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KewlKat

(5,656 posts)
Thu Apr 28, 2022, 11:14 AM Apr 2022

(Jewish Group) Yom HaShoah - The Blessing of the Yellow Candle

I lit a yahrzeit candle last night at sunset. Before I did, I read a poem and a blessing. Afterwards, I placed it in my window.

This poem was written by Ron Adler as a part of a Yom HaShoah program. I thought I'd share it.

Who Am I To Speak Of a Time?

Who am I to speak of a time
of families crushed, of crimes of mankind,
of children in hiding and living in fear,
of mothers trying to hide all their tears,
of fathers praying to an empty heaven,
of people dying again and again?
Who am I to know what it was like
to be persecuted by day and trapped by the night,
to be surrounded by a world turned upside down,
to be starved and tortured and beaten to the ground,
to witness a nation of hate marching past,
to see all their dreams broken and shattered like glass?
Who am I to mention their suffering and pain,
the ghettos, the camps, life and death inhumane?
I wasn't even born, I wasn't even there,
it happened long ago, it could never happen here.
Who am I to know what God had in mind
when the virtues of man were buried alive,
when good lost to evil and hope turned to despair,
when hell upon earth seemed everywhere?
Who am I to let their memories be fogotten,
to say and do nothing as if it never happened,
to forsake the loss of our Jewish family,
to live in a work of complacency?

Shoah Yellow Candle Holocaust Rememberance Program https://www.fjmc.org/content/yellow-candles-home|

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(Jewish Group) Yom HaShoah - The Blessing of the Yellow Candle (Original Post) KewlKat Apr 2022 OP
Beautiful & timeless Budi Apr 2022 #1
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