“Pharaoh hardened his heart.” Those are the words that I woke up thinking today.

Sure, when the plague hits it’s all “pray to the Lord for me, Moses.” And Moses does. And things get better for a while. Then it’s “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.” Again.

I haven’t said anything about the shooting in Buffalo, or the church in Orange County, or any of the mass shootings last week that didn’t seam to make it into the national news. Not just haven’t said anything on social media. I haven’t said anything at all. Because anything I tried to say would come out as a scream. I am struck dumb - I have no words.

“When wilt thou save the people?
O God of mercy, when?”

I woke up this morning with the song from Godspell in my head. In hours of wakefulness last night, I had gone online and saw the news. Yet another shooting yesterday. Gilroy last week, then El Paso, then Dayton.

So I’d just finished photographing the tallitot that I've been working on, when Bruce comes in with his iPad in hand to tell me that there's been a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh…