Poem-Prayers in the Midst of War

Editorial note: The first two “poem-prayers” here were sent to us at The Commons, and they fit well with our publishing parameters. The third is from a 2014 posting by the authors, and remains a relevant piece of writing today. Obviously they all take on relevance within current circumstances. However, APRIL/The Commons does not publish “op-ed” pieces, or attempt to keep up with the latest news stories.

Over the decades, APRIL has traditionally been an organization that is committed to social justice, but has taken a more circuitous, sometimes cautious, but always creative and analytical route toward that bending of justice’s arc. In 2021 we founded this magazine, “The Commons.” This has allowed us to publish more frequently and on a larger variety of topics. And while the possibility to publish responses to current situations is in place due to the nature of the medium, it doesn’t mean we must publish quick responses. There are plenty of places the reader can find these things. We will refrain from keeping up with the latest op-eds and instead offer creative and teachable instances of current events.

A prayer for this moment

Rabbi Alissa Wise

Hebrew translation by Lexi Kohanski

Yiddish translation by יונה הערש מביש יהונתן אהרון ואסתר מלכה

שִׂים שָׁלוֹם טוֹבָה וּבְרָכָה חֵן וָחֶֽסֶד וְרַחֲמִים

Someone asked me for a poem, like a prayer…

By Sofia Ali-Khan

I can’t write a both sides poem.

I can’t pray a both sides prayer

with tender words.

My faith commands

I tell the truth,

which is eternal

even if everyone tells it differently.

Here is what I know:

I am with the humble,

the dispossessed,

the colonized. I am with the forsaken

and the trapped and the heartbroken.

I am with parents who yearn

to keep their children

safe and fed.

I am with children who say

they don’t need a home or a

book or a shirt

so long as their mother will survive.

I am with people of conscience

telling the truth

regardless of nationality or

faith or consequence.

Whomever and wherever

and whenever they may be.

And here is what I pray:

That the oppressed be made whole

and that oppressors make reparation.

That every child eat

every day.

That no mother or father be thirsty

enough to drink sea water.

That no people be condemned to live trapped behind

borders or cages or walls.

That whatever I have, you also have

and whatever you have, I also have.

And that whatever we have,

we are prepared to

share with any neighbor in need,

whether we have grown to love them

or dislike them,

or have been taught to despise them.

And that when any state tries to

divide us,

using our woundedness in the

service of that goal,
we resist.
That we fight with everything we have
for one another.

Prayer of Mothers for Life and Peace

by Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed & Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, translations by Amichai Lau-Lavie

                                           أغنية الحياة والسلام             תפילה למעמד המשותף         Prayer of Mothers for Life and Peace

All work at The Commons is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Rabbi Alissa Wise

Rabbi Alissa Wise is an organizer, ritual leader, and organizational steward with over two decades of movement building experience. She was a staff leader at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) from 2011-2021, serving as Co-Director of Organizing, interim Executive Director, and Deputy Director.

Sofia Ali-Khan

Sofia Ali-Khan is a anti-racist storyteller and a public interest lawyer. After 9/11, she co-founded and led as Vice President of the Council of American Islamic Relations in Philadelphia (CAIR-Philly), doing education and outreach throughout the Delaware Valley in the midst of cresting Islamophobia. She writes at the intersection of politics, race, history, and Muslim America.

“תפילה למעמד המשותף | أغنية الحياة والسلام | Prayer of Mothers for Life and Peace, by Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed & Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum” is shared through the Open Siddur Project.