As we are in the month of Elul – a month of preparation for the major Jewish holidays – host Marcela Sulak dedicates this week’s podcast to poems that give a female insight into the holidays to come: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. All the poems are by Hava Pinhas-Cohen, here is an excerpt from “Follow the Arrow”:

“Now in Jerusalem, the Ashkenazi Jews are reciting the Selichot prayers.
The Sephardi Jews began three weeks ago,
chanting El Malei.
Only the lines I left in the margins of pages I keep in drawers
confirm that the weeping is long,
and that it repeats itself like a Mizrachi song, without resolution,
without mercy.”

For more information about the fascinating Hava Pinhas-Cohen, listen to our previous podcast “Poetry that bridges the divide.”

Text:
The Selected Poems of Hava Pinhas-Cohen: Bridging The Divide. Bilingual Edition. Edited and Translated by Sharon Hart-Green. Syracuse University Press, 2015.

Music:
Freha Bat Yosef – Face Us In Mercy
Matti Caspi – Hine Hine
Hagevatron – Unetaneh Tokef
Barimatango – Adio Kerida

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish