Baruch Mechaye HaMetim — Blessed is He who revives the dead….
– from the thrice-daily Amida prayer
The dry bones are fleshed out again,
given a voice to speak:
We know what Revival of the Dead means.
We have lived it.
It means being reborn, maimed by the blows of life,
but with the opportunity to heal, the responsibility to atone
and the understanding that this second chance
is the greatest mercy of all.
The chance
to shed the unshed tears,
to mourn the unmourned loss,
to tell the untold fears.
It means being reborn to see death for what it is,
and to know that those things are most precious
that can be taken from us in the blink of an eye:
the touch of a loved one,
the warmth of belonging,
the shared joy of learning.
It means being reborn to know, if only for this moment,
that what can die is infinitely more precious
than cold immortality,
that eternity keeps faith with the life
that sleeps in the soil of being,
and that these are the fruits of Olam Haba.
It means being reborn in the time of our national renewal,
watching the seeds sown in darkness
sprout and blossom in a land reclaimed,
well-rested in her shmittah years,
fed by loneliness and silence
ready to yield the fruit of our tears.
It means being reborn to walk free from the prison of exile
out of the ashes,
out of the absence of God,
out of the knowing that there can be no awakening,
no renewal,
no hope,
no memory.
But hearing always the absent Voice whispering
Only for a moment…
It means remembering
the face of God that must never be seen
And knowing ourselves blessed.
ברוך מחייה המתים ברחמים רבים
Translation of Hebrew terms
Olam Haba. lit. “the next world”, the afterlife or the life of the spirit.
Smittah. The fallow year in which no crops are to be sown or harvested in Israel.
