Ritual Recalls the Revelation

October 5, 2019

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began this year at sunset on Sept. 29 and ended on the evening of October 1.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A poem for Rosh Hashanah about the need for ritual music to sustain revelation:

Ritual recalls the revelation.

Once the eternal enters time, it fades.

So might we sustain it through sensation,

Having melodies to serve as aids.

Hear, O Israel, the ancient words

As song, and savor both the sense and music!

Sing with the bright cadences of birds,

Holiness so sweet you can't refuse it!

A synagogue is sanctified by song,

Nor ought familiar prayers be simply read.

All one's heart is where it must belong,

Here singing with the living and the dead.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/ritual.html. For more poems for the Jewish High Holy Days, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/yomkippurpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Rosh Hashanah

9/30: Reason Says, of Course, that There’s No Book

10/1: Remember as You Scour Your Soul for Sin

10/2: Repentance Is Quite Different from Regret

10/3: Revelation Strikes You as Absurd

10/4: Revenge Is Often Taken in the Mind

10/5: Ritual Recalls the Revelation