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SPLIT
Setting apart, that is our skill:bifurcating, creating dualities.Is it that unity scares us, certaintyunavoidable, no room to escape,to deny, to invoke missing nuance?One of my religious heritagessays you remove head coveringson entering a sanctuary, the otherthat you put one on upon doing so.One says you are born a sinnerthe other says until a certain ageyou…
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HOW COULD YOU?
How could you turn your backon Judaism, he asked, as thoughit was a shadow I was trying to outrun.I do not tell him that if his Godwants me to take it up againGod needs only ask me personally,but far too many claim who to be his messengerhave led me to the place I find myself.I…
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WITHOUT EXCEPTION
The Jewish sages teach us thatwhoever saves one lifeit is as if he saves the world.Try though I might to find it,I cannot locate the exceptionfor those unfortunate enoughto live among others whocommit unspeakable acts,but surely there must be an exception.How else do you explain whytens of thousands of worldswere not saved in Gaza, why…
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FAMILY
Of the few remaining cousins, nowas old as I, a number we do not mentionor want to believe that he was her onlylover, as though she was the young girlwho left Charleston for Washington, D.C.They cite, as justifying empirical evidence,that she never married, alwaysthe beloved aunt, nothing more allowed.My later discovered existencelaid waste to their…
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NEATLY PRESSED
I have decided to stopwearing the only suit I now own.It is the one I only wear to weddingsor to funerals, or a bar mitzvah.the problem is that it needsto be a happy, if only slightly,suit and lately it seemsdeaths outnumber weddingsand Bar or Bat Mitzvahsonly count as neutral nowthat I no longer practice Judaism.I…
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UNKNOWING
Twenty years ago todayand there was no band playing,at least not for me, for I knewnothing of you yet, and youknew nothing of me either. I have met you sincein a moment of silence,looking at a yearbook pictureknowing what was not, whatnever was or could be. I recite the Kaddisheven though my Judaismhas been laid…
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UNCLE
My uncle writes his journalin cramped Yiddish, Englishwill not do, it lacks the wordshe says, to describe his world. He describes the flavorof the capon left to stewon the stove, the sweet tasteof carrots and prunes. He carefully notes the thumbof the butcher sliding ontothe back of the scale, applyingjust a dollar of pressure. He…
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THE RABBI
The old man peers at the yellowing book then places it on the arm of the chair. He gives the walker a sad, angry look, and still struggling, looks up in mocking prayer. Clutching the book, he limps to the table and sinks onto the chair, risking a fall that could reshatter his hip. Unable…
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KAFKA
June 13, 1896, Prague a warm day, old stone schul you stood before the minyon wearing the skullcap repeating ancient words that lay on paper, rehearsed sounding false on a tongue swollen in anxiety. Your tallit, white woven with blue threads hung at your knees fringe fingered, rolled and unrolled, twisted until touched to skin…
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GOING DOWN
Hell is a place where what you least desire becomes eternally yours, or so we were told as children, well not us, not the Jewish kids, for us Hell was our mothers’ finding that copy of Playboy we stole from our father’s stash our mother didn’t know about, and which he would deny, throwing us…
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an old writer and his words 