Let there be an ocean of peace

It won’t be long now until Jews around the world gather together to observe Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe, holy days that will be filled with prayers of repentance, prayers for the safe return of the hostages, prayers for peace.

How I wish I could send a prayer that God will hear. But lately God doesn’t seem to be paying attention to any of my requests for peace. Perhaps my voice is too weak and God can’t hear it. Or perhaps my prayers are drowned out by the bombs exploding in Gaza and Lebanon.

How I wish I could send a gift of peace to everyone in Israel to begin the New Year, especially to the many who are homeless, to those in the north and those in the south, and to each of the hostages’ families, and to the hostages still held captive after almost a year. 

How I wish I could send each hostage a small patch of sky so they could see the sunrise and, at night, the stars, and as the New Year arrives, a slice of the new moon.

I don’t know if prayers will help or if anyone is listening. Perhaps the angels are weeping so hard, they no longer are able to hear our prayers as they hover above us, invisible, helpless. And perhaps God is weeping, too.

It’s hard to start a New Year this way, looking backward instead of forward, trying to summon hope in the future while wondering if the war will ever end, if the hostages will ever be returned, if it will be a good year ahead for all of us.

In truth, I don’t know how or what to pray anymore after so many months of war. Yet I know I must find a way to pray in the days ahead. I need to pray because if I stop believing in prayer, I know something more than prayer will die in me.

So, l will try to pray in the coming Days of Awe because prayer is part of the tradition that I grew up with, part of the heritage that was given to me. Some of my most precious memories are sitting beside my father as a young boy during High Holy Day services, listening to his prayers while learning to offer my own. And I will pray, of course, because I want to believe that God can hear my prayers, even if God is unable to answer them.

What I want most of all in the New Year is for peace to return, for waves of peace, not just ripples breaking the surface but a towering wave of peace that will gently spread a shelter of peace over Israel and the entire earth so that each individual, no matter where on earth they might live, can feel at peace again.

Oh, let there be an ocean of peace, and let us float in that ocean and sail into one another’s arms, and let there be kisses of peace, embraces of peace. 

Please, let there be peace this coming year, sweet peace, precious peace, dear God, let there be peace.