A Tefillah for Rosh Chodesh Nissan

The tension builds to the moment we’ve all been waiting for

The one for which we prayed for thousands of generations

While we walked blindly from nation to nation

From exile to exile

Stateless and grasping for a safe place to land

Till we were forced out once again.

And now we’ve come here

By foot or by donkey

By the wings of airplanes or the rusted hull of a ship

A people of all colors and tongues

A nation who carried their origin story 

Like bread on the backs of the Jews

who moved from slavery to freedom

That fateful midnight by the sea. 

Now the Earth quakes and the sun disappears in the heavens

The borders rumble and the Northern sky is filled with rockets

And with the coming of the new month of redemption

We prepare like the Jews of Egypt

Preparing our pascal offerings through the medium of belief

Cleaning out the crumbs of despair

Baking the bread of freedom for the moment we’ve all been waiting for

Howling like the great wail in Egypt, “Let My People Go!”

So while we clutch to each other as darkness looms

We feel the spirit of the Holy One Blessed Be He,

Weaving Himself around our people

Wherever we are in the world

Providing shelter from the storm that rages across the planet

Safe in the promises of the past

And the realization of prophecy in our near future.

May this month of Nissan

Bring forth the energy of freedom

Of the renewal of our joy

Of the return of captives to the embrace of their people

Of the soldiers home from our borders

Where man and land bloom together

In a sweet aura of redemption.