The Echo of Your Promise
Based on Psalm 77
Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
When I cry my voice trembles with fear
When I call out it cracks with anger.
How can I greet the dawn with song
when darkness eclipses the rising sun
To whom shall I turn
when the clouds of the present eclipse the rays of
tomorrow
Turn me around to yesterday
that I may be consoled by its memories.
Were not the seas split asunder
did we not once walk together through the waters
to the dry side
Did we not bless the
bread that came forth from the heavens
Did not voice not reach my ears
and direct my wanderings
The waters, the lightning, the thunder
remind me of yesterday's triumphs
Let the past offer proof of tomorrow
let it be my comforter and guarantor.
I have been here before
known the fright and found your companionship.
I enter the sanctuary again
to await the echo of your promise.
From Healing of Body, Healing of Soul, ed. Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub