A POEM ABOUT OUR WORK

There is a Gate 

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When you need to eat on Yom Kippur, 

or eat chametz on Pesach

When you need to use a device on Shabbat

that isn't part of your community's typical practice,

there is a gate that you must pass through.

 

The gate could be your health professional. 

It could be your rabbi. 

It could be first your health professional and then your rabbi. 

It could be your own learning, 

your own evaluating, 

your own decision. 

 

There are many ways to get to the gate, 

and there are many ways to pass through it, but once you do…

 

You will eat on Yom Kippur 

or eat chametz on Pesach 

You will use your device on Shabbat,

or, if needed, you will do all three.

 

And you might feel completely fine.

 

Or, you might discover emptiness. 

Pain

Isolation 

Suffering. 

 

When you walk through the gate,

you might feel profound loneliness. 

You might encounter questioning and shaming.

You might even feel so awful 

that you try to return to the other side.

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But, consider staying. 

 

Because this time when you pass through the gate

into the emptiness,

into the pain,

 

I will meet you there.

 

I will meet you at the gate.

I will reach out my hand. 

We will walk in together. 

 

We will walk into the A Mitzvah to Eat community 

on this side of the gate,

Joining people from around the world 

 

Greeting you with

Prayers 

Resources 

Support 

Presence 

 

We will meet you at the gate.

 

We are here.

You are not alone. 

We are here.

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