Podcasts religion Israel in Translation Rivka Miriam on asking forgiveness

Rivka Miriam on asking forgiveness

Published: Sept. 17, 2014, 1:18 p.m.

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We\'re now in the month of Elul, the last month in the Jewish calendar, which leads up to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur festivals. We explore Elul\'s themes of creation and forgiveness through two poems by Rivka Miriam.

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Rivka Miriam was a Jerusalem-born child prodigy, who has gone on to publish 12 collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, and several children\\u2019s books.

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According to her mother, her parents were among the 20 out of a population of 6,000 from their home town in Poland to survive the Holocaust.

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Rivka Miriam\\u2019s poetry is touched by both gratitude and loss. Writer David Grossman says, \\u201cHer Hebrew is a singular combination of all the levels of the language, ancient as well as new.\\u201d

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Here are the last lines of her poem about Elul: "Only forgiveness itself / blurred as the line between dusk and sunset / fell on its knees before itself."

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Text: These Mountains: Selected Poems of Rivka Miriam. Translated by Linda Stern Zisquit. Toby Press, 2009.

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Music:

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Arik Einstein - Jewish Autum

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Rali Margalit - A Journey to the Lyrics of Rivka Miriam: touching the non-existent

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