Volume 1, No. 8
Maybe we're a little late in celebrating Rosh Hashanah this year, but I think we can still appreciate Gerard Sarnat, who celebrates the holiday with his community through this series of poems.
Our Rash Hashanah Birthday Story?
Gerard Sarnat
Middle The Ten Days Of Awe: According to Jewish legend day 1, 7th month of Tishrei God created the world 5700-ish years ago- “Let there be light; Mankind will help it grow, flourish.” Shofar*blasters now how’re we doin’? Time to R-E-P-E-N-T! *ram, antelope or another (except cattle) horn whose blowing calls all of us Jews toward repentance
Shana Tova
*”[To a] good year.” Hebrew greeting during Rosh Hashanah
Gerard Sarnat
1. Anticipate Post High Holiday/ Days Of At/Onement Sukkot Harvest Gathering.
Decades participation mediation center old-timers
men’s group
I joined
as youngest since sensitive elder role-models
show how
age well.
Kvell* but oy vey they get demented, pass
--now I’m
left with
newcomer unmindful rube doofuses
(more’n your
average Joes)
but my dearest Elvis don’t be too cruel an ass hole; here comes our harvest moon!
*Yiddish for Take prid
2. Foster City Erev* Rosh Hashanah New Year 5786 Ingathering
Clubhouse tucked among swimming pool, playground, etc. of village’s flatland attached single-family-dwelling-units nestled halfway between San Francisco & Silicon Valley our Jewish clan, primarily from Israel who most often are teachers/ students at across-the-street’s magnetic Wornick Hebrew Day School, includes my Turkish Iraqi heritage son-in-law, a recent Moroccan friend + birthday boy (oy vey Gerardo just turned 80, 2X his age!) as well as healthful far-flung Diaspora smattering from Mumbai where relatives have now lived for nearly thousand years, Moscow Amsterdam, Rio, Johannesburg, no less me an Ashkenazi Californian with Polish roots serves here as sorta surrogate grand/father to younger generations whose parents remain “back home”: this kibbutz-ish hardy, cooperative community comes together for real-deal mishpocha** shindig! Yiddish: *eve of; extended fam, can be beyond
3. SHORT-SHORTS + FOOTNOTES
i.[not now proud to be a Jew* today – though defy you to show I am self-hating]
same radiant beach like just north in Israel where we flock; mocking Trump wants to dump ‘em, rubble “developed” as posh resor
NOT A JEW*
Anyone who says
I’m not a Jew
is not a Jew
I’m very sorry
but this is final
so says:
Eliezar, son of Nissan,
priest of Israel;
a.k.a
Nightingale of the Sinai,
Yom Kippur 1973;
a.k.a
Jikan the Unconvincing,
zen monk;
a.k.a
Leonard Cohen,
Certified Food Worker,
San Bernadino County, CA;
a.k.a
The Founder,
Order of the Unified Heart;
a.k.a
The Best Dressed Man in Montreal
(local newspaper)
Editor’s note: According to the weekly newspaper, Montreal Mirror, Leonard Cohen won the 1997 B.O.M (Best of Montreal) Award as “The Best Dressed Montrealer”, voted by the Montrealers. (From Buzzwords, edition 83)
ii.haiku [teshuvah* (תְּשׁוּבָה), or coming home]
holiness requires groundwork: now call to me from Your depth of all depths
*What Is Teshuvah?
—Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro, Rebbe of Warsaw Ghetto
The beginning point of teshuvah is a change in state from what has been until now. It is the inner capacity for transcendence; for saying, “I desire newness, I want things to be different than they were until now.” This kind of teshuvah is not merely a response to wrongdoings, but it relates more generally to one’s spiritual practice…
Teshuvah precedes Creation, and therefore, by definition it precedes sins as well. For this is the essential teshuvah: it does not merely account of sins, rather it is the inner work and capacity to change the reality that has existed until now.
The highest form of teshuvah derives from the sefirah of Binah. For it is known that Binah is the point at which Creation begins to be revealed…Binah is the quality of “Who?”; the hidden realm as it emerges and begins to reveal itself…And teshuvah is likewise the root of the universe, it is the act of creating something new that never existed before…it is the power of renewal…Therefore, when a person desires to overcome their deeds and says, “I am not satisfied with my actions up to this point,” and particularly when they attempt to undo their actions until this point; it is not merely that they need to transcend their actions–they need to transcend themselves…But how can one possibly transcend oneself? It would require a power greater than oneself?!...For this reason, when one approaches teshuvah, they need to draw into themselves a portion of their soul that is greater than themselves; a part that has yet to be drawn in and integrated into themselves. And since it is greater than themselves, it can enable them to overcome themselves. This is the quality of teshuvah, of “Who?”–Binah; Who?–a quality of self that has not yet been revealed within them.
iii. tanka [contemplation during The Ten Days of Repentance*: distinction with a difference]
not too preciously parsing: Extinct languages are, but Dead (Hebrew) can revive**; does same apply to our human relations? * period begins with Rosh Hashanah and concludes with Yom Kippur *
About the Author
Eighty-year-old late-phase often graphic chronicler arrived in seventh decade, aphorist, humorist or sometimes meanderist; Gerard Sarnat’s a multiple prize winner plus Pushcart/Best of Net Award nominee who also has been invited to serve as judge for competitions. Activism Through Poetry: How Gerard Sarnat Uses Verse as a Form of Protest is a 2025 retrospective: https://culterateblog.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/activism-through-poetry-how-gerard-sarnat-uses-verse-as-a-form-of-protest/. His words have been widely published in four collections; by Rattle, Anomaly, Songs of Eretz, London Arts-Based Research Centre, Israel Association of Writers in English, The Nature of Our Times/Poets For Science, Gravity of the Thing, Third Wednesday, Poetry Center of San Jose, Brooklyn Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Gargoyle, Deronda Review, New Delta Review, Buddhist Review, New York Times, Mount Saint Mary’s LA/ Saint Benedict/ Saint John’s Universities, Oberlin, Slippery Rock, St. John’s University, Northwestern, Yale, Pomona, Harvard, Missouri Baptist, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, Grinnell, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Brown, North Dakota, CUNY, McMaster, Maine, Oklahoma/British Columbia/Toronto/Chicago/Virginia/Alabama university presses — and more. He’s a Harvard College and Medical School-trained physician, Stanford professor, healthcare CEO. Currently, he’s devoting energy and resources to dealing with climate justice, serving on Climate Action Now’s board. Sarnat’s belonged to the longest-running U.S. Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group. Gerry’s been married since 1969 and has three kids, seven grandsons — and looks forward to future granddaughters. gerardsarnat.com
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