BOSTON AND PRAYER
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has remarked: “Where once violence was the last resort, alas, today it is the
first resort.” Once again a major city of our nation has been rocked by violence. Senseless death and
bloodshed have become all commonplace in our world. Patriots’ Day in Boston was meant to mark the battles of Lexington and Concord. Sadly, the struggle for safety and freedom never is concluded.
Our prayers go out to the victims and their families, to all who have been touched by this evil action.
At the same time we celebrate the selfless compassion of the bystanders and responders who rushed into the fray to help.
After 2011, after Columbine, after Newtown, and after Boston we realize that the enemy is not this
or that religion, this or that community: the real enemy is the hatred. How do we battle hatred?
It’s everyone’s responsibility. What the world needs is a unified religious voice preaching loudly and
constantly for tolerance, peace and compassion. All faiths, without exception, need to proclaim the
simple truth that all people are created in the image of God, each and every life is of infinite worth.
To quote the Talmud and the Koran: “To destroy one life is as if one destroyed an entire world. To save one life is as if one saved an entire world.”
And so we pray the words of the Bratslaver Rebbe,
May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease
when a great peace will embrace the whole world
Then nation shall not threaten nation
and humankind will not again know war.
For all who live on earth shall realize
we have not come into being to hate or destroy
We have come into being
to praise, to labor and to love.
Compassionate God, bless all the leaders of all nations
with the power of compassion.
Fulfill the promise conveyed in Scripture:
"I will bring peace to the land,
and you shall lie down and no one shall terrify you.
I will rid the land of vicious beasts
and it shall not be ravaged by war."
Let love and justice flow like a mighty stream.
Let peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.
And let us say: Amen
In prayer,
Rabbi Arthur L. Schwartz
