#parsha
Parsha Poster #31 – Emor: Dutiful fruit
Speak to the members of Israel saying: the 15th day of the seventh month shall be the festival of Sukkot, seven days for God. … And you shall take on the first day a fruit from the beautiful tree, an unopened palm frond, myrtle branches, and willows from the stream. You shall rejoice before God for seven days.
— Lev. 23:34, 40
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Fix
God fixes the festivals
like gems in a crown
God places them definitely
and more or less permanently
God puts them in order
like a woman adjusting her hair
fixed like a black and white image
coming out of a chemical bath
fixed like a game whose winner
is always already known
God makes them stable
converts them into useful compounds
these are God’s fixed times
which God tells us to proclaim
but we’re the umpires
ain’t nothing ‘til we calls 'em
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat is co-chair of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and serves as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Israel, a small congregation in western Massachusetts. She is the author of four book-length collections of poetry: 70 faces: Torah poems (Phoenicia Publishing, 2011), Waiting to Unfold (Phoenicia, 2013), Toward Sinai: Omer poems (Velveteen Rabbi, 2016) and Open My Lips (Ben Yehuda Press, 2016), as well as several poetry chapbooks, and blogs as the Velveteen Rabbi.
I’m so grateful to feature Rabbi Barenblat’s poetry again this week. I’d also like to thank her for a wonderful post she did on this project on her site.
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