“To Pray Like A Child” by Alicia Jo Rabins (poetry, ’09)
An excerpt from “To Pray Like A Child” by Alicia Jo Rabins (poetry, ’09) published at Awst Press:
To Pray Like A Child
I have flown halfway around the world to be with other Jews. I have dreamed of my first Shabbat in Jerusalem, to be in the Holy City on the holy day. But I have come first to the Mediterranean port town of Haifa, two hours north, to study Hebrew at the university. And the only hostel in Haifa is a Christian hostel. So my first Shabbat in Israel is a Christian Shabbat.
Friday night, strangers gather in the hostel backyard in our best traveling clothes. We stand in a circle as the hostel desk attendant claps the two challahs together and holds them in the air. “Hamotzi lechem min haaretz. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we bless this challah.”
When I was in middle school, many of my friends went to church youth group together on Thursdays after school. When they invited me to join, I begged my parents—there’s nothing about Jesus, I swear—until finally they allowed me to go, though they would not let me wear a cross around my neck—it’s just for fashion, Mom, I swear. I would walk with my friends to the church down the street from our middle school and hold hands in a circle during prayer time. In the warm camaraderie of the linoleum-floored, wood-paneled church basement, I tried to ignore the dull sense that I was not supposed to be there, that I was in some way lying both to the eager teenager leading the youth group and to myself. […continue reading here]
