Tikkun Leil Shavuot

Indiziert: 2026-05-22

[00:14:46]Okay friends, good evening. We are going to get started. Uh everyone, it's wonderful to see you. Uh we are really privileged this evening to welcome Rael Corazim into our community. We've got a fan base here. All right. Uh so I'm going to give you a couple lines of her official bio and then I'm going to tell you what we really think about you.

[00:15:09]Okay. So, Rael is a freelance uh Jewish education consultant and curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education, engaging audiences worldwide through innovative presentations built around the stories, poems, and songs of Israel's best writers. Her thought-provoking talks open a window onto Israeli society, inviting listeners to engage with the country and its history in new ways. um really uh for years, Rael, you've been a teacher of ours and you can find I I I was astounded to discover the the website today when I was pulling your bio.

[00:15:48]Thousands of lectures that you've given are online to watch. Um and I don't want to take up a whole lot of time, but I'll just speak for my colleague over there, Rabbi Cosgrove. One of my great accomplishments in life is being a senior rabbitic fellow at the Hartman Institute and to be exposed to you Rael for three and a half years of studying and I know your your other student Rabbi Cosg Gro is is here as well. Um there are few teachers you will experience who can bring literature, poetry alive the way Rael does and to connect it to a land that is so critical in our lives and so important and so holy. Uh it's truly been one of the gifts of my rabinet to be able to learn from you for I mean going on 20 years now. So I want to welcome you. I want to thank you for joining us. You've got another full-time gig tonight over at the west side. So, this is like a recommend one.

[00:16:46]>> Yeah. I can't believe you're teaching at 3:00 a.m. This is her out of town warm-up. And uh thank you for being here, Rael. It's a privilege. Okay. Yep.

[00:16:57]>> Shalom. And >> you're ready. We'll hand out the texts.

[00:17:00]Okay.

[00:17:01]>> You can hand them out as we go and I'll do a little bit of an introduction myself. So indeed I have been doing this talking and teaching about Israel through its poetry through its literature and I have done that addressing many many different issues and what I need or oftentimes say at the opening of sessions when I have some people whom I know and know me and others whom I do not in case there are among you people who back in the day if we still remember high school and college and whatever. Totally hated it when the teacher went like, "What did the poet mean when?" Is there anybody like that who really really had goosebumps when that happened and didn't like it? Because I need to make a solemn commitment to you. It ain't going to be like that. All right? And in case I need to be literature teachery for a moment, I'll warn you ahead of time and hold your hand if you need me through that moment. A sessions that I teach and share with people are constructed and are created on different initiatives and sometimes it is planned and sometimes it drops on you like a wall of bricks.

[00:18:30]And that was the case on October 7th, 2023 when I happened to be in Budapest and not in Israel. I live in Jaffa, the southern part of Tel Aviv by choice, wanting to live in a mixed demographical neighborhood of Tel Aviv where we can really live together as neighbors, Muslims and Christians and Jews.

[00:18:56]But I was not in Jaffa on that day. I was in Budapest and shocked and overwhelmed and not knowing not being able to comprehend what you remember.

[00:19:08]Your memory still holds that.

[00:19:11]But when and and we were stranded there.

[00:19:14]There were no flights, no flights to go back home. Luckily, we have a place of our own in Budapest, so that was not an issue. But totally sleepless nights glued to the screen. But as that fog started to lift a little bit, I realized that what I have planned for my Zoom classes since the beginning of COVID, I have a class studying Israeli poetry with me every Wednesday for now six years already. And I have one in English and one in Hebrew. So you are more than welcome. If you all you remember from this session is my last name. So you can do corim.com find my website and register and that's it. So I realized that whatever I had planned for the class after the high holidays of 2023 I will not be able to teach.

[00:20:13]And then another thing happened.

[00:20:16]I was listening to a sermon delivered in the city, not in this sh but not that far away at central by my friend Rabbi Angela Bdal from Budapestt the first Shabbat after October 2023.

[00:20:35]And you know, it's a reform shaw and there's beautiful things that I can and do say about reformed congregations, but knowledge of Hebrew is not one of the things I say about them because I try to speak truth.

[00:20:50]And yet my friend Angela, who must know that well better than I do, went on the Beimma on that evening and started her words in Hebrew.

[00:21:02]And she had said a milim.

[00:21:08]And she was choking at central and I was weeping in Budapest at 3:00 a.m. in the morning.

[00:21:15]And then when I heard her, I found myself arguing with her in my mind and heart and saying, "Angela, you have no words. I get that. I for sure have no words.

[00:21:29]But they are poets. There are people who do and I will start look looking for them. And it was after that first Shabbat that I started combing the net for poetry that was being created those very days trying hoping against hope that I will manage to maintain a choice of poetically viable poems and not just sharing the horrors. It's a challenge.

[00:22:00]And then I started creating the classes.

[00:22:03]By the way, the outcome of that search and collection of poems resulted in a bilingual anthology of poetry created in the wake of October 7th called Shiva, which in Hebrew means the seven days of morning, but also it was October 7th.

[00:22:21]So, hash October, the 7th of October. So I was getting ready to teach that but the teacher in me how many of you are involved in teaching and educating and making sermons and such you are okay so you I'll speak to you you know that you have somehow to bridge the gap from the poet weeping in kibbut in kar aza and the listener on the upper east side in New York or elsewhere.

[00:22:57]And I was grappling what would be a good bridge? What will connect the pain of now with a more a larger general Jewish poetic language of mourning, of expressing pain after a major disaster.

[00:23:20]And I started thinking about the title.

[00:23:25]First came into mind that Israeli very slogany kind of thing. They said it before you. You know, somebody already said it, but it wasn't nice enough. So I created from the ashes we arise poetic responses to past catastrophes.

[00:23:45]And this was my bridging class. It's recorded. It's online. you can find it.

[00:23:51]And I started looking and this is this was the choice of the powers that be at your synagogue when I sent them a list of possible sessions. And I think it's a good choice for tonight because it help us place ourself at the point where we we are dealing with the immediate.

[00:24:14]But we know that the tools to deal have been laid out and created for us tenth of years ago, hundreds of year years ago, thousands of years ago. We are just adding layers of Jewish expression and reaction to reality.

[00:24:34]So I could of course start with aa and lamentation but I have a limited hour so I'm limiting my choices. the recorded session is longer and I thought that a good point to start would be with to readers of Hebrew poetry and maybe those in translation was a poem created the year 1903 which is 123 years ago today at a town called Kishv in the days after Passover when the Jewish world was totally in shock and bewilderedness because they thought that with the advent of the 20th century we were done with poggrams. Yeah. So much they knew, right?

[00:25:30]And here is the amazingly horrible disaster that had befallen them. The kish of pogram.

[00:25:40]Why have I chosen it? Not only because at the time it happened it was seen as the largest the world holocaust did not yet exist or was on their screen but for another reason because I'm speaking here at central and you are descendants of immigrants from Eastern Europe. So I'd like to ask how many of you in your family lore can retract your family steps to arrival in the states in the first or second decade of the 20th century. Please look around you. That's the result of the kishan and pug.

[00:26:25]The Kishv program started bringing over your families here because of the shock, because of the disaster.

[00:26:35]Not in Kishv, in Odessa, on the shores of the Black Sea nowadays, a part of the world that Ukraine and Russia are fighting over now for such a long time and so many losses.

[00:26:51]At that time, the center of Hebrew learning, the center of Hebrew creativity was neither in New York nor in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv did not exist in 1903. It was created six years later, but New York did.

[00:27:09]The center of Hebrew learning was in Odessa, or as my Russian speaking friends will say, Adessa.

[00:27:17]Everybody was there. Balik and Chernikovski and the they were all there but for a few who were in Warso but the majority was there and Balik a young upcoming new name anybody who needs for me to introduce Bik don't be ashamed I will if I have to I don't okay that's good I should >> okay couple of words we would consider him always there are somebody before, but the father of modern Hebrew poetry, the person who comes from aetal with the yeshiva education and everything, but becomes the the everybody says that Ben Yehuda is the person who revived the language. Balik created more new Hebrew words and grammatical structures than Ben Yehuda ever did and left us with an unimaginably imaginable body of poetry. Some of the poems very very long, way too long for our taste, but not the one I chose for you.

[00:28:29]And created some of the building blocks of modern Israeli poetry. He later in life would make aliyah come to the land of Israel. He has a beautiful home which is now a cultural center in Tel Aviv.

[00:28:43]There are stories around that. But that's when I teach you my baliki class or you go online and download my balik lectures.

[00:28:51]Balik had two reactions to the kish program.

[00:28:57]We are going to read the first. I'll tell you about the second but we want that first immediate initial response again they don't have internet they don't have computers Odessa is a few hours train ride from Keshv but the news travel and it's after Pesak and my minhag my custom is always to read the Hebrew original first even though not everybody understands and then go to the translation alashsh On the slaughter or upon the slaughter.

[00:29:43]and nearly be met.

[00:29:48]for the Fore!

[00:30:28]Foreign! Foreign!

[00:30:37]for the home.

[00:31:02]Is the months that comes after Pes.

[00:31:05]Okay. is Nissan and is 1903 on the slaughter translated by there are many many translations of this poem so it's important to know that this is a relatively new one sky or heavens have mercy on me and if there be in you a god and to that god a path and I have not found it You pray for me. I My heart is dead and there is no prayer left in my mouth and no strength and no hope any longer.

[00:31:46]How long and until when? Just how much longer?

[00:31:52]Hangman, here's a neck. Come kill, crop to me like a dog. You have the axe arm and all the earth is to me a block and we we we are the few in number. My blood's fair game hack skull. Let the murder blood leap the blood of suckling babes and sage in on their shirt and and will not out for good. Not for good. And if there is justice, let's see it now.

[00:32:34]But if after my cleansing under the sky justice comes, let it share be cast out of all times. And with the evil of all days the sky rot. You too go faint. In this viciousness here and in this blood live and give suck.

[00:32:58]And crushed be he who cries vengeance.

[00:33:03]Such a vengeance. The vengeance for a small child's blood.

[00:33:08]Satan himself never dreamed.

[00:33:12]And blood would fill the space. Blood will fill the dark abyss and eat away its darkness and rot all the dark foundations of the earth.

[00:33:28]We are witnessing something that I may call a foundational text. I taught a course in Hebrew recently in which I had to choose a certain number of texts that I thought Jewish educators its master's degree in Jewish education ought to know and this was one I included why and I'm not yet telling you about second reaction because there is something classical in it and that is placing it within the Audition of lamentation.

[00:34:10]Something befalls you, you first address yourself to God.

[00:34:19]How could you allow such a thing to happen to Jerusalem? You know, and the same here.

[00:34:27]But here it comes with anger and doubt.

[00:34:33]If there is a god and I did not find my way to him, we always say that atheist, you know, they have gods as well because they need somebody to be angry at or not to believe in. So this is the case. He says, I cannot find my way to God. And yet he continues talking to God.

[00:34:56]When your world falls apart, your first address is how could this happen? How did you let this to happen?

[00:35:08]So by virtue of that we can find alashita upon the slaughter on the slaughter among the series of texts from the middle ages and from the horrible pograms on the rine in Germany during the crusades and many many more such poem. A terrible disaster befalls on you and first of all you seek justice from God.

[00:35:35]Even though you say I do not find my way.

[00:35:40]Immediately after that, oddly enough, and that is rare in our tradition, you address yourself to the perpetrator.

[00:35:53]Balik is taking upon himself a new responsibility.

[00:35:57]He wants to talk to the hangman.

[00:36:01]So you're so strong. Go ahead, kill me and be forever sold with that blood of babes of the sage, etc. Holding the perpetrator responsible.

[00:36:15]I would say that's a relatively 20th century balic novelty.

[00:36:21]Speaking out, not shying away. So God first, the perpetrator next. Then comes I think again something very modern or at the same time classical and ancient.

[00:36:36]Look at this line. And if there is just this let's see it now. I hear this line in conversation with all those people of deep faith. I don't want to take them now. the Orthodox whatever it doesn't matter who say we don't understand the big plan God knows better we have to wait and see what was his intention and maybe we'll never know doesn't have that patience he claims that if there is justice it should appear now because if justice will come after I am no more. Thank you very much. Not very helpful.

[00:37:27]I need to see it now.

[00:37:31]And then comes the fourth stanza which I will share with you my reading of but will also share my concern. What happened to a quote from this stanza?

[00:37:45]Look at the lines. I'm reading the Hebrew again because they are so strong in Hebrew.

[00:37:56]And cursed be he who cries a vengeance.

[00:38:06]Such a vengeance, the vengeance for a small child's blood Satan himself never dreamt.

[00:38:15]Is Balik calling for vengeance or not?

[00:38:20]How do you read this?

[00:38:23]How do you read this? Is Bik in these lines in this verse calling for vengeance or not? No. Cursed be he who calls for vengeance.

[00:38:39]Unfortunately, endless times makes me furious every single time. Politicians pretending to quote Balik.

[00:38:51]They skip the line, the first line of this verse, cursed be. And they go to the second line, such a vengeance Satan has not in order to preach for vengeance.

[00:39:05]Balik words are distorted in the mouth of Israeli speaking people, politician often times and others ill quoting, misquing.

[00:39:22]And it pains me so much to see such a classical address of dealing with fresh pain.

[00:39:30]Godfirst perpetrator, the need for justice. Hold it. Do not seek vengeance.

[00:39:37]It will not cure anything.

[00:39:42]And that line has been taken out care should be. And they are quoting that the other lines.

[00:39:51]And then politicians will say that their words were taken out of context.

[00:39:57]No, they have taken bialik out of context. It it happens practically every week in Israel nowadays. And so much is justified. A word about what happened in the second poem in the city of slaughter about 20 times longer than this one.

[00:40:18]Because what happened is that the community, the Jewish community, the scholarly Zionist Hebrew community in Adessa had charged Bialik to go to Kishv, interview witnesses. They even gave him an assistant with a camera to take notes and then to publish a report of what had happened in Kishv.

[00:40:44]Bali goes makes the interviews and never published the report. I am told the the notebooks that he had filled exist in Bialik that cultural center that I have mentioned in Tel Aviv. And I am told that research is being done now instead of writing the report wrote another poem in the city of slaughter.

[00:41:09]And you can see when you read the poem, I will not teach it to you now. We don't have the time. You will see that you will see the camera because it goes like a tilting Hollywood camera from one scene to the other. The courtyard, the yard, the attic, the sellers, those of you who know the poem are nodding. It really is like for the first time you can see in in Hebrew poetry a movie.

[00:41:41]But the big shift is not that. The big shift is that God will have disappeared from the city of slaughter.

[00:41:51]And Balik turns for justice and blaming where?

[00:41:59]Who is the addressee in the city of slaughter? Anybody remembers?

[00:42:05]We are Jewish leadership. Jewish men who hid and let their wives be raped, hoping that they will not be found and then rushing to the rabbi to ask if she was permitted to them afterwards.

[00:42:23]Balik is in rage for the conduct of Jewish leadership in Kishv during the prim. So can you see the shift which is very contemporary? First you yell to God and then immediately afterwards you start looking in the mirror and you start looking for responsible leadership to take. By the way, if you study the history of Jews getting organized with arms, you will see that the first such organization among in Zarist Russia in Gome is created immediately after the Kishna program and two years later in Israel Hashimir. So the Kishna program is a watershed poem. There is stuff until this poem and then there is stuff afterwards. So this is the first reaction. Let me take you to another one and this is one of my favorites for many other reasons.

[00:43:28]I'll ask again and I will not be surprised to see more hands than before.

[00:43:33]Who needs me to introduce Chernikovski?

[00:43:37]Aha. Well less famous than Balik. It's okay. Well, less famous. Although in any Israeli city, there is always a Balik street and nearby a Chonikovski street.

[00:43:51]Always always in Tel Aviv, in Ramadan, in Berva, in Kyifa, all over. They always go together and they are buried one next to the other in Tel Aviv.

[00:44:02]A but Chenhovski has a very different biography. He was not raised in Yeshiva.

[00:44:08]He was raised in a public school. He he had Russian and Greek and general culture and he can write about a statue of Apollo. He went to study medicine in H Highleberg.

[00:44:24]He became a pediatrician. He married a non-Jewish woman. Made aliyah with her.

[00:44:31]When the Israeli um coins and money notes were made, there is one with Chikovki that the ultraorththodox will not use. It's 50 shekels. Please use it because of the goish wife.

[00:44:48]Any yeah, Israel with it sticks. But anyway, I love Chanikoski for this ability to look at the more general panorama of culture. Not that one can not love balik but still but co land is different from another point of view.

[00:45:14]It was written in 1938 so it's prior to the holocaust.

[00:45:19]Chihikoski is in Israel. Balik just died in 1933.

[00:45:25]Chihikoski will live into the 40s but not much longer.

[00:45:30]And there is what we call the great Arab riot, but they are within the British mandate riots and shooting and events between Jews and Arabs and Palestinians mainly over roads, mainly over settlements and so on. The word settlement at that time does not have the political meaning that it has today.

[00:45:51]It just states a place where people settle. Okay, that's all. And because of that they are victims and people get killed.

[00:46:03]And in one such event where the previous day or night a relatively large number of young people were killed murder by Arab rioteers.

[00:46:17]There is a major burial in Tel Aviv and Chanhikovski writes a poem eulogizing the dead.

[00:46:27]Now in Israeli culture when we u eulogize people fallen in battle normally our tone is admiring calling for their heroism justifying the justifiable sacrifice etc. Johnovski is not buying.

[00:46:54]As early as 1938, he puts a mirror to our face and has another message. A little bit of the and then the English Fore name.

[00:47:44]for I'll stop here and go to the English.

[00:48:03]See, O land.

[00:48:06]See, O land. How wasteful we have been in your lap. Place of blessing. Hiding womb. We have hidden a seed. No more glassy pearls of buckwheat, seeds of heavy wheat, grain of barley draped by innocent anxious oat. See, oh land, how wasteful we have been. Flowery flowers we buried in your fresh and glorious kissed by the sun's first kiss.

[00:48:39]hidden beauty with graceful stern their incense cup ready to be filled before they knew noon time at the hate of their incense before they drank the morning dew sprouting in dreams of light here take the best of our sons pure dreaming youth spotless hearts clean of hand yet unspoiled the fabric of Their day is still being woven wrap the fabric of hope for the future day. We have none better than these. Have you seen any?

[00:49:20]And where all these you shall cover and plant will grow in its time. A hundredsfold of splendor and might sacred to the people from its place in the ground.

[00:49:34]Blessed is their sacrifice in the secret folds of death. Our lives ransom with glory. See, oh land, how wasteful we have been.

[00:49:46]To the best of my knowledge, it could always be a mess.

[00:49:51]Nobody dared speak about the wastefulness of the death resulting in our endless battles.

[00:50:04]We speak of heroism. We speak of sacrifice. We speak of glory. We speak of necessity.

[00:50:12]Could it be maybe because he was a pediatrician?

[00:50:16]This is my reading always.

[00:50:20]He couldn't buy the mainstream language and he needed to create a voice of his own. Even within the joint community, pain and sorrow and mourning, if you look carefully, there are people who say, "Don't give me that language of inavoidable and heroism all the time and necessity.

[00:50:53]Look, look at the price. Look at the wastefulness.

[00:50:58]And maybe hidden there is already a suggestion of is there possibly another way? Could this be avoided?

[00:51:08]1938 like 90 years ago, way before the state and there is this poetic voice that says he doesn't even say forgive me. He said I just I need to say this differently.

[00:51:27]I cannot join the choir.

[00:51:31]I need you to hear my voice.

[00:51:34]And my voice says it's a waste.

[00:51:38]Okay. So, I don't know how how much of it you can feel, but this is not a very popular poem in Israel, unlike your alterman silver platter. I always like to teach these two one next to the other to show the mainstream voice and the cherikovski who will say hold it rea needs another metaphor of planting a seed of wastefulness.

[00:52:12]I will stop for a sec here just to see if there are any comments and I'm looking at my watch constantly.

[00:52:21]And I want to bring something to you that I don't think in my many times in this synagogue I have ever touched because when we think about this poetry of mourning, this poetry of pain within the state of Israel etc. Most of the voices we are listening to are Ashkinazim.

[00:52:42]And we know about disasters that have befallen Ashkenazi community from the Kishv program to World War I to the Holocaust in World War II and the programs that followed etc. Can you name an event that destroyed as far Jewish community?

[00:53:04]We need to we need to in Iraq they were >> Nasser was a president who led a war against us. I'm talking about a poggram against a Jewish community in a land that is neither Poland nor Russia nor Germany. I'm talking about Iraq and the Farhood in the early 40s.

[00:53:35]And the voice of the Farhood in Hebrew poetry is brought to us by one of two twins, both of them poets, Balffor and Herzel Kakak. I need to spend a minute of my precious time on the name of the gentleman, the poet.

[00:53:55]I can easily transmit to you the meaning of the last name Hakak.

[00:54:02]It's a traditional very conservative Iraqi Jewish name. The Iraqi Jewish community can trace its sources to Babylon because not everybody came back from Babylon when it was allowed. You know, even those who wept on the river, some stayed.

[00:54:25]But the name Kak like the one who carves in stone or the one who gives the law, it's the same because laws were carved in stone. And we still use the expression about laws.

[00:54:37]Oh, this is not carved in stone or this is carved in stone. So, Kakak is like a serious dignified Iraqi Jewish name.

[00:54:45]Could you say the same about the first name Balfur?

[00:54:50]that it's a traditional dignified Jewish Iraqi name. I don't think so. So if I were to told you that a gentleman back in Iraq in 1948 after the fhood has the absolutely miraculous event come into his life. He has twins healthy boys and he calls one of them Balffor and the other Herzel.

[00:55:19]Yeah. What does it tell you about the gentleman the father? I mean very Zionist a very Zionist family and indeed they make aliyah and there's a huge body of poetry. I prefer Balfur's verses better than Herzels, but both are beautiful and I'm teaching a lot of them and and we will read a little bit of Masa Beav. The event happened in 41. I put it in parentheses next to the title in Hebrew. The poem is from 87.

[00:55:53]So this gentleman who is born in 48 in Iraq takes his time until in Israel, Israel that is so under, you know, the the cloud of the Holocaust, the cloud of the wars in Israel says we too have a story from Mizrai communities. Would you listen to our kishv to our programs and look at the title as if he wants to endear himself to the Israeli population. He doesn't say Iraq because it's an enemy land but he says Babylon which is something that we can embrace you know like Babylonian Talmud we connect to Babylon talk about people seeking bridging I think that Balfur Khak is doing that in this poem so just a little bit because the tone this poem deserves a class of its own but I want you to have a taste Because of the style, the poet here assumes a voice. I'll read you a little bit of the and then the English.

[00:57:22]who English carry this load. He says, "Carry this load, the Babylonian, the Babylon load.

[00:57:54]Let this load be like a flow. A load of blood on rivers. An essay about the blood on the rivers. Grandfather is ringing his hands, his breathing is hard. On Shàuot, he is burning. on Shàuot when our holy Torah was given in the year 1941 it happened. So ladies and gentlemen we are marking a yite to the far and this is one of the reasons I included this poem. But also can you hear the tone samasa carry this load? Is he the relatively younger poet hearing a voice from his father, from his grandfather?

[00:58:48]Grandson, it's time to start talking about this. You have kept us silent long enough. Our voice needs to be known and heard.

[00:59:01]And it happened on Shàuot.

[00:59:04]And my grandfather remembers on Saturday night, two days before Shot, bad almonds came to him. He lit the Havdala candles, a cotton wick in a goblet of oil. The candle stood by the wall. It gave out a flame for light. It made a black stain on the wall, a huge cloud in its firm in the firmament. My grandfather then told his sons who were about to be killed, "He who distinguishes between light and dark, he will forgive our sins."

[00:59:43]Remember how we mentioned earlier that you place the modern poetry within the largest context of Jewish literature.

[00:59:52]So as the story echoes, remember he did not witness the falsehood. He was born a couple of years later.

[01:00:00]But the story is told in the family and now he's putting the pieces together. It was on Shu.

[01:00:10]It was Shabbat. There was you. You can hear this older man being 40 something at the time he writes this trying to remember all those bits and pieces. For sure the grandfather is no more and he is trying to bring the voice to life. Let's do one more stanza. On the seventh day of Seven Israel, the holidays was shackled with feathers.

[01:00:40]In the morning waking up, my grandfather saw two birds dead on the roof of the house. We used to sleep on the roof, he says. And the whole night I imagined hearing in my dream birds shrieking. The whole night all the lighting candles were extinguished in his sleep. Fear silenced by shrieking. In the morning my grandfather saw the palm tree in his yard uprooted as if it fell by a storm.

[01:01:12]It trunk dying. The candle of miralines the miracle maker was extinguished as well. Write my son grandfather says. So now he reveals himself. This is an order I was given. I hear the voice of my grandfather. Write this poem. Write that Rabi Mayer was extinguished too. That the wine splashed burning in the goblet veins. The wine covered the whole firmament with darkness. Our day darkened, darkened untimely. The day seemed dark as the eyes of the dead.

[01:01:55]Okay.

[01:01:57]So this poem comes to us as an invitation, teachers, rabbis, individual people.

[01:02:06]When we share our stories, what will it take for us to open our minds to the fact that they are additional stories on top of those that we were raised with? It's harder here in America. I know in Israel there is a bigger presence of the misra voice and nowadays it exists. But when in 87 Belful Kakak says, "It's time for my grandfather to be heard," it's a big novelty in Israel. And for him to embrace a biblical tone and to put it within the context of holiday and Shabbat, it makes sense because these are the connecting points. You maybe not know anything about the Farhood. You probably don't speak Arabic like we do.

[01:03:00]Your food is slightly different. But Shabot, we understand, right? And Havdala, we understand. And ill Omens maybe too. Can you see Balfforak weaving these connecting dots sharing each other each other's pain? I'd like to conclude with a poem by Natan Alterman called of all the peoples.

[01:03:29]I'm going to ask again who needs me to introduce alterman.

[01:03:35]Okay, thank you. Port born in the year 1910 in Warso passed away in Tel Aviv in 1970 barely 60 years of age. To me, one of the most important Israeli poets of Hebrew who left behind a major body of poetry that can be divided into two parts. one, your quote unquote usual poetry, nature, love, individual, missing people, pain, happiness, and then there is the other body because back in the day, like today, one cannot make a living of poetry. And Alterman had a day job. And he, excuse the intended pun, his day job was that he was the night editor of a daily paper, a major daily paper. And beyond his salary for his journalistic work, he got also, do you still remember when you read newspapers of paper and not digitally?

[01:04:37]Try to remember. It's not that long ago.

[01:04:39]And they come in columns. And at the time the VA had seven columns. Later it had more. And they gave alterman the seventh column on the second page of every Friday paper. Now Friday obviously in Israel there are no papers published on Shabbat. So Friday is the weekend paper is when you do literature when you do extra. And Alterman has the seventh column and in it he reacts to comp contemporary events and he had done throughout 40 years 1,200 of those which is an amazing way to learn modern Jewish history of the two decades preceding the state of Israel namely World War I, World War II, Holocaust, Klandistan, immigration, the war independence and the two earlier decades of the state of Israel coming of age IDF aliyah msimaldi Ashkenazi etc beyond his ability to to offer this lens into Israeli life that is unique just think about the fact that when you read a poem and you want to tell your students or whatever what period period it is off. So you will say well the book was published in 1976 right this is as close as you can get but Alterman's poems were published in the paper you have an exact date you can leaf through the previous days of the paper and see exactly what he is reacting to when the poems were collected h in what is known the volumes of the seventh column.

[01:06:37]The first one in the seventh column is of all the peoples mikolam a bilingual edition annotated of 67 out of the 1200 poems is going to be published hopefully by the high holidays. I am here for that. I'm going to speak to that during the tikun at the JCC tonight. I will speak at two additional schuls. I will willingly come back and teach all of you. And Rabbi Cox will say a word about teaching Jewish literature through two alt poems.

[01:07:18]>> They all had to hear the sermon on the holidays.

[01:07:21]It was we had autis.

[01:07:27]>> Okay. So I figured because I was asked to come here for to start a conversation about Mikol Hamim that we will conclude with that one today. The date is November 1942.

[01:07:41]It's a Friday and in the previous weeks or days the knowledge about the systematic killing of so far a million and a half Jewish people in Eastern Europe reaching first Washington because a letter was sent to the JDC representative in London and here so Roosevelt Churchill and then it seeps out and they hear about it in Tel Aviv. Now, beyond what Churchill and Roosevelt will or will not do about this for the people in Tel Aviv, this is an explanation why the letters stopped coming.

[01:08:26]This is the early seeping in of the understanding that the world that they have left behind is no more. And Alterman is getting the news and he is walking in the footsteps of the people before him. The one who created lamentation and the one who lamented the Kish of Pram and he writes Mikolam. Do I need to tell you that the expression from kamim comes from payer prayer from and so on a little bit of the written then the English of all the peoples or all the nations.

[01:09:44]When our children wept in the shadow of the gallows, the wrath of the world was not heard. For you chose us from among all the peoples. You loved us. You wanted us. For you chose us from among all the peoples. Not the Norwegians, the checks or Brits. As our children march to the gallows, Jewish kids, smart kids who know their blood is not as prized as others just calling out to their mothers. Do not look.

[01:10:14]As the X devours. Can you hear Ballik with the X? as the ex devoured by day and by night. Yet the holy Christian father in the city of Rome didn't leave the cathedral with icons of the redeemer to stand even one day at a pogram to stand for one day one single day where for years like a lamb a small child has stood unnamed a Jew. There's great concern for paintings and sculptures.

[01:10:46]Lest any art treasures be bombed, but the art treasures of infant heads will be smashed against walls on the roads.

[01:10:56]Their eyes don't look mother. How they lined us up long rows. Veteran soldiers whose names are well known. We are short only but in hate. Their eyes say a few more things. God of our fathers, we know that you chose us from amongst all the children. You loved us. You wanted us.

[01:11:20]That you selected us from all the children to be murdered before your throne of glory. That you collected our blood in p pictures pitches. For there is no collected but you.

[01:11:35]You smell its bouquet like that of flowers and you collect it in Kirchief and you will seek recompense from the murderers as well as from the silent ones.

[01:11:49]Three or four cherrypicking points.

[01:11:54]This is a very angry furious poem at God very much in the balikic vein.

[01:12:02]yet writes to the small Jewish community probably I mean we were 600,000 on the day the Bengorian declared the state and this is 42 so it's like six years earlier we are maybe three 400,000 most of them Ashkenazim many devout religious people and to speak against God thus is risky in such an environment So what does Alterman do? He puts the words in the mouth of the children.

[01:12:40]It's not me. I just hear them.

[01:12:44]Alterned voices, but this is a classical one. The other is in 42.

[01:12:55]Neither Alterman nor anybody else is yet aware of the thing that came into Jewish life a few months later. The selection.

[01:13:07]And it's as if he senses that this idea of being selected, of being chosen for the bad, the reverse of choseness will become an issue. And he precedes it with a prophetic voice.

[01:13:23]Last but not least, those of you, if any, who have been involved in Jewish education about the Holocaust may remember that in the earlier years, we mainly spoke of victims and perpetrators.

[01:13:38]And it was well into the 80s, if not the 90s, that El Visel mainly taught us to speak about the silent ones, about the bystanders. And we started doing that.

[01:13:53]Alterman knew in 42 we Elvisel was still in his town sigot when Alterman says and you will seek recompense from the murderers as well as from the silent ones. Poets do not only react.

[01:14:14]Sometimes poets represent the ancient prophetic voice and it's not such a bad idea to listen to them. So, thank you for coming to listen to this tonight.

[01:14:31]And I repeat my invitation to join an ultimate class at 11 and an Israeli protest poetry class at 3:00 a.m. Yala with your Kazanit from here.

[01:14:45]>> One of our Ben Mitzvah tutors. Yeah.

[01:14:47]>> Yeah. Okay.

[01:14:48]Rael Yashikov Ka. Uh lots more to learn.

[01:14:52]I encourage you to go to is it Rael Corazim or Corazim?

[01:14:56]>> Corazim.com. corrosim.com for thousands of of shiim >> and and do a good search engine.

[01:15:04]>> Yeah. And uh for sure uh pursuing this altter poem which is just a stunning uh stunning poem. So I want to thank you for being here tonight for >> having me.

[01:15:15]>> It's our pleasure. Uh we hope you'll come back in the fall when you're here for the alterman book.

[01:15:19]>> We'll plan it.

[01:15:20]>> We'll plan it. Okay.

[01:15:22]>> And uh we're going to turn now to Mariv Caner. You want to give us a page? uh for Baraku. Uh we uh will begin with uh with Baraku as we bring in the Kag uh for uh for Shàuote. Uh we are on page >> 39.

[01:15:39]>> Page 39. I invite you to rise in body or spirit.

[01:15:58]You may be seated. We'll continue on page 39.

[01:16:26]page 40.

[01:16:42]Israel Israel Adonai.

[01:17:02]Hello.

[01:17:10]Where are you?

[01:17:48]We'll continue silently with the words of the Shama on page 42.

[01:18:21]We'll continue on towards page 44.

[01:18:40]Is Lord, Oh, page 45.

[01:20:02]Well, rise and body your spirit. uh page 46 where it says on festivals va viron for Amen.

[01:20:55]Fore! Foreign! Foreign!

[01:21:17]Amen.

[01:21:19]>> Our silent meditations for the begin on page 306, continuing through page 314, remembering the additions for the festival of Shàuot.

[01:25:57]We'll continue with Kadesh Shaim page 54.

[01:26:07]foreign.

[01:26:32]Amen.

[01:26:36]Amen.

[01:26:41]Amen.

[01:26:52]Amen.

[01:26:54]>> Well, rise in body or spirit kush for shàuote can be found on page 79.

[01:27:44]Adonai is ve We will remain standing as the ark is open. We're on page 56. Alenu Fore speech.

[01:29:15]I don't know.

[01:29:32]If you're in a period of morning observing the arts, I invite you to remain standing for mortars cades.

[01:29:35]Kadisha otherwise you may be seated.

[01:29:38]Kadisha is on page 58.

[01:29:51]Israel.

[01:29:55]Amen.

[01:30:17]Amen.

[01:30:22]Is a shalom shalom.

[01:30:32]Amen.

[01:30:33]Everyone just a quick word uh before we conclude with Yigdal. Uh tomorrow we will read from the book of Ruth the book from the Tanakh from the Kuim that is connected to this festival of Shàuot. Um Rabbi Zosmer you'll be speaking about this tomorrow. I want to touch on an aspect that I know for a fact you are not talking about and it is what I think a pivotal moment in uh in the story and in some ways in all of Jewish history.

[01:31:01]Uh Boaz uh it says about Boaz um when Ruth approaches Boaz that and he handed her roasted grain and and she ate and was satisfied and have had some left over. It's almost like a throwaway line of this kind of random act of kindness that Boaz does on behalf of Ruth. And it is that simple act that literally changes history. Boaz was a wealthy man.

[01:31:32]He was running fields. He had workers.

[01:31:34]He had a business. This poor hungry woman appears and asks for some food.

[01:31:39]And he gives her food. There are no cameras capturing the moment. Uh he's not posting a picture online. It's a very very quiet moment of simple kindness. And as I said, that moment changes history. Why? Because as a result, Boaz will marry Ruth and out of that relationship comes, >> King David. Right? The roots are set in motion right now for the onset of the messianic era. And it teaches us a very important lesson that the Messiah or Mashiach is is actually built through ordinary quiet moments. how we speak to one another. How we greet each other on the street. Uh do you let the people off the bus before you get on the bus, right? Are you kind? Are you compassionate? When you see somebody who looks like they need a hand, do you say, "How are you? How you doing? How can I be helpful?"

[01:32:42]uh and uh the Torah is teaching us and really the festival of Shàuot, the moment of matan tora of giving Torah is actually built around small acts and every interaction has that potential to be uh messianic in scope. uh our lives may not become uh sukim verses in the tanakh but uh every act still can echo with uh eternity. So, as we uh some of us will stay up late studying Torah, preparing ourselves for the giving of the Torah, which we will uh commemorate, remember uh that still small voice that can be found in in uh in the seemingly small moments in our lives that have enormous implications. Rael Corim, I want to thank you for being our teacher uh this evening, for being our scholar.

[01:33:39]uh you are always welcome to teach in this community as you have done for many years and I suspect that and uh I uh I suspect that we will be seeing you in the fall. Uh there's a there's some nostalgia in the room as I learn from you and I I look up afterwards and see a member of my cohort uh uh from those years at Hartman, Rabbi Yoshi Zebach. I want to welcome you uh and your family visiting from Los Angeles, the Rabbi Stephen. What? What?

[01:34:09]What?

[01:34:10]>> You go way back before that. Okay. So, lots of connections in the room for you, Rabbi. Steven Weise in Los Angeles celebrating your daughter's graduation from Barnard Mazle to you. Uh, JTS and Barnard, excuse me. Uh, so it's great to see your family here. I wish all of you a I want to thank Sandre in the back and always for welcoming people so warmly.

[01:34:32]Uh, and Dabining tomorrow will be at 9:45 here. If you're planning on going to the JCC tonight, Rabbi Cosgrove, are are you also teaching at 3:00 a.m. or are you >> I would never go headtohead with >> What time What time will you be teaching?

[01:34:48]>> 11:15 and then 12:30.

[01:34:50]>> 11:15 and 12:30 if you're heading over the the the uh the tikun at the JCC on the west side. You can see Rabbi Cosgrove then. And of course, Rael will be teaching as well. So uh and all all kinds of other sessions to enjoy uh at uh at the tikun. Uh I think that covers it everybody. I want to thank you all for being here. Wish everyone those who are here uh in person, those who are joining us online. Uh uh we thank you.

[01:35:18]Uh and Larry Zachan of course it's great to see you in the back welcoming people and making sure things run smoothly.

[01:35:24]With that we will conclude with Yigdal.

[01:35:26]I wish you all a good Yantiff.

[01:35:33]It's on page 62.

[01:35:45]Fore!

[01:35:56]Foreign! Foreign!

[01:36:05]She knowch.

[01:36:35]Fore shadow.

[01:37:12]Yes.