Elul Day 23 - כ"ג באלול

Dear Elul Writers,

I have been asked before: are the holidays early this year or are they late? What a wonderfully Jewish question; there is literally no possibility of the holidays arriving on time. If we were to accept this early/late binary, then this year the chagim are certainly late. For that reason, I was particularly delighted to come across this poem by Marge Piercy that I’d never encountered before.

The Late Year

I like Rosh Hashonah late,
when the leaves are half burnt
umber and scarlet, when sunset
marks the horizon with slow fire
and the black silhouettes
of migrating birds perch
on the wires davening.

I like Rosh Hashonah late
when all living are counting
their days toward death
or sleep or the putting by
of what will sustain them—
when the cold whose tendrils
translucent as a jellyfish

and with a hidden sting
just brush our faces
at twilight. The threat
of frost, a premonition
a warning, a whisper
whose words we cannot
yet decipher but will.

I repent better in the waning
season when the blood
runs swiftly and all creatures
look keenly about them
for quickening danger.
Then I study the rockface
of my life, its granite pitted

and pocked and pickaxed
eroded, discolored by sun
and wind and rain—
my rock emerging
from the veil of greenery
to be mapped, to be
examined, to be judged.

DAY 23 PROMPT

There are years when Rosh Hashanah arrives when Fall has really taken hold. And, truth be told, I feel like I also “repent better in the waning season.” Somehow the change in seasons, as Piercy asserts, can be a reminder of our own potential for change. The days are so unrelentingly hot, until that morning when you feel the first chill of Autumn in the air and you almost can’t believe that such a shift is possible. Today I invite you to consider the ways in which the changes in the natural world might inform your own vision of teshuvah. What might you need to shed as we head into the new year? What emerges for you as the “veil of greenery” departs? What is the world outside teaching you about the world within?

Take care,

Jordan