As you may recall, last week was a ring- a miniature challah that looked good enough to eat. Today, Moti an Israeli who is now in Australia gives us a lamp ring... which actually can hold a flame! One of my friends worried if the challah would be too hot to handle... this definitely has that possibility!
The poem below was written by Don Barnard to commemorate the Shoah. Of its theme, the menorah, he writes, "I then thought of the menorah, the seven-branched candlestick or lamp used ceremonially by Jews (not the nine-branched one of Hanukkah). The imagery of the menorah, with six of its branches being lit from the seventh, the shamash, fitted exactly with what I had in mind. So, ‘Menorah’ it was and I could use seven poems."
ShamashOur lamp is hammered from the one block.
Our branches are of the one treerooted in the one earth.
There is no gene for victim or oppressor.
We must all carry the lamp.
There is no-one else.
The truth of this is the shamash, the lightfrom which all other truths are lit,
and still we forgetthat no outrage is beyond usin the night of our righteousness.
We must all carry the lamp.
There is no-one else.
From the dark night of all their deathsshine the stars of who they were.
Remembering them and bearing witnessis the lamp that lights the world.
We must all carry the lamp.
There is no-one else.
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