Shall We Now Crucify? Poem by gershon hepner

Jerusalem is where they ask, but can’t decide:
“Shall we rebuild this place, or shall we be rebuilt?
Shall we be expiated here, or here feel guilt?
Shall we now crucify, or be the crucified? ”

These are the questions now asked in Jerusalem,
as they were asked there some two thousand years ago.
The Jews have not change much, but face a different foe,
and, as two thousand years ago, themselves condemn.

“We all have sinned, ” they say, “that’s why we’ve been defeated.
Their foes agree, as do so many of their leaders.
About the war they fight both parties write, their readers
quite unaware that to the truth they’ve not been treated.

God must be thinking: “I have seen this all before.”
He’s watching this, some still believe. I think He must
be puzzled that both sides declare, “In God we trust, ”
though probably He does not love them any more.