Tonight the fast of Yom Kippur ended, so this episode centers on the theme of Yom Kippur. Host Marcela Sulak reads selected poems from Yehuda Amichai’s long series Jerusalem, 1967, as well as a section from his long, narrative poem The Last Travels of Benjamin of Tudela, which begins:
“On Yom Kippur, in tennis shoes, you ran.
And with Holy Holy Holy, you jumped up high,
higher than anyone, nearly up to the angels on the ceiling.
And in the circling of Simchat Torah
you circled seven times and seven, and arrived breathless.
Like pumping iron, you thrust up the Scrolls of the Law,
in the Raising Up with both trembling arms
so that all could see what was written, and the strength of your arms.”
Texts:
The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. Edited by Robert Alter. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2015.
Music:
Maz Bruch – Kol Nidre
Itzhak Perlman & Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot – Kol Nidre
Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish
