Kinah / Lamentation for Tisha B’Av Revised 1 Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! Woe for all the heads without Tefillin After 3700 years from Avraham Avinu After having survived Holocausts and Inquisitions… Jewish boys and girls blunder In the darkness that plagues our generation And go lost by the millions With visions of isms and instant pleasures Rapt in utter ignorance Bathed in a blue light they may never escape And generations and giant whole families Holy congregations have disappeared For nothing! And their names dead ended Now only grace lonely stones In forgotten cemeteries Bearing words their children Those that had- Could never read Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! 2 The pervasive angst of isolation! Microwaves our very beings! We feel beaten from within. The continuous waves of psychological pain. We suffer with a wry smile and a diet coke. The gnawing insecurity and emptiness. It brings us to search for things that do not exist. The sublime is substituted with the virtual. Pictures and fantasies tickle n’ dissolve like Cotton candy for the eyes…in a world of lies Fire works for lonely hearts that only grow lonelier Noshing on empty calories for an endless soul And as for the big itch…the really big itch… That small thin voice is starved… Portrait of a Holocaust victim! So we turn up the tempo Tapping like a blind man Louder and more frantically We are lost as never before. Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! 3 The Chutzpah around us and within. The skirts…the so called “styles”… the pressure to conform The lewdness …the angry language Rap -rap -rap….bark -bark –bark! Bitter and desperate…is the new normal The almost total loss of respect Nothing and no one is Holy The good ones are ridiculed- The object of derision For framing a G-dly Image And dressing as humans do For keeping the Shabbos Holy Watching our eyes and tongues! While pictures of the unthinkable The pop-ups of our lives Invade constantly On every bus that passes by Our brothers and sisters Drop like fall leaves Fewer and fewer hang strong Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! 4 The inmates are running the asylum. Clouds of chaos gather all around Bombs are fashioned for our final solution And we are lost in the mirror again. Wondering if we are loved or looking good 70 wolves salivate with teeth like daggers Aimed to devour our tiny flock! Where are we? Busy with our cell phones Texting our way to oblivion Dealing with emergencies of little import Consumed by crumb size concerns Like Chometz…And the size of our noses Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! 5 The Chillul HASHEM We have lost our luster Suspicion surrounds us The Nation of HASHEM The people of truth Are ridiculed and considered low While every sports team and slick politician Has their stadium…Their edifice their complex Where their glory is on open display Where is the place of HASHEM in this world? Billions speak falsely in His name Identity theft on the grandest scale Religion is a rejected and dirty word We are tagged zealots and bigots For preserving four cubit of Halacha This is our crime And so we owe the world an apology HASHEM and we His People Share all time low approval ratings For this we truly owe a broken heart Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! 6 What can be done when what’s done is done? Who can rebuild such a wall torn down? Our Holy Temple is destroyed! Echoing in the cosmos Is a muffled scream! Of unspeakable abuse A silent crime! Against our most beautiful daughters Made to suffer alone Scarred in a way No one can say With more than broken hearts Shattered Tablets And bitter memories Bleed bad blood And families crumble With no happy choices But to seek greatness And avoid the pit of insanity There I said it! Without saying it! Woe to us on this bitter day! We have what to cry about! 7 Where are our boys Our three boys The cry of a nation How can we go up to our father and the youth are not with us? How can we go up to our Father in Heaven and youthful innocence is no longer with us? HASHEM wants the heart! Where’s the heart? A frantic cry and persistent search! The pain of parents...all parents Amplified and Magnified The frustration of a nation Turned sudden victims Imprisoned by the worst news Too little...too late Savages have ravaged us In our most sacred home Three sweet faces of joy Plucked from our midst For the sake of pure cruelty Our hearts... are shattered Our minds are raging and We are painfully aware They are all our children A piece of each of us is torn away On this day of brutal truth! We have what to cry about! 8 How did it happen? Where are you? Unanswerable questions! Persist in their asking! Where a person’s mind is… Says the Ba’al Shem Tov That is where he is entirely! So with a single Holy thought! One of 60,000 a day! An apple…a golden apple Is rescued from the thieves And goodness is restored When opening our inner eyes We begin to realize The ground we are standing upon Is not less than the Holy of Holies The shoes are easily removed A Burning bush…is revealed We survived! We survived! Till this historic moment! You and I together With a song …the wail of a longing heart… Brought history and destiny to meet and embrace As tearful friends reunited! After thousands of years! Moshiach is born! On this special day! We have what to cry about! By Rabbi Label Lam
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 12:30:01 +0000
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