The following is the speech given by Eli Rubenstein at the Creative Writing Contest for the Homeless Held at Habonim; Tony Blair and Belinda Stronach Among the Judges

I would like to welcome you all here on behalf of Congregation Habonim. It is a great honor and privilege for our congregation to involved in this event along with Ve’ahavta, and I thank you all for joining us here in this evening.

“Why do we read?” the old quote goes…. “We read to know that we are not alone” is the answer given….To read someone else’s words, and to understand that they too might share similar experiences with us – we are not alone in this experience we call life.

So too, one can suggest, is the motivation to write. We write to know we are not alone….We write because we want to communicate with others, we write because we want to give to others, a gift of our thoughts, our feelings our emotions, and to know we are not alone in feeling what we feel. Writing may be described as “soul sharing”, and activity where we attempt to communicate our most essential essence, what lies at the core of our being.

So to all those writers who have expended the time and the effort submitting there work to Ve’ahavta’s contest, thank you for reaching out with your words, for telling your stories, for expressing your truth about the world…. For not remaining alone with you thoughts…..
And please know that you are not alone in this world…
Let me close with a story…

Jewish people during the High Holydays have a tradition to pray for forgiveness…..One man came to synagogue one year, but he had drifted so far from tradition he could no longer even read the prayer-book. So instead he uttered the following plea to God. He said, “God I know longer can read the prayers in the prayer book, but I still remember the letters to the alphabet – so I will recite the letters, and you take the letters and turn the into words for me…” And, the story concludes, that his prayers were accepted, for the man’s motivation to communicate was so pure and so sincere…

To those who submitted essays for this initiative, you are like the man in the story...... for your desire to communicate and to express yourself are so evidently deep, and sincere, and honest. But you are even one step ahead, for you have found within yourself the ability to knit your own words together, to paint your own literary portraits, to find the language to express your own story.

Thank you for your courage, for you creativity and for your expression – and may you continue to make your unique voices heard for many years to come.

Pictures from the event may be viewed at: http://web.me.com/uiaeli/Site_7/Veahavta_Writing_Contest.html

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