Havdalah (a poem)
SCHULWEIS, HAROLD
HAVDALAH HAROLD Black into white light into shadow Blessing into curse Doubt into belief Nothing comes divided neatly severed cut off one half from another Trimmed polarities. Nothing is given...
...Simple solutions blur distinctions Confusing blindness with wholeness...
...Accept it whole but not with cruel division which amputates organic wholeness...
...Harold Schulweis is Rabbi of Temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino and a contributing editor...
...Accept it whole not renting whole cloth into convenient rags Sundering the universe into segregated parts: Good and evil Week and Sabbath Them and us Divisions desecrate Hard disjunctives rip apart the underlying unity, the possibility of reconciliation Hallow the link between darkness and light the mundane and the festive the others and us Hallow the circles which demark separate styles but also the outer lines which converge penetrate each other without assimilation...
...Accept it whole but not without distinction...
...Nothing is given pure, simple, unalloyed...
...Light and shadow sweet and bitter the admixture is inseparable...
...Yours is not theirs day is not night...
...Creation and separation Kiddush and Havdalah Different wines and different candles...
...HAVDALAH HAROLD Black into white light into shadow Blessing into curse Doubt into belief Nothing comes divided neatly severed cut off one half from another Trimmed polarities...
...Accept it whole fragrance and galbanum belong together elements of sanctified incense...
...Nothing is given in halves Except in idolatries There in strange worship halves and quarters pretend wholeness A small coin held close to the eye blocks out the world and everything appears draped in darkness...
...And now without well-meaning absorption which thinks to swallow up the shadow side and make it disappear...
Vol. 4 • May 1979 • No. 5
