A prayer for downtown

When I first sat down to write an invocation for the Downtown Springfield, Inc., banquet, I found myself humming an old, familiar tune: When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, You can always go downtown. When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry seems to help, I know, downtown. Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city. Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go downtown.

The noise and the hurry? Bright lights and neon signs? Petula Clark clearly had someplace other than downtown Springfield in mind! Now, when you’re Jewish and looking through the traditional sources, only one city really qualifies as the “downtown of the Jewish soul.” No, not Tel Aviv. Jerusalem.

In the sources, Jerusalem is the city of peace. “Ten measures of beauty came down to earth. Nine were given to Jerusalem; one, to the rest of the world.” “Gates of sapphire and emerald; walls of precious stone; streets paved with rubies and towers built with gold.” OK, the sages were given over to a little hyperbole. More realistic is, this 10th century account, by a Muslim observer, Abdallah Mohammed ibn Ahmad al-Mukaddasi: When it comes to discernment and modesty, the people of Jerusalem are unsurpassed. Unfairness and injustice are unknown to them…. Life in Jerusalem is pleasant, its streets are clean, and its inhabitants are men of good will from all walks of life. Hardly a day passes without some stranger coming to visit the city. People find themselves drawn here — people from all over the world — drawn here as if by some irresistible force.

Somewhere, then — between Petula and the Pentateuch — let us find our own prayers for downtown Springfield: O God, Sovereign of the Universe, may this place we call home also be a place of discernment and modesty; a community of people honest and straightforward, people of goodwill from all walks of life who welcome the visitor and the stranger warmly. May the wine we drink be one without bitterness. May the sounds we hear be the rhythms of the seasons. May the light we kindle be a light of knowledge more than neon. And while, at times, we all wish to forget our troubles, let this never be a place where we turn our backs on those in trouble.

May the skies above be as sapphire and the fertile fields that surround us be as emerald. May our streets be paved with justice and may a golden sense of mercy and compassion tower over us. Above all, may this place be a city of peace.

Then it will be said that nine measures of joy and beauty have embraced this city we love; as we have embraced one another and every challenge that has come our way. May this be God’s will. Amen.

Michael Datz is rabbi of Temple B’rith Sholom in Springfield. His invocation was delivered at the Downtown Springfield awards dinner Jan. 28.