A new poem from Lisa Tremback.

We're in this life, in this deal/we're meant to make it through.

A timely piece of poetry about our world today.

Lord! We have battled our dybbuks!

A new poem from Lisa Tremback.

A new poem from Lisa Tremback

I wrote this piece right after Yom Kippur. I don't ever have visions, this was a first.

A poetic tribute to Yom Kippur.

A new poem.

In this workshop, we will discuss our feelings about teshuvah, look at excerpts from our holy books, read "teshuvah poems" and then write our own poetry in a safe environment.

As we learn in the last part of the Talmud tractate Moed Katan, may the time come when ‘death is swallowed up forever.’

"Through closed eyes/in a meditative/state/I hear the bird."

Henry Rasof and Ed Kass will lead a Teshuvah Poetry Workshop this Thursday, August 20th at Congregation Nevei Kodesh.

Here is another Nishmat poem, suitable for Shabbat morning. It can go after the Nishmat prayer. Now, take a deep breath and remember the connection between breath, life, and soul (soul = neshama--same root as nishmat, you probably know).

On Tishah b'Av we lament the destruction of the two Temples, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, other Jewish national tragedies, and, if we wish, our own sorrows and tragedies. On this day we recite elegies and dirges called kinot, as we and our ancestors have done for thousands of years, in our own ritual way of expressing the deep grief common to all people in all cultures.

Tishah b'Av--the 9th of Av--the day Jews remember calamities like the destruction of the Temples, is coming up soon, and for me there is no better way to learn about and get involved with this occasion is to read the special poetry composed for this day (and for other Jewish days of mourning), and better yet to write our own! In this presentation you will first learn a little about Tishah b'Av and about the poetry, and then be encouraged to write your own such poetry and perhaps recite it in your congregation, havurah, religious class, or home.

Here is an ahavah poem thanking God for giving us the capacity to love. It fits with the liturgy and takes the form of a ghazal, a genre of poetry popular in India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. Ghazals are love poems to God that, like the Song of Songs, express this emotion in the language of human love.

Mi kamokha--who is like You?--is what we ask when we feel overwhelmed by the joys and wonders of life. This mi kamokha poem responds to this feeling in its own little way.

Dusk. Night. The transition can be magical. Sometimes there is a lovely stillness...

Evening signals a transition from day to night, bringing with it anticipation, excitement, and sometimes (or often, or even always) fear. This poem, however, celebrates light, in the form of celestial lights and inner lights. The reader is swept into the swirl of the cosmos in order to gain perspective on her or his life here on earth.