There's something special about poetry. More than any other form of writing, it has the power to make us feel. Our Jewish tradition is full of evocative poems that express our gratitude, ask for help, communicate our love and mourn.  During this time of deep preparation and reflection for the High Holidays, poetry can provide a portal into introspection. This collection features contemporary poets and liturgists as well as classic texts. We hope it inspires you. 

Listen Up, Y'all by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat "Listen up, y'all," says Shekhinah who looks today like a teacher in corduroy dress and sedate boots. "Let the smartphone rest a bit, or learn how to hear My voice coming through its speaker. Let your love for Me well up like unexpected tears. Everyone serves something: give your life to Me. Let the channel of your heart open and My abundance will pour through. But if you prefer profit, if you pretend --...

The Beginning By Rachel Kann If you can find stillness, the jasmine will night-bloom in your direction and the breeze will carry its sacred exhalation of perfume toward you. Breathe, the moon will cascade waves of radiance downward, drop her silver robes, glow. You will awaken, overtaken by a love that asks no permission, golden particles rising beneath your skin. all of existence longs to be an offering. eternity is a constant whisper wishing to be listened to. This is the...

This Rosh Hashanah prayer was written by Alden Solovy in 2020 as a response to COVID-19. Since the reality of pandemic and plague struck our worlds, wildly unimaginable shifts have occurred in the way we live and, perhaps, the way we see life. One lesson of these unimaginable losses and changes is the possibility that there might also be wildly unimaginable blessings. The idea for this prayer came as I signed an email to musician Josh Nelson. I concluded: “For a...

And G!d says: “You think these are my office hours? That only in these precious days I can hear you? No! I walk with you through the valleys and the fields, gridlocked streets and riot blocks. It is YOU who hears ME in these coming days. It will be you who stops to listen. These gates are open for YOU.”   And G!d says: “Can you feel the turning? The sun is lower and the trees are beginning to burn; it is...

This three-stanza prayer/poem from liturgist and poet Alden Solovy reflects the spiritual journey of   t’shuva, repentance and return. The first stanza represents the month of Elul, when we are literally called to introspection by the sound of the shofar. The second stanza represents Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment that also heralds the joy and hope of a new heart and another chance to live a life of holiness. The third stanza represents Yom Kippur, when, after 40 days of introspection...

Holy On My Own by Caroline Rothstein    Self-love is sobbing fetal position on the brown wooden paneled floor of my bedroom in Bushwick the night before I move out; my torso prostrating back in on myself; my body, the only G-d in sight. Self-love is waking up at 5:00 a.m. at my mother's cousins' in New Jersey on the coldest day of winter and carrying three duffle bags, 10 boxes, my hula-hoop, three garment bags, and half a dozen crates up...

Hello, couch. Hello, kitchen table. Hello, backyard. I look around my house and I greet these ordinary objects. We have spent more time together these past months than usual.  Thank you for being an oasis of comfort and safety. You have worked so hard to hold me, day in and day out. How can we allow you and me to rest and restore and return on this most sacred day? I transform you with my desire for the change I wish...

Poem for the Disappointed by Deanna Neil For those who worked for years for a moment a culmination that passed and deflated before their eyes an alveolus wheezing a balloon sputtering wailing grossly from its untied belly button until an even more frightening silence For when the whole word reached out for a hug and the only thing to grasp was thin air For when the calendar postponed but time marched on, sweating in our living rooms For when we tried...

In This New Year By Lee Hendler In this new year: I promise to work harder at being the best me I know I can be. I pray for the strength to be reliable and fair, A good listener and kind friend, A person who thinks before she speaks, Helps before he is asked. I promise to work harder at holding back my anger And unleashing my joy. In this new year: I pray for the strength to turn away from...

And G!d says: “After you are all wrung out from that amends making and accountability-having, go out into your backyard and build yourself a fort. And be sure to invite all your friends to join you in your backyard fort for food and merriment because that is how you make the community continue after all that hard work."   And G!d says: “And make your fort enclosed enough to feel cozy, but keep one side open, so that all who pass by...

Apologia By Rachel Kann Forgive me, I have done it all wrong. In every way that I hoped not to act, I have failed. Forgive me, I love you beyond logic Where the loudest blossoms shout yellow, pink. Listen to the fragrance of bloom. Inhale the whisper of nature. My lips part for your kiss only. You know my mouth’s deep intimacy. This is my long-form farewell tour. I am but a bank of buttons and knobs Laid plain for you...

We Remember Them by Sylvan Kamens & Rabbi Jack Riemer At the rising sun and at its going down; We remember them. At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter; We remember them. At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring; We remember them. At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer; We remember them. At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of the autumn; We...

And G!d says: "And you shall make sure that every time you list the litany of your ugly, and your rotten and your wicked, you end the litany with a prescription for how to move on from it - through reflection, reparation and repair - so that you do not get stuck in the ugly, which is mighty and sticky and will close your ears to the shofar and keep you asleep and in despair.”   And G!D says: "Rosh Hashanah has...

Hold onto what is good Even if it is a handful of earth. Hold onto what you believe Even if it is a tree that stands by itself. Hold onto what you must do Even if it is a long way from here. Hold onto life Even if it seems easier to let go. Hold onto my hand Even if I have gone away from you.

High Holidays in Five Senses  What do the High Holidays smell like?  They smell of freshly-baked sweet challah, the vanilla-y pages of an old book, your grandfather’s aftershave, the tang of the etrog and the perfume of lulav branches. What do the High Holidays feel like?   They feel like fists beating on chests, shifting your tush on a wooden pew in an unairconditioned sanctuary, running your fingers through the fringes of a tallit, dropping crumbs into the water as you cast...

For centuries, Sephardi Jewish families have gathered to celebrate a special Rosh Hashanah ceremony with a plate or meal of symbolic foods. Each food is eaten after requesting a specific kind of Divine blessing that sounds like the name of that food in Hebrew.  Before eating dates ( tamar ): May it be your will, God, that hatred will end. ( Tamar resembles the word for end, yitamu. ) Before eating pomegranate: May we be as full of mitzvot as the...