Elul gets our souls ‘warmed up’ to start fresh for the New Year.
For Elul this year, I am pleased to share with you words from some of my favorite teachers from whom I have learned a great deal over the years. Some may be familiar and some may be new to you. I will bring you selections from the Sfat Emet, Henry David Thoreau, Rabbi Jonathan Slater and more plus my commentary on them. I welcome your thoughts.
Please share brief teachings from your favourites. If you have a special text, verse, poem, or prose that has influenced you during your life, please send it to me at rabbiplumb@mishkantefila.org .
Food for the Soul
Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere, you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world and the gray feather a thrush lost, and the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns.
by Adam Zagajewski.Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanaugh. Published in The New Yorker, September 24, 2001.
