Blessed be He who made me woman

created of nothing!

 

Blessed be He who hasn’t made me man

who never dies

and is not born.

So began the mornings of Shin Shifra, born in Bnei Brak in 1931, who turns the traditional Jewish Orthodox morning prayer up-side-down.

Shin Shifra’s poetry is steeped in Orthodox religious practice, befitting her home life and background. But it portrays a feminine and feminist focus, as in the poem ‘Sabbath Prayer,’ translated by Tsipi Keller and read by host Marcela Sulak:

“Let there be in the house a troop of toddlers… Let them bring in mud / from the garden and I will yell at them / let them quarrel and call each other names / and they will give me strength / like the angels of the recitation of Shema / and my forefathers will be named in them.”

Text:

Poets on the Edge. An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry. Selected and translated by Tsipi Keller. SUNY Press (2008).

Music:

Hagar Kadima – ‘Stop’ (2011), lyrics by Shin Shifra, performed by Etty BenZaken.

Gil Shohat – ‘Songs of Bathsheba’ (2005), lyrics by Shin Shifra.

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Lior Peleg