Kippur De’Simhat Torah 5784: The atonement of the joyous day of the Torah, which became the sorrow of the horrific October 7th massacre.
Ben Abu, based on the JPS English translation of Ecclesiastes 3
21 Heshvan 5784/ 5 November 2023
(Writings, Photography and Works by Michael Ben Abu)
*All translations are by J. Appleton and the poet.
A season is set for everything,
a time for every experience under heaven:
Kippur De’Simhat Torah 5784
A time for living and a time for dying,
A time for escaping and
A time for suffering and being tortured
A time for loving and a time for hating
A time to give birth and a time for burying
A time for dancing and a time not to be murdered
A time for rejoicing and a time not to be raped
A time for blooming and a time for fleeing
A time for rejoicing and a time for weeping
A time for joyful song and a time for eulogy and dirges
A time for compassion and a time to take revenge
A time for self-defense and a time for a fall
A time for freedom and a time for captivity
A time for defeat and a time for victory
A time for shame and eternal damnation and a time for heroism and rescue
A time for humiliation, defeat, and loss and a time for recovery and resurgence
A time for losing the dream and a time for healing and peace.
He created all things precisely at its time, with their pain,
He created the world, as well, and the monster in its midst,
but without man ever guessing, from first to last, all the things that God brings to pass.
No one knows what or when the Creator is.
And, indeed, I have observed under the sun:
Alongside justice there is wickedness,
Alongside righteousness there is wickedness.
I mused: God will doom both righteous and wicked, for there is a time for every experience.
As for every happening there in Gaza.
A day will come of repayment and vengeance:
So I decided, as regards men, to dissociate them [from] the divine beings and to face the fact that they are beasts.
For in respect of the fate of man and the fate of beast, they have one and the same fate: as the one dies, so dies the other, and both have the same lifebreath; man has no superiority over beast, since both amount to nothing. Both go to the same place; both came from dust and both return to dust. Who knows if a man’s lifebreath does rise upward and if a beast’s breath does sink down into the earth?
There are no solutions.
Hear, O Israel, the cry of your abducted ones
Hear, O Israel, the cry of your abducted ones
You shall speak of the abducted ones day and night,
and think of them night and day,
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might,
You shall bind their fate on to your heart,
Greet their souls, validate their spirit,
as you dwell in your house and go on your way,
as you lie down to sleep and when you arise.
You shall cry out for their redemption, morning and evening
that they all shall return to the good Land which You have given them,
You shall cry out and keep screaming…
Hear, O Israel
But You heard not.
Or perhaps You heard
and your heart was in agony
Yet you hid Your countenance from us
since you pierced us through, in the disaster of the Holiday of rejoicing the Torah, which turned into a Day of Atonement.
The days go by
Each day passes
and our captive women and men, Oh God,
what will become of their physical and mental health and how can we bear this and what shall we do?
How long?
Until when? All my dead…
We entreat You, Lord,
hear our plea.
Written Tuesday, 25 Adar I 5784 / 5 March 2024
Monday evening, 22 Adar II 5784/ 31 March 2024
Released for Publication*
Released to the public that our lives are now fair game, fully unprotected,
today, as yesterday, the day before, as tomorrow,
one fallen, two, three,
a quorum,
sacrificed on the altar of the Molech
he who is never satiated.
There is no horned ram nearby,
only the knife and cleaver ripping the flesh,
pounding, aglowing, whispering here I am, willing, here I am not.
in a continuous Binding
as the pit of bereavement opens wide.
Released for publication:…
* Houtar Lèfirsoum: literally, “Released for Publication,” used as a code to allow the press to announce the news of death of a soldier, after the family of the fallen received the official announcement from the IDF authorities.
A black cloud descended from the shadow, and covered the Tabernacle, and the people who were at the entrance, young and old, were struck with blinding light, so that they were helpless to find the entrance. They enacted ridiculous statues, and then the LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay. You shall grope at noon as a blind man gropes in the dark.
Based on the JPS Tanakh (Genesis 19:10-17 and Deuteronomy 28:26-27)
It has been 2 years since October 7th, and war in Gaza is still going on… Until when?
