Above All, Teach this Newborn Child

Above All, Teach this Newborn Child

Birth/Brith by Harold M. Schulweis

Above all, teach this newborn child
To touch, to never stop. To feel how fur
Is other than leaf or cheek,
Diamond from glass, Mezzuzah from anything else
In the world. The same with Challah.

As the child grows, teach this baby to reach
The shoulder of another before sadness
Brings it inhumanly low, to stroke the hair gently
Of one younger who is weeping, one older.

Let these hands be a Yes
When Yes is the Truth, and No
When No is right.

Whatever these fingers touch -- may they be
For new holiness and blessing,
Light, life, and love.
Amen.

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