So That None Will Make Them Afraid: A Prayer for Independence from Gun Violence

So That None Will Make Them Afraid: 

A Prayer for Independence from Gun Violence

26^th Annual Vigil and Advocacy Day

VirginiaCenter for Public Safety (vacps.org)

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Beth-El, Richmond, Virginia

Adonay Elohim – Lord Almighty

I invite the members of the General Assembly to stand where I have stood, next to the weeping, sobbing parents, siblings, grandparents, spouses and children before the open grave.

I invite them to answer the questions I have been asked: Why? Why did they die? Why were there guns? Why all this pain? Why all this violence?

I invite the members of the General Assembly to look into the cold, unforgiving ground and imagine that it is not some unknown stranger, but their parent, their spouse, their sibling – their child!

And then tell me why they are silent!

Tell me why they can’t pass laws!

Tell me why their hearts are colder than today’s air and the ground we stand on!

Adonay Elohim – Lord Almighty

Just as you made Pharaoh to release the Israelites, so too, make these legislators to release the bills from committee and enact the laws to restrict the sale of weapons of violence,

So that each man, woman and child can

            Sit on their porch

            Ride the bus

            Go to school

            Go to work

            Go to the movies

            Go to the dancehalls

            Walk down the street

            In peace

            and none will make them afraid.

     

            Amen.