Prayer is Precisely Hope
The Saturated Words of Rachel, Wife of Avi Goldberg, hy''d, and Racheli, a Modern-day Poet
This past week saw many, many fallen soldiers.
On one hand, I say to myself, “Each soldier is an entire world lost,” and I pause each time I see a new face on the screen, always smiling, always so full of life, and I sit for a moment with the loss that I know now surrounds those closest to him, or her.
On the other hand, the feeling this week (and I sense I am not alone here) is “It’s just too much.” Not that each loss isn’t too much. Not that this whole past year-plus isn’t too much. But somehow…
—
The words that people share about each soldier- who they were, who they are for them, and what each loss means— I could fill a pages here translating the incredible things I hear. I wish I had the time to share so much more with you.
But today I bring this clip of Rachel Goldberg. Yes- another grieving Rachel Goldberg, who, so much like Rachel Goldberg-Polin, brims with poise and with pain.
Rachel spoke these words- of lack and pain, and prayer and hope- less than two weeks before her husband Avi was killed in Lebanon. What she says, and more so her raw emotion, are eerie. Or maybe the word is prophetic. It really does seem like she knows somewhere deep inside of her what is coming.
From the Facebook page of Odeleya Berlin
And I bring also this poem below- by yet another Rachel, who as far as I know is not a war widow or grieving mom, but rather simply a Jewish woman with a sensitive heart and a gift for words- giving voice to this feeling of “too much”.
Crowded
It’s crowded here, Master of the World.
Crowded in the tents of mourning
Crowded in the hospitals
Crowded amidst the Throne of Glory
Crowded are the notifications
Crowded is the heart
Crowded is the pain—
We’re praying for a different crowdedeness.
That will come One Day soon
And we’ll stand in Jerusalem densely crowded
And bow down with abundant space*.
And the heart will swell abundantly.
* The Midrash says that in the Holy Temple people stood crowded together, yet had abundant space to prostrate before G-d.
Please G-d the blessings that both Rachels share will come to be.
Shabbat Shalom.