When they emerged from sludge and sea,
Armed with fang and claw,
Hope drew our most distant forebears forward:
A better place, bounty, new possibilities, new habitats,
Home.
When the first humans emerged from African savannah,
Armed with spear and clubs,
Knives and arrows,
We stood tall to scan the horizon,
Built sacred spaces to remind us to gaze above,
We found soul and voice and song.
We are drawn to the light but remain creatures of fear and force.
Fangs rip flesh
Spears butcher the youth
Torn human bodies, threats to home and possibility,
Drive us back to a swirling howl of war, blood, death.
The false security of force seduces us from our promise.
Humanity is one paradoxical blur:
Greater ways to deal death from a distance,
Greater insights toward advancing tranquility and hope.
Which do we choose? How do we elevate and heal when the threat remains real?
“Beating spears into plowshares” has an ancient pedigree.
So does, “When one rises to kill you, slay them first.”
Sometime the one is the path; sometimes, the other.
May we find the strength to know when to pursue peace,
To create possibilities for sharing and coexistence previously unimagined.
May we find the wisdom to defang those who seek us dead,
Not as an end in itself, but for our lives and theirs,
Our liberation and theirs,
So we can continue, like our most ancient ancestors,
To climb onto new beachfronts of hope,
To emerge from savannas of blood and terror,
So our children can focus on building temples of learning, science, wisdom, and art.
Our right to live and thrive requires removing imminent threat,
But it also requires a willingness to offer peace, to share bounty,
To continue the work of making space for what was previously impossible.
Warriors are needed, yes.
But so are prophets.
Rabbi Dr Bradley Artson, a Contributing Writer to the Jewish Journal, is the Abner and Roslyn Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and Vice President of American Jewish University. He is also Rabbinic Leader for the Abraham Joshua Heschel Seminar, training Conservative/Masorti Rabbis for Europe.
