225 - Renewal

August 22, 2001

Rabbi Peter Knobel and a delegation of Beth Emet members left this week for Simferopol, Ukraine, home of our sister congregation, Etz Chayim. Along with a Torah scroll, newly garbed in a mantle handworked by other Beth Emet members, they will be bringing prayerbooks, mezzuzot (the small scrolls that are affixed to the doorpost of a house), and tallitot (prayer shawls). They will also bring this psalm.

Two Hundred Twenty-Five

Renewal

Like a once lost child beneath her mother's arm,
We are returned to You, Eternal God;
As a homeless man at a welcoming hearth,
So does Your presence warm us.

Separation from You diminished us,
Plants denied sunlight's nurture;
In the years of tyranny we sought You,
Clinging to remembrance, to community's remnant.

Now in freedom, we praise and learn,
Embracing this Torah, restored to our good heritage;
Now we gather to sing unafraid
With the full intention of liberated hearts.

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