Shavuot

Look around at everyone here and imagine little fiery flares are flickering on each of our foreheads. They ignited in unison.  Do you dare to touch your own flame? Might it burn your finger with divine anger, or disappear like a prophet?

It does neither, instead our candle-like lights dance on in a breeze of unexplained joy as we speak with one tongue!  We have corroborated our own miracle.  Should we write it down in scripture, get it translated so people in distant countries and eras will believe and rejoice?  Or do we doubt we can even communicate to each other, within our narrow cells, these communal showers, what has or hasn’t actually happened here?

Can the dogs by the wire or the guards in the tower hear our lamentation?  Let us embrace before them like David and Jonathon, acknowledging all that we’ve held in common – tyranny endured, the sins forgiven – and show our miraculous dedication

to hope, that a powerful hand will dismantle this shrieking concentration and allow us, who have lived within a multitude of nations, to walk in God’s spirit towards an older, happier land.

2013