Poem for Mourning

I wanted to share something I’ve been teaching these past years in helping and supporting the expression of sadness, loss, and grief through ones’ tears. I touched its purpose and meaning once again this afternoon, sharing a moment with the country, the acknowledgement of those who have died, the necessary remembrance, and the many tears throughout the land, that were permitted to flow.

As a child of Holocaust survivors, witnessing the many tears that flowed from my mother, a lonely survivor of grief and guilt (as all her family died), I have come to understand the blessing, the healing, and transformation that tears offer. In the many moments of shifting identity or preparation for personal ritual, we enter the Mikveh, walk down seven steps, immerse three times, refreshed, renewed, and reborn. Like the Tree of Life, the number ten (7+3) a metaphorical reminder of the healing capacity to become cleansed and whole.

Each one of us carries within an ‘internal Mikveh,’ a gathering of healing water, that we can draw on in moments of loss, grief, and even in an empathic response to others.

Each one of us carries within an ‘internal Mikveh,’ a gathering of healing water, that we can draw on in moments of loss, grief, and even in an empathic response to others. There are so many in this country (actually in the world at large) who have needed to grieve, share a moment of unified sadness, and Vice-President Biden and Senator Harris have created that moment, using simplicity, permission, and the power of light, to remember and let tears flow. What a gift to the many, alone, starved of the empathy and connection these many months. I am so grateful to finally have adults in the room, who understand, empathize, and ritualize, as part of their leadership.

The Mikveh Within

How I long for you, oh loved one, oh friend

Separated and taken to a world beyond end;

Frightened your soul departed alone

In discomfort and pain I constantly bemoan.

The images and memories I hold so dear

Of you and I that remain so clear;

Yet sadness and grief overcome me so much

I need to weep and let tears caress with a tender touch.

My well of water that lies within, I access and offer upon my skin.

The Mikveh I hold and enter in grief so I can cleanse my disbelief;

The gift of tears we possess, so healing abounds in tenderness.

I gratefully embody the liquid of the Divine that gathers together as a shrine,

To be released and shed in need, tears of healing, a Mikveh indeed.

Eva Robbins is a rabbi, cantor, artist and the author of “Spiritual Surgery: A Journey of Healing Mind, Body and Spirit.”