Still in Shock

Like so many people I know, I am still in shock over the election results. How did this happen? We might find a number of "reasons," but none of them diminishes the horror of an unqualified, vicious person taking the helm of the ship of state, supported by a crew of abominables.

Alas, America, where is your promise now? How will the world survive the casual cruelty of poor leadership?

Below are two seasonal poems, Counting Omer to Shavuoth and Lag B'Omer

Lag B’omer

On the second Seder we start the count

‘til the Ten Commandments came down from the mount.

The thirty third day is Lag B’Omer,

to call it well known would be a misnomer.

On Lag B’Omer we play at archery

The reason isn’t clear to see

So let’s look into collective memory

to recollect our history.

The year 132 CE it’s told

the great Bar Kochba led a revolt

Against the mighty empire, Rome

The Jews just wanted to keep our home,

A place to follow the laws of Yah

and not bow down to Olympia.

They won for a while but eventually lost,

Akiva’s life was but one of the cost.

His students were killed by a plague it’s said

But maybe they fought against Rome instead.

Or maybe as hunters they all did pretend.

When studying Torah was really their end,

they went to the woods with their arrows and bows;

the truth of the matter no one really knows.

The plague allegedly ceased on this date

And that is a reason to celebrate.

Akiva’s great student Shimon ben Yochai

Fled the Romans who had condemned him to die.

For twelve years he lived with his son in a cave,

They ate from a carob tree, drank from a spring

and studied as deep as thought could bring

They left but he didn’t know how to behave:

He regarded those working the land with a stare

His gaze was so bright people died in the glare.

And so they went back to the cave for a year

And when they came out people needed no fear.

The Romans rescinded the fatal decree

And once again Shimon ben Yochai was free.

Rabbi ben Yochai, also called the Rashbi

From Rabbi Akiva had in secrecy

Learned the great wisdom which became the Zohar

And students of Kabbalah came from afar

the day that he died when the Rashbi revealed

All of the secrets that had been concealed –

Just so he could finish the sun stood still

and with a great glow the room was filled.

And so on Lag B’omer the bonfires we light,

and picnic and party late into the night. Yah!

 The Seven Attributes: Meditating when Counting the Omer

If you are learning Kabbalah you ought

to think of the omer as leading to thought.

There are seven attributes of the divine

but as sides of ourselves

They are yours and mine.

At one end is virtue,

the other is vice;

One way is real cool and the other’s not nice.

You got chesed – that’s love

Gevurah –is power

Tiferet is glory

and Netzach is triumph.

Y’got hod and yesod for beauty and romance

And for number seven Malchut is the king.

One – chesed

Two – gevurah

Three – Tiferet

Four – Netzach

Hod and yesod for beauty and mmmhmmmh

And number seven Malchut is the king.

But here is the thing.

While each attribute sounds so righteous and strong

Take it too far and it all can go wrong.

Chesed is love – but it can be lust;

Gevurah – respect – turns to fear without trust

Tiferet can stand for compassion and pride

indulgence can be its other side.

Nezach is winning cause you did it right

But organize too much and you’re too uptight.

With hod you may find your understanding of beauty

take it too far and you’ve got vanity.

And they say yesod’s about intimacy

can be loyalty or promiscuity.

And finally Malchut is majesty,

but leadership can turn to obstinacy.

Well each of the seven is given a week

but if yet higher consciousness is what you seek

you will start with one attribute and then combine

with each of the other ones all down the line.

The first week you think about chesed they tell

but then you consider the others as well.

So chesed with chesed makes love within love,

the next day – gevurah’s – the power in love.

the next day – tiferet – where love contains glory

then chesed with netzach – well you get the story.

The second week is ruled by the next attribute

that’s gevurah with chesed on down to malchut

Tiferet’s the ruler of omer week three

and it’s matched with the other ones serially.

Each day is two attributes, that is the way

You meditate through the forty-nine days.

I wrote this poem a number of years ago. I'm publishing it here by request.

In the Train Store

I have a mental illness that prozac can’t cure –

I keep thinking of those millions murdered.

I hear a train whistle, and think of the terrible packed trains traversing Europe, carrying             Jews to the death camps.

My shoe pinches, and I think of inmates glad for any foot covering.

My husband weeps at the death of a cat,

And I think of all the people to be mourned.

I have lost a child, and know what grief it –

That cavern of ache that can’t be assuaged.

I imagine mourning for each child killed

Since their mothers can’t – but no, why poison

A good life, a life with a family,

A half-Jewish family that knows not this pain –

Grandpa (the other one) takes us to the model train store;

My daughter says, “I like the cattle car.”

She doesn’t have the disease;

I wince and hide my reaction –

I too loved trains at ten years old.

Will she grow up to feel as I that bleak hopeless grief

For too many to be mourned?

When she learns that her people

Rich and vibrant with song and folklore,

Gentle humor, the victim’s defense,

Finished in flames? the ashes are cold –

I want her to be whole, not maimed

By knowledge of suffering. But I think she has caught my sadness, she already shows             symptoms –

A pang of unknown origin grips her at moments

Between her lightest steps as she goes

Skipping beyond disaster’s shadow

To prove annihilation’s lie.

Hidden Wounds

Hidden Wounds

With hidden wounds I go along

You’d never guess that deep inside

Although you’ll see me sing a song

The better part of me has died

At least I feel that way because

I know I’ll never be again

The happy person that I was

But now is now and then is then

I used to see life as a road

But now I have a different view

The part where I am here alone

The part of life I shared with you

Yet not alone, of this I’m glad

I’m held and hold by love so strong

Without it I would sure go mad

And here is where I still belong

And now I see life as an arc

A rising curve that comes around

We just have time to make a mark

Before the evening sun goes down

I've written a little piece that explains in some small way the observance of the next major Jewish holiday, Shavuoth. Originally a harvest festival celebrating the "first fruits," Shavuoth came to be understood as the commemoration of the moment when Moses came down from the mountain and the people received the Torah. This moment at Mount Sinai marks the beginning of the Jews as a people of the Word, that is, a people whose lives derive meaning from their ongoing struggle to understand and enact the will of the Divine. Just as every Jew who celebrates Passover is to observe it as though he or she had been personally liberated from slavery, so it has become customary to engage Shavuoth as though every person in the Jewish nation is standing at Sinai, now. (Arthur Waskow, Seasons of our Joy. Boston: Beacon 1982.)

Counting Omer to Shavuoth

For seven weeks of seven days

We’re bid to keep to keep the count

So that we can remember

Moses coming down the mount.

Moses fasted while he did his work

The people watched in awe

the lightning flashing at the top

while Yah proclaimed the law.

Although we had just left slavery

we still didn’t know what was going to be,

and when we saw we were really free

it was a time of great anxiety.

The Israelites waited by Har Sinai

For the holy word to come down from on high

so for forty-nine days we partially mourn –

Can’t get married and can’t be shorn,

in trepidation waiting but

On Lag B’omer you can get a haircut!

Shavuoth marks the first fruits of the land

And the day when in front of Sinai we stand

In ancient times it was the harvest of wheat

it’s got some traditions that make it neat –

On Leil Shavuoth you can stay up all night

and study Torah till the morning light.

For just one moment heaven opens wide

and that’s when a prayer can get inside.

The following day we read the Book of Ruth

a story of love between age and youth –

a mother with a daughter-in-law so loyal –

the top of the line of David royal.

Through famine and harvest the two made their way

They say that King David was born on this day,

And Shavuoth is also when he passed away.

So to commemorate David the King

On Shavuoth his psalms we sing.

And because it’s a celebration of learning

Many students their degrees are earning.

We decorate with roses and greens

to replicate ancient harvest scenes.

We sprinkle the floor with flowers and spice

to make the synagogue fragrant and nice.

You can cut up paper to make a design

and for your meals on dairy dine.

There are seven attributes of the divine

and seven times seven is forty nine

So we count the omer for forty-nine days

a time of meditation that leads to praise.

Then the moment that starts with liberation

Culminates in the revelation.

The Torah to all the Jewish people speaks

And we celebrate the Feast of Weeks.