israeli politics

a poem in Yiddish

my grandson likes to quote poems – a while ago he picked up a Russian nursery rhyme from me and I recorded it.  he can still quote it at the drop of a hat, and last week he did an English poem – with great humor and emotion.  Today he asked me to give him a Yiddish one – and i know he needs something short and funny.  So i wrote one.  

דער קאטער שלאפט זיך אפן דאך

ער גייט ארויס אין הגאס ביי נאכט

ער טומעלט זיך ארום א סאך

און שלאפט גאנצענע טעג אך דאך

too late to give it to him, but i’ll bet he learns it fast.

in English it would be

The cat sits on the roof

he goes wandering at night

he raises such a ruckus 

so he sleeps all day on the roof

 

 

 

january 10, 2021 – Read Post »

israeli politics

Ronny Sommek

 

Zoom

 

I count the bears on R’s pajamas   

From twelfth grade listening

To me reading a poem

About ballet shoes.

The teacher T’  in the next square

Missed a hair above the left eye

When she tried to be exact

Plucking her eyebrows

The beard of Teacher Y’

Is more manicured

Than the Gardens of Luxembourg

And the cat on the lap of  H

Deserves an embrace.

D’ judging by his shirt is a member

Of the Nature Conservation Group,

And the flowers in the vase behind him

I identify as permitted to pick.

K’s turtle-neck sweater is black and, she

Looks like the raven in the old Scottish ballad,

And I hope that T doesn’t fix that eagle nose

That really complements her,

And while we’re on the subject of the nose:

The fact that P’ is the ideal

Of painters of Aphrodite

That N’ is freckled

And H’ is too close to the camera.

 

She’s the last to turn off the video

And my eyes suddenly munch on my own

the screen that fills

with squares of chocolate.

 

translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut –

all rights reserved

January 10, 2021 – poem by Ronny sommek Read Post »

israeli politics

Today at my brother’s weekly Mishna lesson we got to this: 

Mishnah 5:18.  Whoever causes the multitudes to be righteous, sin will not occur on his account; And whoever causes the multitudes to sin, they do not give him the ability to repent. Moses was righteous and caused the multitudes to be righteous, [therefore] the righteousness of the multitudes is hung on him, as it is said, “He executed the Lord’s righteousness and His decisions with Israel” (Deuteronomy 33:21). Jeroboam, sinned and caused the multitudes to sin, [therefore] the sin of the multitudes is hung on him, as it is said, “For the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he caused Israel to sin thereby” (I Kings 15:30).

The responsibility of a leader is great.  I don’t know what I would do, how I would sleep at night.   The fact that our leader was supposed to come up for a criminal trial this week, but managed to get it postponed, seems to me to be a very bad example to set.  “It doesn’t matter what you do, but whether you get caught”  is not a good rule to follow.  

 

And to my mind, the responsibility of choosing a leader is no less great in a democracy.  

 

january 9, 2021 – Mishna lesson Read Post »

israeli politics

The last time I was in New York,  well over a year ago, our friends told us that the coup attempt we are watching now in the Capitol was inevitable given, the rhetoric of the president.  

Wasn’t anyone else aware of the possibilities of the results of such inflammatory language?  It’s impossible for me to comprehend that there was no back-up plan in case this kind of situation occurred.

 And it’s impossible to believe we will be able to stem these events in the near future.

I’m looking at the steps of the Capitol and remembering the first time I saw those steps.  A photograph of my father standing with the NY state senator.  Incredible pride in my father’s face that his case for Israel was being heard.  I have to find that photo.  It made me proud to be an American….

january 6, 2021 – it had to happen Read Post »

israeli politics

We’re still here, aren’t we?

We may have lost all track of time

Maybe for us it is the 306th

day of March, but at least

it’s not the Ides.  Maybe

some of us have not left our homes,

spent more time in bed than in our cribs,

kissed fewer lips and longed for more

than ever before.  Maybe we have lost

folks or have endured the illness

that passes all comprehension

and maybe nothing has happened

to anyone we know.  So.  So.

We’re still here, you and me.

We’re still here, aren’t we?

 

december 28, 2020 – new years’ poem Read Post »

israeli politics

One thing about closure is that you don’t know much about what is going on around you.  I’m tired of talking to people on the phone, on zoom, even of looking out the window at who’s taking a walk down the street.  I know that my grandchildren are all in school, but I have no idea of how it feels to go back there and whether the teachers are terrified of catching something.

So I announced on facebook that we are half-vaccinated.  And what I discovered was that many of my equally silent friends have also been vaccinated and were not sure who to tell.  The estimate is that by tomorrow there will be half a million people.  Out of a population of – it turns out – almost 9 million, that’s not bad.

Was anyone sick after the vaccine? I asked my friends who had written me.  “Eh,” was the majority response.  “A little soreness, maybe a bit more tiredness.  In short: Eh.”  This from a population of kvetchers.

december 28, 2020 – vaccines – before, during and after Read Post »

israeli politics

so a notice comes for a package waiting in the post office.  it is very exciting, especially since the package delivered early this morning was only a special shampoo I ordered a while ago that I no longer need.  THIS package will be worth the trouble of traipsing to the post office (where there is no parking), taking a number, and standing in line – because in all likelihood it will be Heather Ferguson’s necklaces that she sent from Canada so long ago!  Yes, I think, and I’ll wear the necklaces and give one to each of my daughters, and maybe to one or two of my best friends.  Anyway, this dreaming keeps me going for a while.  

Of course the P.O. is crowded and I take the wrong kind of number at first, and when I realize my mistake, take the right kind, and see that I might as well go across the street to the university bookstore and buy a new keyboard before my number is called.   I come back half an hour later and it is almost my turn so I stand in the middle of the room yards away from everyone else.  

Suddenly my number is called, but as I step up to window #4, someone from before returns to the clerk to ask something, and a delivery man drops off a bundle of papers, and a man with a box steps in to complain, and suddenly I hear the number after mine called to a different carroll.   

It is my turn to butt in and complain. Determinedly, I take my place at window #5 and show her my number.  Yes, she says, and adds a few words.  But she is behind her mask and behind a plastic window and there is noise from the crowds behind me and I can’t understand what she’s saying.  It takes me a minute to realize that I have to show her my notice.  “People wait so long, they forget what they came here for,”  she shouts at me,  and goes to the other room to bring the package.  

But it’s only a slim envelope and I walk back a bit crestfallen.  No jewelry for me.  It turns out to be a book of Louise Gluck, “Faithful and Virtuous Night,” and since I was a bit disappointed by other books of hers I was not happy to see it.  But it’s really good.  Really.  I read the first poem in the car as Ezi and I drove to buy a pair of shoes before the shutdown, and it captivated me like no other in recent years.  

We’re going into lockdown anyway on Sunday so the necklaces will wait.  And even if they arrived, my planned visit with Heather and friends on zoom wearing my Jools will have to be cancelled because I’M GETTING A VACCINE ON SUNDAY!!!

 

 

december 24, 2020 – post office Read Post »