Revised: three poems for the shofar service
June 25, 2021
MALCHUYOT
What does it mean
to proclaim Your sovereignty?
Before the Big Bang, there was You.
We allowed habits to rule us.
Help us throw off that yoke
so our best selves may serve.
Help us surrender.
Help us fall to our knees,
find home in Your embrace.
Help us be unashamed of yearning.
Strengthen our awe and our love
so our prayers will soar.
ZICHRONOT
God, remember us—
our good intentions
and our tender hearts.
Remember our ancestors
asking forgiveness
with the wail of the ram's horn.
Today again we open ourselves
to the calls of the shofar
crying, sleepers, awake!
Help us shed old memories
that no longer serve.
Help us remember You.
SHOFAROT
The shofar reminds us
of the ram in the thicket.
Where are we ensnared?
Its shatters complacency.
It wails with our grief,
stutters with our inadequacy.
The shofar cries out
I was whole, I was broken,
I will be whole again.
Make shofars of us, God!
Make us resonating chambers
for Your love.
These poems were first shared here in 2015. I've tightened and revised them here.