26 Elul: Homes

Light candles now,
In your home
For the homeless. 

For the displaced
With no place
They can afford;

For the first peoples
Whose lands and cultures
Were stolen or degraded;

For the animals
Invading your backyards.
How dare they walk where they once lived;

For those on islands
Swamped by the rising water,
Ocean where there once was land;

For those who survived a shooting,
There is no more safety,
It is lost forever;

For the addicted whose illness
Destroys their true selves
While the greedy make money;

For the warred upon and bombed out,
Starving and hopeless,
Not even a tent to sleep in;

For the houses and habitats
Burnt up in climate change’s fires,
And everything gone;

For the immigrants,
Losing the old lands to violence and poverty
And so violently unwelcome in the new.

Where will they light their candles now?

This is our covenant:
Take care of the earth
And it will take care of you. 

So it is upon us!

Build housing;
Make reparations;
Preserve wilderness;

End fossil fuels;
Restrict guns;
Treat addiction;

Cease fire;
Live sustainably;
Welcome immigrants. 

Create new homes
And save the old ones.
Light candles,
Now. 

Amen

Trisha Arlin is a liturgist and teacher of prayer writing in Brooklyn, NY. She is published in various anthologies and siddurim, in her book, Place Yourself (Dimus Parrhesia Pess) and online at Ritualwell, OpenSiddur and her site, Trisha Arlin: Words of Prayer and Intention. She writes with the Bayit Liturgical Artists and was Liturgist In Residence at the National Havurah Conference.