French & British soldiers wounded in the same WW I battle treated at a British Casualty Clearing Station. Photo: David McLellan
you are not chosen rather
your fate has chosen you now
will your soul be ruled by
your oppression or will
you stand by the souls of the
oppressed will you wield your past
like a weapon of mass destruction
or will you let it fly free
release your pain like
bandages unfurled to bind
up the wounded no you
are not chosen
that choice is
yours to
make
the love that burns deep in your heart
the love that consumes everything
all that you think you are and
might ever be
bequeath it to your children
breathe it exhale it
shout it in the streets
dream it in your sleep
sing it when you wake
bind it tightly to your limbs feel
it entering your bloodstream
nail it pound it into warped
splintered door jams
carve its name in hearts on trees
then leap back and watch
as branches shoot up
yearning toward
the heavens.
the lord said to the israelites you
have been dancing on the edge
of your dread far too long now
descend into the land of seir and don’t
be afraid remember the night you
struggled desperately against a
dark riverbank flying beads of water
shining in the moonlight like jewels
of tribute when morning
broke you embraced your
reflection and saw the face of
god
now head down into
the valley you will
see there is nothing
to fear
This one is better late than never: Check out 17 year old Chicago slam poet Tova Benjamin perform her poem “I’m Not an Envelope Opener” at Louder Than a Bomb (a Chicago youth slam poetry competition) this past March. Her piece, which powerfully explores her upbringing as an orthodox Jew in West Rogers Park, helped her successfully advance to the final round of competition. Tova was one of the top thirteen individual poets in the festival, out of a field of over 800 young writers.
If you’re interested in learning more about Tova and her work, click here to hear her and another LTAB finalist, Keith Warfield, interviewed on Chicago Public Radio.
the lord said to the israelites
when you go into the land
do not dispossess its inhabitants
for if you do you will see them at every turn
you will hear their distant voices
like insects buzzing on a humid summer night
you will feel their breath at your back
like the breeze that rises before a thunderstorm
whispering softly in your ear
everything you think you can possess
can always be washed away
when pinchas saw an israelite
man and a midianite woman together he was
was seized by a zealous spirit he took a
spear followed them into their chamber and
stabbed them both through the
belly so many years later when
the israelites’ friendship with the
midianites was scarcely a footnote in the
history books pinchas died and here’s
what they wrote in his obit as the grandson of the high priest he
was involved in the assassinations of many
moabites and midianites including cozbi
daughter of zur a prominent tribal
chieftain who had saved many
israelites from their enemies
years later pinchas reflected
a man who goes forth to take the life of another
whom he does not know
must believe only one thing
that by his act he will
change the course
of history.
(Numbers 25:6-18, with Financial Times article, “Unflinching Support of Greater Israel,” by Julian Ozanne, adapted)
he flinches and bows as
the stick lands on his
neck again and again
out of the corner of his
good eye he sees the angel of the
lord gesturing sadly toward the
setting sun if god had endowed
him with the gift of speech he’d
say i thought maybe one day
day i’d carry the messiah
himself then his legs buckle
beneath him and he collapses
and dies on the
side of the
road
when miriam died and the well
ran dry and israel’s arid soul
surged forth like sand in a
desert storm
moses tore open his robe
picked up his staff
and struck the rock over and
over and over there he remains
to this very day
sometimes when he dreams he
sees the face of god smiling in the rock
as it shatters into millions of
tiny shards but for now he’s still
flailing away at the hard stone
surface blinking away dry tears while the
the people howl at him in white hot
rage why did you make us leave egypt
to bring us to this wretched place
why there isn’t even
any water for us
to drink
I recently came across the trailer for “The Possession,” (above) about a little girl who gets possessed by a dybbuk after opening a strange, Hebrew-engraved box she finds at a garage sale. The movie looks creepy enough – and I’ll admit I’m intrigued by the presence of Matisyahu, who seems to play some kind of young hasidic exorcist. Hard to tell from the trailer if it’s going to be any good or if it will enter the ever-growing legions of campy, “so bad they’re good” horror films. (The scene where the little girl ferociously leaps on top of Matisyahu indicates it may well be the latter…)
Watching this trailer brought to mind another recent dybbuk-themed horror movie: the truly awful “The Unborn,” which featured Gary Oldman, of all people, as an exorcist rabbi. (Check out the clip below and tell me that Oldman doesn’t seem totally embarrassed that he ever agreed to star in this stinker.)
“The Dybbuk” was shot in Poland, mostly in a Warsaw studio but also on locations in the countryside…The film records the life and culture of Polish Jewry in the years prior to the Nazi invasion, which took place two years after the movie was made…With its careful and rich presentation of religious ceremonies and social protocol, it offers what was literally the last look at a civilization which was nearly made extinct shortly after the production concluded…
(The) film has one truly stunning sequence which will hypnotize anyone who comes to it: during Leah’s wedding, a man in death’s make-up abruptly appears and engages her in a sensual dance. It is a brief but jolting moment in which the film’s theatrical roots grow strong: the sight of the nubile young bride swaying happily in the death-man’s grasp achieves a greater chill than any multi-million-dollar CGI effect. For that moment alone, “The Dybbuk” needs to be experienced.
You can check out the classic “dance of death” scene second from the bottom.
For my money, the best example of contemporary dybbuk-themed cinema is the fabulously ominous prologue to the Coen Brothers recent “A Serious Man” (featuring the great Fyfush Finkel). Click on the clip at the bottom and enjoy!
now korach ben levi and his
followers challenged moses
and aaron saying
you have gone too far the end may
justify the means but only as long
as there is something that justifies the
end so what kind of a deal did you
cut with the man inside the tent
moses said no you have
gone too far son of levi he
told the people to stand back whereupon
the earth opened up to swallow korach and
there he remains hiding underground
like a seed preparing to blossom forth
in the spring or perhaps
a land mine buried
but not yet
detonated
Yedid Nefesh 