The Long Road Home
Lee Diamond – Sculpting a Jewish Society
We were a work in progress
For two thousand years
We drew plans
For two thousand years
We wrote the text
For two thousand years
We wrote the laws
And imagined a society
Of growing values
For a returned nation
To its natural home.
And that very same nation
Is now a living Work
But a work that remains
Fully in progress.
Those who see Israel
As complete
Miss the point.
The state of Israel
Is being fashioned daily
The sculptors are chiseling
The image without pause.
And by our very nature
Images are never final
For the image comes from
Within us
And it’s the progress
That we worship
And not the temporary image.
If there’s a flaw
We will remove it
If there’s a deviation
From our image
We will re- sculpt
Knowing that the
Next generation
Will continue
To keep the work
In progress
And Will continue
To Improve and
Proceed toward
The perfection
That can never come
Fir the next 2,000 and
Thereafter we will be
כִּי כָּאֶבֶן בְּיַד הַמְסַתֵּת
בִרְצוֹתוֹ אוֹחֵז[pוּבִרְצוֹתוֹ מְכַתֵּת
כֵּן אֲנַחְנוּ בְיָדְךָ מְחַיֶּה וּמְמוֹתֵת
לַבְּרִית הַבֵּט וְאַל תֵּפֶן לַיֵּצֶר
As Stone in the hand
Of the sculptor
Who by His will
Expands and diminishes
So are we in Your hands
“Continuing to sculpt
A more perfect Israel.”
Which gets better by the day
And never completed .
