Henry Abbey Poems : Emanuel

In the New World, the hemisphere unknown
When, Hebrew-wise, Moriah uttered praise--
In a new land of liberty and hope,
Of golden harvests and of bread, fresh fields--
In the new Promised Land--we dedicate,
We consecrate this House of Righteousness.
Be in our hearts, Shekinah!

In all this land there is no king but God.
He is our God, and we have built to Him.
To men of every creed, who serve his law,
We make the doors of this that we have built,
As wide with welcome as are freedom's doors,
As open and as tolerant as they.
Be in our hearts, Shekinah!

Of us the Branch to whom the nations bow.
In us is testimony and the root
Whence sprang the palmy, Messianic New.
The New is of the Old to which we cling.
Not to destroy the New we plant the Old,
But that the Old may flourish with the New.
Be in our hearts, Shekinah!

The end we know not; but we wander on,
Down the regretful wilderness of time.
Nations have risen and dissolved away;
But we remain, and are together bound
As are the glad, innumerable suns,
The blazing jewels in the Almighty's crown.
Be in our hearts, Shekinah!

Here may we ever worship as we will,
With strong simplicity and manly trust.
Here may the wistful aspiration, prayer,
Fire the neglected voices of the soul.
And may Jehovah this, his temple give
The rapture of cherubic wheels and wings.
Be in our hearts, Shekinah!