Notes from Online Jewish Writing Camp . . .

I missed rest hour today . . . some days are like that.
We are coming to the end of our week, and tomorrow we’ll be preparing for our Kabbalat Shabbat Poetry Slam and Shabbat Dinner.

Our theme today was “In Every Generation: Voices for Peace” and we explored acrostic poetry, piyyutim (which are a kind of Jewish liturgical poetry), and different ways to think about and understand the concept of peace.

Near the end of our two hours , we wrote an acrostic-with-a-twist poem together.
A peace poem. It’s still a draft.
We'd love to know what you think.



Close Your Eyes and Count to Eight
by Rabbi Ariel and the Jewish Writing Workshop Team

Close your eyes and count to eight. 
Seven are the days in a week.
Eight is the plus one. Eight is the miracle.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,

In Hebrew, b’vakasha.

Sheish,
Sheva,
Shmoneh.

Do you see it?
See what?
The merchav.
I see a wide open space.
It’s rachav.
Wide and vast.
Endless.
Safe.
Secure.

I see rainbows and unicorns. Magic everywhere.

I see dragons of all sizes,
and most of them can fly.

I see clouds shaped like whales
and elephants
and camels. 

I see quiet corners with books of every genre and book clubs for every age and they appear like the manna in the Torah, they taste like anything.

I see red pandas.
And cats.
Are they reading?
Of course. 
The pandas or the cats?

Yes.

Hitrachavnu, we expanded.
We have treasure chests of freedom, and
Healing, and 
Hope.

But Hope is not
All we need. We also need
Asking how are you, and
Actually listening, 
And giving food, medicine, housing, to
anyone who can’t
Afford it. 

We need more people to be decent. We need more people who
Love better, who
write each others’ names in the sand, 
who talk for hours, 
who are curious, 
who try to understand, 
who hold hands
who dance 
together. 

Just imagine 
Our world
like that.
Mitzvot and Miracles.

We can make it happen.
Close your eyes.
Count to eight.