Between the Fires:

A Prayer for lighting Candles  by Rabbi Arthur Waskow

We are the generation that stands  

Between the fires:

Behind us the flame and smoke 

that rose from Auschwitz and from Hiroshima;

From the burning forests of the Amazon,

From the hottest years of human history

that bring upon us

Melted ice fields, Flooded cities, Scorching droughts.

It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze

But the light in which we see each other fully.

All of us different, All of us bearing 

One Spark.

We kindle these candle-fires to see more clearly 

That the earth and all who live as part of it

Are not for burning.                                

We light these fires to see more clearly

The rainbow in the many-colored faces of all life

Blessed is the One within the many.

Blessed are the many who make One.


haggadah Section: Introduction