Yom Kippur Poetry by Zahara Heckscher, z”l, 2015
Blessed are You Who Creates/
Blessed are You Who Creates things/
Stars made of helium on fire/
Planets made of dust from stars/
Earth made of burning dust/
Stones made of cooled off earth/
Stones we can hold in our hands//
Blessed are You Who Creates life/
The creatures that walk on the earth/
The creatures that play in the sky/
The creatures that crawl in the soil/
The creatures that swim in the seas/
The creatures who live in the shells/
Shells we can hold in our hands//
Blessed are You Who Transforms things into life/
The lichen that eats the stone/
The deer that eats the lichen/
The wolf that eats the deer/
The oak tree that eats the wolf/
The tree that makes the acorns/
Acorns we can hold in our hands//
Blessed are You Who Transforms life into things/
Trees and bones to fossilized stone/
Heather to peat to coal to diamonds/
Our lives into art that lives beyond:/
A book, a film, a sculpture, a song//
Blessed are You Who Creates things/
Blessed are You Who Creates life/
Blessed are You Who Transforms/
Dust to Life to Dust/
Life to Dust to Life/
Blessed are You Who Creates/