A Poem for Parashah Yitro: God’s Voice

Together, standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Jewish people witness the moment when God descends to the mountaintop to enter into a covenant with a fledgling nation. This new meditation for Parashah Yitro, based on Exodus 19:16-19, asks us to imagine that moment, the very moment when God’s glory touches the earth.

God’s Voice

What if God’s voice was so near
That your bones rattled
As thunder echoed inside your chest?

What if God’s voice was so near
You could feel the wind hit your face
As your feet seemed to slip on shaking ground?

What if awe and wonder surrounded you,
So close that your knees buckled,
As a pillar of fire from heaven descended to earth?

What if holiness packed all empty space with light
As your lungs filled with the one divine breath
Together with every other living being?

What if God’s voice is as near
As your willingness to remember
The moment we stood together on Sinai,
Amid the smoke and the lightning,
Hearing the great blast of the Shofar?

What if that moment
Is now?

To listen to an audio recording of this poem, visit To Bend Light.

© 2015 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved. If you like this prayer, you might also enjoy: “To Hear Your Voice,” “I Saw God” and “In Plain Sight.”