Poem | Fruit of the Land
The fig tree’s fruit falls to the ground, Its purpled flesh still burning.
Poem | Augury
We buy the house next door to my parents, because dread is proportional to the years.
Poem | ALIYAH
Blessed are you, God our God, Sovereign of the World, who has given us the Torah of truth, planting within us life everlasting.
On Poetry | Nelly Sachs and the Poetry of Flight
Sachs dropped the masks that had let her speak through the murdered Jews of Europe and wrote from her own position in the world.
Poem | A Visitor in Herzliya
Many Jews arrive in Israel for the first time and experience a shock of recognition, as if the land and its history, both ancient and contemporary, were their own.
Poem | Ketubah
The ketubah, a Jewish marriage contract that dates back to Talmudic times, is an object of ritual beauty.
Poem | “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa”
Said to be on the back of a photo found in a German soldier’s album, these words have attached themselves to the image itself.
Poem | Portrait of the Poet’s Grandmother (Lighting Candles)
In many Jewish homes, lighting candles at dusk marks a shift to sacred time, the moment when the Sabbath starts—or a holiday, a yahrzeit.
Poem | Apple of Imperfection
First speech is the speech of love.
Poem | The Season When My Life Turned
I have been the first person awake in my house every morning of my life.
Poem: The State of Things
On the day after Yom Kippur, I ride my bike along the waterfront.
Pious men build their sukkah before sunset.
Will they invite me to be their...
Poem | Of All the Peoples by Nathan Alterman
When under the gallows our children cried
We did not hear the world’s wrath.
For of all the peoples you selected us
For us you loved and sanctified.
For...