Last night I sat in a room filled with 35 students, members of my congregation, parents, clergy and teachers from East High School. My colleagues and I listened as they shared their experiences of being in lockdown – of not knowing whether they would be safe.
We heard their tears, anger,
frustration, and grief.
We listened to the anguished
cries of parents who mourned the loss of their children’s innocence. I saw
their sense of powerlessness as they displayed the physical pain of worrying
about the safety of their loved ones.
We sat in painful respect as
our students shared the experience of being forced to sit in absolute silence
for 3 hours as they waited for the “all clear” signal that would allow them to
return to their homes and their anguished parents.
3 hours of absolute silence! They couldn’t move or go to the
bathroom. They couldn't talk or cry. What were they thinking? Try
to imagine the prayers of terrified teenagers…. Put yourselves in the shoes of
their parents who wanted only to hold their children and weep.
And so – this morning – in
this hallowed hall - as we try to imagine the deafening silence that existed in
those terrified classrooms, let us – ALL of us – take a moment of silence: to
put ourselves in their places
[30 seconds of silence]
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
taught that we should never pray in a room without windows. He taught that if
we cannot see or experience what is happening outside the walls of a synagogue,
mosque, temple or church, legislative chamber – or any place where people of
faith – if we cannot put ourselves in the minds of the people with whom we
share God’s earth – then God can’t hear our prayers.
God – on this day of
self-reflection, let us strive to hear the stories and see the faces of those
in terror and pain. And then, let us
work to make a change.
AMEN
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