HOLiDAY TiDiNGS from "Poems for Jewish Holidays" and other sources

Yom Kippur

For It Is a Day of Atonement

And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying:

Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; 

there shall be an holy convocation unto you, 

and ye shall afflict your souls; 

and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto HaShem.

And ye shall do no manner of work in that same day; 

for it is a day of atonement, 

to make atonement for you before HaShem your G-d.

                                        from the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus)




HaShem means "The Name" in Hebrew and is used in Jewish scripture to avoid the use of the name of deity.






from HOW TO GET THROUGH THE MEMORIAL SERVICE



If restless, let little words
come to your aid:
drop an "e" into "fast"
and enjoy the sudden feast.
Double the "o" in God.
That's good.


               Richard J. Margolis, 1929-1991




Purim


from THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF ADAR

Tonight
in my long dress I will be
Esther the Queen.
Tonight
on a small stage I will save
my people.  I will remember
my lines.

"There he crawls!"  I will say
to the King.
"There he crawls--in his 
three-cornered hat--the serpent, Haman!"


                Barbara Juster Esbensen, 1925-1996




HAMAN AND ESTHER, THE QUEEN

Haman, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast pur, that is, the lot, to discomfit them, and to destroy them; but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that Haman’s wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head; and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of pur.  And the Jews ordained, and took upon them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to the appointed time every year.

Therefore do the Jews of the villages, that dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.

                                                  Book of Esther, Chapter 9




Chanukah


A century after the conquest of the Middle East by Alexander the Great, one of his generals, Antiochus IV, was in control of the region.  He began to oppress the Jews severely, placing Hellenistic priests in the Temple, massacring Jews, prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion, and desecrating the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of non-kosher animals on the altar. Two groups opposed Antiochus: a nationalistic group led by Mattathias, the Hasmonean, and his son Judah Maccabee, and a religious group known as the Chasidim, the forerunners of the Pharisees. The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated.

According to tradition as recorded in the Talmud, at the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left at the Temple that had not been defiled by the Greeks.  Oil was needed for the menorah (candelabrum), which was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days.  An eight-day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory.

Chanukah is not mentioned in Jewish scripture; the story is related in the book of the Maccabbees, which Jews do not accept as scripture.

The only religious observance related to the holiday is the lighting of candles. The candles are arranged in a candelabrum called a Hanukia. Many people refer to the Hanukia incorrectly as a menorah. The name menorah is used only to describe the seven-branched candelabrum that was housed in the Jewish Temple. The Hanukia holds nine candles: one for each night, plus a shamash, or servant, which is set at a different height from the other candles and is used to light them. 


                                                                               







Passover



I Will Bring You Out


And HaShem said unto Moses: 
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel: 
I am HaShem, 
and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, 
and I will deliver you from their bondage, 
and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, 
and with great judgments;

and I will take you to Me for a people, 

and I will be to you a G-d; 

and ye shall know that I am HaShem your G-d, 

who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

And I will bring you in unto the land, 

concerning which I lifted up My hand 

to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; 

and I will give it you for an heritage: 

I am HaShem.

                                               from The Book of Shemot (Exodus)

HaShem means "The Name" in Hebrew and is used in Jewish scripture to avoid the use of the name of deity.

THIS IS THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION

This is the bread of affliction 
that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. 
Whoever is hungry, 
let him come and eat; 
whoever is in need, 
let him come....

This year we are here; 
next year in the land of Israel. 
This year we are slaves; 
next year we will be free....

                                            from the Haggadah




YOU HAVE REDEEMED US FROM EGYPT


You have redeemed us from Egypt, 
You have freed us from the house of bondage, 
You have fed us in famine and nourished us in plenty; 
You have saved us from the sword and delivered us from pestilence, 
and raised us from evil and lasting maladies. 
Until now Your mercies have helped us, 
and Your kindnesses have not forsaken us; 
and do not abandon us, L-rd our G-d, forever!

                                             from the Haggadah





An Only Kid (Had Gadya)



An only kid! An only kid!
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the cat
And ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the dog
And bit the cat
That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the stick

And beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the fire

And burned the stick 

That beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the water

And quenched the fire

That burned the stick

That beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the ox

And drank the water

That quenched the fire

That burned the stick

That beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the butcher

And killed the ox

That drank the water

That quenched the fire

That burned the stick

That beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the angel of death

And slew the butcher

That killed the ox

That drank the water

That quenched the fire

That burned the stick

That beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

Then came the Holy One, blessed be He,

And destroyed the angel of death

That slew the butcher

That killed the ox

That drank the water

That quenched the fire

That burned the stick

That beat the dog

That bit the cat

That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim had gadya.

                                 Traditional Jewish folk song

Zuzim  is the plural form of zuz---an ancient Hebrew silver coin.

Had gadya means "one little goat" or, as in this old song, "an only kid"

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Myra Cohn Livingston was the recipient of the 1980 Excellence in Poetry Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. She has received critical acclaim for her poetry and her many anthologies. Myra Cohn Livingston was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1926, and lived in Texas and California. For over twenty years she taught at the University of California at Los Angeles. She was living in Beverly Hills, California when she passed away in 1996.

Lloyd Bloom

In 1987 Lloyd Bloom won the National Jewish Book Council Award for Illustration for the book featured here, Poems for Jewish Holidays. He has also illustrated Like Jake and Me, by Mavis Jukes, and A Man Named Thoreau by Robert Burleigh, which was a Boston Globe-Horn Book honor book for illustration. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.





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The excerpts from HOW TO GET THROUGH THE MEMORIAL SERVICE by Richard J. Margolis, and THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF ADAR by Barbara Juster Esbensen, as well as the folksong AN ONLY KID are from Poems for Jewish Holidays, Holiday House, NY, 1986.  

This title is out of print.  A good source for used books is Better World Books online:
Better World Books

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Sources for the other material included as follows:

Leviticus 23:26-28, Exodus 6:6-8 and Esther 9 (paraphrased) from The Tanakh (Jewish Bible), and "Jewish Holidays: Chanukah"(adapted)-- American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2013, their link is:
Jewish Virtual Library Bible  

The excerpts from the Passover Seder are from an English Haggadah, Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center, 2013, their link is: Chabad Haggadah


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HOLiDAY TiDiNGS is a continuing series of articles for this blog that focus on poetry and other literature written for or appropriate to  specific holidays.