Ribbono shel Olam, Ruler of all, my heart is broken.
A disease is ravaging my country,
A virus that seems utterly vicious in its attacks on the body.
Some who get it don’t even know they have it,
And others succumb after weeks of suffering.
This plague does not make all suffer equally.
It has turned a spotlight
On the cruelties in America:
The poor suffer more,
The homeless suffer more,
And people of color are especially hard hit,
Because the other disease, the one we have had for 400 years,
Has turned too many hearts to stone,
And has ruined too many lives to count.
We therefore repent of our sins:
The sin of systemic racism,
The sin of extreme income inequality,
And the sins of selfishness and unbounded ego.
You have told us, through your prophet Isaiah:
“Your hands are stained with crime—
“Wash yourselves clean; Put your evil doings away from My sight. Cease to do evil;
“Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)
O Holy One, we are listening.
We will cease to do evil and learn to do good, so that
Our hearts of stone will turn back into flesh and blood.
For Your sake — for our own sakes — for the sake of the world —
We can do better, with Your help.
We will devote ourselves to justice.
We will not stand for murder.
We will uphold the rights of poor children and their families,
We will give aid to the wronged.
We make this effort in the knowledge
That we are Your hands in this world and
We can be the instruments of Your love.
Bless this effort, O God: give us the wisdom and strength
To own what is wrong and change it to right.
Then those who sowed with tears shall reap in joy.
Blessed is the one who lifts up the fallen,
who heals the sick,
the Love at the heart of the world.
Amen.
Amen.