I’m one of those crazy people who love biblical Hebrew grammar. Maybe it’s because I’m a poet, maybe it’s because I love the lushness of Biblical Hebrew, or maybe I’m just crazy. But no matter, I am a total grammar geek. And to prove my complete geekiness, I’ve been known to read Biblical Hebrew grammar dictionaries – the Brown Driver Briggs (BDB) is my favorite. I open to a page at random and read the entries on that page. I’m fascinated by the words – their root letters and many meanings, their meanings in other Semitic languages (Akkadian, Ugaritic, etc), and how the grammatical structure of Hebrew can intensify or change the meaning of a word, and give nuance to the text. Biblical Hebrew is, to me, poetic and much of the tone, cadence, and rhythms of Tanach (Hebrew Bible) have made their way into my poems. Not only have I been affected by grammar, but biblical and Talmudic stories, as well as parts of the siddur (prayer book), have found their way into my work.

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Blessing

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I long for stones to put under my head,

to dream of a ladder that reaches

into the sky, where angels go up and down,

to know that God was in this place,

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to take stones, and set them as a pillar, pour oil

on the top, wait to give name to

that place, wait for someone to call out

what they have found so I will know what I have lost.

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I long, too, for fluidity, for rain to release me

from my vows, to give thanks for every drop,

to fill my mouth with song as the sea is with water,

and my tongue with praise as the roaring waves,

to be incandescent, iridescent, volatile.

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In the summer, my parents have a vegetable garden, and when I’m there, I like to work in the garden. And one morning in the garden, I got to thinking about just how hard it is to actually till the soil by hand and the work that farmers must do.

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First Fruits

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You listen to the thump

the dirt makes as you

spade it on to more dirt while

you till the garden by hand because

the Roto-tiller is broken and

you push the spade in the ground

with your foot, turn a clod of dirt

over and lay it diagonally in front of you,

working your way across the garden,

in rows, left to right, then right to left,

so you don’t step in the dirt

that’s already been spaded, and you realize

you still have to hoe and rake

the soil before you can even plant

any seeds, and then you’ll have to water

the seeds each day and care for the plants

as each breaks through the soil, stretching

towards the sun, and you’ll worry that

there will be too much rain or too little,

and you’ll fret over the eggplant

in the southern corner of the garden

that keeps losing its leaves, and your heart

will overflow as the crops begin to come in,

and you’ll rush to the house to show anyone

who is there the first of the tomatoes that seemed

to have suddenly ripened in the noonday sun,

and you will begin to wonder if this is why

Cain did not give God the first of his fruits,

when he made an offering, why he brought

the poorer quality fruits, why he wanted to keep

those first fruits for himself.

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My study of Tanach has helped shape my writing. And my study of poetry has influenced the way I study Tanach. I never really know when something biblical will make its way into my work, but I do know that all I learned is there, just under the surface, waiting to rise up.

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Thanks for reading JWorld Café, the Poetica Magazine Blog

Janet Kirschheimer, Guest Blogger

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Janet R. Kirchheimer is a poet whose work has appeared in journals including Atlanta Review, Potomac Review, Limestone, Connecticut Review, Kalliope, Common Ground Review, on beliefnet.com and babelfruit.com, among others. Her collection of poems about the Holocaust, How To Spot One Of Us (2007) received endorsements from Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Sir Martin Gilbert, and Rabbis Harold Kushner and Irving “Yitz” Greenberg. In 2007, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and in 2010, received a Citation for her work from The Council of The City of New York. She is a Teaching Fellow at Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. - Linda Pressman, Blog Editor