Had the grace of a ride home today from Hashana Rabbah services, so proud of my little guy who made it through the whole multi-hour liturgical maze that we use to set the final seal on our Season of Repentance. Absolutely endless circular marching to the refrain of hoshia na, save us, please!; the strongest people among us exhausting themselves standing straight with the weight of the Sefer Torah in their arms; the final laughing cathartic thwacking of the fragile willow branches that we have tended so carefully this past week, whacking them until all their leaves fall off (let it go), all culminating in this tremendous feeling of closure, of having done all that could be done. And then the grace of a pleasant ride and a rare chance to catch up with a friend, instead of the always weary and lonely wait for the bus. Then we, my boy of joy and I, are walking in the sunshine on our own turf, past the piles of red leaves our neighbor has cleared from the sidewalk. I see that the police had the mercy to leave the orange car in place when they arrested its homeless owner last night, and I am filled with gratitude on behalf of the two other men who take turns sleeping in the car, and hope on behalf of its owner who now stands a chance of being released released and able to reclaim his one lifeline before it is impounded and gone forever.

As we walk past the car I see the man currently sheltering in it with his sleeve pulled up and rolled tight thwacking the inner skin of his arm trying to raise a vein. And the whole world of desperate people dying by inches with no chance at all of getting what they need crashing down on me.

HOSHIA NA! HOSHIA NA!