blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry

A Tikkun Poem - 4.12.24

This poem was supposed to go into Tikkun, but that journal is closing and i now offer it to you: 

Karen Alkalay-Gut

Praying in Israel

 

מחיה מתים ברחמים רבים

“In his great mercy, He revives the dead,”

 

Prayers shift their substance,

when the congregation is armed.

 M-16s sling over folded tallitim,

ready for prayers, ready for battle

 

From the women’s section in the rear,

male backs are all I can perceive,

I mouth praise to the Lord

as I recall the flash of a girl

in a field of her friends’ corpses

begging to be released from life.

 

רופא חולים

“He healeth the sick,”

 

The soldier before me at the pharmacy

shrugs his weapon back on his shoulder

as he takes his prescription out of his pocket

and hands it over the counter.

Mahmud examines the paper and says,

“It must be painful, Dan, but maybe let’s try

 a cream less extreme.  Does it burn when…”

They drop their voices and move away for me

so their consultation is not overheard.

 

 ומתיר אסורים

“And frees the imprisoned.”

 

I grasp my protest dog tag,

that says, “Bring Them Home,”

and want to say

“Let my people go.”

 

וּמְקַיֵּם אֱמוּנָתוֹ לִישֵׁנֵי עָפָר.

And fulfils His faith to those who sleep in the dust

 

Resting by the Jordan River

eyeing the automatic baptism chair

that lowers the penitent into the waters

and revives the newly saved into a new life,

unused now while the rockets fall,

I long to bathe, soak my hair and spring up

enlightened.  Instead, I fulfil my hunger

with the shawarma at the stand of Al-Babur,

until recently known as the gourmet restaurant

of the village of Um Il Fachem.

a Tikkun Poem – 4.12.24 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

women in combat – 4.11.24

One of the criticism of Israeli society has always been that our glass ceiling is more impenetrable that the US because the connections men make in the army facing difficult situations together creates a society that keeps the other out, that men make all their decisions through relationships with men. 

Well now women are involved in combat positions.  Partly because of the number of women who were mutilated, raped and killed on October 7, partly because of the way their advice was ignored before October 7, partly because there aren’t enough men in the army now.  

It isn’t an accomplishment.  It’s a necessity.

 

 

women in combat – 4.11.24 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

We were sitting in a restaurant watching the sun over the sea, discussing with the couple in the table next to us whether we should close the window because the wind was coming up, and I said, “but it’s so perfectly beautiful here.”  And she said, “Paradise on the rim of perdition.”

What a perfect description!  I had to get up and shake her hand.

heaven – april 8, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry,

You think things are upside-down on Purim?  I was walking past all the shops with costumes hanging on the street and thinking that only women get gussied up – or down – with very sexy outfits this year.  Considering the way women have been debased from October 7, and have proven themselves worthy of defense positions in the army, I find it ridiculous that they are promoting sexual and not regal wear.  And then I remembered the poem from Itzik Manger’s Megillah.

    

getting ready for purim – march 24, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry

Almost nothing can comfort me in the past weeks.  But making music with Ronen is overwhelming.  Ronen Shapira with all the clamps and frets he puts on his piano can make any sound in any direction.  He can sound Japanese, African, Western, Arab, and go anywhere in music.  Today I had a chance to reconnect with this genius and it allows me to believe again in soul.  Watch this space and I’ll figure out how to give you a taste…

music soothes savage beasts -march 7, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Ichilov is always busy, but today the hours we spent waiting reminded me of the old days before everything was computerized and you took a number and waited until you were called.  For two hours I watched the fish fighting in the tank in the waiting room.  But it was worth it.  The same smiling team who sent Ezi to the operation last week examined the wound and reassured us that all was well.  Even I was happy when I saw the wound that yesterday looked like dimsum and today looked almost like a wound.  

But a few hours in a hospital can make you very selfish, thinking only about yourself and your life.  Ezi diverted his attention from the pain by reading about planes on his phone, and it seemed to help.  The lone soldier sitting next to me deserved some maternal attention, but I gave everything I had to the fish. 

hospital – march 6, 2024 Read Post »