#wewearthememory #memoriesoffreedom #tefillin #parsha #parshatBo #bo #wordshavewings #wecarrytheweight #freedom #MLKday #freedomandequality #endofslavery #exodus #shemot #shmot #laytefillin #martinlutherking #mlkday #mlk
Parshat Bo, to be read next Shabbat, is at the heart of Judaism. This is the Parsha that we re-live each year on Passover. This is our story of freedom and it is the story we passionately recall not only during the seder but most mornings when we lay tefillin. The experience of winding tefillin on our arms, our hands and between our eyes is a way to cement the experience of the Exodus on a daily basis. Laying tefillin is a powerful tactile exercise of remembering a collective experience, the love of God and not taking freedom for granted. It is fitting that I post this poem on Martin Luther King Day.
May we internalize the value of freedom every day and may Dr. King's memory be for a blessing always.
WE WEAR THE MEMORY OF FREEDOM
We wear the memory of freedom
We carry the weight of the covenant
between our eyes
Our chosenness adheres to our hearts
We bind the redemption of our people around our arms
As we don tefillin we become part of the Exodus
with the intimate knowledge of being a stranger
We see the blood on the lintels of our doors
and remember the night time rush to the unknown
We feel the weight of the unrisen dough in our hands
and the hot sands under our feet as we depart
We witness the sea before us opening
We feel the thrill, the fear, the faith
As we bind tefillin we recall our own enslavement
We bind to recall miracles
We bind to affirm the belief that change is possible
We bind to encourage hope
We bind to say that we believe
We bind to connect to God
The winding dance of the Shin, the Dalet, the Yud
At the dawn of each morning we cleave
to a collective memory of redemption;
a warm embrace of skin and leather
As we wrap the leather straps around our fingers
currents spark through our bodies.
We are knotted, we are bound, we are woven
We are a human circuit board connected to You
Multiple points of connection each reaching
to The Source
Sending forth endless emanations of energy
Transporting us onto those pathways through the desert
to blessed freedom and promised redemption
Exodus 13:16. Translation from Sefaria
וְהָיָ֤ה לְאוֹת֙ עַל־יָ֣דְכָ֔ה וּלְטוֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֣ין עֵינֶ֑יךָ כִּ֚י בְּחֹ֣זֶק יָ֔ד הוֹצִיאָ֥נוּ יְהוָ֖ה מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃ (ס)
“And so it shall be as a sign upon your hand and as a symbol on your forehead that with a mighty hand the LORD freed us from Egypt.”
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