To Heal a Fractured World - Poem

 This week is the yarzheit of Rabbi L-rd Jonathan Sacks, zt'l, the respected, admired and dearly loved former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. As many of my readers may know, there are some poems from within my archives inspired by his teachings, his lectures, and his writings. He was a tremendously talented man, not just in his accomplishments throughout his life and tenure as Chief Rabbi, but a wizard with the pen, a genius when he spoke and conveyed his morals and ideas, and, as his successor, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said about him in a eulogy, a prince of G-d in our midst.

To commemorate the yarzheit and to pay my respects to this great giant of a man, I wanted to compose another poem based on his work. While looking through his book titles, one that stuck out, was the book "To Heal a Fractured World". I took that title and after some minutes, had a poem ready.

I hope you enjoy it and may this poem be a simple, yet fitting tribute to a man of brilliance, wisdom, integrity, and above all, love.

In loving memory of Rabbi L-rd Ya'akov Tzvi ben Dovid Arieh zt'l
Rabbi L-rd Jonathan Henry Sacks,
1948-2020

Yehi Zichro Baruch,

With love,

Yitzy Schweitzer

To Heal a Fractured World - Poem

A world apart, differences divide us from each other,
When, to heal a fractured world, we must stand together,
Disengaged from the interviewing strands of our one connected identity,
Drowning in waves of subtraction, losing hope, but yet gaining meaningless anger, dark, bleak.

We once stood proud, but now we our ashamed,
Of ourselves, of our misdeeds, over those who aren’t the same,
Insecurities rob us of something we never have truly lost,
It is only those devastating feelings of negativity that build on the resentment and rust.

Losing focus on who we are, becoming instead, what we never wanted to be,
But, who are we, does it really matter, when we are a family,
Do are differences really need a place to spread their ills their venom,
Or, could they be on the side, while we love our neighbor for what is inside of them,

Our hearts, can become cold, but that does not make us heartless,
It just means a bit of warmth and love, will give a boost to the person, to help heal the fractures,
For what can we do, in all honesty, to heal a fractured world,
But fill the cracks instead of, with dirt and hate, with gold, diamonds, and pearls,