Petition

Compassionate One, remember
we are Your children
help us to know again
that we are cradled

during these awesome days
of changing light
we want to return
to Your lap, to Your arms    

remind us how to believe
that we are loved
not for our achievements
but because we are Yours

as the moon of Elul wanes
and the new year rushes in
hear us with compassion
enfold us, don’t let us go

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat is on the ALEPH board of directors and is author of 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia, 2011) and Waiting to Unfold (Phoenicia, 2013.) This poem will appear in Open My Lips (forthcoming from Ben Yehuda Press.)