On Wednesday morning, red poppies bloomed on the grounds of the Nova music festival.
The place where hundreds of people were killed, injured or taken hostage on October 7th is now a memorial site.
One side of the expansive open field has large billboards commemorating lives lost along with individual memorials for each person killed or taken hostage. Another side of the field has new trees planted honoring each victim.
Everywhere you looked you saw a face. A young person who came to dance and enjoy the music, only to have their life end on that day.
Through prayer and song, The Adamah group reflected on the atrocities that happened on this site, and the pain and loss from the ensuing war.
We sang, we prayed, and then we all said Kaddish, the memorial prayer for those killed.
HaMakom – The Place
by Julie Rosenbaum
The place where the anemones bloom
Red with richness amid barren brown trees, dusty ground
Lay your life down
The place where joy flows
Breeze blows
Smiles abound
A friend found
And then the sound
And then the screams and
hopes and dreams
crushed, shattered, bruised and battered
Life divided
Some in hiding
Never able to forget, to unsee
To be truly free
The place of melodic tones
Feel it in your bones
To be one with the earth, the sky, birds fly high
Where we say goodbye
To bodies broken
Hearts shattered wide open
The place where spirit lives
Soul gives
hope and hugs and love and pain and tears and open space
The place