Deliver Me

Psalm 140: deliver me

by Rabbi Brant Rosen

oh lord deliver me from my people

who wield their weapons with impunity

whose armies rain bombs on the imprisoned

whose apologists equate oppressor and oppressed

defending those who punish resistance without mercy.

keep from those who speak so easily of two sides

of dual narratives

of complexities of coexistence

those who call submission peace and lawless laws justice

who never tire of intoning never again

even as they commit crimes again and again

who have forsaken every lesson they’ve learned

from their own history and their own sacred heritage.

like Jacob I have dreamed fearful dreams

I have struggled in the night

I have limped pitifully across the river

and now like Jacob in my last dying breath

I have nothing  left but to curse my own

whose tools of lawlessness

who maim refugees who dare dream of return

and send bombs upon the desperate

for the crime of fighting back.

so send me away from this people this tortured fallen assembly

keep me far from their council

count me not among their ranks

I can abide them no longer.

Follow Rabbi Brant Rosen at https://rabbibrant.com/