A few days ago, I wrote a poem on the refusal, during the Nine Days, to cut one’s hair. The body carries boundaries no ideology, camp, or bureaucracy has the right to erase – that beneath every uniform and every category stands a person whose dignity cannot be shaved away.

The Jewish calendar does not leave that mourning to stand unanswered. Tradition did not place joy far from grief. It stands immediately beside it, insisting that the answer to churban is neither silence nor vengeance, but continuity.

Here is my new Yiddish poem for that day.

A question that answers itself

צי שטעלט זיך די פֿראַגע אין די טעג פֿון נחמה? ־ ספֿק־ספֿק… אױף װאָס װאַרטן מיר אַלע ־ אױף אַ בױען? צי לעבן איז שטאַרקער װי חורבות און ״טו־באָב׳נען״ קוּמט מער פֿאָרבײַ װי אַ טאָג פֿאַר ליבע.

Does this question even arise in the days of comfort? – doubt upon doubt… What are we all waiting for – a rebuilding? Or is life stronger than ruins, and does “Tu B’Av-ing” become more than merely a day for love?

ס׳איז אַ טאָג פֿון ממשות, געבערן פֿונעם מן־הו אין מדבר װען די מענער זײַנען נפֿטר געװאָרן װעגן זײערע שקרים. אָט די גיבורים האָבן געזען אַ חילוק פֿון ארץ כנען און האָבן געפֿונען מורא און אומרו. אוּך, שלעמזלער!

It is a day of substance, born from the manna in the wilderness, when the men died because of their lies. Those very heroes who saw the land of Canaan found only fear and unrest. Oh, poor fools!

The spies who explored Canaan returned paralysed by what they had seen and condemned their own generation to die in the wilderness rather than enter the land God had promised (Numbers 13–14). Fear – not grief – is the true opposite of neḥamah. Grief is honest; fear closes the future before it has even begun.

Fearless in the ashes

פֿאַלשע, טרוּסנע עדות־זאָגערס, קאַלטע מרגלים פֿאַרמאַכטע הערצער פאַרבליפֿטע דורכ׳ן חידושדיקן הײַמעלאַנד. די װײַבער פֿילן ניט קײן מורא ־ אַלץ איז נײַ און טשיקאַװע, אין חודש אָב ־ נאָך אַלע חורבנות,

False, cowardly witnesses, cold spies, hearts closed, bewildered by the wondrous homeland. The women feel no fear – everything is new and full of wonder, in the month of Av, after every destruction.

װען מענר זײַנען אַנטשלאָפֿן אין שטײַפֿער פֿאַרגעסנקײט ־ זײ האָבן געפֿרעגט: געבט אונדז נײַע תחנים: ניט פֿאַר תּנוג ־ נאָר צוגעבערן אַ נײַעם דור ־ ילדי־אישה. טאַקע נאָר אַ פֿרױ פֿאַרשטייט די צוּקונפֿט אין איר לײב,

When the men had fallen asleep in stubborn forgetting, they asked: give us new prayers, not for pleasure but to bring forth a new generation – children of woman. Truly, only a woman understands the future within her body.

The men returned with cold testimony; the women answered with confidence. The daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27) asked Moses for their father’s inheritance in a land not yet conquered. They claimed a place in a future........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)