Somewhere between the stirrups and the paper nightgown clinging nervously to my body,
My soul ascended mid-air like an artist on a trapeze.
Unsure where to grab hold.
On the one end children, birthday parties and ice cream.
And on the other, withered down eggshells.
Cast away from the last PassoverPassover is a major Jewish holiday that commemorates the Jewish people's liberation from slavery and Exodus from Egypt. Its Hebrew name is Pesakh. Its name derives from the tenth plague, in which God "passed over" the homes of the Jewish firstborn, slaying only the Egyptian firstborn. Passover is celebrated for a week, and many diaspora Jews celebrate for eight days. The holiday begins at home at a seder meal and ritual the first (and sometimes second) night. Jews tell the story of the Exodus using a text called the haggadah, and eat specific food (matzah, maror, haroset, etc). SederLit. Order. The festive meal conducted on Passover night, in a specific order with specific rituals to symbolize aspects of the Exodus from Egypt. It is conducted following the haggadah, a book for this purpose. Additionally, there an ancient tradition to have a seder on Rosh Hashanah, which has been practiced in particular by Sephardi communities. This seder involves the blessing and eating of simanim, or symbolic foods. The mystics of Sefat also created a seder for Tu B'shvat, the new year of the trees..
(Does the plague of the firstborn move in my body, still?)
The doctor talked so casually of my desert.
And so definitely of my future.
That all I’ve known since then is bondage.
The shackles of what other people tell me about my body.
And the prison populated by the lie that led me here; that I am a plague and no longer, life.
Ha Kadosh Barukh Hu,
Help me see myself as you do.
To walk faithfully in your Image.
Filled with movement and the spirit of all the living.
Lead me back to myself.
And to the ancient Promise you bequeathed our People.
Then, back to you.
So the soul who once dared on the trapeze.
Can at last, let her arms go,
And dare bravely to come back to life.
Come back to You.
