lamplighter,

Are you climbing a mountain? Is the mountain higher than usual? Is it rocky and steep. Steeper than usual. We have been here before.

I too am a lamplighter. I have been climbing the mountain with you. I have been breathless in the ocean along with you. I have been searching in the wilderness for the flickering lampposts and souls to light up with hope and redemption.

We are lamplighters, our flame will never go out. Yes! Our burden will be heavy and Yes! Our hope will outlast this moment.

Our hope is deeper than the ocean, higher than the mountains, and lighter than burdens we carry into the wilderness.

I too am a lamplighter and I will keep lighting us up along the way. I am with you.

Signed…
A Lamplighter

About the Author
Co-Founder and Executive Director of Liumi West Retreat. As a teacher, writer, and facilitator of Jewish educational seminars and curriculum, Shayndel Plotkin is passionate about working with women, children, and families to help them grow and develop – spiritually and personally. Her background in the Jewish community, Jewish education, and Israel advocacy began in the South Florida community more than twenty years ago as a writer for the Jewish press, and then as the Israel Experience Director for the Commission for Jewish Education. She has recently been certified as a female farmer in the state of Florida. Shayndel is a writer of novels, children's stories, a professional memoirist, and writer for several international magazines. She holds a Master of Arts in Jewish Education from the Pardes Institute and Hebrew College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communications from Florida State University. Shayndel is a graduate of Midreshet Rachel Seminary in Jerusalem, where she studied Jewish texts and philosophy for three years. Shayndel is married to Rabbi Baruch Plotkin and together they have seven children.