In Hebrew the word for “answer,” teshuva, comes from the same root as the word “return,” shuv.
So when someone returns a prayerbook to you, is it an answered prayer? You remember the one – the one I thought would never come back, the one that was a silent witness to a massacre. It came back to me this week, wrapped in white archival paper and tied with a string. My most heartfelt thanks to Eric Lidji, from the Rauh Jewish Archives, for putting the pieces together when he read my previous post about it and realized he had seen the book.
I am praying from this book again, feeling like it is possible to once again feel that I am my prayer. I am hearing by email from the friend who I prayed for in that piece. I am able to feel hope again.
I see people every day who were broken by tragedy, devastated by illness. sometimes decades ago. This week I feel like even for them, there is still hope we can return them to wholeness. We can give them an answer. The world may never be the same – but it will be better than it is now.
