When Cutting One’s Hair for Chemo

When Cutting One’s Hair for Chemo: A Prayer/Blessing/Spoken Word Rap

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oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleinu... aleha.

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, Source of Shalom Who created us and sustains us, Who has no look, no style, no Hair. But Who is everywhere Please be right Here. You, about whom we sing—

Help us remember That the splendor is in the Journey — A long, fascinating, Creative, contentious, Unpredictable, uncontrollable Intangible and inspiring Journey — From what was and what is To what will be. From who we were and who we are To who we will yet become. And therefore, Source of Strength, Like You did for Rachel who struggled, and Hannah who struggled, Like for Miriam who wandered, And Hagar who wondered, Remind us — As we wonder about the path aHead, As we cut the hair from on top of her Head — That like You, Whose essence is Existence, Our existence is our essence.

Not

our clothes, which we have to spare,

Not

our weight, our height or glorious Hair. It’s what’s in Here (❤) that’s abiding And lovely and loveable And that won’t be subsiding And so With that knowledge, Grant us Faith To hold on And to let go, To shed tears To assuage our fears And to know That this hair cutting is merely a separation

(Who separates Holy from Holy) From one sacred moment of the journey Toward the next (sacred moment). A Journey Of holiness Toward wholeness That we take with You (with all of you) and never alone.

And we say: Amen  

Notes

:

means peace, wholeness and completion. It is said that when one puts in the last piece of a puzzle, one may say

(complete). Allow us to help fill you up when the chemo rips you apart. In Adon Olam we sing

. It also expresses the idea that God’s essence is connected to three verbs — was, is, will be — God is... Existence. Our task perhaps is to plug into existence. Our matriarchs Rachel, Hannah, Miriam and Hagar were strong biblical women who struggled — found strength, solace and faith — and wandered forward to find blessing and hope. May you be like them. At the end of Havdala (the ceremony to end Shabbat), we praise the One who separates

(holiness) from

(regular or profane). But isn’t every moment potentially Holy? I always thought we should say

(who separates one kind of Holiness from the next). Finally, a peculiarity of having the vestiges of an accent from Worcester, Massachusetts is that the words

and

sound pretty much the same.