July 20:21

COVID-19 has affected each of us in different ways and continues to do so. In a recent Hadar program, participants were invited to consider their personal COVID-19 experiences. Prompted by a text and a question shared by Hadar’s Rav Tali Adler, I wrote the poem below. What is an experience over these past 16 months and more that has really touched you? What of that experience remains? How might  you explore something of your experience through writing, art or another medium?

July 20:21

After gathering
Documents
And filling out
Forms

All is scanned
The file
Submitted

We wait.
Again.
This time
Will permission
Be granted?

As the clerks
Make their
Determination
I imagine
Our reunion

For an
Ordinary day
I yearn

Eating a meal
With my kids
Reading a book
To the boys

Sharing
A smile
A story
A song

Walking
Talking
Laughing
Crying
Playing
Praying

The email arrives
היתר כניסה לישראל
Reads the
Subject line
Permission
To enter
Israel
Is granted

I cry
Tears of
Thanks
Hope
Love

Rabbis of the Talmud
Teach a blessing
To be said
Upon seeing another
For the first time
In a year –

Praised is the One
Who revives the dead

Why davka
This blessing
For reunions?

Says Likutey HaTorah:
“Aliveness comes
Through love
Between friends,
Through the light
They give
One another

“When one friend
Sees the other
They are inspired
Like the revival
Of the dead.”

I’ve been
Dead
A little
This past year
And more

COVID
Cut me off
From the
Full
Love and Light
Of family
And friends

It’s time
For us
Once again
To light
One another
Like the revival
Of the dead

Baruch…
Mechayeh
Ha-metim