Isidor Kaufmann “The New Year”
Spiritual Sunday – Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah begins on Tuesday, giving me an excuse to share this stimulating poem by Rachel Barenblat, keeper of the wonderfully named Velveteen Rabbi blog. The Jewish New Year, as you probably know, celebrates the day of creation, and people take the opportunity to examine their lives over the past year and repent.
In her poem, Barenblat asks what we are to make of the fact that lists this year will look pretty much the same as last year. The view of the Creation “that gleams before us” may not have changed, she writes. But we have.
Return
By Rachel Barenblat
How to make it new:
each year the same missing
of the same marks,
the same petitions
and apologies.
We were impatient, unkind.
We let ego rule the day
and forgot to be thankful.
We allowed our fears
to distance us.
But every year
the ascent through Elul
does its magic,
shakes old bitterness
from our hands and hearts.
We sit awake, itemizing
ways we want to change.
We try not to mind
that this year’s list
looks just like last.
The conversation gets
easier as we limber up.
Soon we can stretch farther
than we ever imagined.
We breathe deeper.
By the time we reach the top
we’ve forgotten
how nervous we were
that repeating the climb
wasn’t worth the work.
Creation gleams before us.
The view from here matters
not because it’s different
from last year
but because we are
and the way to reach God
is one breath at a time,
one step, one word,
every second a chance
to reorient, repeat, return.
Previous posts on Rosh Hoshanah
Muriel Ruykeyser and Denise Levertov: Rosh Hashanah – A Stirring of Wonder
Marge Piercy: Rosh Hashanah – Weave Real Connections
Enid Shomer: How Rosh Hashanah Is Like Swimming
Amichai Yehuda: Theoretically, a Season for Everything
Emma Lazarus: High above Fire and Flood Ye Held the Scroll
Lucille Clifton: On 9-11 Firemen Ascended Jacob’s Ladder
