A man at the beach (illustrative). Credit: Alex Levac
Lee Diamond – With a Mournful Eye & Threads of Blue
With a Mournful Eye
And Jews became believers—
—In Tikun Olam
Not Tikun Azmi
Not self preserving
But globalists
Contributing our very
Nature and history
Genius, and our
inter generational dialogue
As tools to fix a world
That was quite pleased to be
Broken
Once we were chosen
Or were we were choosing?
Once we taught by example
Once we were
The Jews
Proud
Threads of Blue
A reminder
To keep us aware
Aware of who we are
On each of the corners
Of our garments.
To remember
Perhaps even to be known
That this is a person
Who wears his/her
Commitments on
“His/Her sleeve”
That thread of blue
Described In Torah
Distinguishes us as
Choosing our uniqueness
Not better, but different
And Needing reminders
The blue was lost to us
For many generations
But the threads remained
Yet Incomplete without our
Special blue!
Yes we lived without
The heavenly blue
Which was lost
As we were!
We held the strings
Tightly and even kissed
Them
We didn’t dare recreate
A new blue
And then one day
The heavens declared
Our glory again
And opened for us
The thin string of
Blue was rediscovered
But doubled
And broadened
On a sheet of White
And the blue and white
Became our new reminder
Of our uniqueness
The new blue
Became the symbol
Of the new Jew.
A flag is only a symbol
Can never be holy
But we can.
If we remember
Who we are and what
We stand for.
The blue is here to stay
The white background
Will always form The contrast
Glaring at us
And reminding us
That we are the
Children of Israel
Nothing more
But nothing less.
