It was only
An hour ago
That I said to my husband,
“All of life’s goodness
Is coming at the end.”
My life is
Proving to be
A progression
In reverse,
An inverse
Of chronology
Of the plague
Of hoshekh:
Darkness.
It wasn’t until
I was nineteen
That I had my first
Happy day.
I am told
That the TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general.
Is our autobiography
And that our lives
Move in spirals,
And, Barukh HaShemLit. The Name, referring to the ineffable name of God; used as a substitute for any of the more sacred names of God when not speaking in prayer. Particularly used in conversation.,
I do not know how,
But here I am.
One of those
Who left,
Who happened upon
The Hebrews
In the wandering
Of their 40 years.
And, lo,
Light is
Illuminating me.
This is not a poem.
I don’t know
If it is anything.
I cannot claim
It is apart
From everything.
Da’at – all is relational,
All is connected,
The dark
And the light,
The groping
And the growth,
The despair
And the transcendence.
All can be rendered
Into the same
Through the mystery
Of the alchemy
In the yirah
Of the Divine.
“Life is a very narrow bridge.
The important thing
Is to not be afraid.”*
* Adapted from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov
