Welcome Home - A Special Tribute Poem

Do I even need to write the introduction for this poem?

I don't think so, because I think the title can tell you everything you need to know.

But still, I'll try.

I wanted to write a poem for our hostages who are finally free, finally home, finally out of captivity. I had no baseline at the start, I just knew something has to and will be written by me about the release of the hostages.

The baseline idea came to me on Hashana Raba afternoon, when I remembered recently listening to a old song from Shloime Dachs, called "Welcome Home". The song, composed by Yitzy Waldner, I believe speaks about a women lighting Shabbos candles herself for the first time, after experiencing the joy and magical majesty of Shabbos at a friends house.

The titular line of the song reads "As the candles seem to say 'Welcome Home'".

When those words came into my mind I realized that yes, this coming Shabbos, Shabbos Bereshis, will be the hostages' first Shabbos home since being released out of captivity. Wouldn't the candles of that first week of freedom, be welcoming them back? Wouldn't they dance with humility and happiness as they welcome the hostages home?

I think they would dance. Yes, I think they would.

I sat down to write the poem and after about an hour of hard work, I had the complete and finished product, which I hope you will enjoy.

Have a great week ahead,

Your Friend,

Yitzy Schweitzer

 Welcome Home - A Special Tribute Poem
As they walked through the door,
Of the home they were taken away from,
Freedom was there, standing tall and proud,
Waiting with joy, with open arms.
An embrace filled with love,
A quiet hug of respect, admiration and hope,
As the pain of two long years,
Joined hands with the dreams of a soul reawakened. reborn, recharged.

All of the horrors, all the terror,
If it was to much to speak of, no speech was needed,
For the love spoke the words in a language,
Only those lucky enough understood.
Those words were tears, those words were pain, joy,
Those words were silent prayers,
Those words unspoken pierced the heavens,
As only that language could.

As the sun set that night,
The candles shone, burning, dancing with a energy,
Delight was palpable as the flames swayed back and forth,
Every Jewish home was dancing with them, every Jew from all corners of the globe.
Two words we all felt that we could say,
Yet some of us, could only think them in our hearts,
But as the candles danced, as our souls were elevated that night,
We closed our eyes and whispered, "Welcome Home!"

See, that night, each one of us, finally understood,
The language, the language we all secretly knew,
We are those who are lucky enough to understand it,
But until that night we could not truly heed its call and make it our own.
But, as our hearts opened,
Our minds became calm and at peace,
We finally understood what it really means,
To love each and every Fellow Jew, and it was with that love we whispered again,
"Welcome Home!"

As the candles continued to dance in our homes
In shul, we held on to our history,
Our tale, our story, we held onto with pride,
As we became like one people with a heart of gold.
We gathered, on that magical Simchas Torah night,
Ready to celebrate with all our passion and energy,
The story of our nation, was coming full circle, once again,
As we prepared to dance with the Torah Scrolls.

As we danced, we imagined that we were standing,
On the path of heroes, on the path of mighty lions,
Tapping into the achdus, we closed our eyes,
We took a moment to imagine the scene and watched take shape in our minds.
We imagined ourselves joining hands,
With our brothers, our sisters, our friends we never met,
We imagined the Simcha, we imagined the holiness,
As we danced, as one, our hearts filled with Jewish Pride!!!

As the sun set that night,
The candles shone, burning, dancing with a energy,
Delight was palpable as the flames swayed back and forth,
Every Jewish home was dancing with them, every Jew from all corners of the globe.
Two words we all felt that we could say,
Yet some of us, could only think them in our hearts,
But as the candles danced, as our souls were elevated that night,
We closed our eyes and whispered, "Welcome Home!"

See, that night, each one of us, finally understood,
The language, the language we all secretly knew,
We are those who are lucky enough to understand it,
But until that night we could not truly heed its call and make it our own.
But, as our hearts opened,
Our minds became calm and at peace,
We finally understood what it really means,
To love each and every Fellow Jew, and it was with that love we whispered again,
"Welcome Home!"