Blessed are You, Hashem,
In You, mercy is found;
You free the captive
You release the bound.
Sarah Imeinu
Was held captive
By a Pharaoh and a King.
Her outer beauty pleased them,
Her soul’s beauty meant nothing.
You struck both her captors,
Her greatness and honor profound;
They gave Avraham great riches,
Returned Sarah, safe and sound.
You freed Yitzchak on the altar,
Bound as a sacrifice.
The Akeidah was a test,,
Our Father’s willingness sufficed.
Yosef freed from the dungeon,
Who could see world power reaching
A slave, who stayed true
To his faith and father’s teaching?
Egypt was the iron furnace,
No slave walked out alive;
But the second You decreed,
In the blink of an eye,
Three million slaves were freed.
Please free us, Hashem,
From our worthless pursuits,
From false promises and trappings
Of the galus,
From self-imposed and other
Mental blocks and limitations,
From the false accusations
Of the wicked nations.
Please free Your Holy Land
From the enemy’s grip,
From their lies and false claims
Of ownership.
Please free Your children
From every affliction,
From prisons of the mind,
Inner suffering, and addiction.
Please uplift those bound
To a lowly station,
The lonely, the barren, the poor
Of Your Holy Nation.
Time after time,
The many deny You;
After creation, reasoning
Your involvement here is through
Faith immaterial, Insignificant
Science is what dictates world events.
But You take out the stars
And count them,
You call them all by name;
Galaxies beyond number,
Not one of them the same.
How much more so
When all’s said and done
Do You love, among Your children,
Israel, Your First-Born Son.
There’s suffering and limitation
In Your world, It’s true –
Seen In Shamayim,
By the righteous,
Their souls, at first, refused
To descend to the mayhem,
Injustice, and discord;
But they saw Your great reward
And descended, reassured.
We will one day know again
The freed Hebrew’s exaltation,
Going from the depths
To liberation
With Your herald of salvation.
May our ears soon hear the sound
When Your Kingdom is established,
Your people glory-bound.
By Sharon Marcus
